I used to be focused on T-Mobile’s Home Internet service from the primary time I heard about it: it’s $50 (a worth that features the specialised router), contract and information cap-free, and is powered by 5G and LTE as an alternative of telephone traces or cable. As many individuals within the US can most likely relate, I’m not in love with my conventional ISP — I usually push up towards its 1.2TB information cap, and $80 monthly appears like loads to pay for the supposedly 400Mbps service I get. So I questioned: might I, a distant employee and heavy web consumer who likes to stream video, play multiplayer video games, and do cloud backups, truly be high quality with web delivered by means of the air as an alternative of a cable?

After a couple of weeks of testing, it looks as if the TL;DR reply isn’t any; regardless of T-Mobile’s web site telling me my tackle is eligible, the router nearly all the time had a “weak” mobile sign, and there have been so many drop-outs and slowdowns that even my non-techie spouse was fed up with it after a couple of weeks. The factor about mobile web, although, is that my expertise received’t essentially be the identical as yours, even in case you dwell a couple of blocks away from me. So take this assessment for what it’s: one individual’s expertise with what the service is like in a single tiny, non-specific a part of japanese Washington state.

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Before we get into the particulars of my expertise, although, let’s begin with what’ll be common to these utilizing the service: the router {hardware} and setup course of. The router helps Wi-Fi 6, which is good to see, and has a small round touchscreen on prime that you should use to see varied statistics like what number of gadgets are related to your community and the way good its mobile connection is. On the again, there’s a spot to plug within the (frankly huge) energy brick, two Ethernet ports, an influence button, and some pins that allow you to plug in a battery backup.

Looking at that image, you might be simply as excited as I used to be whenever you see that there’s a USB-C port. I don’t know why the router’s producer, Nokia Solutions & Networks, put it there, nevertheless it and the RJ-11 telephone port are presently non-functional, based on the router’s handbook (pdf). Bummer!

After you plug the router in and switch it on, it’ll immediate you to obtain T-Mobile’s app utilizing a QR code displayed on its display. I had a variety of frustrations with the app at first, till I noticed that I had to connect with the router’s Wi-Fi community earlier than hitting the “setup device” button. As far as I can inform, that step isn’t included within the fast setup information, neither is it hinted at within the app itself. The setup course of was a breeze after I figured that out, although, with the app prompting me to decide on a reputation for my community and to set a password (the default title and password are printed on the underside of the gadget in case you’d quite simply go away it as-is). Then, the app informed me it was time to seek out a great spot to place the router the place it might choose up a robust sign.

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

That course of was truly fairly enjoyable. The router has a battery in it, so you may stroll round with it and check out the sign power in several spots. (The battery doesn’t appear to work as a backup energy supply, although. If it’s not plugged into energy, you received’t be getting any Wi-Fi.) As I discussed earlier than, although, this function didn’t assist me out a lot; upstairs or downstairs, proper subsequent to a window or within the absolute center of my home, I received a gradual two bars of service (out of 5) — even taking it exterior didn’t assist, not that I might’ve left if there had I gotten excellent sign.

The app doesn’t make it clear in case you’re utilizing LTE or 5G, however digging into the router’s internet GUI, you may see what mobile bands it’s making use of. After Googling band designations, I used to be capable of decide that, at time of writing, the router was primarily related to LTE and was utilizing 5G as a secondary connection. Of course, as T-Mobile says on its web site, that might change based mostly on “signal strength and availability, time of day, and other factors.”

I ended up placing the router in what I felt like could be probably the most advantageous place: on a windowsill upstairs, dealing with town. From there, all that was left to do was unplug my present entry level (I didn’t need it to speak over the T-Mobile router) and plug my change into my new cell-powered router to get all of my hardwired IoT gadgets related to my new dwelling community.

At first, the whole lot appeared all proper. I used to be getting obtain speeds wherever from 73 to 135 Mbps, and I even noticed add speeds as excessive as 20 Mbps. For the primary day or two, I actually didn’t encounter any points — when it got here to truly utilizing the web, it gave the impression to be the very same expertise as when it was coming in over the wire (and Siri might even play Apple Music on my HomePods, one thing that’s fully damaged on my regular setup for some motive). The router additionally carried out admirably — my laptop computer’s web was simply as quick in my workplace proper subsequent to the router because it was in my lounge, which is downstairs and throughout the home.

Slowly, although, hiccups began to pile up. Webpages would often battle to load, or I’d change channels in Slack and see that everyone’s profile photos had been gray squares till their precise smiling faces loaded in one after the other (which is how I discovered that Slack doesn’t appear to cache these photos, for some motive). Once, the speeds had been so abysmal that it took Twitter a literal minute to load.

There had been even a couple of durations the place the web would seemingly simply be gone for a couple of minutes at a time, with my internet browser instantly telling me that it couldn’t join once I tried to navigate to a web site. The frequency of the outages or slowdowns diverse — some days, I solely had occasional glitches, and some days, the web was principally unusable. There weren’t a ton of excellent days, however they did occur.

From what I can inform, this was nearly all the time a difficulty with the precise service and never the router (although there was one abnormally lengthy outage that did look like a router concern, because it was fastened as quickly as I rebooted the machine). I might ship packets between the gadgets in my home simply high quality — I used to be simply lower off from the surface world. I requested T-Mobile what might’ve brought about these points, and it informed me that “while you might see slower speeds during times certain times of the day, due to network congestion, 30 seconds to load a webpage doesn’t sound like a normal experience.” I requested for concepts as to what could have brought about it however didn’t obtain a response.

As somebody anticipated to be prepared to leap on breaking information at any second, this was clearly not superb for my use case. I’m positive my boss and coworkers received irritated with how usually I stated one thing alongside the traces of “okay, I’ll grab that as soon as my internet starts functioning again.” The unreliability additionally brought about points in my private life, too — when attempting to observe YouTube with my spouse, she’d often touch upon the “potato resolution.” (Mind you, that is somebody who’s completely content material watching DVDs.) I’d additionally run into points attempting to play on-line video games, with my ping swinging like a pendulum from a usable ~30ms to an unplayable 900ms. You can see the outcomes of that within the video under.

What that sort of efficiency appears to be like like in-game. As a heads up, there may be some violence within the clip, so you might not wish to watch it in case you’re delicate to that sort of factor.

It’s not that T-Mobile Home Internet by no means labored. I’d say the vast majority of the time, it was completely high quality. I used to be capable of play a number of hours of multiplayer CoD throughout my testing, and for probably the most half, I used to be shocked that the expertise could possibly be pretty much as good because it was over mobile. I used to be additionally capable of do some completely acceptable video calls with family and friends. When my service was working, I genuinely couldn’t inform the distinction between it and my regular cable supplier. It’s simply that I couldn’t depend on it working that properly, and as somebody who works from dwelling, that’s a giant downside.

I hoped to modify to T-Mobile’s dwelling web if my checks went properly — I’m not the kind of one who must have a screaming quick 200 Mbps plus connection and am even prepared to place up with somewhat spotiness if it means not having to pay $80 a month for Comcast and its information caps. But the primary time I received the notification on my laptop telling me that my telephone’s battery was lifeless as a result of I’d been tethering to all of it day, I knew these hopes had been dashed. (It would’ve been awkward if my telephone ran off T-Mobile, however I’m on the Verizon-powered Visible.)

That doesn’t imply T-Mobile’s web received’t work for anybody — I’ll have had a greater expertise had I been capable of get greater than two bars of service at my home (although the app often confirmed that it nonetheless had two bars of sign throughout outages), and for some individuals, even the worst of what I skilled could be higher than what they’re presently utilizing.

When I used to be utilizing DSL a 12 months in the past, I nonetheless most likely would’ve chosen T-Mobile over it — the 2 connections had been equally dependable, however I received sooner speeds over mobile when it was working than I used to recover from the telephone traces. For individuals who dwell in an much more rural setting than I do and rely on the web much less, T-Mobile’s web could possibly be an enormous improve from dial-up or extraordinarily spotty satellite tv for pc web.

Speaking of satellite tv for pc web, there’s an apparent comparability between T-Mobile’s service and SpaceX’s Starlink; each promise dwelling web with out the necessity for infrastructure coming to your own home. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel wasn’t happy when he tried out the Starlink beta, and the service is considerably costlier than T-Mobile’s: it’s a must to pay $499 plus transport for a satellite tv for pc dish and $99 a month for the service. But Starlink does promise increased speeds, saying you may anticipate 100Mbps to 200Mbps downloads. While T-Mobile says that many customers can anticipate “speeds in excess of 100Mbps,” it says that the common is “between 35-115 Mbps.”

There are different professionals and cons for every service. Installing Starlink’s satellite tv for pc dish is considerably extra invasive than plugging in T-Mobile’s router, and I doubt my condo advanced would ever be okay with me sticking one thing on the roof (even with Starlink’s new, smaller design). And T-Mobile’s service makes use of the cell towers that additionally present service to our telephones — Starlink desires to place 12,000 satellites into orbit to energy its service, probably obstructing our view of the cosmos. But if your own home is in an space with out dependable cell service, T-Mobile clearly isn’t going to be an choice.

It’s conceivable that T-Mobile’s dwelling web might get higher over time — when in comparison with constructing out conventional web infrastructure, including 5G capability to cell towers requires a lot much less bodily labor. I wish to break up with my ISP so badly that I’ll give T-Mobile one other likelihood yearly or two to see if it’s improved to the purpose that I might use it. The firm makes that simple — it’s a no-contract service, so it’d solely price me $50 to get a whole month to offer it one other shot. If you reside at an eligible tackle and are interested by mobile web, it could be price not less than giving it a shot. You could find yourself having a a lot better expertise than I did.

For now, although, I’ll be sadly trudging again to Comcast. It appears that my dream of $50 limitless web was simply too lovely to come back true in 2021. If you’re considering of attempting it out for your self, you’ll want to learn our checklist of issues earlier than you do.