T-Mobile hot spot

[Blueone]

I couldn’t take the marina WiFi bullshit anymore. So I bought this hotspot ….for unlimited without another account with them it’s $55/month…..if you give them a debit card it’s $50/month…..if you have a cellphone line with them it $30/month. The box is free

you can suspend service for the winter….it’s pretty big not sure why. I won’t leave it here in that spot but with 3 bars it’s doing everything I need. My AT&T cell service is really bad here at the marina so it’s doing pretty good in the cabin…..they say put it near a window and you can walk around and look at the bars for a better signal

 

[markrsimon]

+1 We've been using it for the last 2 seasons -- works great for us. This year, we are getting ~400Mbps down - which is way faster than home cable internet. They now charge you a $50 sign-up free, but you get that back in a $50 gift-card. Last year, we got an Echo Show 8 for free. We havent bothered to pause service - we just cancel, send the unit back, and sign up again next season.

 

[Irie308]

Very impressive speeds for $55 per month.

 

[Blueone]

+1 We've been using it for the last 2 seasons -- works great for us. This year, we are getting ~400Mbps down - which is way faster than home cable internet. They now charge you a $50 sign-up free, but you get that back in a $50 gift-card. Last year, we got an Echo Show 8 for free. We havent bothered to pause service - we just cancel, send the unit back, and sign up again next season.

I got the $50 gift Card to put against your first month

 

[FootballFan]

Anyone around Florida using one of these?

Wondering about coverage, can't tell much from their website.

 

[Blueone]

Anyone around Florida using one of these?

Wondering about coverage, can't tell much from their website.

They say if you have a tower near you they are good

They just bought Mint for $1.6B from that Deadpool guy and they bought Sprint….. they are a going concern right now….. I’m over $300/month for cell phones only with AT&T I’m going to look hard at T-Mobile when the boat goes away

This was my first experience with t mobile store was great…. service is rocking in a really shitty location that the marina is in I’m happy so far

And everything is refundable if you don’t like it

 

[Skybolt]

They say if you have a tower near you they are good

They just bought Mint for $1.6B from that Deadpool guy and they bought Sprint….. they are a going concern right now….. I’m over $300/month for cell phones only with AT&T I’m going to look hard at T-Mobile when the boat goes away

This was my first experience with t mobile store was great…. service is rocking in a really shitty location that the marina is in I’m happy so far

And everything is refundable if you don’t like it

I've been with T-Mo for over 20yrs. At the end of the month, there half the price of all the rest. There service is pretty good in out lying areas. Wouldn't even consider switching to Verizon. I had AT&T for work a while back, they were horrible.

 

[JHornsby3]

My son has the T-MO service. He loves it. Both phone and the wifi. He has crap running all the time. Movies and web service and even gaming. I'm lucky to get a photo uploaded with the, now crawling, Viasat. We are now looking at the T-MO for everything.

 

[GnrlPatton]

Is there a T-Mo plan that you don't have to get the hotspot box? I'm looking for an unlimited plan, but only need a SIM card that I can plug into my Peplink. I'm currently with Ultramobile, and get an "unlimited" data plan but it throttles after 50GB. When it does throttle, it's unusable. Not sure how much T-Mo throttles, but Ultra is at 3G speeds, so it is pretty worthless when I hit the cap.

 

[carterchapman]

Can you move it from your house to the boat?

 

[markrsimon]

Can you move it from your house to the boat?

You can move the t-mobile 5G home internet tower anywhere you go.. home, car, boat, vacation - internet that follows you, provided t-mobile has service in that area.

While it has a usb-c power connector, it wants like 60W at some higher level voltage - so you have to use the included 110v adapter.

 

[Blueone]

Can you move it from your house to the boat?

Yes you can take it anywhere

 

[b_arrington]

Is there a T-Mo plan that you don't have to get the hotspot box? I'm looking for an unlimited plan, but only need a SIM card that I can plug into my Peplink. I'm currently with Ultramobile, and get an "unlimited" data plan but it throttles after 50GB. When it does throttle, it's unusable. Not sure how much T-Mo throttles, but Ultra is at 3G speeds, so it is pretty worthless when I hit the cap.

Yes. You can get a SIM card for a data-only plan. I have that for my Peplink router on the boat. I went with a pre-paid plan, before I had switched to T-mobile for phones.

When I switched I tried to consolidate my pre-paid and phone plans. They were going to force me to take a pocket-sized 5G hot spot for the data-only plan, when I just wanted to keep my existing equipment and SIM. They couldn't figure out how to do that so I just kept the pre-paid plan.

By the way, that large box is technically not a "hot spot" per se, rather its their home internet equipment. I'm using one for my home internet service and can confirm it works great.

This is my latest home internet speed test result and is pretty typical.

One should be aware that T-Mobile prioritizes cell phone device speeds over the home internet speeds. My iPhone regularly gets over 600 mbps in the same location as the home internet router.

 

[Stee6043]

Well this is a heck of a thread. Why am I paying $80 a month for home internet (only)??

I don't see the unlimited option on the T Mobile website? Only 5GB and 10GB? Is this something you have to visit an actual store to see??

 

[Great Lakes]

I have t-mobile now since they purchased Sprint. I was with them for 22 years. T-Mobile seems really good so far.

My question is, how is this different than my phones 5g service or hotspot?

 

[Stee6043]

Well this is a heck of a thread. Why am I paying $80 a month for home internet (only)??

I don't see the unlimited option on the T Mobile website? Only 5GB and 10GB? Is this something you have to visit an actual store to see??

Scratch that. You have to search under home internet, not mobile hot spots.

This may end up being the first thread on CSR that has ever actually saved me money rather than cost me a boat buck!

 

[Skybolt]

I have t-mobile now since they purchased Sprint. I was with them for 22 years. T-Mobile seems really good so far.

My question is, how is this different than my phones 5g service or hotspot?

At the end of the day it's not. The device is a wifi router that has a sim card in it, just like a hot spot, except in this case, it is supposed to be for the home. But nothing states home can't be on the water.

My question is, what happens when they see it's constantly changing locations. This wasn't intended to be a mobile wifi router.

 

[b_arrington]

I have t-mobile now since they purchased Sprint. I was with them for 22 years. T-Mobile seems really good so far.

My question is, how is this different than my phones 5g service or hotspot?

A traditional hot spot is portable, battery-operated and has a monthly data cap.

When using your phone as a hot spot, it typically has also has monthly data cap for tethered devices.

The home internet router needs to be plugged in to AC power at all times. It also has an ethernet port for hardwire applications. As I mentioned above, T-mobile gives speed /tower access priority to mobile devices like phones and hot spots. Their home internet router gets a lower priority and slower speeds. In using my home internet router for 4 months it hasn't been an issue.

 

[b_arrington]

At the end of the day it's not. The device is a wifi router that has a sim card in it, just like a hot spot, except in this case, it is supposed to be for the home. But nothing states home can't be on the water.

My question is, what happens when they see it's constantly changing locations. This wasn't intended to be a mobile wifi router.

That may be an issue. T-mobile limits the number of home internet routers per area so the towers are not overwhelmed and the service suffers. That's why they want the address for the location. If it's moving around a lot they may flag it. IDK if it's happened though.

 

[Blueone]

At the end of the day it's not. The device is a wifi router that has a sim card in it, just like a hot spot, except in this case, it is supposed to be for the home. But nothing states home can't be on the water.

My question is, what happens when they see it's constantly changing locations. This wasn't intended to be a mobile wifi router.

T mobile said it doesn’t care where it is as long as it has a cell tower just like your phone….. the store I went to said I was the third boater that day who came in to get one