Forum Discussion

Dr_Mary's avatar
Dr_Mary
Network Novice
3 years ago

Help! Before I open the box, is it true this T home internet will replace my Spectrum service or should I return it.? I'm hearing negative reviews!

Would love to hear from anyone who has it and how it works!

 

  • gramps28's avatar
    gramps28
    Router Royalty

    Personally I wouldn’t change , too many limitations. I pay $14 a month more for Cox internet without these restrictions. The bold term is the big one for me. 

    TMHI terms. 

     

    During congestion, Home Internet customers may notice speeds lower than other customers due to data prioritization. Not available in all areas; customers ineligible for 5G Home Internet may be eligible for 4G LTE Home Internet or other fixed wireless options. Plus taxes & fees for accounts currently paying for a T-Mobile wireless line with additional taxes & fees: Monthly Regulatory Programs (RPF) & Telco Recovery Fee (TRF) totaling $1.40 per data only line ($0.12 for RPF & $1.28 for TRF) apply; taxes/fees approx. 3-12% of bill. Credit approval required. For use only with T-Mobile Gateway for in-home use at location provided at activation. If canceling service, return gateway or pay up to $370. Video streaming resolution depends on available speeds. For best performance, leave video streaming applications at their default resolution setting. Not compatible with some live TV streaming services. AutoPay Pricing for lines 1-8 on account. Without AutoPay, $5 more. May not be reflected on 1st bill. Coverage not available in some areas. Network Management: Service may be slowed, suspended, terminated, or restricted for misuse, abnormal use, interference with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users. See T-Mobile.com/OpenInternet for details. See Terms and Conditions (including arbitration provision) at www.T-Mobile.com for additional information.

  • whall003's avatar
    whall003
    Network Novice

    i love mine, i had problems of rebooting but removed other RF devices and seemed to solve any problems. i am on this board so i read all the negative but tbh i love mine.

  • gramps28's avatar
    gramps28
    Router Royalty
    whall003 wrote:

    i love mine, i had problems of rebooting but removed other RF devices and seemed to solve any problems. i am on this board so i read all the negative but tbh i love mine.

    I've read too many issues with hooking up to Ring , Chamberlain garage door opener and Eufy which I use flawlessly on Cox for $14 a month more. I love TMobile but not enough to use this service. I'd rather have a hardwired connection than rely on WiFi.

  • Cyborg's avatar
    Cyborg
    Network Novice

    Overall, you’ll need to ask what your needs are and if TMobile may be the right fit for those needs.  It should have a trial period and you may be eligible for some extra $ for converting, so what is the concern?  Potentially, yes, this may allow you to replace Spectrum, you must have reasons for even considering it.  There are always people that have negative reviews, and people that have very positive reviews.  My advice would not to let fear rule you, but at least approach change with an open mind.

    The wording for “congstion” situations exist in all of the service providers, so this is normal. I have a few streaming services for entertainment, but do not stream TV regularly, so that may be a question to ask a rep or see if anyone actually knows of a services that this would fall under (if you care)… I had the rep on the phone for a while, and the persone was great in answering all of my questions about all sorts of things, but I did not ask about streaming live tv.  I have had issues with Xfinity-who likes to raise the rates, and I know people that have even more issues with Century-Link, and no other viable options until now.  I would save $8/month, but at the moment, it looks like I would be more than tripling my speeds, not that I actually need it but I am tired of Xfinity’s tactics or telling me there are no outages, when I am clearly having an outage.  From my understanding, TMobile gameplan is not to oversaturate an area, but there are always risks.  True 4/5G data maximums rated for extremely high data, but what any cell provider gives you for your phone is no-where near what is actually possible or even these speeds that they are offering for home.  If they do this right, it should be very good… of course, you can always go back if you had to.  The one main point to remember with bandwith/speed or “slow” internet, more often it is actually the website you are trying to go to.  I have had evening where Netflix would have slow/loss of the connection, but my internet is still fine and I just move over to something else.

    As for my actual experience, I’ve only had the gateway for a week.  Finding placement was easy enough and it was painless to set it up initially.  I hooked up my Ring doorbell without issues, integrated my mesh APs into this with minimal effort. Granted, I do work with computers, but the instructions were very simple, and there are videos online to help you out for just about everything else.  I’ve been getting consistent numbers, and just got this speed test while streaming 3 different videos,one from Disney+ and no hick-ups or apparent loss in speeds.  I am still going to test for a little while, but I haven’t come across any negative issues yet that makes me want to send it back.

     

  • Snooooopy's avatar
    Snooooopy
    Connection Cadet

    Like with all devices and internet services, there are good reviews and bad ones, and opinions change, too.  I don’t know about Spectrum, but I replaced Cox with T-Mobile and currently have no regrets after less than a month of usage.  My internet speeds went from 181 download to speeds like 250-350. The upload speed went from always 5 to 22. 

     

    I have had no outages, like Cox had all summer, and have streamed Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu and YouTube with no problems on my Sony TV.  I did have to go to my Wi-Fi settings on the Sony at first, however, and sign in twice with my network password.  (I don’t watch “live” TV, so can’t comment on that. Plus, I don’t game.)  My Panasonic Home-Hawk devices all work as usual, as does all my Echo dots. 

     

    My eero 6 + mesh system had no problem going from the Cox modem to the T-Mobile gateway, either. The only negative things so far is it looks like the first T-Mobile internet bill is going to be a double one, which I never saw mentioned anywhere until I got the email about the matter; and I have had location detection problems with one website.  I was able to resolve that with the Edge browser by changing various location settings, but have not been able to resolve it with the Chrome browser. With Firefox, I just had to click in “allow” in a pop-up location box.

     

    Since you have the T-Mobile gateway, I would just go ahead and try it out.  If it doesn’t work for you, you can send it back to T-Mobile and go back to Spectrum.  I will go back to Cox, if T-Mobile starts to fail me and I can’t quickly resolve the matter, because Cox was on the street doing repair work this week, which made the landline/internet modem cease continuously failing.  The price of Cox and T-Mobile are about the same, too. I do much prefer a totally wireless internet connection, like T-Mobile, however.