New Home Internet Provider Coming to The Villages

[daniel200]

TMobile is rolling out 5G home internet service to more cities. The Villages is included in their list. No contract, no hardware charges, $60 per month, 100Mbps speeds and no data cap

The article doesn’t say how soon. I understand the limiting factor is the availability of the Nokia modems required to receive the signal


T‑Mobile Expands Home Internet to More Than 450 Cities & Towns Left High‑and‑Dry by AT&T | T‑Mobile Newsroom (https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/t-mobile-expands-home-internet-to-more-than-450-cities-towns-left-high-and-dry-by-att)

[Carla B]

Oh, I hope that is true for my area! Choice right now is Comcast or very slow DSL from CenturyLink. Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

[Tmarkwald]

[URL Attempt (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/)] User received an error - No action required!

TMobile is rolling out 5G home internet service to more cities. The Villages is included in their list. No contract, no hardware charges, $60 per month, 100Mbps speeds and no data cap

The article doesn’t say how soon. I understand the limiting factor is the availability of the Nokia modems required to receive the signal


T‑Mobile Expands Home Internet to More Than 450 Cities & Towns Left High‑and‑Dry by AT&T | T‑Mobile Newsroom (https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/t-mobile-expands-home-internet-to-more-than-450-cities-towns-left-high-and-dry-by-att)


I got it over a month ago when it first came out and mine is $50 / month because I was an early subscriber..

I'm using it right now in Belvedere - it works GREAT! No complaints at all!

[Tmarkwald]

Oh, I hope that is true for my area! Choice right now is Comcast or very slow DSL from CenturyLink. Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

I have both T-Mobile home and CenturyLink. It beats CenturyLink to bits here...

[Road-Runner]

Good news, more competition is definitely a good thing!

[Bill14564]

Still shows unavailable near Brownwood.

[Mrprez]

Says it is available here south of 44 in DeSoto. Stuck on Comcast until September.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Oh, I hope that is true for my area! Choice right now is Comcast or very slow DSL from CenturyLink. Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

You can get 100mbps with Comcast for just $40/month, as long as you do auto-pay and paperless billing, and own the modem yourself instead of renting it. If you don't want them having access to your checking account, it's $50/month.

Just call them and tell them your plan was up for renewal, it automatically renewed at the higher rate. And that you feel you have two options:

You can cancel their service completely - and then call them to sign up as a new customer on the promotional rate...

or

They can just give you the promotional rate.


They'll give you the promotional rate.

You just have to jump through a couple of hoops every year, but the savings is worth the hour-long drudgery of being put on hold and transferred to half a dozen people.

[DIver0258]

You can get 100mbps with Comcast for just $40/month, as long as you do auto-pay and paperless billing, and own the modem yourself instead of renting it. If you don't want them having access to your checking account, it's $50/month.

Just call them and tell them your plan was up for renewal, it automatically renewed at the higher rate. And that you feel you have two options:

You can cancel their service completely - and then call them to sign up as a new customer on the promotional rate...

or

They can just give you the promotional rate.


They'll give you the promotional rate.

You just have to jump through a couple of hoops every year, but the savings is worth the hour-long drudgery of being put on hold and transferred to half a dozen people.

A few months ago we let Comcast go and went with Spectrum. I got tired of hour long phone calls. Their app is even worse! When we canceled I was on hold for over 40 minutes then had to be transferred to another agent that kept trying to get me to stay with Comcast. Their agents are just too much. We left our looked at T Mobile as we use them for our phone carrier.

[Bay Kid]

Funny how all these companies give the best deals to new customers. Faithful customers have to stay on the phone and beg for a decent price.

[Viperguy]

Oh, I hope that is true for my area! Choice right now is Comcast or very slow DSL from CenturyLink. Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

I just ditched the tv and went internet only as well. Around $75 also. I truly expect their pricing to continue up as more and more people leave their programming. 150 channels that nobody watches plus a landline that I didn't use. I also expect that their data caps will decrease or premium pricing will increase. Right now 1.2 TB is the cap but I will bet that will start coming down. They are criminal. I will say that the internet is fantastic...speedy and reliable.

[merrymini]

They always give the best deals to incoming newbies. Makes you wonder why you stay with a company that does that. Therefore, loyalty to them is meaningless. They have so many clients that it does not matter. Go with changing service as long as it is beneficial to yourself economically. By the way, 100 mbps is not much when you start adding up all the devices that use the internet. I would do some device “addition” before changing.

[Viperguy]

Funny how all these companies give the best deals to new customers. Faithful customers have to stay on the phone and beg for a decent price.

Choice and competition is the only answer. These mega companies like Comcast and Time warner control everything including their programming. Try getting OAN or Newsmax on Comcast.

[Bridget Staunton]

That is brilliant!!! hope we can get it in Lake Deaton. Anyone know what areas are covered

[tuccillo]

100 megabits per second is more than the majority of people can take advantage of. One possible exception is if you work from home and routinely move large files (10s to 100s of gigabytes) around. Otherwise, Hi-Def 1080p streaming consumes 3-5 megabits per second. Hi-Def 2160p streaming consumes about 15-20 megabits per second. e-mail and web surfing type activities consume bandwidth in a non continuous manner.

They always give the best deals to incoming newbies. Makes you wonder why you stay with a company that does that. Therefore, loyalty to them is meaningless. They have so many clients that it does not matter. Go with changing service as long as it is beneficial to yourself economically. By the way, 100 mbps is not much when you start adding up all the devices that use the internet. I would do some device “addition” before changing.

[tuccillo]

I am not sure who you are using for internet now but CenturyLink is available in your area via fiber optic cable to the house. You can get 100 megabits per second for $49 per month with CenturyLink's one-price-for-life offering (your costs will not change unless you change the service level). Given that a proven technology is available for less cost I am not sure I see the advantage of being an early adopter of 5G internet service. If you don't have any other options then I can see the point.

That is brilliant!!! hope we can get it in Lake Deaton. Anyone know what areas are covered

[Captainpd]

Oh, I hope that is true for my area! Choice right now is Comcast or very slow DSL from CenturyLink. Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

Perhaps you should shop better. I use Comcast at $40 a month.

[SHNOK]

Choice and competition is the only answer. These mega companies like Comcast and Time warner control everything including their programming. Try getting OAN or Newsmax on Comcast.

Newsmax is on Comcast - channel 1115

[Tmarkwald]

Choice and competition is the only answer. These mega companies like Comcast and Time warner control everything including their programming. Try getting OAN or Newsmax on Comcast.

I get them on attNow

[MollyJo]

When enough regular customers leave, maybe they will change how they do business.

[dpmers]

If you are lucky enough to have CenturyLink fiber in your neighborhood they offer 1G (1000M/B) for $65 month all tax included. Typical speed runs 700 to 800 download and 800 to 900 upload. We've had this service for more than 3 years, not one problem, the price is for Life.
We use YouTube TV, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

[Carla B]

I called T-Mobile and they confirmed that the cost is $60.00 per month, 100 mbs. speed, no contract, and there is no charge for their "modem" which is a "gateway" device with both modem/router.

It's the combo device that concerns me. We have been streaming since early 2015. Started out with the Comcast Arris Gateway but the signal from it wouldn't reliably reach the LR, where the main TV is. A computer tech suggested we upgrade to a more powerful router. So did that but then the Comcast Gateway and our new Asus router had a conflict (NAT?) which regularly led to kicking one computer or another off the network. So we got rid of the Comcast gateway device and bought a Motorola (modem only) on line. Everything has worked perfectly since then.

So I'm concerned about T-Mobile's gateway combo modem/router causing conflicts with the router. Anyone have any experience or ideas about that?

[Tmarkwald]

I am not sure who you are using for internet now but CenturyLink is available in your area via fiber optic cable to the house. You can get 100 megabits per second for $49 per month with CenturyLink's one-price-for-life offering (your costs will not change unless you change the service level). Given that a proven technology is available for less cost I am not sure I see the advantage of being an early adopter of 5G internet service. If you don't have any other options then I can see the point.

I have Century Link in addition to the T-Mobile service. There is no fiber optic to most of the homes in TV. In Belvedere, where I am, the Fiber only goes to the swimming pool, then goes to the homes via POTS copper, two bonded pairs.

T-Mobile beats it pretty good and the CenturyLink modem I have to reset daily as my service goes from about 85 down to about 20. It is nerve-wracking. When it was installed I got about 140, but the installer said they'll never let me keep that. Sure enough, within a day I was down to about 85, which is all they 'guarantee; with the 100G service.

[jjombrello]

We have xfinity (Comcasst) and get Newsmax and OAN with no problem. We watch Newsmax probably more than any other program. I have trouble keeping Hulu up and running. Programs on it stop, go dark, and return to the home page. Pain in the keester to constantly be restarting with it repeating sometimes in a matter of seconds.

[tuccillo]

CenturyLink would not be my first choice in an older area where they do not support fiber to the house. For the post I was responding to, the person does have fiber to the house. My service through CenturyLink is very reliable and they deliver the nominal download and upload bandwidth consistently. With the fiber to the house service, the "modem" is actually the ONT box on the outside of the house. You can use your own router or the CenturyLink router inside the house. In the last 7 years, I only remember a handful of interruptions and none were over a few hours. With 80 megabits per second, I have much more bandwidth than I can take advantage of. 80 megabits per second was the sweet spot in their one-price-for life offering (for us it is $45 per month including all taxes and fees).

I have Century Link in addition to the T-Mobile service. There is no fiber optic to most of the homes in TV. In Belvedere, where I am, the Fiber only goes to the swimming pool, then goes to the homes via POTS copper, two bonded pairs.

T-Mobile beats it pretty good and the CenturyLink modem I have to reset daily as my service goes from about 85 down to about 20. It is nerve-wracking. When it was installed I got about 140, but the installer said they'll never let me keep that. Sure enough, within a day I was down to about 85, which is all they 'guarantee; with the 100G service.

[JGVillages]

You can get 100mbps with Comcast for just $40/month, as long as you do auto-pay and paperless billing, and own the modem yourself instead of renting it. If you don't want them having access to your checking account, it's $50/month.



Just call them and tell them your plan was up for renewal, it automatically renewed at the higher rate. And that you feel you have two options:

You can cancel their service completely - and then call them to sign up as a new customer on the promotional rate...

or

They can just give you the promotional rate.


They'll give you the promotional rate.

You just have to jump through a couple of hoops every year, but the savings is worth the hour-long drudgery of being put on hold and transferred to half a dozen people.

Agree with above. One Comcast rep told me to always call in the 28th to the last day of the month. Don’t know why but it’s worked for years.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Funny how all these companies give the best deals to new customers. Faithful customers have to stay on the phone and beg for a decent price.

Nothing funny about it. It's called a promotion. It's not new, it's not unique to phone companies or internet services. Heck if you've ever signed up for ANY rewards card, ever, you know this. "Sign up for our card and get a FREE loaf of bread!" or sandwich, or your choice of hot coffees, or a pair of underwear, or a $5 coupon off your next visit, etc. etc. etc.

This is how they get you in the door.

If you want to keep a promotion that you KNOW is going to be cancelled at the end of the promotional period, then it's up to YOU to do the work to get it.

That's capitalism at its best.

[Stu from NYC]

When enough regular customers leave, maybe they will change how they do business.

Apparently a lot of customers are plain old sheep who will pay the increased price without batting an eyelash.

As a result they are ok with ripping off their existing customers.

[Pairadocs]

Oh, I hope that is true for my area! Choice right now is Comcast or very slow DSL from CenturyLink. Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

$75 ? Been a customer for 18 years, decided to stream only and called Comcast to order internet service only..... the price I got was $94 a MONTH with all the tax and "fees" they add. If we KEEP our service which includes TV and, it's barely $30 more/ so just kept what we've had for years ! Certainly NEED some real competition aorund here for SURE ! !

[Carla B]

When they billed the new rate and I called about it, a day or so later, a Comcast guy rang the doorbell and said he was going to check outside to see if our equipment was working okay. I never saw him outside at all, he just sat in his Comcast truck for a few minutes. I wonder what he was checking.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

Companies with two different revenue streams, (cable video and internet) with revenue and profitability growth goals, are being forced to change their pricing structure to increased internet due to increase in streaming use and the reduction of cable use. Yes, capitalistic innovation is great, roku was created to compete with cable through internet,
but roku and similar aggregators don't care about the cost of the internet access, not their product offering. So with growing internet demand from all device types, and the increase bandwidth/speed requirements, requiring upgrading equipment in the distribution network from the internet access point to the house, prices to recover the cost have to go up in free enterprise.

No different than health care providers with government pricing and commercial/private pricing, where changes in one can effect the pricing of the other, to maintain the provider profitability or cashflow. . .

finance/marketing/analyst guy

[SKIMAN]

here's my 2 cents .having been in the field for 41 years placing what ever the product was at the time unless t moble is placing the fiber them selves ,digging up all the yards and placing new inner duct ,pulling in new fiber,new nodies. there getting it wholesale from , century link,comcast or who ever is all ready in your area and using there system.don't be hoodwinked by there bs....

[bobeaston]

here's my 2 cents .having been in the field for 41 years placing what ever the product was at the time unless t moble is placing the fiber them selves ,digging up all the yards and placing new inner duct ,pulling in new fiber,new nodies. there getting it wholesale from , century link,comcast or who ever is all ready in your area and using there system.don't be hoodwinked by there bs....

Technically, that's not what is happening. T-Mobile is NOT selling wired/fiber/cable service for their home internet offering. They are selling internet via cellular service, and are delivering it on brand new infrastructure that they are building themselves.

This is a significant change in internet service delivery. Until now, high speed delivery of internet service over cellular connections was often constrained by the bandwidth capacity of the early cellular networks. The introduction of 5G technology vastly increases both speed and bandwidth capacity of cellular networks. T-Mobile is betting they can switch from cable systems to over-the-air (wireless/radio/cellular) systems and continue to grow their business with new offerings.

And, fortunately, there is much more competition among the "phone" companies than between the cable companies (I won't go into a long rant about how governments have created protected monopolies for cable systems.) The increased competition means that the cellular phone companies are seeing the light of what their customers want and are starting to come around with things like "contract free" and more competitive pricing. (The T-Mobile Home Internet offering has both of those features.) I'll be delighted when I no longer have to do the yearly beg-for-a-discount" ritual from my cable/internet company.

[Tmarkwald]

here's my 2 cents .having been in the field for 41 years placing what ever the product was at the time unless t moble is placing the fiber them selves ,digging up all the yards and placing new inner duct ,pulling in new fiber,new nodies. there getting it wholesale from , century link,comcast or who ever is all ready in your area and using there system.don't be hoodwinked by there bs....

I'm trying to figure out what you are alluding to. T-Mobile is not fiber, to begin with.

And I am a real-world user of the T-Mobile home 4G internet alongside the CenturyLink product in the Villages of Belvedere right here in TV.

And my comparison is - there is no comparison. T-Mobile home just works better. Streaming is faster and more reliable than CenturyLink.

Of course, if it gets market saturation, as it may, the experience may change.

And the T-Mobile device uses an entirely different technology than a 5G hotspot.

End of story.

[Tim C.]

we have t-mobile for phone and frankly it's too weak and spotty within TV so we are hesitant to stay with them for Internet service. so I hear a lot of opinions back and forth on home internet - Comcast, Centurylink, T-mobile....because its time for us to decide. sigh sigh sigh.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Oh, I hope that is true for my area! Choice right now is Comcast or very slow DSL from CenturyLink. Comcast works great but their pricing can be brutal for internet only. It just went from $59.99 to $75.95.

They didn't raise the price. You simply allowed your year (or 2-year) agreement to expire, and now they're charging you the normal price. You were paying a discount.

Give them a call, be willing to sit on hold for awhile and get frustrated pushing buttons on your phone to get a live person (1-800-xfinity).

Tell them you know the plan is $50/month for new customers, and YOU are giving THEM two options:

They can cancel your service, at which point you're now a new customer and will sign up again with the $50 price.

or they can just renew your recently-expired agreement.

The extra you're paying is probably your modem rental. I own my modem, so I don't pay that extra $9/month.

[vinricci]

I was paying $49 a month for WiFi only with xfinity. Price jumped to $66. When I called I got the same response that my promotion was over. I replied that I would look for another provider and was out on hold. When agent came back on she said how about $35 a month? I asked if my speed would be the same and she said yes. So $49 to $66 to $35. Go figure.

[PoolBrews]

I called T-Mobile and they confirmed that the cost is $60.00 per month, 100 mbs. speed, no contract, and there is no charge for their "modem" which is a "gateway" device with both modem/router.

It's the combo device that concerns me. We have been streaming since early 2015. Started out with the Comcast Arris Gateway but the signal from it wouldn't reliably reach the LR, where the main TV is. A computer tech suggested we upgrade to a more powerful router. So did that but then the Comcast Gateway and our new Asus router had a conflict (NAT?) which regularly led to kicking one computer or another off the network. So we got rid of the Comcast gateway device and bought a Motorola (modem only) on line. Everything has worked perfectly since then.

So I'm concerned about T-Mobile's gateway combo modem/router causing conflicts with the router. Anyone have any experience or ideas about that?

A combo device should not be an issue. I do agree, in most cases the wireless system they provide is not the best - it's just adequate. Simply get a good router (the Orbi mesh system is phenomenal), and turn off wireless on the provided combo unit. Only use that system as the modem.

If you leave both systems on, they can conflict with one another causing a lower signal for both systems. Most new routers have a scan feature to look for other wireless bands in the area and then select the least used one (this includes looking at what the neighbors are using). There are also numerous free phone apps to see what channels are in use for both 2.4 and 5Ghz bands. Find a free channel, and set the router to that.

[Carla B]

We went in person to the Leesburg office and complained about the internet service going from $59.99 to $75.95. After a few minutes of "studying" our account they came up with a "discount" that brought the bill to $60.00 even. So we're paying one cent more per month than last year.

[PoolBrews]

They didn't raise the price. You simply allowed your year (or 2-year) agreement to expire, and now they're charging you the normal price. You were paying a discount.

Give them a call, be willing to sit on hold for awhile and get frustrated pushing buttons on your phone to get a live person (1-800-xfinity).

Tell them you know the plan is $50/month for new customers, and YOU are giving THEM two options:

They can cancel your service, at which point you're now a new customer and will sign up again with the $50 price.

or they can just renew your recently-expired agreement.

The extra you're paying is probably your modem rental. I own my modem, so I don't pay that extra $9/month.

Just an FYI... they don't consider you a "new" customer until you have been disconnected for a specific period of time. It's either 90 days, or 6 months - I can't recall. It's to prevent exactly the scenario described above. Most folks don't want to disconnect for any extended period of time.

My 2 year period recently expired. I called them just prior to it expiring. My bill was going to go from $130/month to $175/month. I had 200Mbps internet and the 220 channel package. The best they could offer was $155/month, even when I threatened to cancel. Their cost to drop to just internet 200Mbps was $75/month (which doesn't include the modem or taxes).

I cancelled and got CenturyLink Fiber (now called Quantum Fiber) 1Gbps (yes, that is 1,000Mbps!) for $65/month. No taxes, guaranteed for life price as long as I stay with them. It includes the modem. For those that say 100Mbps is enough, it is, if you are only streaming on one device. The issue comes up when streaming HD or 4K content on multiple devices. The issue becomes one of bandwidth, not top speed.

After getting Quantum installed, I called to cancel, and of course they said they now had a better offer for me. Too late, I'm gone and done playing their games.

If you are a T-Mobile cell customer, you can get YouTube TV for $55/month for as long as you are with T-Mobile. That's a $10/month discount! You can also get Philo for only $10/month. Philo offers several channels we watch that are not on YouTube TV - The GameShow network, Hallmark channels, and several DIY channels.

[BlueStarAirlines]

If you are lucky enough to have CenturyLink fiber in your neighborhood they offer 1G (1000M/B) for $65 month all tax included. Typical speed runs 700 to 800 download and 800 to 900 upload.

What neighborhood are you in? Coming from an area that has Verizon Fios, I think anything that isn't in the area of gigabit speeds is archaic.