T Mobile Internet

[FPM III]

Thanks, Murff. With you in the west and me in the east, I checked the distance from Ft Worth to you (Seattle) and Pittsburgh to me. You're about 800 miles further. I placed my order on the 27th (Sunday) and received an email that evening saying it shipped that day. However, there was no tracking number provided which says to me that it shipped, but it's going to sit on the dock until sometime today (Monday) before it's picked up.

[FPM III]

I just received an email from T-Mobile with a UPS tracking number. Entering it on the UPS website, it said:

02/28/2022
2:25 P.M. On the Way
Louisville, KY, United States

Estimated delivery
Wednesday, March 02 by 7:00 P.M.

However, if it really left Louisville today at 2:25 P.M., there's a possibility that it could arrive tomorrow, March 1st, if the timing is right and it gets placed on the truck bound for the next transfer point before it departs. The routing would be:

Louisville KY to Grove City, OH
Grove City, OH to New Stanton, PA
New Stanton, PA to Smock, PA
Smock, PA to my house

[kblast523]

Originally Posted by norty1

FPM III: I am eagerly looking forward to your experiences with this setup.
I am not really to interested in traveling with it but always open to reducing my $$$ outlay at home. Right now I have a Xfinity unlimited gateway and it is great for what I need just expensive.

My residence is at Lat 35.0227 Lon 100.916 and I have a metal roof/structure. My tower is at Lat 34.979 Lon 100.905, so it is nearly due south of me across Greenbelt Reservoir. Started with Windstream (now Kinetic) and speed ran from 540KBPS to 800KBPS. They offered me a boost to 225MBPS for free, I accepted, then they called back three days later said 'no can do'. For $78/mo I figured I could do better. Switched to TransWorld Network for $60/mo. Installer had to put a six foot pole on the house and a 'dish' to capture enough signal...75dbm. Squeaked out 1.2-1.5 mbps, still below marginal for streaming. So when T-Mobile offered, I jumped. Speed still not what I had on fiber optic with Cox in Nebraska (250mbps) bundled with TV and phone for $120/month, but I do manage to eek out 8mbps occasionally, which is plenty and a bargain in this day and age. Last three months have 'consumed' 170-180 gb of data at no additional on TMHI...you do have to first be a T-Mobile customer, I'm on the Magenta 55+ and get two lines unlimited everything for $55/mo.

[BobKantor]

I've had it for 6 months and it had been great. A few weeks ago my bandwidth dropped from over 100mbps down to under 10. TM tells me their tower is fine and only .5 miles from my house. I'm guessing that they have allowed too many people near me to use that tower recently. They're shipping me a new SIM card to try to fix the problem but I'm not hopeful. I may have to go back to Cox, which was also horrible.

[JebTN]

I have been stuck with DSL ever since moving to our new house. I have been on Verizon, T-Mobile, StarLink waiting list for a year or more depending on the supplier. My DSL runs 3Mb down and .6Mb up. Starlink showed up about 2 weeks ago. Not cheap but fast. The first place I setup the dish I got fast speed with lots of drops sometimes several 2 second drops per minute. Their app keeps track of all this and I was getting 50 minutes of drops per 24 hours. I moved the dish to another location a few days ago and now I only get 6 minutes of drop per day spread out. Much better. I run speediest a lot just to see the big numbers and have hit a peak of 256Mb down and 25Mb up. Average of 109Mb/10Mb. They say everything will get better as they get more satellites up. Most things stream right over the glitches. Zoom has a few blinks but very usable. I don't play online video games, that might be a problem. They claim it will be mobile at sometime in the future which would be nice. A software upgrade that I use to go to a friends house to do because the estimate was 14 hours was done in 25 minutes. Still might switch to one of the others if they ever come available since they are all about half the cost but we will see.

[Tuckerbug]

Originally Posted by Parrott

I got the T Mobile internet 4 weeks ago for home. I kept Spectrum which needs cable for 2 weeks to make sure it worked ok. Cancelled Șpectrum at $80 a month and T Mobile is $50.
Decided to take T Mobile with us to Key West to see if it works on the road. Well, let me tell you. Stopped here in Brunswick Ga at the Cracker Barrel for the night. Watching YouTube TV as if I was sitting back home. Getting all the same stuff as at home. Netflix, Paramount +, Amazon Prime video, YouTube tv. Getting 3 bars on the unit and no issues streaming. It’s capable of 5G. It’s fast!

SHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Told tell everyone. They will oversell and slow us down!

[FPM III]

The TMHI Gateway arrived at my home yesterday (03/02/2022 4:36 PM). As far as setting it up, everything went "as advertised", but getting a good signal from the cell tower to the gateway is another story. Here, the mountains and your location in them, can combine forces to deprive you of a good strong signal no matter who the cellular provider is. Folks on Sprint and Verizon cellular networks visiting us have to stand near a window or go outside for their devices to work but, those on AT&T never had a problem. However, T-Mobile was an unknown, though.

My original setup was on AT&T and used the Personal Hotspot on one of the cellphones for our Wi-Fi network along with a tethered line to the computer. It ran as LTE and provided satisfactory service.

When I fired up the T-Mobile gateway the first time, I was either getting no signal or one bar on 5G. When this happens the gateway changes to 4G and there a was getting 3 bars the majority of the time with a drop to 2 bars briefly every so often.

Overall, even running at only 4G, most things seem to run slightly faster. Although, a 2.5GB iOS update needed about two hours just to download; about the same time it would it would have taken had I applied the update using the DSL at our church. However, I updated several iPhone apps that were 1+ GB that went fairly quick, so the jury's out as to why the iOS update required so much more time to download.

T-Mobile recommends placing the gateway as high as possible to provide the best cellular reception and Wi-Fi signal throughout your house. I tried placing it on top of the cabinets that hang on the wall above my desk. The problem with this is that it becomes difficult to view the tiny display screen and reach the buttons that control it. So, I placed the gateway on top of the server that sits on my desk where it's a lot easier to see and reach the buttons.

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by kblast523

...you do have to first be a T-Mobile customer, I'm on the Magenta 55+ and get two lines unlimited everything for $55/mo.

I'm not for sure what you're referencing here, but you do NOT have to a TM customer to ONLY get TMHI. We have only been Verizon customers for our cell phones. When I called TMHI, it was no issue getting signed up.

Just wanted to make sure that everyone who's interested in this plan does not think that they must be a TM customer...

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by Scott91370

I'll be keeping an eye on this. We have fiber to the modem and the price is decent but if it gets too high IO may switch. We have a tower about a mile away.

Only thing I can see having an issue with is T-Mobile apparently blocks VPN traffic so I can't work from home when I need to.

A couple of clarifications here. I would not see TMHI as a replacement for anyone that has fiber, or should I say any type of modern day fiber. Fiber is almost always going to be faster, and more consistent on speed. Fiber may be more money though, so that could be a factor.

With regards to VPN, TMHI has been all over the map, for sure. The modem that they started with worked fine. Then they switched modems, and VPN was lost for some (maybe 50%). We where in that 50% loss. Eventually, our company found a workaround, which was good. After about 6 months, TM pushed out a firmware change that allowed VPN to work for most (maybe 90%). We were then able to go back to our companies original VPN setup. Now TM is on another new modem, and I haven't heard any reports or issues with that firmware.

But here's the beauty of TMHI, and what got us to try it to begin with: THERE IS ZERO OBILIGATION TO TRY IT! If you try it, and it doesn't work in your area, simply return it. You are out the cost of one month of service. No contracts. No hidden fees. Just quit!!

In the end, TMHI is not for everyone, unfortunately, and it's not the "best" technology out there. Fiber is the best technology out there, for speed, but possibly not for cost. TMHI is actively, and aggressively updating towers across the nation, and that is making the service better as well, but it's still not a one-size-fits-all-solution...

[kblast523]

Originally Posted by cadman_ks

Just wanted to make sure that everyone who's interested in this plan does not think that they must be a TM customer...

Just know when I started my TMHI in May 2020, it was a requirement. Things change, i know.

[Parrott]

Originally Posted by Tuckerbug

SHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Told tell everyone. They will oversell and slow us down!

Gotcha!

[muckinfuss]

Originally Posted by cadman_ks

I'm not for sure what you're referencing here, but you do NOT have to a TM customer to ONLY get TMHI. We have only been Verizon customers for our cell phones. When I called TMHI, it was no issue getting signed up.

Just wanted to make sure that everyone who's interested in this plan does not think that they must be a TM customer...

I found out that who you talk to matters a lot with T-Mobile offerings as far as the accuracy of their answers. I wanted to port a phone number to their service, Metro by T-Mobile. Walked into a store, explained my 'want' and was promptly told, "sorry, no can do. you have to get a new number from us". That's not only a lie, it's illegal. Phone number porting has been guaranteed by federal law since 1978.

My wife had a phone through Virgin, a provider that was sold into Boost Mobile and subsequently acquired by T-Mobile. She was having a problem because of the merging of companies, and it took three separate visits to three separate stores by me to set some people straight on phone laws. Two of the Boost stores were of the opinion, incorrectly, that the only way to solve her problem was to sell her a new phone....to replace the one year old 5G capable, unlocked Motorola G7 I bought.

T-Mobile has the Metro product and also Boost and all three have, and still are offered through independent 'offices'. Sort of like franchises. A little more freestyle in their adherence to rules and regs.

[Lasttruck]

Originally Posted by FPM III

T-Mobile recommends placing the gateway as high as possible to provide the best cellular reception and Wi-Fi signal throughout your house. I tried placing it on top of the cabinets that hang on the wall above my desk. The problem with this is that it becomes difficult to view the tiny display screen and reach the buttons that control it. So, I placed the gateway on top of the server that sits on my desk where it's a lot easier to see and reach the buttons.

We live in a park model rv that is stick built with drywall interior walls. Our “closest” tower is off to the NNE. We connect to a more distant tower to the SSE. The difference between the two towers is at least 2.5 times the speed and half of the ping.

I initially plugged the modem into an extension cord and then moved the modem to different locations in the park model. I would then check with a speed test. The sweet spot was in the SE corner of the loft. After picking that location, I rotated the modem as the 4 antennas are placed equally around the modem. Best was with the right side of the trash can (looking at the logo) facing the tower.

That spot is the highest and the signal path would go through the walls in between the studs.

[cadman_ks]

A possible update to this post about using TMHI mobily.

I have not verified this from the internet gods, but on another TMHI FB page that I follow, it appears that it may now be possible to use the TMHI with mobile applications, or would it be a better thing to say that TM has taken out the clause about "you can't move the modem around". Either way, do your own research, I'm just the messenger...

[Marcm157]

Originally Posted by cadman_ks

A possible update to this post about using TMHI mobily.

I have not verified this from the internet gods, but on another TMHI FB page that I follow, it appears that it may now be possible to use the TMHI with mobile applications, or would it be a better thing to say that TM has taken out the clause about "you can't move the modem around". Either way, do your own research, I'm just the messenger...

This is correct. It's actually on their home internet web page. TMHI is not available for me at my residence yet but as soon as it is, I am in. We were camping with relatives over memorial day weekend and T Mobile (my cell phone provider) had very weak signal. My relative who had her TMHI with her had full bars and was streaming TV with no issues. Must be a different band or service all together...

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by Marcm157

... My relative who had her TMHI with her had full bars and was streaming TV with no issues. Must be a different band or service all together...

More likely has to do with the fact that there are 4 "real" antennas in the TMHI modem, not just a strip of copper like your cell phone has...

[Marcm157]

Originally Posted by cadman_ks

More likely has to do with the fact that there are 4 "real" antennas in the TMHI modem, not just a strip of copper like your cell phone has...

My Pepwave Modem on T Mobile had zero coverage either and that has an antenna on the roof of my camper.

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by Marcm157

My Pepwave Modem on T Mobile had zero coverage either and that has an antenna on the roof of my camper.

Well, there goes that theory...

[FPM III]

Overall, Great, but the biggest disappointment is the Internet speed. I'm not getting anywhere near the speed others are reporting. Here in the mountains, the TMHI Gateway runs at 2.4 Ghz (I couldn't even get a 5 Ghz signal when I installed it, although, I don't think T-Mobile's network is 100% 5G) and the Connection Quality is a constant "Good". However, I'm seeing only an Internet speed between 2 and 8 Bbps using fast.com; and speed fluctuates wildly between these numbers. However, the only time I notice any annoying slowness is when I'm dealing with something large, like a 250MB or larger download. The reliability of the signal seems to falter at times. The television will freeze when streaming and we'll get that "clock" in the corner of the screen, or the iOS and Windows devices will halt.

The best positive thing is the truly unlimited data. Previously, my 3 cellular phones and 1 iPad (plus other devices like furnace thermostat, garage doors and smart televisions) were on Consumer Cellular (CC) which uses AT&T’s cellular network. With the 35GB data plan I had with them, I have to constantly monitor my data usage closely because if I exceeded my data limit, CC would automatically move me to their next higher, 50GB (unlimited, but it really wasn't because they throttled you if you exceeded it) data plan for $55/mo. We’ve never been able to do any data intensive things like videos, and streaming. Large software updates had to be done using a public Wi-Fi or wait until the end of the billing period so I could determine if I had enough data remaining in my plan to apply them.

Our data usage for our the first full-month bill we received from T-Mobile was 61.5 GB. It's obvious that we did a lot of "due diligence" to keep our data usage under that 35 GB limit on CC.

A real delight came when when our 11 YO, 37" living room television died in April. We replaced it with a Samsung 65". It came with a free subscription (which is also available free to the general public) to their Samsung TV Plus streaming service. It appears to have made a substantial increase in the amount of data we're using as the my most recent T-Mobile bill shows it has jumped to 131.5 GB.

I want to note here that only the TMHI gateway is on T-Mobile's Cellular Network. All 3 of my iPhones remain on Consumer Cellular. I did this for two reasons:

1. As a backup, should the TMHI Gateway fail (all 3 iPhones have personal Hot Spots).
2. I've been on AT&T's network since I purchased the first Cell Phone in 1993. It has always been reliable and I've experienced very few "No Signal" situations.

With the change to the TMHI Gateway, I reduced my CC data plan to 1GB (the lowest I could make it) and eliminated the phone plan for the iPad.

ABOUT USING THE T-MOBILE HOME INTERNET GATEWAY AS A MOBILE DEVICE

The point I want to make here is NOT whether T-Mobile allows their gateway to be used in this manner, but whether you have CAN even remove the RMHI gateway from your home at all.

If you have the TMHI gateway in your home and have devices connected to the TMHI's Wi-Fi and/or Ethernet, and you're not taking these with with TMHI there will be nothing for them to communicate with once you power it off and drive away with it unless you have provided some other gateway, router, hot spot, with Internet to serve in its absence.

Just some "Food for Thought".

[Parrott]

Ended up switching my 3 cell phones to T Mobile to the Magenta Max 55+ plan. Better and cheaper service than US Cellular here. Got 3 brand new Samsung S22 phones free, traded our old phones got $500 for them, reduced T Mobile internet to $30 a month, 50% off our YouTube TV for a year (saving $400), free Netflix, free Paramount+. Auto pay gets another $30 off per month. Lot of competition out there. Camping now at Hatteras Island streaming away. They also paid off the $400 we owed on our old phones.