ARTICLE – I came home yesterday afternoon to find a postcard in my mailbox inviting me to join T-Mobile’s new Home Internet pilot test which started rolling out back in March. I remembered reading about their invite-only service for existing T-Mobile customers but forgot all about it until yesterday.

For a little background, I live in a rural area of southern Indiana where my only option for broadband for years was satellite internet like HughesNet. I had HughesNet and hated it for a few years until I bit the bullet and had a T1 line run to my house. If you don’t know what a T1 line is, it might sound more exciting than what it really was. It was a guaranteed 1.5Mbps download / 1.5Mbps download internet connection which cost me a whopping $389 a month. No, I’m not kidding. All I can say is yay for business expense writeoffs.

I had the T1 line for 10 years until 2yrs ago when I switched to a wireless service from a company called 4G Antenna Shop that uses a wireless cellular router with a SIM from T-Mobile. My speed went from 1.5Mbps to 14-19Mbps which felt like light speed in comparison. At only $83/mo. I’ve been really happy with the 4GAS service but I have always been afraid that I would use too much data and they would kick me off their service because they really only offer 50GB per month and I tend to use well over 300GB each month with my weekend Netflix binge-a-thons, my Wyze cams, and my gadget research surf sessions.

So when the postcard from T-Mobile arrived yesterday, I didn’t hesitate before I called them and signed up for their $50/mo. totally unlimited home broadband service. I even opted for next day shipping and received the package with the wireless router and T-Mobile SIM today!

The postcard talked about 50Mbps speeds which is about 3 times faster than the speeds I get with the 4GAS service which also uses T-Mobile so I am excited to check that out.

I’m also a little worried about the fact that they told me that I can connect up to 10 devices to the router. The problem is that I have more than 10 devices (4 Wyze cams, 2 smartphones, 2 laptops, Nest thermostat, 2 Amazon Echo devices, LiftMaster WLED garage door opener, Jetstream Android TV, Vizio Smart TV, and I’m sure there are others I can’t think of right now.

I’ll post an update in a few days after I set up the new router, move all my devices to it, and get a chance to do a lot of surfing, streaming, speed tests, etc.

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Tagged: gadget diary, T-mobile

Julie’s gadget diary – I am now a T-Mobile Home Internet pilot tester originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 27, 2019 at 7:49 pm.

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If you’ve been following along at home, you know that I recently had a 3-month fling with an iPhone 7 Plus but just switched back to Android a few days ago. I’m currently using an original Pixel XL but ordered the new Pixel 2 XL last week after it was announced by Google. And now I’m switching again, this time it’s my wireless carrier and I’m switching from Verizon to T-Mobile.

I’m feeling of Deja Vu because seven years ago I switched from the iPhone to Android AND from AT&T to Verizon. My seven year run with Verizon has been pretty good until the last year or so when the signal coverage at my home has gotten worse. This hasn’t been a huge deal until recently when we disconnected our landline phones to solely rely on our cell phones. As long as we remain upstairs, making and receiving calls is fine, but if we receive calls while in the basement, we have issues with dropped calls.

I’m on a grandfathered plan with Verizon which is only 6GB of data shared between two lines. I know, how do I survive which such a small data bucket? I’ve just lived with it because the 2 lines are only costing me $88 a month and it really hasn’t been a problem until recently. For the last couple of years, I’ve been able to connect to the WiFi at my day job. But now they require that we load a special app that can track what’s on our phones and wipe them at their discretion. Ummmm… no, thank you.

Another reason for the switch is that I regularly have to turn down offers to review phones that aren’t compatible with my Verizon SIM because they are GSM phones.

And last but not least, T-Mobile has a deal right now you are a new or existing customer and bring a Pixel 2 to their network, they will give you a $325 gift card! That’s tough to turn down.

So last year I got a T-Mobile account to test the signal quality between my house in the woods and the “big” city of Columbus Indiana and found a 5-mile stretch where I’d consistently get the dreaded no signal message.

I tested again in May of this year with Mint SIM who use T-Mobile towers for their service and I experienced the same no signal area.

In anticipation of potentially switching to T-Mobile, I ordered a new Mint SIM to see if there had been any updates in their coverage in the last 5 months. I tested that this past weekend and unfortunately, the no signal hole still exists.

Long story short, even though there’s a small gap in signal coverage that I’ll drive through twice a day, I’m making the leap and switching. We’ll be paying about $20 more per month, but we’ll have “unlimited” data, Netflix, faster speeds, and better connectivity at my house. How do I know that? I’ve been using T-Mobile for my home internet for several months, so I already know that it’s going to work great there.

iPhone to Android. Verizon to T-Mobile. What’s next? Would you believe that I’m seriously considering switching from Mac to Windows now?!

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Tagged: gadget diary, T-mobile

Julie’s gadget diary – First it was iPhone to Android and now I’m switching from Verizon to T-Mobile originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 12, 2017 at 12:54 pm.

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