T-Mobile Home Internet while RVing

[nomad2022]

Recently we decided to try out T-Mobile Home Internet in our 5th Wheel. I went to a T-Mobile store close to the park where we were staying at the time and explained that we were RVing full time. They said to go ahead and try it out and setup the box for me in the store. It costs $50/mo and there is no equipment to buy. If you don't like the service, you can just return the small 5G router box and discontinue service at any time. You do need to supply a qualifying address and the one we gave them did qualify. You can check your home or other address on their website https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet/eligibility to see if it qualifies.

Here are the Speedtest (download/upload) results for 9 different parks across Utah, Nevada, and California:

1 - 166/61 Mbps
2 - 97/45
3 - 11/8
4 - 0/0
5 - 62/21
6 - 20/8
7 - 97/10
8 - 60/15
9 - 103/41

For park number 4 this was no surprise since none of the major cell phone providers had any service there as indicated by their online coverage maps. For park 9, even though the connection was excellent and the speeds fast, there were some times during the day when the speed would drop to almost nothing. I think this was because this cell tower was overloaded with too many T-Mobile subscribers, but most of the time it was fine.

Overall we are very happy with the service so far. When compared to just my phone using 5G, the Home Internet is usually 2 - 10X faster. This is because of the superior antenna in the Home Internet box as compared to my phone. You can also try moving the box to different locations in the RV for best reception. There are also no data caps, throttling, or hotspot limits to worry about. We used 200GB of data in our first month, mostly by streaming TV on the ROKU TV including some 4K shows. The other advantage is that this service gives you wifi to all of your devices in your rig.

[howson]

nomad2022 -- not available in my area (panhandle of Florida near Pensacola). :(

[Sandridge4]

nomad2022 we have this and are full-time as well. I have noticed when I am having speed issues that unplugging for about 5 minutes and plugging back in really helps. We will go from download speeds of 30-50 to 120-180. We are currently in southern Alabama.

[Jlawles2]

howson Howard, try a friends address. Guy at worked there address of one of his neighbors 3 doors down and they shipped it to his address. Strange but it worked.

[BillinTexas]

We use it at our property but got it while at a different address. We simply changed the address later. I wondered how it would work on the road as we use Starlink on road.

[Jlawles2]

I think as long as there is T-mobile service it works. Speeds will vary based on the network in the area, but should still work.

[Sandridge4]

We use it at our property but got it while at a different address. We simply changed the address later. I wondered how it would work on the road as we use Starlink on road.

We used it while traveling from Colorado to Alabama. We traveled through Nebraska, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee, always had better service than our Verizon & AT&T phones. I had been looking at Starlink but with how well the T-Mobile is working I can’t justify the cost of Starlink. We watch tv, use our phones, printer, two laptops and 5 Blink cameras hooked up to it and no issues other than an occasional modem restart.

[Grounded87]

Recently procured the T-Mobile Home Internet as well. In our first location using it, Corpus Christi TX. so far it has been great. During peak tower use times it does get lower priority over phones, so at rush hour and other peak times, it does get a little lag, but 95% of the time it has been great. Unlimited data for $50 /month is a great deal. I'll probably keep my Verizon Jetpack in our mobile internet arsenal to ensure coverage as we travel. At the T-Mobile store, the customer service rep didn't seem to care what address I gave her. The first address I gave was not eligible, so I started going through my contacts until I found an address that worked.

[earlbalentine]

Recently we decided to try out T-Mobile Home Internet in our 5th Wheel. I went to a T-Mobile store close to the park where we were staying at the time and explained that we were RVing full time. They said to go ahead and try it out and setup the box for me in the store. It costs $50/mo and there is no equipment to buy. If you don't like the service, you can just return the small 5G router box and discontinue service at any time. You do need to supply a qualifying address and the one we gave them did qualify. You can check your home or other address on their website https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet/eligibility to see if it qualifies.

Here are the Speedtest (download/upload) results for 9 different parks across Utah, Nevada, and California:

1 - 166/61 Mbps
2 - 97/45
3 - 11/8
4 - 0/0
5 - 62/21
6 - 20/8
7 - 97/10
8 - 60/15
9 - 103/41

For park number 4 this was no surprise since none of the major cell phone providers had any service there as indicated by their online coverage maps. For park 9, even though the connection was excellent and the speeds fast, there were some times during the day when the speed would drop to almost nothing. I think this was because this cell tower was overloaded with too many T-Mobile subscribers, but most of the time it was fine.

Overall we are very happy with the service so far. When compared to just my phone using 5G, the Home Internet is usually 2 - 10X faster. This is because of the superior antenna in the Home Internet box as compared to my phone. You can also try moving the box to different locations in the RV for best reception. There are also no data caps, throttling, or hotspot limits to worry about. We used 200GB of data in our first month, mostly by streaming TV on the ROKU TV including some 4K shows. The other advantage is that this service gives you wifi to all of your devices in your rig.

Now all you need is a special cable, HDMI for TV input, USB for TV USB port power and the other end for your cell phone, if it's iPhone then it would be a lightning connectoer for your phone. Watch any video from your phone without using any "Hot Spot' until the cows come home. I watch my Tablo App so I can pull up all my DVR recorders from home.

[TucsonJim]

Some questions.

We have our phones through T-Mobile. We have used the phones as a hotspot many times. Does this provide any additional speed or benefits over using our phone?
Can service be shut off when not in use?

Jim

[Sandridge4]

TucsonJim from what they told us when we got it was using a different 5G network than the phone system and would have less congestion resulting in faster speeds at all times, they also said it was month to month so we could shut off whenever (not sure what that means for re-connecting). We have our phones through AT&T & Verizon, before we had the T-Mobile we noticed that both AT&T & Verizon would slow our speeds after using so much data. We have had T-Mobile home internet for about 9 months and been full-time on the road during that time and I have zero complaints, we have both phones, 3 laptops, 2 Alexa devices, 5 blink cameras and 3 smart tv’s all connected and never had a speed issue.

[CLKamesch]

We have a similar set up. We got the LTE box through Verizon. At the time. If you were a wireless Verizon customer, they had a deal where you got it for 1/2 price so we’re only paying $25/ month. Not sure if that deal is still running. We’ve had no issues. At that price, we just leave it in the RV whether we are traveling or not. When we’re not traveling, RV sits on a lake lot for weekend getaways, so we’re quite pleased.