T Mobile Durham Nc How to Leave a Comment Review
T-Mobile'south Dwelling Internet, which uses backlog chapters on T-Mobile's 4G and 5G networks, brings refreshing contest to the home internet service space, at $60 per calendar month with no contract. We tested it for two months and found that it'due south a fine culling to any cable or DSL tier of 100Mbps or less. However, information technology can't compete with high-speed fiber connections—at least not yet.
The New ISP in (Every) Town
We don't unremarkably review ISPs at PCMag, for various reasons. Internet services are difficult to get installed and hard to abolish, new services are oft non available at our testing locations (which is why nosotros haven't tested Starlink), and it takes months to review them properly. Instead, we rely on our readers in our annual Fastest ISPs story, as well as other statistics, for a broad movie of the Internet service provider market.
But T-Mobile'south new home 5G offer is so new and important that we needed to make an exception. Rural 4G internet service has existed for years, and Verizon has sold 5G home service on a limited basis for two years now. T-Mobile's ambitions are much bigger: almost-nationwide, piece of cake-to-install habitation internet for urban, suburban, and rural users alike.
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The service is designed for people who don't have like shooting fish in a barrel cobweb access but aren't and so far out in the woods that they'd have to rely on Starlink. That's a wide swath of urban, suburban, and exurban America. This map shows the 634 metro areas where T-Mobile advertises that Home Net is available. (Each metro area is represented by 1 point, even if it's quite big.)
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The company'south Internet access provider offering isn't formally segregated from its mobile network. It uses backlog capacity, and the amount of excess varies a lot. T-Mobile may feel it has chapters for one person on your cake, for instance, so if someone else signs up first, yous'll exist put on a waiting list or told to try again subsequently. Availability also changes with network upgrades, so punching your address into T-Mobile's site will give you different results over fourth dimension.
If the mobile network around you becomes congested, your dwelling house network will slow down, too. T-Mobile is promising boilerplate download speeds of at least 25Mbps, which isn't a lot, simply it'south the federal minimum for broadband. For most web browsing and asynchronous tasks, information technology's absolutely fine. Streaming music is generally 1Mbps or less, a 1080p Zoom phone call will cost you about 4Mbps, and a 1080p Netflix stream will run you effectually 7Mbps. As long every bit your household doesn't have multiple people doing all those things at once, 25Mbps will suffice.
On the other paw, 4K video streams tin be 15Mbps each or more than, and 4K cloud gaming with Google Stadia uses 35Mbps. If that's your jam, T-Mobile'due south service might autumn brusque. It was plenty fast enough for those uses in our testing, merely it may not exist in regions with a weaker network.
It'southward important to note that you tin can't tote your T-Mobile Home Net service from place to place. That is, you physically could, but eventually T-Mobile volition catch you and end your service. You lot've been sold your service considering the belfry serving your house has plenty capacity. Other towers might non. T-Mobile wants to provide this service where it will piece of work, and not where a pile-on of dwelling internet users will bring the network to its knees.
Why go Home Net and not a hotspot, which you can use anywhere that your service provider has a network? Information technology's ultimately nearly the service program. Hotspot plans tend to exist very express. T-Mobile'due south best electric current hotspot plan costs about the aforementioned as the Home Internet service, provides 100GB of data per month, and limits video streams to 480p. But its ISP plan is truly unlimited—I used ten times that corporeality of information without whatsoever hint of speeds beingness throttled, and watched 4K video consistently.
No-Nonsense Installation and Billing
I subscribed on a retail ground, similar any other customer, and shortly received a box with everything I needed. Setting up the modem, which comes with its SIM already installed, is extremely like shooting fish in a barrel: Yous download an app on your telephone, plough the modem on, and use the display on the height of the modem to find a location with skillful signal. Then you're pretty much ready to get.
Billing was similarly a breeze. $lx was tacked on to my monthly T-Mobile bill, taxes and fees included. In that location is no rental fee for the modem.
The modem needs to be in a spot with strong T-Mobile betoken. I tested it alongside a Galaxy S21 Ultra (besides on T-Mobile's network) and establish that the 2 devices saw equivalent signal strength on ring 41 5G; on band 2 4G, the modem's reception was slightly better than the phone'southward. There are no obvious external antenna ports, but if you lot demand better reception and yous're a lilliputian handy, it's possible to open the modem and claw information technology up to a larger antenna from Waveform. A skillful 1 costs $219.99.
The router has ports, merely many are disabled.
Very Basic Hardware
T-Mobile's Nokia modem tin can operate as an 802.11ax, Wi-Fi 6 hotspot, simply you're probably going to want to hook up a split up Wi-Fi router. The modem is very stripped downwardly and has few features or options.
There are 2 functional Ethernet ports, forth with a USB-C port and an RJ-11 phone jack that are disabled. There'due south also an odd-looking power port for UPS devices (I couldn't find a UPS that would exist compatible), and a born just non-operational battery. In other words, y'all need to go along the modem plugged into a wall outlet and connect to information technology over either Wi-Fi or Ethernet; there are no other options.
The status screen isn't bad.
There's a basic web-based management page that lets yous see the status of your connectedness and configure the modem's very few settings. Bizarrely, yous can take up to 12 total SSIDs (wireless networks) on the two.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands—I tin can't call back of any situation where you would demand more than than three or four—and you can ready their ability levels and channels, but you won't find port forwarding, DMZ, VPN settings, or parental controls, all of which I've considered basic router functionalities for at least five years.
Many common Wi-Fi settings are missing.
There'southward skilful news, though: You can attach a better router or a mesh system to one of the Ethernet ports for the range, flexibility, and controls you lot need. As the T-Mobile modem doesn't accept a span mode, look for a router that will avert creating a double NAT state of affairs, which can confuse some online services. Contempo Wi-Fi 6 routers should be fine; I used a Netgear Nighthawk AX8 without a trouble.
To be frank, I am concerned about the reliability of this hardware. I had to get my outset modem replaced considering it had and then many bug, every bit detailed beneath. Unfortunately at that place's no other modem that works with this service, so you just have to look that at some point yous'll run into difficulties and demand to ask T-Mobile for a replacement device.
A Rough Outset, And then Smooth Sailing
I used T-Mobile equally my master work connection for two months. I too hooked upwards a small PC to the modem via Ethernet. The PC ran Ookla Speedtest every 20 minutes, along with pings to ane.ane.1.i and 8.8.8.8, Cloudflare and Google'south domain name servers, every infinitesimal. That gave me thousands of data points for an overall picture of each twenty-four hour period. (Ookla is owned past PCMag's parent visitor, Ziff Davis.)
I really struggled with my first month of T-Mobile service. Google and Yahoo web pages would stall out. Video calls kept being interrupted by latency spikes. Sometimes the network would drop out entirely for minutes at a time. When I went looking for more information online, I plant many similar complaints from T-Mobile Dwelling house Internet customers on Reddit.
I spent a week talking to back up techs every bit they made network-side adjustments that didn't brand any divergence. Then T-Mobile swapped out my modem and everything got improve, so I'm comfortable blaming the hardware rather than T-Mobile's network.
With a new modem, all of the mysterious stalls, freezes, and lag disappeared. During the first calendar month, I had xi days where at least one test showed download speeds beneath 20Mbps. During the second month (with the new modem), there were merely 3 days where the speed dropped below 20Mbps.
The chart beneath shows the distribution of download, upload, and ping speeds across all the tests I did once I had a functioning modem. You can see that download speeds were more often than not in the 150–300Mbps range, uploads were around 60–120Mbps, and pings were effectually 10–20ms.
Wireless broadband fluctuates—on June 3, for instance, my download speed varied from a low of 22.5Mbps to a high of 531Mbps—but I found I could rely on getting more than 50Mbps down and 20Mbps up almost all the fourth dimension. Most 42% of my slower results occurred betwixt four and ix PM, which makes sense (that'southward elevation time for T-Mobile's customers to be using its 4G and 5G networks).
Your speeds may not expect like mine. I alive in a place with stiff T-Mobile mid-band 5G signal and plenty of chapters. If you don't, you lot won't run across operation that's about as good. I'g especially concerned well-nigh people who will rely on T-Mobile's low-band (ring 71) 5G, which has much less capacity than its mid-band (ring 41) 5G does. If you lot're curious about what kind of connection you're likely to become, become to Cellmapper and run into whether there has been a band 41 sighting reported near you.
You lot don't need to worry most information caps or prioritization on this service. I used more than a terabyte a calendar month and did not see annihilation that looked consistently like deprioritization. Download all you want.
In practice, T-Mobile Dwelling Internet is identical to service from a cable-based habitation ISP. Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix all streamed to my Roku TV in crystal clear 4K with HDR. I was able to use Wi-Fi calling over the router with both T-Mobile and Verizon phones, simply the modem doesn't boost your cellular signal or affect your direct cellular calls.
Fiber is still far more consistent than this wireless connection. My primary internet link is Verizon Fios, and I pay for a 500Mbps tier. Over three days of testing Fios every 20 minutes, I never saw a speed lower than 486Mbps, with pings almost entirely between three and 5ms. Fiber is truly the gold standard, and even mid-band 5G can't compete with its consistency and reliability.
Ping and VPNs: Some Concerns
If you need low, consistent pings, this service is not for you.
With the Google and Cloudflare domain name servers, every 24-hour interval I sent some pings that took over 100ms. Pings to 8.8.8.8 were generally around the 30ms range; pings to i.1.1.1 varied more. Pings to the nearest Ookla server were between 10 and 20ms. (Ookla tends to select servers that are physically and logically close to you, while 1.ane.1.one and 8.viii.8.eight may be farther away.)
The nautical chart beneath shows my pings to i.ane.one.ane and eight.viii.viii.8 over a 6-week period. You tin can meet that most pings were below 30ms, but there were a number of pings specifically to 1.one.ane.i in the 120–180ms range.
The 20–30ms pings are what I await from a network that combines 5G and 4G. This is as skillful every bit you're going to become with this technology. My connection stood up to hours of Zoom and Google See video calling each mean solar day without noticeable lag or problems. Withal, if you rely on sub-10ms pings for gaming or high-frequency trading, no system with a 4G wireless element will be sufficient; you'll need something more like my Verizon Fios connection. Future 5G networks should exist able to get down to 3–5ms ping times using standalone 5G and network slicing, but those technologies aren't bachelor to the public all the same.
If you're a heavy VPN user, y'all should likewise be cautious. For all VPNs, you want to use TCP rather than UDP if possible. With the PIA VPN used confronting a Canadian endpoint, I saw download speeds drop to 20Mbps from 100Mbps. With PIA on a United kingdom endpoint, download speed was more like 10Mbps. OpenVPN, on the other mitt, had almost no result on speeds. I did all my work over a corporate OpenVPN installation for a calendar week without a problem.
Helpful, But Not Revolutionary
As far equally our testing can make up one's mind, T-Mobile fulfills its promise of delivering at least 25Mbps internet connectivity for $60 per month with no contracts and easy setup. The The states ISP marketplace is so fragmented that whether this is a expert buy depends very much on where you live. In most cases, assuming good betoken on ring 41, the information speed from T-Mobile Home Internet will probable be amend than DSL and equivalent to cable. It won't exist as good as fiber, just if fiber isn't in your area or in your budget, that comparison doesn't thing.
The ane big downside is that the Nokia modem T-Mobile uses isn't great. It lacks many common router options, my first one was mysteriously defective, and many other customers accept complained about information technology on forums.
Americans need broadband selection, and T-Mobile is bringing it. If you're used to very stable wired ISP performance, the fluctuations of wireless will be a bit weird, simply they never got in the style of my Zoom calling or Netflix streaming. Dedicated gamers and heavy VPN users should stick with fiber whenever possible, only if y'all simply demand to send emails, stream movies or Boob tube, and make video calls, this is a highly viable selection.
T-Mobile Dwelling house Internet
The Bottom Line
T-Mobile Home Net, the beginning broadly available 5G home internet service, triumphs over DSL and can hold its ain against cablevision, only information technology falls curt of matching the speed and reliability of fiber.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/t-mobile-home-internet
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