I have fast Internet!!!

[lclev]

For those of you who have read my gripes about no available fast internet where I live which is very rural.... I have finally gotten a fast service! T-Mobile offers 5G home internet. I even got the wonderful little cylindrical router for free! It is $50/month and unlimited. It was super easy to set up. I have never had speeds like this. Can you all tell I am thrilled?
I actually got the router in a round about way. My address did not actually qualify for home internet service from T-Mobile. I had gone to the T-Mobile store to try to get my M2000 hotspot replaced with something else as it died and was four days past it's warrantee. I had called T-Mobile tech support and the six people I talked to said it was no longer covered. So, I went into the store to see what options they had. They told me to just use a different address to qualify. So I gave them my son's address and it qualified. They gave me the router and now all is sunshine and my house! Eventually as T-Mobile continues to expand in my area the speeds will get faster. The speed I have now is with just 2 bars of service showing.

One other thing - I called Inseego who made the M2000 hotspt. I told the guy the whole story and he said there is a 14 day grace period on the hotspot which T-Mobile knows. Anyway Inseego is replacing it. Not sure what I will do with it. Keep it for emergencies probably.

Lisa

 

[Slydude]

Congrats. IIRC that's quite a bit of a bump in speed.

 

[chscag]

Congrats Lisa! Welcome to the 21st Century, LOL.

I'm still stuck with Frontier FIOS which is fast but the prices keep going up. AT&T is expanding along with Charter but prices including home TV cable can get real high.

Have fun.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

That's terrific Lisa! The disparity of Internet access is amazing across this country. A lot of countries in Europe have made access to high speed Internet a basic necessity, but that would never fly in the US.

 

[lclev]

I can actually download updates and stream now!!

The disparity of Internet access is amazing across this country. A lot of countries in Europe have made access to high speed Internet a basic necessity, but that would never fly in the US.

No, I doubt the US will make internet a basic necessity. Even with COVID causing school's going online and people needing to work from home, our government only played lip service and supposedly threw some money at the issue. I know of many who had to hotspot their phone to do their online school work. I also had a friend who had to go to her parent's house to use their internet because her job went to work from home and she could not get fast internet where she lived. Plus there are those who just can afford it.

Lisa

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Agreed on on all points. I'm lucky enough to have Verizon Fios in my area and have the 1 Gig connection. With both my wife and I working from home for the last 2 years and constantly being on video meetings and other things, we definitely make good use of the bandwidth.

For one of those years, my daughter was also remote, so three of us constantly video streaming all day took would've been a disaster without the bandwidth.

 

[lclev]

Well I have shared my woes over internet availability in my area many times. We also have limited cell phone service in some areas - and I find that to be a necessity. Our landline services have steadily deteriorated because so many have given up their landlines and gone to cellphones. This has hurt those who still need the service. Landline meant phone and internet for those in really rural areas but the companies do not do much in the way of maintenance because it is not as profitable as it once was. I can see the phone lines in my area tangled up and broken in trees and laying on the ground with nothing done. I realize we are in a technology transitioning period for us in the rural areas but it is slow.


Lisa

 

[Groovetube]

Congrats on the new speed! As for Europe, I’ve driven one end of the country to the other throughout quite a few of them, surprising Germany had the worst speeds and wifi availability throughout, and that’s my country as I was born there! I thought they’d have the best but no, Italy won in that regard surprisingly! But that was 2012 so maybe it’s gotten better.
The US I can say, is pretty dismal in many centers, many areas with pretty much nothing. Same here in canada if you drive coast to coast, there’s a lotta hours in the prairies with nuthin.

lt’s funny how just a couple decades ago, that wouldn’t have mattered in the slightest.

 

[lclev]

lt’s funny how just a couple decades ago, that wouldn’t have mattered in the slightest.

Yes, I remember when cell service was so spotty as to be unusable. My first cell phone was a bag phone. My first modem had an acoustic handset coupler and a speed of supposedly 300 bps! Those were the days.

Lisa

 

[pigoo3]

For those of you who have read my gripes about no available fast internet where I live which is very rural.... I have finally gotten a fast service! T-Mobile offers 5G home internet. I even got the wonderful little cylindrical router for free! It is $50/month and unlimited. It was super easy to set up. I have never had speeds like this. Can you all tell I am thrilled?

Big big congrats Lisa! Been hoping you'd finally get fast internet at some point. Been a long time coming. Also really excellent there is no monthly data cap!

Whoo Hoo!

Nick

 

[lclev]

Big big congrats Lisa! Been hoping you'd finally get fast internet at some point. Been a long time coming. Also really excellent there is no monthly data cap!

Whoo Hoo!

Nick

Thanks Nick. I keep looking at the router and telling it how much I appreciate it. I have found tech responds to appreciation!

Lisa