T-Mobile is making its 5G home internet service a reality today. The company made the announcement on a live stream today, teased as its next Uncarrier move, and it says 30 million homes are now eligible for the service 10 million of which are in rural areas.
The service costs $60 per month, or $65 without autopay, which is $10 more per month than when the pilot program was introduced. The service comes with no data caps, hardware rental fees, or annual contracts, and customers self-install their own equipment. T-Mobile says most customers will experience speeds of 100Mbps, and all eligible customers should see average speeds of 50Mbps. Depending on coverage in your area, it will either use a 4G or 5G signal, whichever is faster.
T-Mobile says 10 million are located in rural communities. “We’re going to make sure small-town American isn’t left behind anymore,” Sievert said during the presentation. You can check if T-Mobile Home Internet is available in your location by visiting the carrier’s website. One thing to note is that the company says initial availability will be limited by its inventory of WiFi gateways and there’s a global shortage of those at the moment.
As part of today’s event, the carrier also announced a project called T-Mobile Hometown. Over the next two years, it plans to build new retail locations in rural communities across the United States. T-Mobile estimates its new stores will create 5,000 jobs. In places where it isn’t feasible to build new retail locations, the company plans to hire 2,500 “Hometown Experts.” These employees will have many of the same responsibilities as its regular retail workers, but they won’t operate out of a traditional store. “Think of [them] as a one-person store,” T-Mobile says of the new position.
