NEW T-Mobile 5G Home Internet Service & Home Automation

[wardmundy]

After 8 months, we finally got an invitation to sign up for T-Mobile's new $50 a month unlimited 5G Home Internet Service. You basically get a router with an antenna that you can take anywhere T-Mobile has 4G and 5G coverage. Hardware should arrive tomorrow so we'll keep you posted.

 

[phinphan]

I too have been trying to sign up, no joy yet. I'm interested to see how it goes.

 

[kenn10]

@wardmundy Which city?

 

[wardmundy]

@wardmundy Which city?

We got the green light in Asheville.

 

[phinphan]

here in Melbourne, Florida we have very good 5g coverage where I live but awful 4g lte, so I wonder if thats why its not available yet for me.

 

[wardmundy]

here in Melbourne, Florida we have very good 5g coverage where I live but awful 4g lte, so I wonder if thats why its not available yet for me.

Doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the rollout. We've got excellent 4G and 5G service in Asheville, Charleston, and Jacksonville but only Asheville has qualified thus far. But, once you get the device, it apparently will work anywhere there's T-Mobile service. Will let you know. We're about to do lots of traveling.

 

[hawk#1]

Looking forward to your updates. I am interested in what type of speeds you get on 4G.

 

[kenn10]

Doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the rollout.

From what I've read, T-Mobile has to roll out 5G on a sufficient number of towers and have enough capacity to offer the "always on" home internet connection. Biltmore Forest is well built out in Asheville but many parts of the city still don't have 5G. You picked a good place.

 

[wardmundy]

We're up and running in Charleston. We actually qualified for the service in Asheville, and we haven't even been there yet. One minute setup. Works like any other ISP's router and WiFi gateway.

Looks like our primary cellular connection is on band B66 which is 4G/LTE. Secondary is n71 which T-Mobile uses for both 4G/LTE and 5G but appears to be 5G in Charleston anyway.



YouTube TV streaming is flawless on all channels. VoIP testing is next. This is a real game-changer because you can travel with it and take your Internet anywhere there's a T-Mobile tower which is just about everywhere in the U.S. The router uses a 12-volt adapter which raises other possibilities.

 

[KNERD]

Is it a public or private IP address?

 

[wardmundy]

Private IP address (192.168.12.x) with WiFi and 2 Ethernet ports so you could connect your own router if desired. Will test double NAT issues.

 

[billsimon]

I started to apply for this but they are requiring a hard credit check, which surprised me. Other utility providers I have worked with have not asked this. I am interested in the service but am holding off for now. Don't know that it's worth the "ding".

 

[wardmundy]

I think all the cell carriers require a credit check now. But, trust me, it's worth the ding. Who else gives you unlimited Internet and free router for $50 a month with no fees/taxes PLUS mobility.

 

[krzykat]

I think all the cell carriers require a credit check now. But, trust me, it's worth the ding. Who else gives you unlimited Internet and free router for $50 a month with no fees/taxes PLUS mobility.

I wonder if this will be suitable for failover internet for a business environment. Price is certainly right.

 

[KNERD]

I wonder if this will be suitable for failover internet for a business environment. Price is certainly right.

I do know AT&T has such data plans for failover. 2GB of data, and static IP address for $35 a month

 

[billsimon]

I think all the cell carriers require a credit check now. But, trust me, it's worth the ding. Who else gives you unlimited Internet and free router for $50 a month with no fees/taxes PLUS mobility.

I agree. Please let us know what you find out about the NAT situation. I intend to use the connection for VoIP (obviously!) and while there are workarounds, a multi-layered NAT is a major bummer.

Could you post some traceroutes? e.g. to 8.8.8.8 and 2001:4860:4860::8888.

 

[Halea]

Edit: Sorry, you already answered the question I was asking.

 

[hawk#1]

I do know AT&T has such data plans for failover. 2GB of data, and static IP address for $35 a month

I certainly would not consider AT&T their over priced service add their lousy support and I won't use them if they charged half price.

 

[wardmundy]

Looks like T-Mobile is blocking SIP; however, IAX2 works fine with excellent voice quality using a VoIP.ms IAX2 subaccount with a registered FreePBX IAX2 trunk on a Raspberry Pi:

 

[wardmundy]

Could you post some traceroutes? e.g. to 8.8.8.8 and 2001:4860:4860::8888.

root@incrediblepbx:~# traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  www.webgui.nokiawifi.com (192.168.12.1)  1.774 ms  1.942 ms  1.854 ms
2  192.0.0.1 (192.0.0.1)  3.751 ms  3.896 ms  3.820 ms
3  192.0.0.1 (192.0.0.1)  65.669 ms  65.814 ms  65.705 ms
4  * * *
5  * * *
6  * * *
7  * * *
8  * * *
9  10.164.140.189 (10.164.140.189)  73.810 ms  53.300 ms  65.651 ms
10  10.164.176.83 (10.164.176.83)  59.090 ms  49.691 ms  56.804 ms
11  209.85.175.254 (209.85.175.254)  57.598 ms  58.851 ms  62.430 ms
12  108.170.249.65 (108.170.249.65)  62.995 ms 108.170.249.97 (108.170.249.97)  68.474 ms 108.170.249.65 (108.170.249.65)  66.558 ms
13  209.85.246.141 (209.85.246.141)  61.482 ms 142.251.60.223 (142.251.60.223)  56.466 ms 209.85.241.155 (209.85.241.155)  56.440 ms
14  dns.google (8.8.8.8)  76.991 ms  76.939 ms  72.399 ms