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I thought about switching to one of those mobile internet providers, but it wasn’t available in my area, which I don’t quite understand. My providers network is

I thought about switching to one of those mobile internet providers, but it wasn’t available in my area, which I don’t quite understand. My providers network is certainly available, as I use it on my phone daily. Maybe it’s using some different band?

cagey 5y ago
I suspect availability of 5G or LTE "home internet" service is gated by not only signal strength but also by the vendor's assessment of their (tower, backhaul?) capacity in the locale.
- mdasen 5y ago
  It's definitely not just about coverage, but also about how much capacity they have in an area. They don't want to overload the network given that home internet users will use a lot more data than mobile users. Likewise, they don't want to sign up people for them to have a bad experience, cancel service, and spread bad word of mouth. T-Mobile has been managing how many people they sign up in an area. Sometimes T-Mobile's home internet is available in your area, but then they get a certain number of signups and it becomes unavailable in your area until they're able to increase capacity or customers cancel. It's possible that it was available in their area and others signed up for it. AT&T is only offering service in very limited areas and it seems like they're mostly trying to replace their DSL connections that they don't want to upgrade to fiber. Verizon's service is currently pretty small scale, but they're looking to grow it. Again, it will be limited areas because no one wants to overwhelm the network. Even if you have good phone service, there's a big difference between someone using 10GB on mobile and someone using 500GB as a home user. Signing up 10 home users could be like adding 500 new phone users in a small area. That can be a lot of traffic and they don't want to start seeing their mobile users cancel service because home users are clogging up the network. So they want to roll it out a bit slowly, especially as they increase capacity over the next few years with midband 5G.
clvx 5y ago
My location “didn’t have coverage” as I live at the edge of my town followed by Murdoch’s ranch next to me. I talked to the rep to the point of just let me try it as there’s nothing to lose. They already provide full refund on the product for the first 30 days. At the beginning the signal and speeds were shit(using trashcan). I installed a couple of MIMO antennas. Now, I have 30Mbs up/down consistently. I believe 5G is gonna be a game changer for rural areas. It’s just easy: plug it, turn it on, use it. No technicians, no wiring (if you don’t use antennas), no fixed place in your house. Also check cellmapper to check for near by antennas and bands. More info in r/tmobileisp

cagey 5y ago

I suspect availability of 5G or LTE "home internet" service is gated by not only signal strength but also by the vendor's assessment of their (tower, backhaul?) capacity in the locale.

mdasen 5y ago
It's definitely not just about coverage, but also about how much capacity they have in an area. They don't want to overload the network given that home internet users will use a lot more data than mobile users. Likewise, they don't want to sign up people for them to have a bad experience, cancel service, and spread bad word of mouth. T-Mobile has been managing how many people they sign up in an area. Sometimes T-Mobile's home internet is available in your area, but then they get a certain number of signups and it becomes unavailable in your area until they're able to increase capacity or customers cancel. It's possible that it was available in their area and others signed up for it. AT&T is only offering service in very limited areas and it seems like they're mostly trying to replace their DSL connections that they don't want to upgrade to fiber. Verizon's service is currently pretty small scale, but they're looking to grow it. Again, it will be limited areas because no one wants to overwhelm the network. Even if you have good phone service, there's a big difference between someone using 10GB on mobile and someone using 500GB as a home user. Signing up 10 home users could be like adding 500 new phone users in a small area. That can be a lot of traffic and they don't want to start seeing their mobile users cancel service because home users are clogging up the network. So they want to roll it out a bit slowly, especially as they increase capacity over the next few years with midband 5G.

clvx 5y ago

My location “didn’t have coverage” as I live at the edge of my town followed by Murdoch’s ranch next to me. I talked to the rep to the point of just let me try it as there’s nothing to lose. They already provide full refund on the product for the first 30 days. At the beginning the signal and speeds were shit(using trashcan). I installed a couple of MIMO antennas. Now, I have 30Mbs up/down consistently. I believe 5G is gonna be a game changer for rural areas. It’s just easy: plug it, turn it on, use it. No technicians, no wiring (if you don’t use antennas), no fixed place in your house. Also check cellmapper to check for near by antennas and bands. More info in r/tmobileisp