T-Mobile 5G home internet officially launches in the US with 30 million households eligible

Tmobile Modem Rural
Tmobile Modem Rural (Image credit: Chris Wedel/Android Central)

What you need to know

  • T-Mobile Home Internet launches today with 30 million covered households.
  • Unlimited data costs $60 per month with no equipment fees.
  • Nearly 10 million covered households in rural America.
  • T-Mobile has the largest rural 5G network. Five times larger than Verizon and double of AT&T's coverage.
  • T-Mobile Hometown is bringing better access and support for T-Mobile services to rural America.

T-Mobile just became one of the largest ISPs (internet service providers) in the country with the official launch of its 5G-based home internet solution. In its Next Un-carrier Move announcement T-Mobile officially launched its home internet service after a year of testing. The service has been launched with 30 million eligible households giving many Americans a new choice for home internet. 40 percent of Americans only have one ISP option making T-Mobile a compelling option for many underserved communities.

The service costs $60 per month with autopay and unlike most cable ISPs, its router is shipped to customers for free with no monthly rental or fee. T-Mobile's new router supports 4G and 5G connections with Wi-Fi 6. You can still connect one of the best Wi-Fi 6 routers to your T-Mobile router if you wish. Even with the older router, our T-Mobile Home Internet review found the service to be an excellent option. T-Mobile expects average speeds in excess of 100Mbps.

T-Mobile is focused on the rural market for much of its early launch with nearly 10 million of its covered households in rural America. Many rural communities have been skipped over by other ISPs making it a great place for T-Mobile to make a name for its service. This is backed up by T-Mobile's relatively enormous rural 5G footprint with five times the coverage of Verizon 5G and double AT&T's coverage in rural areas.

Finally, T-Mobile is working to solidify its place in small towns across the country with T-Mobile Hometown. Not only does this include T-Mobile's commitment to bring 5G to rural America but it's also hiring 7,500 new employees in small towns over the next few years. This will break down into 5,000 jobs in retail stores plus 2,500 Hometown Experts. Hometown Experts will train and assign experts to support people in specific towns meaning customers will have a more direct point of contact if something isn't working as expected. The first 1,000 job listings are already live.

Finally, T-Mobile is offering Hometown Grants. This is $25 million over the next five years dedicated to funding new or continue stalled community development projects in rural areas. T-Mobile expects to launch 100 grants per year.

Samuel Contreras

When Samuel is not writing about networking or 5G at Android Central, he spends most of his time researching computer components and obsessing over what CPU goes into the ultimate Windows 98 computer. It's the Pentium 3.