Julie’s gadget diary – T-Mobile Home Internet part 2

ARTICLE – It’s been a few weeks since I wrote a gadget diary post about being selected to join T-Mobile’s invite-only (right now) Home Internet pilot program and I thought it was time to post a follow up to let you all know how it’s been working out for me so far.

What did the send me?

• T-Mobile branded cellular router with a pre-installed T-Mobile SIM
• Rechargeable battery
• Battery cover
• AC adapter
• Screwdriver and screws to secure the battery cover
• Quick start guide

The cellular router

The T-Mobile branded cellular/wireless router is a medium-sized white plastic box that has three LEDs on the top right corner that shows the status of the battery, wireless connection, and LTE. Basically the LEDs are either green or red.

There’s also an LTE button and a power status LED on the front of the router. You would probably think that pressing the button would toggle power or the LTE feature. From what I can tell though, pressing the button does nothing at all.

On the backside of the router, you will find the SIM card slot, a WAN port, 2 LAN ports, a Phone jack, power port, a reset switch, and the power switch. The WAN port and the Phone jack are both disabled on this router but at some point in the future, there’s a possibility that the phone jack may work with T-Mobile’s LineLink home phone service that provides phone service over wireless.

The 2 LAN ports can be used to connect devices that have Ethernet capability or you can even plug in your existing wireless router and use it to provide WiFi throughout your house. In that instance, you would plug the T-Mobile router into your wireless router’s WAN port.

As mentioned, the router comes with a battery which is used as a backup battery in case the power goes out. I’m not sure how long the battery will let you use the router though. I haven’t tested it as I have a whole house generator and don’t worry about the power going out.

Getting set up

Getting up and running on the T-Mobile network was a piece of cake. All I did was install the battery, plug in the power cord, wait for the status LEDs to turn green, and then I loaded the T-Mobile Home Internet app on my phone and went through the setup which took a couple of minutes.

Once finished, the main screen of the app shows the current signal strength and total data usage so far for the month.

The Devices tab shows all the connected devices. You can click a device and get more info like the IP and MAC address and you can also control when the device has access to the network by setting individual schedules for each device based on the day of the week and time when you want them to be disabled.

The Network tab will let you manage the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz networks by renaming them and changing the passwords.

You can also dig into more advanced settings of the T-Mobile cellular router by logging in from your computer by going to http://192.168.1.1/.

How has T-Mobile Home Internet been so far?

As mentioned in my previous T-Mobile Home Internet post, I had been using another cellular broadband service for the past 2 years. That service also used a cellular router with a T-Mobile SIM and I’ve been used to download speeds of around 14-17Mbps and was expecting the same speeds with the T-Mobile Home Internet router since they both use T-Mobile. Let’s just say that I was happily wrong!

T-Mobile Home Internet speeds are 2 and sometimes even 3 times faster than what I’ve been seeing the last 2 years. I’ve seen speeds as high as 50Mbps and as low as 16Mbps but the average is usually in the high 30’s.

I’ve been able to connect 4 Wyze cameras, an Amazon Echo Dot, a Nest thermostat, 2 MacBooks, 3 smartphones, a Vizio smart TV, and miscellaneous other devices to the router and haven’t noticed any issues with speed.

We’ve watched Netflix and Amazon Prime video with no buffering problems, no issues when Jeanne and I are both watching YouTube videos, on our laptops, etc.

The only problem that I’ve noticed so far is with the 2.4GHz network. It seems to be a bit glitchy and sometimes my devices will not connect to it at all. So I used the support option in the T-Mobile Home Internet app to call in and ask about it. I’m happy to say that they pick up immediately and I was able to talk to a human within seconds who answered ALL of my questions thoroughly. I learned that they are having calls about the 2.4GHz connectivity issues and plan to send out a firmware update to the routers very soon. Nice!

I’ve been so happy with the T-Mobile Home Internet service for the last 3 weeks that I called up my previous provider (4G Antenna Service) and canceled the service last week. I’m saving about $30 a month going directly with T-Mobile and I’m getting faster service and I no longer have to worry that I’m using too much data and that they’ll drop me. So high fives all the way!

If you live in a rural area and get invited to try the T-Mobile Home Internet pilot program, I definitely recommend that you do so. I couldn’t be happier and hope it only gets better.

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Tagged: gadget diary, T-mobile

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