[TECH AND FINANCIAL]
Albuquerque, New Mexico: home of green chiles, 300 days of sunshine, the International Balloon Fiesta… and achingly slow internet. Of the top 100 cities in the US, Albuquerque ranks 85th, according to data from Ookla. (Disclaimer: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, the same company that owns CNET.) Home internet was a two-horse race in Albuquerque for years: CenturyLink DSL and Xfinity cable. I spent decades on DSL, watching my internet speed tests march slowly up to a maximum of 20 megabits per second. Friends with faster Xfinity bemoaned the company’s customer service, data caps and prices, so I stubbornly stuck with CenturyLink. One day in late 2022, a T-Mobile 5G Home Internet gateway arrived at my house. After that, I finally called to cancel CenturyLink.
Why I switched to T-Mobile 5G Home Internet
I went with T-Mobile for several reasons. DSL was too slow. My next-door neighbor got T-Mobile 5G Home Internet and raved about it. Coincidentally, CenturyLink wanted to charge me $200 to replace my old router with a newer one. I said, “Nope,” and changed to 5G home internet.
My home internet life has improved in my post-DSL world, but it’s not all roses and happy dances. If you’re looking for a TL;DR, here you go: I’m still on T-Mobile 5G Home Internet and will probably stick with it until I can give Verizon 5G Home Internet a try or until fiber finally shows up on my block. My experience with 5G home internet is specific to my cir***stances, so your journey with the same service may differ. Here are things I like about my 5G home internet and the elements that may drive me to switch to another internet service provider someday.
What I love about T-Mobile 5G Home Internet
I will sing the praises of T-Mobile 5G Home Internet before I air my grievances. The service’s best features are its simplicity and ease of use and it represents an upgrade over outdated DSL.
Two lights are better than none, I suppose.
T-Mobile’s 5G internet service is subject to the same pitfalls you encounter with phone service. Sometimes, you’re in a place with a weak signal. Sometimes, that place is your own home. My neighbor, the first person I knew who got on board with 5G home internet, gets a strong signal on the west side of her house. Next door, the best I can get is a fair signal, which works out to two bars out of five on the gateway’s scale. That means I’m missing out on the top speeds the service is capable of.
Speeds can vary wildly
My T-Mobile 5G Home Internet speed is like the Albuquerque weather. Wait five minutes, and it’ll change. When I started writing, I ran an internet speed test and got 16.7Mbps. That’s slow enough to give me unwelcome flashbacks to my DSL days. A few minutes later, I’m at 94.6Mbps. Sometimes, I get over 100Mbps. Usually, I’m sitting around 80Mbps. My speed tests are all over the map. Some of this may be due to the 1939 construction materials of my home and my inability to dial in a good placement for the gateway to get a better signal. Former CNET colleague Eli Blumenthal also encountered speed issues when testing the service. When CNET’s Joe Supan tried AT&T Internet Air, he also struggled with maintaining decent speeds, so the problem may be more endemic to fixed wireless service than specific to T-Mobile 5G Home Internet.
Window placement is awkward
Sometimes getting a strong signal requires a balancing act.
T-Mobile recommends placing your gateway “close to a window or high up on an upper floor or bookshelf.” When I had DSL, my router sat on a nifty little custom shelf in my home office. It was unobtrusive and out of the way. My T-Mobile gateway has visited every single window in my house in my search for a strong signal. It’s now in my living room with the silver “trash can” perched on a windowsill. I still get solid Wi-Fi coverage around my home, but a piece of internet equipment sitting in my window isn’t my ideal home decor.
My final thoughts on T-Mobile 5G Home Internet
Are you thinking about trying T-Mobile 5G Home Internet? Consider whether it’s an upgrade over your current service. It could be a smart move if you’re crawling along with DSL. Look to cable or fiber if you need consistent and superfast speeds, especially for gaming. I’m not a T-Mobile phone customer, but mobile subscribers can bundle with eligible phone plans to get extra savings on home internet. That could be enough to tip price-conscious shoppers over to the 5G internet service.
There’s an element of experimentation with 5G home internet. You don’t know how well it will work for you until you try it, so take advantage of T-Mobile’s 15-day money-back trial. I’m not entirely in love with my home internet, but at least I like it, and that’s a better relationship than I had with DSL.
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