​From Starlink to T-Mobile

By Brian Bondy

​Last week, you may recall, had a nationwide Verizon outage. So we went into T-Mobile that day and switched our phones to T-Mobile, and additionally, we signed up for their Wi-Fi hotspot. The transfer of our phones was fairly trouble free, except for a few days with Carol’s phone, because she also ordered a new one. It took 2 days to resolve. We were wanting to switch anyway, because we don’t get a Verizon signal at our house and for us they are expensive.

Our house is line-of-site to the T-Mobile tower. The switch to T-Mobile saved us more than  $50/month, and that is with the additional cost of Carol’s new phone, so it’s quite a savings. Starlink is $120/month and the T-Mobile hotspot is $30/month as part of the bundle.

The next thing was to try it all out. The phones work great, as does the WiFi. I set it up and was shocked when I did a speed test. Starlink, when I first got it, was running about 200mbps. It has since gotten to over 300mbps. Way more than we need, but it was nice. The thing we needed was stability, and it’s been rock solid.

T-Mobile measured at over 600mbps. That was startling. I don’t notice a speed a speed difference, as fast is just FAST, 300 or 600, they are both fast to me. I was just surprised is all, as I didn’t ask about speed and didn’t expect that.

I ran that for about a week, and then switched my mesh system to the T-Mobile router. It’s been working great. The mesh system gives our house more complete coverage of WiFi, spreading it out to our outbuilding offices, the tree house, and the Airstream. If you haven’t already, you should read Rick Roen’s article on setting up a new mesh system at his home.

I don’t even know if our mesh units go up to 600mbps, it doesn’t matter to me, they are fast enough. Our internet has been working great and it’s saving us $90/month over Starlink. I plan on pausing Starlink for a while so I don’t keep paying for it, and to give T-Mobile a longer testing time, but so far, we are very pleased.

Rick Roen's article below talks about swapping out his EERO mesh units for another brand. He's selling them in the classifieds section if you are interested. They work great for us, but they do have some limitations. I have several units outside on our porch where they are protected, but they are not weatherproof.