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Communications

T-Mobile Launches Home Internet Service and Small Town Initiative as Part of Latest 'Un-carrier' Move (geekwire.com) 45

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
T-Mobile made a series of announcements Wednesday as part of its latest 'Un-carrier' initiative, including the official launch of its new home internet service, 5G phone offerings, and new investment in rural areas. From a report: T-Mobile Home Internet: After piloting a home internet service powered by its wireless network, T-Mobile Home Internet is now available to more than 30 million U.S. households. It costs $60 per month -- $10 more per month than the pilot program -- with average expected speeds of 100 Mbps for most customers and an included 4G/5G gateway device.

T-Mobile Hometown: The Bellevue, Wash.-based company will build hundreds of new retail stores and create 5,000 jobs in small U.S. towns. It is also adding "Hometown Experts" to towns where it can't build a store, and committing $25 million over five years to fund community development projects in rural areas.

5G phones: T-Mobile said it will let postpaid customers trade in any old phone in working condition for a new Samsung Galaxy A32 5G smartphone for free after 24 monthly bill credits.
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T-Mobile Launches Home Internet Service and Small Town Initiative as Part of Latest 'Un-carrier' Move More

T-Mobile Launches Home Internet Service and Small Town Initiative as Part of Latest 'Un-carrier' Move

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  • That is going to be everyones first question. It needs to be mentioned in the summary.

    • That is going to be everyones first question. It needs to be mentioned in the summary.

      Or maybe even somewhere in the linked article.

      • Re: Data caps? (Score:4, Informative)

        by ISayWeOnlyToBePolite ( 721679 ) on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @12:18PM (#61247340)

        I whent straight to the actual source https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/p... [t-mobile.com] and they claim no data caps

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ls671 ( 1122017 )

          Weird, now all cell phone data plan providers will look like crooks with their ridiculously low data caps on cell phones data plans. I guess that they could always come up with some silly explanation like "cell phone data plans cost more because you are moving and changing location with your cell phone"

        • But then later in the FAQ - "You can use your Home Internet for all the homework, streaming, and video conferencing you need! But to ensure that our network is available for all customers, there are some restrictions on activities that can damage or disproportionately congest the network. For example, Home Internet is not intended for unattended use, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections, or uses that automatically consume unreasonable amounts of available network capacity. Please

          • You're completely right. I didn't quote the sorce but just an additional layer of advertising. The real source would be the contract and any additional documents listed there in and it seem to be a lot of those and they're not easily found (maybe if you tried to sign up they'd be more readily available). Thanks for reading more than the marketing fluff I did.

        • You wants the short but memorable relations. We will have fun this night! I'm waiting >> http://bit.do/user6731 [bit.do]

    • Re: Data caps? (Score:3, Informative)

      by saloomy ( 2817221 )
      For the interested, they say there are no data caps at all in the FAQ located : Here. [t-mobile.com]

      The only limitation seems to be this verbiage:

      You can use your Home Internet for all the homework, streaming, and video conferencing you need! But to ensure that our network is available for all customers, there are some restrictions on activities that can damage or disproportionately congest the network. For example, Home Internet is not intended for unattended use, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections, or uses that automatically consume unreasonable amounts of available network capacity. Please see T-Mobile's Terms and Conditions for prohibited uses

      They also offer one tier at whatever speed the network will do, with a minimum of 50mbps download. No upload speeds mentioned. Only at select addresses (presumably where there are no alternatives).

      • Upload speeds are mentioned in the "Device details" section:

        What kind of upload speeds can I expect with T-Mobile Home Internet?
        Most new T-Mobile Home Internet customers can expect average upload speeds between 10 and 25 Mbps. See T-Mobile.com/OpenInternet for details.

      • Prohibited usage also states:
        "Results in more than 50% of your voice and/or data usage being Off-Net (i.e., connected to another provider’s network) for any 2 billing cycles within any 12-month period;"

        https://www.t-mobile.com/respo... [t-mobile.com]

        I think that nearly 100% of my data usage will be using another provider's network. How many servers do I access that are on the Tmobile network? Zero because you're not allowed to have servers on their network according to the TOS.

        • Re: Data caps? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by ksw_92 ( 5249207 ) on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @01:44PM (#61247774)

          They're talking about roaming, not what you're connecting to over the Internet. If your device spends the majority of its air-time on other cellular networks then you probably shouldn't be a T-Mobile subscriber.

          • Now that I read your reply, it makes sense. But the TOS is not very clear about it being regarding roaming so they can use that at any time as an excuse to terminate anyone from the program as a violation of the TOS. They should clarify that statement in the TOS so people like me who read it doesn't make that same mistake.

            • These home connections dont roam. You are absolutely able to put servers In T-Mobiles network. They are in data centers and want to avoid peering costs. Thats why for example Netflix adds cache servers within eyeball ISP data centers. Any company can put servers there. Most of the giant CDNs do this for all the eyeball networks.

              • See, that's exactly how I interpreted the TOS too but ksw_92 has given me doubt. It's not very clear so it could be taken either way. If it's really true that they expect that no more than 50% of your data can be outside of T-Mobile's network then their home internet service is useless for most people.

    • Re:Data caps? (Score:5, Informative)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me&brandywinehundred,org> on Wednesday April 07, 2021 @12:50PM (#61247478) Journal

      As a current post-paid tmobile user.

      There is "no data cap", but you do get "deprioritized during times of congestion" after 50GB (this number may have changed).

      In practice this means that every now and again I am on an even footing with MVNOs, but 95% of the time I still get my 50/25 speeds (LTE at my house).

      I'm loathe to call it not a cap, but they don't charge extra, and they don't slow me down the vast majority of the time, so it's only a vaguely misleading (compared to my experience with other networks in the past).

    • I have had tmobile home internet for 3 months, no data caps or limits. I am getting 10x the speed for the same price as my old dsl. 60-80 down and 30-35 up for $50 a month. I was paying centurylink $49 for 8/1.

  • I'm on the Starlink waitlist to try and get service for my mother, who lives out in a rural area...

    I tried signing up for the T-Mobile service but it says it's not yet available at her address. It seems like probably Starlink will have her covered well before T-Mobile gets around to improving the service in the area enough to work.

    • If your town is big enough to have reliable 5G coverage, then you probably already have other options for home internet.

      • If your town is big enough to have reliable 5G coverage, then you probably already have other options for home internet.

        It's actually an LTE service also though, so you wouldn't have to be in a big city with 5G service, necessarily.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        I live in Las Vegas.

        The only way to get more than 1.5 Mbps in my neighborhood is Cox.

        Which, well, leaves you dealing with Cox.

        Large parts of the city are reclined by centurylink, the descendent of the old phone company.

        So, yes, I would probably jump to Tmobile in a heartbeat.

  • "We’re not available yet at your address but we’re expanding our network all the time. Sign up to find out when T-Mobile Home Internet is available where you live and we’ll be in touch as soon as we have news!"

    Still not available in my area.

    • "We’re not available yet at your address but we’re expanding our network all the time. Sign up to find out when T-Mobile Home Internet is available where you live and we’ll be in touch as soon as we have news!"

      Still not available in my area.

      Yeah, I get the same thing. I know why though, and that's because we don't get the best T-Mobile service out here, although it seems good enough on my phone to compare to my cable speeds.

    • I haven't checked. But the service sounds too good to be true. Ie, it's not massively overpriced like cable, better bandwidth than AT&T, uses 4g/5g so no rewiring in the house. I suspect the catch is that it won't work where I am.

      I didn't know 4g/5g could be faster than normal ISPs. My phone absolutely sucks on 4g, but I suspect it's the lack of script and ad blocking which slows normal web browsing to a ridiculous crawl.

  • Maybe they're hoping nobody will demand municipal service or common carrier regulations if they can sell this bit of snake oil

  • 100mbit no caps in rural areas. Not going to happen. It'll end up like most fixed wireless services.

    My advice for mobile carriers interested in fixed Internet is to start digging trenches for last mile because if you don't someone eventually will and at that point you've lost a fixed wireless sub forever.

    Rural is expensive yet not unreasonably so. If they can string copper telephone, power and water they can run fiber and there is certainly healthy political will for FTTP. Fiber rollout is currently goi

    • Centurylink won't run a fiber drop across an alley to me. You think they're going to string fiber down poles? :D

    • I made the same statement... and got it for my simi-rural location for 30 days for a trial. I live 10 miles outside of a larger city but the cell and LTE service was not always the best. I only had access to 15mbit DSL... After 30 days I decided to keep it and cut the DSL which actually costs $10 more per month then Tmobile. Checking speedtest 10x times throughout the day and evening I consistently get 150mbit+ DL and 10mbit UP which is 10x my DSL. The lowest speed has been 80mbit DL. The only negati

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Why?

        My own personal opinion based on experience with fixed wireless. Say it takes all of 10 concurrent users at 100mbit each to saturate a tower. Take that and add the oversubscription ratio you think is fair. Even if the bandwidth were perfectly shared with 1000 people sectors perfectly balanced, everyone having sufficient link margins for full data rate with each promised 100mbit "average". In this case so long as you have decent queue management and prioritize speed test services you just might be able t

    • If they can string copper telephone, power and water [...]

      In this case, the "They" that you're talking about is the government. I'd also point out that most rural places that I've seen have wells, so the city doesn't do water...

      • In this case, the "They" that you're talking about is the government. I'd also point out that most rural places that I've seen have wells, so the city doesn't do water...

        Yes government is certainly an option.. In my view this is one of the best options given muni-fiber allows customers to switch ISPs with little friction. This provides a mechanism for healthy competition vs everyone in an area being forever held captive by the one ISP who made the investment to string fiber first.

  • And also on the T-Mobile list. T-Mobile is cheaper but based on my current cell service with them (ok but lots of dead spots in the house) I'm not holding out a lot of hope. The web site shows that it's not available for me yet anyway.

    From the real world tests that I've seen Starlink is performing really well with people in really rural areas getting north of 130GB speeds with few if any outages. 5G on the whole seems like a bunch of smoke and mirrors to me.

    • Well I imagine that's what the gateway device is for.

      • Yes and I anxiously await real world reviews of this "gateway". I want to hear from real people that are actually using the service and if it holds up to the claims that T-Mobile are making. If it does then maybe I'll get it installed once it becomes available.

        But until I start hearing independent reviews I'm going to treat these claims with the same skepticism I do all other advertising.

        • I have one. While I was in town, I got between 200-250MBIT. While at home in the woods, I get around 15-25MBIT.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by azander ( 786903 )

          I have one. I am on the Pilot program. For home use it is very good. Very nice speeds with the last download I performed a few hours ago at over 45Mbps. Streaming hasn't buffered once since I started with them. There are some quirks. Their IP proxy tends to change IP addresses with each page refresh. This forces some online banking system to kick me out because my IP changed. This has recently stopped, so they may have fixed that issue. Once in a while things seem to time out, but a simple refresh

          • Thanks for sharing. The speeds seem fairly good but the issues with VPN concern me. On my home network I use PIA, which can run either over OpenVPN or WireGuard. My work VPN is something different all together and I'm not sure which protocols it runs but that is something I would have to get working if it were to be an option for me.

            Your issues with the support is pretty much standard in my experience. They don't know much, don't get much training and generally are not much help.

  • 5G is the first to make it reasonable for home usage. It's so much easier to roll out and upgrade than wired to the home its not even funny. Most towns will never see municipal fiber as the utility companies own the vast majority of poles.

    For me the big thing is they need to market it better so people understand that with a static installation of your 5G antenna you won't have the outages you have walking around your house. It's not simply expanding your cell phone to serve your whole house, it's a drop in

    • If nothing else the competition will force cable to step up their game and offerings.

      I hope so. I am lucky (?) to have ATT Fiber and Xfininty in my area so there is some competition and I have been able to play each off the other to keep getting their special deals. Right now, ATT's top tier plan is a lot faster than Tmobs and $10 cheaper, but if they don't renew me at my existing price and double it I'll switch again.

    • Yeah, for every problem there is a solution that is "so much easier" because it's shit.

      Call me when "5G" can pass through glass windows while not dropping to a slower speed than 4G. Call me when it still works during precipitation. Call me when it's not *much* slower that a wired connection (and waste more electricity too). (Hint: The laws of physics make it so that will always be the case.)

  • If you use any other service for your cell phone, You CANNOT log into T-Mobile to pay your bill or do anything! I have been on the phone with them for 5 hours today! They switch you back from one tech to another while not being able to help with anything. Worst service ever!

  • Will this allow incoming connections, or is it firewalled behind NAT?

    It's not much use if I can't ssh into my desktop at home or https into my camera system.

  • They're priced to encourage trying them out. Here's the scoop: $20 start-up, refundable within 30 days. $60 per month, bottom line. Unit rental is rolled into the cost. No contract; assuming the unit is undamaged, no charge to return. No cap (according the the sales person I spoke with). Speed is (most likely) low-ish, I'll know soon. If it's good enough, I plan to get an extra unit to ram up comcast's bunghole, though I expect that may count as damage to the unit. Worth every penny, I say.

  • Will anything be left of thosr 100Mb/s?

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