Places called Albuquerque in New Mexico. Home of green chiles, 310 days of sunshine, the International Balloon Fiesta and seriously slow internet. Internet at home a two-horse race Albuquerque during the years: CenturyLink DSL and Xfinity cable. I spent decades on DSL, watching my internet speed tests slowly march up to a maximum of 20 megabits per second. Friends with faster Xfinity complain about customer service, data caps and cable company prices, so I’m sticking with CenturyLink. One day in late 2022, a T-Mobile Home Internet gateway reached my house. After that, I finally called to cancel CenturyLink.

Why did I switch to T-Mobile Home Internet?

I went with T-Mobile for several reasons. DSL is very slow. My next door neighbor got T-Mobile Home Internet and is excited about it. Coincidentally CenturyLink wanted to charge me $200 to replace my old router with a new one. I said, “No,” and changed to 5G home internet.

My internet life at home has improved in my post-DSL world, but it’s not all roses and happy dancing. If you are looking for a TL; DR, here you go: I’m still on T-Mobile Home Internet and will probably stay with it until I can afford it. Verizon 5G Home Internet a try or until the fiber finally shows my block. My experience with 5G home internet is specific to my circumstances, so your journey with the same service may vary. Here are the things I want about my 5G home internet and the elements that might get me there switch to another internet service provider in the future.

Here’s what I love about T-Mobile Home Internet

I will sing the praises of T-Mobile Home Internet before I voice my complaints. The best features of the service are its simplicity and ease of use and it represents an upgrade over the old DSL.

The price is right

With CenturyLink, I pay $45 per month for downloads up to 20Mbps. With T-Mobile, my monthly bill is a flat $50. That’s a sweet spot for me in terms of home internet pricing. I’d be willing to pay a little more than CenturyLink for a higher standard of service, but my bargain-hunting mindset will rule out anything higher. I would consider Verizon 5G Home Internet for the same price, but the opposite service is not available at my address.

I hope to get fiber in the future, but I will check the price before I change. The two providers most likely to serve my address are Ezee Fiber ($69 per month for a gig) and Vexus Fiber ($40 per month for 500Mbps or $50 per month for a gig). Vexus increased rates after the first year. I’ll weigh my embedded savings against fiber performance when the time comes.

It is faster than DSL

That may sound like a small compliment, but T-Mobile gives me much better speeds than I get from DSL. My best speed test results net top download speeds of 200Mbps, 10 times what I get on a good DSL day. Speeds may vary due to network congestion and gateway device placement. I have some complaints about the speed, but we’ll talk about that later.

The terms are simple

I don’t like the complexity when it comes to broadband plans. I don’t want to calculate equipment rental fees or find out about excessive penalties for over a data cap. Especially since I don’t want to bound by a contract. I just want internet at home and I’m free to try another ISP. T-Mobile ticks the simplicity box. No gear fees, data caps or contracts.

Mom approved

My mother lives six blocks away from me. He also has CenturyLink DSL. I ran a speed test on his desktop computer and the best he could get was about 12Mbps. That’s not a typo. That’s the reality for some DSL customers. He pays more than $60 a month and gets frustrated every time he tries to call to discuss his bill. No problem, Mom. We canceled his DSL and signed him up to T-Mobile. He found a nice perch for the gateway in the front window near his computer. With a strong signal, he can consistently lower speeds from 100-200Mbps, which is great for his low-key browsing and streaming needs. The only downside is that he gets text messages about the school closing on his gateway, a leftover from whoever used his gateway’s phone number before him. It’s a little annoying, and I don’t have the same problem.

The gates are easy

T-Mobile provides a free gateway device that combines modem and router features. I have a silver Nokia gateway that is called “trash.” The high-mounted display is a bit of a nuisance due to its awkward location, and it’s hot but works. T-Mobile now has new models. My mother has a Sagemcom device with a front mounted display that looks like a more refined trash can. The latest gateway is sleeker and looks like an Apple product. I had no issues setting up my Nokia gateway and my mother’s Sagemcom. We went online for a few minutes and found the gateways to be stable, with no crashes or other hiccups to report. Wi-Fi worked well, reaching the corners of our vintage homes with respectable speeds.

Here’s the not-so-good thing about T-Mobile Home Internet

T-Mobile Home Internet has a lot going for it, but it’s not my dream broadband service. Here are some places where it stumbles.

It’s not faster than cable or fiber

Xfinity offers cable speeds up to 1,200Mbps in my home. Fiber from Vexus Fiber, Quantum Fiber and Ezee Fiber is slowly rolling out in Albuquerque, but not yet in my historic neighborhood. Fiber customers can access symmetrical gig speeds, which I am very jealous of. T-Mobile Home Internet offers average speeds of 72-245Mbps, which is lower than offerings from local cable and fiber ISPs. The good news is that I’m not a gamer (let’s ignore my Nintendo Wii obsession), so I need enough oomph to surf and stream. I don’t mind zippier downloads and uploads when I transfer large music, video and image files.

Strong signals can be elusive

T-Mobile’s 5G internet service is subject to the same pitfalls you encounter with phone service. Sometimes, you are in an area where the signal is weak. Sometimes, that place is your own home. My neighbor, the first person I know to get on board with 5G home internet, gets a strong signal on the west side of his house. Next door, the best I can get is a fair signal, which works out to two bars out of five on the gate scale. That means I’m missing the maximum speed the service can handle.

Speeds may vary

My T-Mobile Home Internet speed is as good as the weather in Albuquerque. Wait five minutes, and it will change. I just did an internet speed test and it was 16.7Mbps. That’s slow enough to give me unwanted flashbacks to my DSL days. A few minutes later, I was at 94.6Mbps. Sometimes, I exceed 100Mbps. Usually, I sit around 80Mbps. My speed tests are all over the map. Some of this may be due to the 1939 construction materials of my house and my inability to dial a well-placed gate to get a better signal. My CNET colleague Eli Blumenthal also ran into speed issues testing the service in 2022. When CNET’s Joe Supan tests AT&T Internet Airhe also struggled to maintain decent speeds, so the issue may be more endemic to fixed wireless service than specific to T-Mobile Home Internet.

The window placement is awkward

T-Mobile recommends place your gate “near a window or high on a high floor or bookshelf.” When I had DSL, my router sat in my home office on a nice little custom shelf. It is unobtrusive and out of the way. My T-Mobile gateway visits every window in my house in my search for a strong signal. It’s now in my living room with the silver “trash” perched in a window. I still get solid Wi-Fi coverage around my house, but a piece of internet equipment sitting in my window is not my ideal home decor.

Final thoughts on my T-Mobile Home Internet experience

Thinking about dipping your toes into T-Mobile Home Internet? Consider whether this is an upgrade to your current service. If you’re crawling with DSL, this might be a good move. If you need consistent and very fast speeds, especially for gaming, then look at cable or fiber. I’m not a T-Mobile phone customer, but mobile users can bundle the appropriate phone plans to get more home internet storage. That could be enough to provide price-conscious shoppers with 5G internet service.

There is an experimental element to 5G home internet. You don’t know how good it is for you until you try it, so take advantage of T-Mobile’s 15-day money-back trial. I’m not in love with my internet at home, but at least I like it, and that’s a better relationship than my DSL.