T-Mobile 5G Home Internet Review (2025)

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet isn't available everywhere, butit has a solid national footprint and more than six million customers, according to the company’slatest earnings report. Simply enter your street address on T-Mobile's website to see if it’s available where you need service. Generally speaking, it's available in many markets where T-Mobile offers 5G service.

There are three plans to choose from, as well as a basic 5G internet backup plan. All T-Mobile plans offer unlimited data, a price-lock guarantee, and no hidden taxes and fees other than a $35 one-time device activation fee. The cheapest offering is the Rely Home Internet plan, which costs $55 per month ($50 with autopay). The price drops to $35 per month if you have a qualifying T-Mobile voice line. Customers who pick the Rely plan receive a previous-generation 5G gateway that acts as both a modem and Wi-Fi router. T-Mobile says you can expect download speeds between 87Mbps and 318Mbps and upload speeds of 14Mbps to 56Mbps.

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

The Amplified Home plan is the next step up and costs $65 per month ($60 with autopay, $45 with voice line). This plan comes with T-Mobile’s latest 5G gateway, advanced security features, and the fastest speeds, ranging from 133Mbps to 415Mbps down and from 12Mbps to 55Mbps up.

T-Mobile offers some nice perks with its most expensive All-In Home plan, which costs $75 per month ($70 with autopay, $55 with voice line). It includes the same 5G gateway and internet speeds as the Amplified plan, along with an additional mesh Wi-Fi access point to help expand coverage over a larger area. Further, T-Mobile throws in subscriptions to Hulu (with ads) andParamount+ Essentials, valued at $10 and $8 per month, respectively.

Finally, T-Mobile offers a Home Internet Backup plan for $25 per month ($20 with autopay, $10 with voice line). As the name implies, this service is meant to act as a backup if your regular internet provider has an outage and isn't intended for everyday use. You get an older 5G gateway and just 130GB of data, which T-Mobile says covers about seven days of typical use.

Both AT&T and Verizon also have 5G home internet services, and while neither offers coverage as extensive as T-Mobile's, each has similar plans and pricing.

Verizon has the second-largest home internet subscriber base at 4.2 million customers. As with T-Mobile, you need to enter your address on Verizon’s website to see if the service is available in your area. Verizon generally doesn't offer 5G home internet in areas where it provides wired Fios service. Its plans include a combined modem and router, unlimited data, and a two-year price-lock guarantee. The cheaper Home 5G plan can handle streaming 1080p HD video for $60 per month ($50 with autopay and paper-free billing, $35 with voice line).

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

Verizon’s 5G Home Plus plan costs $80 per month ($70 with autopay and paperless billing, $45 with voice line) and includes a Wi-Fi range extender, unlimited data, a three-year price-lock guarantee, and faster speeds. Verizon says this plan allows you to stream 4K video. Speeds on this plan reach up to 1Gbps, depending on your location.

, the company's 5G home internet service, is available in smaller, individual areas across 47 states. AT&T offers only one plan that costs $65 per month ($60 after autopay, $47 with voice line). It includes unlimited data and a guarantee of no price increases for 12 months. Download speeds range from 90Mbps to 300Mbps, with upload speeds ranging between 8Mbps and 30Mbps.

If you live in an area not served by wireline or wireless networks,Starlinkmight be your only choice. Starlink relies on satellites and serves most of the US, but you pay more for less. The basic satellite connectivity kit costs $349, and the service costs either $80 per month or $120 per month, depending on whether you want deprioritized or unlimited data. Speeds are slower, with advertised download speeds of 25Mbps to 220Mbps and upload speeds of 5Mbps to 20Mbps.

I tested T-Mobile’s newest 5G gateway. It supports the Wi-Fi 6 spec rather than 6E or 7. Depending on your plan, you may end up with an Arcadyan KVD21, Nokia 5G21, or Sagemcom Fast 5688W device. I received the Nokia model, which measures 8.98 by 7.09 by 2.99 inches (HWD) inches.

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

The Nokia gateway is distinct from its siblings in color and shape. It’s all white and has a squarish design, compared with the black, cylindrical designs of the others. The front features a color LED display ringed by a black bezel. The display is clear and vibrant. It shows the current signal strength (measured in bars, like your phone), the number of connected devices, the line number, messages, the antenna it’s using, and language preferences. The panel becomes mirror-like and reflective when the display is inactive.

Three buttons below the display include left and right arrow keys that are separated by a circular Enter key. The T-Mobile logo sits below the display near the bottom of the device. There are vents on the top and sides, while the back has a sticker with the Wi-Fi login information. A reset button sits at the bottom right of the sticker. All the ports are tucked into the bottom. They include four external antenna connectors, a USB-C port for the power supply, a second USB-C Power Delivery port to charge your device, a SIM card slot, and two gigabit Ethernet ports.

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

Setup is quick and easy. The gateway comes with an optional stand, a quick start guide, and a power adapter. The SIM card is preinstalled. The quick start guide illustrates how to connect the power adapter to the gateway and explains how to position the device near a window before prompting you to download the T-Life app (available for Android and iOS). Plug one end of the power adapter into an outlet and the other end into the USB-C power port, and you’re ready to go. The display lights up and prompts you to use a QR code to download the T-Life app to get started.

(Credit: T-Mobile/PCMag)

The app then ushers you through a series of prompts, one of which requires you to share your location. The app locates the nearest 5G tower and shows you where to place your gateway in your home to get the best connection. You can scan the QR code on the back to automatically join the temporary Wi-Fi network it created, and after about a minute of loading, you’ll be connected to the internet. At this point, the app prompts you to create your own name and password for the Wi-Fi network, completing the setup. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish.

(Credit: T-Mobile/PCMag)

You can manage the Wi-Fi network at any time via the T-Life app, where you can easily share the Wi-Fi credentials, restart the gateway, and see the connected devices (and the devices that have been connected to the network in the past but are offline). You can drill down further to see more details, like the frequency bands, WPA version, and encryption mode.

T-Mobile’s 5G Home Internet service is available where I live outside of Portland, Maine. Though there's solid coverage in my area, I know from years of testing phones here that 5G speeds could be better.

I positioned the 5G gateway in a window close to the nearest T-Mobile cell tower. The signal fluctuated between three and five bars of service, depending on the weather and the time of day. This is in line with what I usually see on my iPhone 14 Pro with T-Mobile service.

Generally speaking, I found T-Mobile’s 5G Home Internet service to be inconsistent. Some days, I had no problems connecting multiple devices to the network, all of which I used to browse the web and stream video. On other days, speeds slowed to a crawl and prevented me from loading web pages even when I was the only one using the network. Network responsiveness was often the poorest on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (aka business hours).

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

I connected an iPhone 14 Pro and an HMD Skyline to the gateway for testing. I measured signal strength and upload and download speeds in the morning, afternoon, and night in various spots throughout my home.

Signal strength is measured in decibel-milliwatts (dBm) and depicted in negative numbers. The higher the negative number, the worse the signal strength. Generally speaking, -65dBm to -85dBM is considered an excellent signal, while -85dBm to -100dBm is considered good, and anything below -120dBm is poor. Download and upload speeds are measured in megabits per second (Mbps), with the higher numbers indicating better speeds. My testing results are in the chart below:

I recorded the best, most consistently fast speeds at night. This changed by 10:30 a.m. when speeds dropped significantly. The worst time of day was generally at 3 p.m. when upload and download speeds were slow despite having good signal strength. Unsurprisingly, this corresponds with the end of the school day in my neighborhood.

Many factors contribute to slow data speeds, including inclement weather, interference from other devices, and network congestion. T-Mobile says it deprioritizes 5G Home Internet customers when the network is particularly busy. Despite offering unlimited data, the company also says it reduces speeds for customers who use more than 1.2TB per month, though it doesn't specify how much it slows things down. AT&T and Verizon have similar usage policies governing their 5G home internet services.

The fastest speed I recorded on T-Mobile 5G Home was 190Mbps. I can get at least double that using my Spectrum Cable internet service, with which I regularly hit download speeds between 300Mbps and 400Mbps and upload speeds between 20Mbps and 30Mbps. Clearly, in my area, cable and fiber are a better option for raw speed, though what works well in my location may not be best in yours.