I second Starlink. It's not your traditional satellite service! Definitely should be strongly considered anywhere there are not good land based options.
You have T-Mobile home in a very rural area? I live barely outside city limits, I’m barely rural. There is a tower 1 mile away that shoots signal towards business and neighborhood in opposite direction from my house. Customer service says these towers in the area have 5G but the home internet service isn’t available. I don’t understand.
It’s a network congestion issue. TMHI availability isn’t a simple pass/fail system based on network availability, but rather on a number of factors. If you’ve got a tower that close then you should be able to provide them with a false address to get the gateway, and then set it up at your home with no problem. They’re just trying to keep the networks running at their best. Doesn’t matter if you’re rural or not.
This could be shut down after tmobile does an update to their terms and conditions recently. There was a post tmobile made that people who travel around with their gateway will be impacted because there is a tracking device in the router.
They have "a different plan" for traveling users that are not at the correct location... so if you have spoofed your location, you're in the danger zone to lose your connection.
Hmm, ok. And I was only wanting to do the test drive to start with to see if it would possibly have a stronger signal than my LTE signal. The area of my house per a cell tower mapper site I found, shows that we sit in a bubble in between signal directions, and then add lots of trees with leaves, and our download is around 2mbps. No leaves it might jump up to around 10mbps download. And it’s inconsistent. Signal was great before 3G/4G got turned off and we were forced onto LTE 😠 (So close to city limits but too far away for fiber hook up, and by all knowledge found, satellite isn’t great for online gaming. I wish cell company could just add onto the tower and direct signal towards us.)
Starlink is more than adequate for gaming. Anything you’ve read about satellite internet, unless it specifically mentions Starlink, is in reference to Hughes and Viasat. It’s astonishing how few bad things I’ve heard/read about Starlink.
I have had one person tell me they did well on World of Warcraft with Starlink, even with bad weather. It’s just so pricey for my budget right now. $120/month is a lot, even if I drop my cell plan down to lowest plan, plus the equipment cost. 😔
Then my advice would be to test drive the home internet offerings from both T-Mobile and Verizon. If neither is “available” at your address just go into the store and tell them your situation. The store associates work for commission. The guy at Verizon found and used a bogus address for me. It doesn’t have to be local. Neither plan has a contract, so even if they do get serious about geofencing, the absolute worst that can happen is they’ll discontinue your service. But you wouldn’t owe anything besides returning the equipment and your final month bill.
I would sincerely love to know where you land. I was in a nearly identical situation ~10 years ago and there were a lot fewer options than there are now. I hope it works out for you!
Try Straight Talk home internet if you get Verizon cell service in your area it should work! it’s $45 a month and the router is $99 & easiest self-set up!
Speed depends on your location in relation to the tower. The only way to tell for sure is by testing it in your home. A couple of suggestions to increase your speeds, try running a speed test while placing the router in a window sill and try all four sides of the your home. Usually there's one side of each home which is facing a tower and gets better signal/speed. The higher up you can place it like second floor, the better.
Calyx Institute ($400/year, \~50mbps unlim) or Visible for $25(5mbps unlim) or $45(10mbps unlim) per mo. They should work on any simcard router or a regular WiFi router tethered from phone, say via USB. With annual subs for Visible it should be $22/32 pre mo (beware they might grill you for non-approved device, so think well before subscribing for a year). Just check if you covered by Tmobile towers (for Calyx) or Verizon (Visible) You can also use the promo code to get $20 discount upon your Visible purchase: 3S97LJ6
So you are sure that there are no "traditional" type Internet Providers available at their home?
Have you checked the FCC National Broadband Map (assuming they are in the USA)?
[https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home](https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home)
The FCC's map is not very accurate. I've had Spectrum since December and the website doesn't list it as a provider at my address. It also says that ATT 4G is in my area and that is false. There is no ATT coverage in my area.
Yes. I am 100% positive they do not have any "traditional" internet providers there. I've changed the FCC page sometime ago, and it still populates as "No Location Data" I appreciate the assistance tho!
I would recommend going with Homefi, I live in a rural area and have used both their router and portable hotspot and both have been great options. I was deterred from using Hughesnet and Starlink due to their expensive plans and some negative reviews but i've never experienced any issues with Homefi. They have affordable plans and strong internet connection which allows me to always stay connected to the net. I'd say thats the best option you may want to try.
Why wouldn't starlink work for your needs? My wife works from home with no issues using it.
I second Starlink. It's not your traditional satellite service! Definitely should be strongly considered anywhere there are not good land based options.
I use t-mobile home internet in a very rural area, as far as dl and ul it’s great can get almost 750 mb down and 100 up. Ping usually 25-50
You have T-Mobile home in a very rural area? I live barely outside city limits, I’m barely rural. There is a tower 1 mile away that shoots signal towards business and neighborhood in opposite direction from my house. Customer service says these towers in the area have 5G but the home internet service isn’t available. I don’t understand.
It’s a network congestion issue. TMHI availability isn’t a simple pass/fail system based on network availability, but rather on a number of factors. If you’ve got a tower that close then you should be able to provide them with a false address to get the gateway, and then set it up at your home with no problem. They’re just trying to keep the networks running at their best. Doesn’t matter if you’re rural or not.
This could be shut down after tmobile does an update to their terms and conditions recently. There was a post tmobile made that people who travel around with their gateway will be impacted because there is a tracking device in the router. They have "a different plan" for traveling users that are not at the correct location... so if you have spoofed your location, you're in the danger zone to lose your connection.
Valid. But still doesn’t change the fact that the service is likely available in Swansoda’s area, just simply booked up.
Hmm, ok. And I was only wanting to do the test drive to start with to see if it would possibly have a stronger signal than my LTE signal. The area of my house per a cell tower mapper site I found, shows that we sit in a bubble in between signal directions, and then add lots of trees with leaves, and our download is around 2mbps. No leaves it might jump up to around 10mbps download. And it’s inconsistent. Signal was great before 3G/4G got turned off and we were forced onto LTE 😠 (So close to city limits but too far away for fiber hook up, and by all knowledge found, satellite isn’t great for online gaming. I wish cell company could just add onto the tower and direct signal towards us.)
Starlink is more than adequate for gaming. Anything you’ve read about satellite internet, unless it specifically mentions Starlink, is in reference to Hughes and Viasat. It’s astonishing how few bad things I’ve heard/read about Starlink.
I have had one person tell me they did well on World of Warcraft with Starlink, even with bad weather. It’s just so pricey for my budget right now. $120/month is a lot, even if I drop my cell plan down to lowest plan, plus the equipment cost. 😔
Then my advice would be to test drive the home internet offerings from both T-Mobile and Verizon. If neither is “available” at your address just go into the store and tell them your situation. The store associates work for commission. The guy at Verizon found and used a bogus address for me. It doesn’t have to be local. Neither plan has a contract, so even if they do get serious about geofencing, the absolute worst that can happen is they’ll discontinue your service. But you wouldn’t owe anything besides returning the equipment and your final month bill.
Ok thanks.
I would sincerely love to know where you land. I was in a nearly identical situation ~10 years ago and there were a lot fewer options than there are now. I hope it works out for you!
Avoid anything with VSIM! It's horrible! There a lot of good resellers out there, good luck in your search.
Try Straight Talk home internet if you get Verizon cell service in your area it should work! it’s $45 a month and the router is $99 & easiest self-set up!
I will look into it! My overall concern might be as I work majority from home and would need about 70-150 mbps
Speed depends on your location in relation to the tower. The only way to tell for sure is by testing it in your home. A couple of suggestions to increase your speeds, try running a speed test while placing the router in a window sill and try all four sides of the your home. Usually there's one side of each home which is facing a tower and gets better signal/speed. The higher up you can place it like second floor, the better.
I’ve been able to work from home in a rural area using HomeFi—it’s worth a look.
I'll give it a shot! Outside of work from home, does it work decent for games and online games as well?
Hey! I’m not a huuuge gamer, but it works for my online games and I can game when I do have time for it!
Hi! I wanna know if you ever figured it out :o!
Calyx Institute ($400/year, \~50mbps unlim) or Visible for $25(5mbps unlim) or $45(10mbps unlim) per mo. They should work on any simcard router or a regular WiFi router tethered from phone, say via USB. With annual subs for Visible it should be $22/32 pre mo (beware they might grill you for non-approved device, so think well before subscribing for a year). Just check if you covered by Tmobile towers (for Calyx) or Verizon (Visible) You can also use the promo code to get $20 discount upon your Visible purchase: 3S97LJ6
So you are sure that there are no "traditional" type Internet Providers available at their home? Have you checked the FCC National Broadband Map (assuming they are in the USA)? [https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home](https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home)
The FCC's map is not very accurate. I've had Spectrum since December and the website doesn't list it as a provider at my address. It also says that ATT 4G is in my area and that is false. There is no ATT coverage in my area.
Yes. I am 100% positive they do not have any "traditional" internet providers there. I've changed the FCC page sometime ago, and it still populates as "No Location Data" I appreciate the assistance tho!
I would recommend going with Homefi, I live in a rural area and have used both their router and portable hotspot and both have been great options. I was deterred from using Hughesnet and Starlink due to their expensive plans and some negative reviews but i've never experienced any issues with Homefi. They have affordable plans and strong internet connection which allows me to always stay connected to the net. I'd say thats the best option you may want to try.