Mint is doing their spin on T-Mobile wireless internet.
https://www.mintmobile.com/5g-home-internet/
I’m keeping a tab open on the page to see when my address will be included in the program. The two-week trial will let me test the service before finally committing. As I have a Mint phone line already, .I will qualify for the bundled plan. If I decide it’s workable, I’ll save about half over my current WOW plan. I’ve reviewed the limits, my usage isn’t even close to their choke point.
Thank you for pointing this out @mwgardiner. I had to look at this possibility because I have been using wireless T-Mobile Home Internet (TMHI) with great satisfaction for several years now. When first signing up their broadband was less than perfect, but a much better deal than the local monopoly cable internet provider at the time - then T-Mobile upgraded their tower quite near my home, and things have been great since.
Because Mint Mobile uses the same network, the slightly lower cost (looks like $40 per month, compared with the $50 per month I am paying for TMHI) gives me something to look at. But I did use Mint Mobile for our phones for long enough to learn that the Mint customer service was lacking. Switched to Tello for phones and am very satisfied with Tello customer service, even more satisfied with the flexibility of Tello plans.
We are not heavy data users, even at home, normally about 50 GB per month through TMHI. Our mobile data needs are mostly met with less than 1 GB per month per line, and the Tello plan system lets us adjust when necessary - vacations or road trips, for instance.
Since the time we went with TMHI five plus years ago both AT&T and that old local cable monopoly company have installed fiber through our neighborhood, so new competition has generated broadband rate offers much better than in the old cable monopoly days - but not good enough to beat TMHI at $50 per month, unlimited data (even though 50 GB would do for us).
Although the new Mint Mobile internet offer at $40 per month beats the $50 we are paying TMHI it is not a big enough discount to risk poor customer service and pay-a-year-ahead locks associated with Mint.
But nice to know about options!
On Thursday, I refreshed the browser tab on the Mint internet page, and my address is now eligible for service. I called and ordered service and am waiting for the gateway to show up.
I ran the calculation and if I decide to keep the service, I will be saving $425.88 over a year based on what I’m paying WOW. This includes the Mint phone line discount so the rate is $30 a month. They have baked all the assorted taxes into the rate. I was charged $360 for the next year of service. Amusingly, my bank pinged me on the charge before the service rep came back on line to confirm payment.
The few times I’ve needed customer service on my phone (apart from Canada roaming issues, which is a whole different container of piscenes) I have had no problems. Paying in advance for discounted rates is SOP for me when the option is available.
Well, that was a waste of time.
I received the router, set it up, then discovered that it is useless for my network configuration.
My setup is that I connect a personal router to the carrier device/modem/whatever, and that personal unit handles the home network.
When I connected the gateway, the internet connection was barely functional. Eventually I got to support and they asked about my network setup. They then told me that all devices must be connected directly to the gateway. I ran a test with a tablet via WiFi directly on the gateway and it worked correctly.
The upshot is that the standard way I have been using home networking for four different ISPs over the last several years does not work with T-Mobile 5G gateways. The gateway is useless to me as it doesn’t even begin to have the functionality I require.
They are sending me a label to return the device and say they will refund my money.
This will probably work for you if you use the internet by connecting directly to your provider device with no kind of intervening router. If you do anything in terms of advanced networking, don’t consider Mint/T-Mobile home internet.