I live in British Columbia and I had a Telus smart hub with a antenna and it got slower and slower as the years went on then we got starlink and it’s way better
Can you please post the URL for 1) Cellular Towers across the USA 2) The providers (website) for all of those antennas 3) a FOLLOW UP VIDEO. This video is spectacular with regard to how to get Internet those areas around the country where there is very little ISPs! Thank You 🙏!
Was the black thing sitting under the antenna the "innards" of the T-mobile unit? I have that box, and when I started a year ago only had 15-20 down, but in the last few weeks bumped it up and I am now getting 75-85 down. Would love to bump that to much higher numbers.
I love when someone spends real time and energy to get a great result and then shares it with the world. This is awesome! And then putting the sponsors at the END of the video, very nice touch lol. Thank you! Keep up the good work!
Instead of testing in a circle, a better way is to first test four cardinal directions. Note the two directions that give you the best speeds, then test between those. Keep cutting your sectors in half until you don't want to fine tune it anymore.
Good thinking. The only drawback is that you might find a "local" maximum in some direction, where a weaker or distant signal exists, and miss the "global" maximum. See 10:48 and 11:00.
You are an amazing wealth of information! Whether I need your solution or not, I listen because I feel like I’ve just been educated. I appreciate all your research and sharing of information!
So as someone who works in IT, you're assessment is spot on. I too live in a rural area but im only 2 miles from fiber, been that way for years, ATT has no interest in upgrading us so I was over paying for terrible DSL. Finally got my StarLink 6 months ago and I absolutely love it, as someone who is an online gamer and streams heavily it's been a godsend especially since I can tell ATT to bug off. I looked into cellular internet when I was waiting 18 months for my starlink but it wasn't an option where I lived so I am happy it worked for you.
I'm less than a mile from fiber.... and the best service we have is 2mbps dsl lol. Been using nomad internet, no major complaints other than the price.
thats good to know, thank you! My mother has some land we are planning on developing but the only services listed are wifi and starlink and I stream and game and all that stuff a lot (plus work from home too) so I've been worried if satellite can handle it.
This is the first time I've seen someone in a similar situation as me. I have at&t and I only get 1.5 but im 5 minutes away from 10-20mbps. Thats not the best ik but its wayyyyyyyy better than 1.5. I use to have to go to the mall If I wanted to download anything. If I could get 10mbps I'd be happy with that.
Moved to a rural property in 2022 and i gotta say you saved me. I remember thinking it just didnt feel right to get charged hundred of dollars for 1.2 mbps per second or sometimes reaching kilobytes on weekends. Thanks for posting this video and sharing the tips.
This is a fantastic video with thorough explanation of what to try, what you will need and real expectations. I've been dealing with mobile hotspots with antenna hookups for a long time and learned the extremely fine tuning required for great service and you did a great job with instructions. Months of hard work paid off, well done!
It's warming to see and hear of one Americans positive experiences with a mobile provider. Your new home looks so rural and yet you are getting better service than many city folk, even those on fibre. I really hope it continues for you. Yay, from Australia.
I really appreciate that. I have an upcoming video showing all my network stuff and how it connects together coming soon. Thanks for watching
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T-Mobile generally is a pretty good ISP in most countries and has improved. Whereas I got like 5 Mbps over TMO in 2019 I now get close to 1 Gbps over 5G.
@@SilverCymbalyou know the t mobile Nokia router connects using 4glte and 5g right it’s connects to different 2 different signals that’s how you get the best signal Att and Verzion also have home internet but t mobile seems to be best so but also that router has a battery in also you can see what’s your best signal it’s at the top of the display
WOW! This was really a great post with tons of solid information. I have been following you for some time now and have benefited from your other TH-cam posts. Your lawn tips have worked to make our lawn much better than it has ever been. THANK YOU!
Thanks for the information - got my 14-day trial today from t mobile and ordered the antenna. Tested tonight and got okay speeds without the external antenna. Can't wait until Saturday when it arrives. Keep up the awesome work!
Did it work? Because I'm thinking in buying a home in the country. The realtor said that the Internet service is a satellite, but Internet does not work when there's a bad weather. 😮
This was VERY helpful. I currently live in the Boston metro area and would like to move somewhere less expensive and more rural, but I have always been concerned about the possibility of crappy Internet service, especially if I continued to work remotely. This was a great tutorial explaining some of the options that might be available. For roughly $400 for the semi-directional antenna and another $50 per month for the router, what you have sounds like a very reasonable solution. Kudos!
@@JeffreyMoon1974 I highly recommend Blount County, Tennessee. It’s rural, conservative, cost of living is lower than average, its right against the Smoky Mountain National park, and its also close to Knoxville and Chattanooga if you want some city night life. Also there’s no state income tax :)
I have been a T-Mobile customer for a while and then got added to the list of the new internet introduction and I can say it changed our world as I live out in a rural area and couldn't even work from home it was so bad. TMobile has been an awesome carrier for us for several years. Going to look at the antenna 📡.
I have the same problem. I have viasat and their mbps are very low and I have been calling around because I want a work from home job and companies have rejected me because I haven’t been able to figure out the internet that will work in my area. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks
T mobile and Verizon won't give you home Internet if your not in their service area regardless if you use an antenna. If you are caught using the gateway in non service area you will be ban for getting their service. I would try a mobile hot spot and get an antenna for that device sure you have caps but at least you will have Internet on the road. I did take my gateway to the mountains and got two bars but I would not do that all the time. They know which towers you get your service from. 73
Great video! BTW, the analogy I use when explaning high gain antennas, is comparing a regular light bulb to a focused flashlight beam. It's easy to understand, that the flashlight focuses the given light. The same thing happens with high gain antennas. By using a narrow focused beam, the signal is concentrated, resulting in a stronger signal. (works on both transmit & receive).
The first is a Yagi(-Uda) antenna. In a pinch, you can make one for $0 if you have some PVC, an old tape measure, and a coax cable. TH-cam instructions abound. Still, this is a nice encased unit that gives better speed than my cable ISP. Thanks!
Try the antenna test in at lest 2 locations. Foliage is a signal killer. If you are at a shoreline, test at various antenna heights. Reflections off the water or flat ground can interfere with the signal. There can be multiple nulls varying with height, they are easier to observe than peaks, so set the antenna height between nulls. The other thing is signal width. The 'line of sight' signal is not like a rifle bullet, but more like a sausage stretched between the tower and your antenna. It has considerable width. This means being able to see the tower with binoculars looking between the leaves of the trees isn't good enough. You need the signal path to be as clear as possible for at least the first 500 feet from your antenna. What works in winter may degrade in spring when the trees sprout leaves. You may opt for a pole mount antenna with underground feed, a weekend project, so test thoroughly before you commit. Putting the pole at a fence corner means you won't have to mow around it and strapping the pole to an existing post could save some grief if you later need to change something at the top. In worst case, a guyed pole at a 4 way fence corner is a no-brainer if available. Think about deer fences and similar locations. Ideally, find the location and install the fence at the same time as the antenna. Do you need to protect a garden spot from foraging animals?
I’ve watched many videos on rural internet since moving to a mountain property two months ago. This is BY FAR the best one I’ve seen! Thank you for posting and very thorough!
Thanks for this video. I’m currently working from home on the T-mobile 5G home internet, which I was told by T-Mobile is not available in my area. I used a family members address and brought it out to my rural home, and got decent speeds like you did. But working from home is not idea considering I am constantly making phone calls (internet soft phone) and zoom calls. My calls are almost always choppy and delayed. This sounds like the perfect solution to better my work days. Thanks!
After being without cell service, electricity, and internet for 11 days in the mountains of North Carolina… I purchased a Starlink. That shizz ain’t going down unless some country blows it out of orbit. Just purely for emergencies I bought this thing… I hooked it up the other day and I’m impressed. I’m covered with trees and it still does 100 down and 35-50 up.. I literally just threw it out in my yard and it worked. I’m told with roaming enabled I can take it anywhere… I like the idea of being able to take it anywhere with a simple rechargeable power supply. It doesn’t beat my wired connection- nothing wireless ever will … but when those wires are dead you’ll be glad you have a backup. Trust me.. I lived this nightmare. No carrier had service for DAYS!
On most LTE routers, there is a way to look at the DB gain of the signal... So pull up that page, and use that to "see the signal strength" as you aim the antenna... Also, look for more than one tower, and some towers are disguised as trees, or are on top of buildings or other high points... Notice too that Starlink uses a motorized directional antenna to "point at the signal"...
I’m fortunate enough to have multi-gig symmetric fiber where I live so this video wasn’t for me, but it was still really interesting to hear what you went through. Since you’re paying for two connections, have you considered bridging them? Might make for an interesting video!
I live in a big city and when I saw that T-Mobile had internet available at a lower price and higher speeds with no caps that that AT&T garbage I had been forced to use, I jumped on it. I'm much happier now.
This is great. Internet was the main thing keeping me from considering some rural properties. A real game changer for tens of thousands of people living with slow internet if they are good with tech also. I wish there was a simpler solution for some of my older family tho. Definitely some product opportunities here.
Where I live, when the power goes out, which is often, so does our cable internet even though we use a back up generator. Then cell data becomes congested to the point of being unusable. If the power is off long enough, more than a few hours.... the cell towers die. Starlink is free from those issues. As long as I can supply power from the generator, our home carries on like normal.
I have been paying for my T mobile router for 6 months and haven’t been able to get it to work at my lake home using a WeBoost cell tower. I have made several 3 hour trips to adjust to get better signal by adding omnidirectional antenna on top of roof and inside square antenna ( great 5 bars for Verizon and ATT but only 2 bars for T Mobil. This looks like a great solution that hooks directly to antenna port on router and thanks for sharing 😊
Thank you so much for this! My wife and I live in a spot in Oregon that has only one ISP. I've talked to everyone else and they all said they can't help me, including the really small guys. This helps because although I was told T-Mobile doesn't have service where I am for this home internet, that may not be strictly true. I have something to work with and that really gives me hope. Thanks again!
Starlink changed my family's life. Where we are does not have good cell and even with high end antennas it wasn't very good and we where never able to get a good consistent internet through cell. Ever since starlink it has been perfect we waited forever to get ours but it's fantastic, I can play competitive games and other family members can stream video with no issues. It truly is magical IF you can get your hands on it.
@@jenniferpetrellicarslearni2265 It requires a wall outlet to run. You will at least need something that can give it that, generator battery. There is a more portable version that might be powered differently but don't quote me on it.
Love watching your projects. In Washington state we too went the route of dropping DSL in favor of Cell providers. Unfortunately after a year of woes, aiming antennas, and trying multiple carriers and towers we could never hit more than 10mbps down and 3mbps up. I would say this likely due to heavier thicker terrain. In our case Starlink was the only viable method and we love it. I encourage all those who watch this to take the time and research their option like Silver Cymbal is promoting.
I'm in Western WA & Starlink went from "available in 2023" to "so your order may not be fulfilled until 2023 or later." I hope I'm able to find an alternative means to connect because DSL is awful.
@@kisha-maries9016 Already have Starlink, I too am in a "unsupported" area, but you can mitigate by paying an additional $30 for the RV package, same hardware but they will ship it. A low speed for us right now until coverage gets increased is 100mbps. Many times better than cell towers. We have PTZ cameras, Xbox, flatscreens, VOIP phones. We are finally modern.
This video is just- YES Great explanation, succinct and inclusive of people with less tech experience- greetings from someone who recently had all their equipment bricked by a duct-tape-held NBN connection in the suburbs in Australia
Cellular band is pretty high up there in frequency, UHF and beyond. Makes the signal pretty lossy over long cable distances, so don't be too tempted to go any longer than that 30ft cable that comes with the antenna. Go shorter if you can; have the router as close to the antennas as possible. I have been tinkering with Starlink business for a few weeks now. Yes, the speed and quality of service varies widely.
I added a 25ft SMA low loss cable to the 30ft cable because it was not long enough to route into my home. I have not notice any loss. My ping is still 25 my Download is 480 and my upload is 60. I’m also only 2 miles away from an antenna and I have a clear view with no obstruction to the antenna.
As a guy thats just about to make the leap from a sticks and bricks into a 5th wheel full time for work purposes, and REALLY cares about good internet, this is a wealth of information. Thanks man
The effect you are describing is called "beamwidth". How wide an area (in the horizontal domain) does your antenna cover? Usually the wider the beamwidth the lower the antenna gain (its ability to pull in a signal). That said, there are some antennas such as the flat one you bought that have both a wide beamwidth and high gain.
I have had starlink since it first became publicly available and it was uneven at first, but greatly improved since. Ping times are generally less than 100ms, and it even works thru a ⛈️.
I did something like this when I was deployed. my antenna could plug into my pc with a usb port and I got internet. this was well over a decade ago so it is nice to see how this tech has progressed.
I use a directional attenna with router like you show and an additiinal line(SIM) thru AT&T in upper Michigan. 102 down, 25 up. unlimited plan. Also in my area app locating towers is dead on.
Thanks for the thorough video on WIFI , the internet, routers & antennae. I am on the same path of discovery you’ve been on, regarding Rural Internet...
Yes! I haven't seen anyone endorse the T-Mobile home wi-fi yet and it is simply an AMAZING deal. No other company is offering anything close to it yet (as far as I've seen yet). Very cool to see an external antenna is possible, I may have to try this on a few family members who have the T-Mobile setup already. Thanks for the info!!
@@elishmittywerminghanjensen1264 yeah the 4g lte box(built in wifi 6) Didn't pay anything up front for it, just $25 per month. Idk if new customers get the same perks or not tho. $25 and $50 is the price if your phones are on verizon as far as I know. Stop in a store and ask them tho. Also input your address and see if it's available where you live as it's dependent on emif they have enough bandwidth available in your area. I can't get 5g where I'm at but I can't afford it anyway and 4g is fast enough for me. Tmobile only offers 5g and its unavailable for me too. The home internet get better connection than my phone does and my signal isn't the best because of where my house is. If I drive 1 minute away the signal is perfect lol but regardless it's enough to stream and anything else I do. It is definitely not perfect tho, speeds dip down to 25mbps sometimes but once again my connection isn't perfect here, I haven't tested moving it around the house yet tho
in 2016 my wife steffy and i arrived in south dakota , living completely off grid. i paid $200 for a hughes net satelite dish and an installer came out and installed it at NO CHARGE, he had NO problem with my being completely OFF GRID. i paid $54 a month for the service which was GREAT! JUST NEEDED A VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN SKY. I LIVED THERE AND USED IT FOR 3 YEARS WITH ZERO PROBLEMS!!
Definitely try it, an antenna will always give you more speed, the only negative is buying it and putting it in, but you are guaranteed to get an improvement once you get the direction set
Good info to have, one note I bought starlink when it first come out because it was unlimited data. I guess once they figured out everyone and their brother was buying Starlink started throttling back data and limiting. Like you I have a Starlink that has been in the box for a year. This is good info to have, Good video
T-Mobile and other carriers would be smart to implement something like this into a more consumer oriented product! They could sell an antenna that would plug directly into the router just like Starlink for a seamless experience. I’m shocked no one is doing it!
I live in Italy, and since we're a bit behind other big european countries on the FTTH, a lot of carriers offer the same thing that T&T has in this video, with or without Unlimited data. Oftentimes, they will offer two options : one with a plug and play modem / router you can put inside your house; another, with an external antenna/modem assembly and an internal router which will be then installed by a carrier technician
Leftist company’s are very bad at meeting the needs of their customers. In my world T-Mobile would have a local service tech to help people with setting up T-Mobile home internet which I found to be full of pitfalls. Then you get to spend a week with foreign service techs that not only did not understand the product but could not communicate as well.
@@kimf587 Wireless Internet Service Provider. There are people who will a buy a fast cable/dsl/fiber internet service connection (like your home internet service) which they are allowed to resell. They then put-up wireless antennas and sell access to user to access the internet through there wireless infrastructure. WISPs are also cellular networks that sell internet service like T-Mobile home internet etc
It would also be nice if TMobile would allow us to disable the router function of the router/modem and use our own router. It's the only thing keeping me from switching right now.
This was very informative. Can't believe we still have data caps with cell/internet providers. Makes no sense. Starlink would be a good backup. Actually I am a firm believer of having landline/wireless/satellite mediums and in the future we will hopefully have protocols built that allow us to use all 3 at once.
There's nothing stopping you from using more than one ISP at once right now. You just need a router that is capable of multiple WAN connections. While you're not likely to find this on a plug-and-play consumer router, it can easily be done using something like pfSense or OPNsense. These can be installed on a router-oriented mini PC (I use one from Protectli) or a normal PC with a multi-port Ethernet card. Then they can be set up to use your multiple connections as fallback, load balanced, or with policy routing (picking a connection based on the traffic). Because of the way networking actually works, true link aggregation across multiple ISPs is possible, but requires more work than most people can justify (such as running an SD-WAN service through a cloud server).
Glad you came out with this video. I’ve been going rounds getting internet to my camping property. The only tower that I’ve verified, while still far away is Verizon. I’ve had issues getting trial sims to work on the Verizon network out there. To be continued.
The biggest takeaway is that not everything we have been told for 30 years about Verizon and AT&T is accurate. We get beat into our heads that smaller brands can't be as good when in reality T-Mobile has been a solid performer for quite some time.
For the most part Verizon was the best carrier but this day and age all carriers piggy back off each other. T mobile really put an effort in their 5G speeds I’m pretty sure you could get a gig in most cities with a setup like this. On my phone I could get 300+mbps which is pretty impressive.
Verizon is still way better. Tmobile just happened to roll this out quicker than verizon. I have the verizon internet and it's works well. Tmobile is know to have the fastest internet for phones but is less reliable than a German car. That's why I switched to Verizon actually. My wife still has Tmobile and the amount of times I have data and she doesn't outnumbers the vice versa 5 to 1
@@andrewk8636 Which carrier is best is entirely determined by who has the most coverage and capacity in your area. If you really want to look at the future, which one is going to be best will be whoever has the most spectrum available which is tmobile.
I live in a suburb in the SF Bay Area. I took an offer from Verizon for Home Internet 4G LTE after problems with my old AT&T Uverse modem/router. AT&T had been reliable, but they would force me to pay a monthly lease on any new modem/router plus the monthly charges. And, they said I couldn't self install. The VZ home internet has been fantastic and met all of our needs. It is the cheapest option around here two. The instructions said it was limited to 5 devices (that's changed now) but I found that by hardwiring my Orbi router into it and turning off the VZ wifi, I could put all 54 devices in my home on it via the Orbi downstream. Go figure. I'd like another one for another house I have some 30 miles away. I want cheap because it's will be very limited use. Just four or five devices. And, I want self install because I can't be around for some installer. And, I don't want a phone line (AT&T or piggyback) or cable (Comcast) hook up because that would mean some wiring in my garage. So, another VZ box would be fantastic. What's the catch? VZ online and in the store, says VZ SERVICE IS NOT AVAILABLE at either of my houses! Even the one I currently have it in! WTF? I've begged to just let my try it in the second home. Just like they did in the fist home where I have it installed now. I get great cell signal there. But, VZ says they can't do that. That it is not available for either location. It makes no sense. All that I can figure is that VZ is looking at the availability of their new, 5G version, which isn't available in either of my locations and doesn't want to sell any more 4G versions. Although they show them on their website and I continue to get some great email offers from them as a current VZ customer. It's frustrating.
Nice connection. I got the most bars aiming at one tower nearby but it wasn't the fastest speed. I'm getting about 330/70 which is extremely acceptable. My peak was 430/50 at one very specific weird spot but it was hard to keep it exactly in the correct position. Out at my off-grid spot I get about 30/2. Thanks for showing your external antennae so we can see it in action. I read about how to do it but haven't seen anyone actually hook one up yet on video. I appreciate it
I have the Verizon Home 5G 300 down 20 up for $25 a month. It is consistent and we have a good line of sight to the cell tower in our rural community. I also have the local Fiber company. I use a load balancing switch/router that utilizes both and if one goes down the other is a fail safe.
Excellent video. I have a very similar learning curve in rural North Carolina. I ended up with the directional antenna. One addition you may consider to your video is a comment about using two directional in a V formation. It will increase the download speeds.
The reason the MIMO antenna works is it is flipping frequencies to maximize bandwidth, using two of the directional antennas in a right Angle with each other you get 2x2 MIMO with the proper router. I was mulling about setting that up with a cell booster.
I don’t live out in the country, but the T-Mobile and other cellular internet style providers have made life SO much better. My apartment only had one ISP (25Mbps down/5 Mbps up) and now with this has made it internet connectivity AMAZING (200-500Mbps down/15-25 Mbps up)!! I use T-Mobile and can vouch my view of T-Mobile has changed.
TMHI is awesome, ive had it for quite a long time. Its always location dependent on where and how fast you get speeds also, your speeds depend on what band of 5G (or LTE) your TMHI box is connected to. I stand behind my TMHI, I got it while it was in the beta phase. Just really hope they upgrade my tower to the n41 band (currently on n71 (5G) and B66 (LTE)) so I can get faster speeds. Mine doesn't have any extra attenas on it, but I have no need to add any since mine gets 3 bars and the cell metrics are good, little noise, plus I have a tower I can see from my front yard. Great video, well put together.
Thanks for sharing. I’m on fiber now but come retirement I expect I’ll be away from civilization. This gives me hope that I will still be able to get high speed internet with just a bit more latency.
We were able to get the Verizon Home Internet in some parts of rural Tennessee. Oddly enough, it was only certain areas. Even if they already had lte service there.
I have the same setup - T-Mobile and a Waveform antenna, if you have 2 cell phones with T-Mobile, put the plan on autopay the internet is only $30 a month which is incredible. My speeds vary 400 on a good day, 180 is more typical. The tower is 8 miles away line of sight on Oregon Peak in the Sierra foothills (I can see the red light flashing on it at night).
You can also build an antenna. That looks like a four bay array with a plate reflector. Also remember, height over local terrain counts so an omnidirectional antenna up 50’ with a good low loss coax “might” be a cheap option.
Excellent video. After almost waiting a year for home internet service from T-Mobile, they finally emailed me service was available in my area. I signed up and am waiting for my router in a few days so once I receive it, I will check out the signal for strength. If unsuitable, I will try an antenna as you suggested. Thanks so much!
I have both StarLink and T mobile on my farm. StarLink is consistently faster. T mobile is prone to slow down to very slow speeds when the leaves blossom for the summer and I only show two bars of signal strength. I’ve thought about trying an antenna for it and after watching this video will probably order one.
T Mobile is advertised as Unlimited but you’re actually deprioritize at 100 GB, I’ve been fighting with them for the past 3 months. I’ve been a customer for over a year. The service is not bad but if you’re in a somewhat populated area just believe you will be deprioritize after 100GB… just saying don’t plan on doing any live streaming anytime soon… As far as cell phones are concerned they have what is called carrier aggregation, meaning they have the ability to combine different frequencies giving you a better output than your antenna will if your modem does not have carrier aggregation. Hope that makes sense.
I live in the middle of Tennessee in a rural area. Cell phone service stinks all over the place, but somehow, I have “full bars” in the middle of the woods. Imagining what a nice antenna could do…
Wonder if you'd do a similar video on getting over the air TV? I really enjoyed this topic. Lately I've been thinking about putting in an outdoor antenna. I know there's a "man" TH-cam channel for that 😁, but he doesn't really show the installation process in his video (esp as well as you would). Maybe this is basic knowledge for some, but you always make such good how-to videos. Thank you for what you do.
Yeah. I totally needed this information! THANK YOU As more of us move to very rural area's this kind of stuff should rocket in terms of views. Please keep posting.
Thanks for your advice. I've been interested in T-Mobile's home internet service for the pass six months. My brother-in-law has it in New Orleans, but I live in a rural area that ONLY provides ADSL service between 0-5 mbps download and 0-.72 mbps upload. I posted a question on a local Facebook group asking about people's experiences with T-Mobile in my area. The responses came back very poorly, at best - spotty. But, you have revived my interest in your rural situation. However, being 75 on a fixed income, the cost of the antenna is prohibitive for me. My question, has anyone made a semi-directional antenna from home materials: wire, electronics components that might work well enough?
I got T-mobile home internet about a year ago. At that time it worked great, 250mbps down, 30mbps up, much better than the comcast I had been using. In recent months though it has gotten much slower and sometimes is just intermittent. I have a suspicion that cell tower congestion might be an issue. Probably more people on T-mobiles 5G network now and they may need to add more cell tower capacity. I’m still mostly happy with it because as an addition to our cell service account it’s only $30/mo. which is probably impossible to beat. Thanks for the video.
Very good video. Where I'm at has NO internet, or so I thought. I tried T-Mobil on a whim and boom, internet. Now three of my brothers us it and I can see me using an external antenna in the very near future.
Keep in mind tho when T-Mobile runs your address if they tell you it’s not available, it technically is there but they don’t allow you to get it in that area specifically cus of bandwidth limitations. So if you put it in an area where it says it’s not available when they run a imei and sim update check it’ll check location and could shut off if not at the proper address when you set it up.
What needs to be discussed is the actual installation including the coax length from the antenna to the T-mobile. The signal losses are high for these frequencies especially if your mounting the antenna on the roof of your home with long coax runs. You could end up with the gain you might get with the antenna could be lost in the losses of the cable. You can get larger diameter coax generally offering less loss but that could be problem getting it to where the T-Mobil unit is located. They do sell very expensive smaller diameter cable too. The best case would be the antenna can be as close to the T-Mobile device as possible, for example the antenna looking through a window (the window will attenuate some signal) or the antenna mounted to the side of a house with the T-Mobile device with 4-6 feet inside the house.
At least RG6, attention to things like bending radius, deformations of any type, high quality connectors (expensive), etc. Anything less means a Very Short run of cable. As noted, it takes very little to loose antenna gain...very little.
Nice vid. Few things.. the beamwidth of your directional there is ok, so a slight change does not mean no Internet. Depending on yagi or log periodic. The router there looks like the huawei cpc2, which most service providers use, so you can check them online. Good antenna company is poynting, brilliant performance. Also have decent cable, because it can reduce your speed massively.
Very interesting. I have lived in my rural New England town for over 25 years. We are close to five major colleges. Over the last ten or twelve years I noticed houses just being abandoned. I am talking very nice homes. One day I was in the town hall and I ask someone in there what was up with this issue. She told me it was the lack of high speed internet. I had DSL and I was one of the lucky ones. Most had nothing or satellite which worked so so and was fairly expensive for the speeds your were getting. My town had been trying to get internet since I moved there and three years ago it happed. It’s been life changing and all of those abandoned homes have been sold and are looking great. Trying to sell a home without high speed internet is almost like trying to sell a house without electricity. That is why getting high speed internet is so important throughout the country. Thanks for making this video and putting in all the leg work. Many people do not realize how important internet is not only for the user but the seller of a home. I know no high speed is a deal breaker for me, especially now that I know what it can do to your town. Take care and thanks so much.
I have the directional antenna, and I use an old phone that's not in service. I stand next to the mast, and I marked the pole with small dots, and a pipe band with a thin line. I use a pipe wrench to turn it a tiny bit, and then run speed test. I do this maybe 6x before I have the best spot located. I notice a difference from night and day, clouds, and fog from the ocean, to absolutely clear. They all come back different, and tiny movements are needed to adjust. Within an hour, I can go from full 5G, to low 3G. All because of the change of weather, and time of day.
As a T-Mobile customer one problem is they don't upgrade their towers in rural mountainous areas. I've been on their Home Internet service waiting list ever since they offered it and still not available in my area. I've had Starlink now for 17 months, it was my only way to a decent internet connection. Starlink will become more available once Starship is in service, it can deploy many more satellites per lift off than the current Falcon 9 rocket.
@@SilverCymbal yup, France decided to get with the times. It's 50€ a month too with tv and landline. Another ISP has a 5 and 8gbps plan as well. Most European countries are so affordable for the internet.
The thing about the tower apps, not sure on iPhone side but on the Android side I got one and it worked great, pointed it at the tower it showed, could either show the map or you could show which direction it was pointing, an important thing to note is you also need an app that gives you info about which bands it uses and what bands the antenna supports
I'm curious, are you going to stick with the actual T-Mobile hardware or use a dedicated 5G/LTE Modem that has exposed SMA antenna connectors instead of taking off the shell of the T-Mobile equipment? Also will you be using something like Ubiquiti UniFi (Dream machine) for Wi-Fi
@@mlhm5 sure, I don't disagree with that. I guess what I'm saying is sometimes service provided equipment isn't as good as third party dedicated equipment is
Thanks for watching: My Antenna: amzn.to/3oPXzSu - Starlink Get your FIRST Month FREE: bit.ly/3LF9ZYX
Just wanted to say, i appreciate this video. My 1 and only option for internet is centurylink, and i dare not say anymore.
I’m impressed 😂
I live in British Columbia and I had a Telus smart hub with a antenna and it got slower and slower as the years went on then we got starlink and it’s way better
Can you please post the URL for 1) Cellular Towers across the USA 2) The providers (website) for all of those antennas 3) a FOLLOW UP VIDEO. This video is spectacular with regard to how to get Internet those areas around the country where there is very little ISPs! Thank You 🙏!
Was the black thing sitting under the antenna the "innards" of the T-mobile unit? I have that box, and when I started a year ago only had 15-20 down, but in the last few weeks bumped it up and I am now getting 75-85 down. Would love to bump that to much higher numbers.
As an old hack pro RF technician, this is one of the best videos I've ever seen being done in layman's terms. Very well done sir!
I love when someone spends real time and energy to get a great result and then shares it with the world. This is awesome!
And then putting the sponsors at the END of the video, very nice touch lol.
Thank you! Keep up the good work!
Ok that's my favorite line out of all your videos. " you're probably breaking a warranty, but your not doing anything illegal" favorite line
Instead of testing in a circle, a better way is to first test four cardinal directions. Note the two directions that give you the best speeds, then test between those. Keep cutting your sectors in half until you don't want to fine tune it anymore.
nope
I was thinking the same thing as well
Good thinking.
The only drawback is that you might find a "local" maximum in some direction, where a weaker or distant signal exists, and miss the "global" maximum.
See 10:48 and 11:00.
Are you a Transmission engineer?
@@osafosam8763 No, I specialize in satellite search grid autolock algorithms.
You are an amazing wealth of information! Whether I need your solution or not, I listen because I feel like I’ve just been educated. I appreciate all your research and sharing of information!
So as someone who works in IT, you're assessment is spot on. I too live in a rural area but im only 2 miles from fiber, been that way for years, ATT has no interest in upgrading us so I was over paying for terrible DSL. Finally got my StarLink 6 months ago and I absolutely love it, as someone who is an online gamer and streams heavily it's been a godsend especially since I can tell ATT to bug off. I looked into cellular internet when I was waiting 18 months for my starlink but it wasn't an option where I lived so I am happy it worked for you.
I feel your pain i'm at most 2 miles from fiber. 😒
I'm less than a mile from fiber.... and the best service we have is 2mbps dsl lol. Been using nomad internet, no major complaints other than the price.
thats good to know, thank you! My mother has some land we are planning on developing but the only services listed are wifi and starlink and I stream and game and all that stuff a lot (plus work from home too) so I've been worried if satellite can handle it.
@@taylorknott400 whats the price
This is the first time I've seen someone in a similar situation as me. I have at&t and I only get 1.5 but im 5 minutes away from 10-20mbps. Thats not the best ik but its wayyyyyyyy better than 1.5. I use to have to go to the mall If I wanted to download anything. If I could get 10mbps I'd be happy with that.
Moved to a rural property in 2022 and i gotta say you saved me. I remember thinking it just didnt feel right to get charged hundred of dollars for 1.2 mbps per second or sometimes reaching kilobytes on weekends. Thanks for posting this video and sharing the tips.
I get 1.5 smh. Which isp did you choose to go with?
This is a fantastic video with thorough explanation of what to try, what you will need and real expectations. I've been dealing with mobile hotspots with antenna hookups for a long time and learned the extremely fine tuning required for great service and you did a great job with instructions. Months of hard work paid off, well done!
T-Mobile bought a bunch of RF spectrum from the government auction. It was a huge investment, but it's paying off.
It's warming to see and hear of one Americans positive experiences with a mobile provider. Your new home looks so rural and yet you are getting better service than many city folk, even those on fibre. I really hope it continues for you. Yay, from Australia.
I really appreciate that. I have an upcoming video showing all my network stuff and how it connects together coming soon. Thanks for watching
T-Mobile generally is a pretty good ISP in most countries and has improved. Whereas I got like 5 Mbps over TMO in 2019 I now get close to 1 Gbps over 5G.
@@SilverCymbalyou know the t mobile Nokia router connects using 4glte and 5g right it’s connects to different 2 different signals that’s how you get the best signal Att and Verzion also have home internet but t mobile seems to be best so but also that router has a battery in also you can see what’s your best signal it’s at the top of the display
WOW! This was really a great post with tons of solid information. I have been following you for some time now and have benefited from your other TH-cam posts. Your lawn tips have worked to make our lawn much better than it has ever been. THANK YOU!
Thanks for the information - got my 14-day trial today from t mobile and ordered the antenna. Tested tonight and got okay speeds without the external antenna. Can't wait until Saturday when it arrives. Keep up the awesome work!
How was it? I’m also thinking about trying the T-Mobile trial…
This is gold.
I am building a home out in the boondocks and I have been told there is no providers out there.
I am setting this up next week.
Did it work? Because I'm thinking in buying a home in the country. The realtor said that the Internet service is a satellite, but Internet does not work when there's a bad weather. 😮
This was VERY helpful. I currently live in the Boston metro area and would like to move somewhere less expensive and more rural, but I have always been concerned about the possibility of crappy Internet service, especially if I continued to work remotely. This was a great tutorial explaining some of the options that might be available. For roughly $400 for the semi-directional antenna and another $50 per month for the router, what you have sounds like a very reasonable solution. Kudos!
Stay in the city. If a primary concern for leaving is "I might not get the consoooomer messaging" then you're exactly where you belong already.
@@colfrankslade it has not been my primary concern, I have a few other concerns that take more precedence
@@JeffreyMoon1974 I highly recommend Blount County, Tennessee. It’s rural, conservative, cost of living is lower than average, its right against the Smoky Mountain National park, and its also close to Knoxville and Chattanooga if you want some city night life. Also there’s no state income tax :)
I have been a T-Mobile customer for a while and then got added to the list of the new internet introduction and I can say it changed our world as I live out in a rural area and couldn't even work from home it was so bad. TMobile has been an awesome carrier for us for several years. Going to look at the antenna 📡.
Same story here we even get to game online brought us back into 2022
I have the same problem. I have viasat and their mbps are very low and I have been calling around because I want a work from home job and companies have rejected me because I haven’t been able to figure out the internet that will work in my area. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Reach out to T-Mobile and see if you are in the area where they can hook you up it is so easy with a simple Tower.
I lived in a community that only has verizon built in it is too expensive. I waited for TM mobile internet. Works fine saves me a lot of money
T mobile and Verizon won't give you home Internet if your not in their service area regardless if you use an antenna. If you are caught using the gateway in non service area you will be ban for getting their service. I would try a mobile hot spot and get an antenna for that device sure you have caps but at least you will have Internet on the road. I did take my gateway to the mountains and got two bars but I would not do that all the time. They know which towers you get your service from. 73
Great video!
BTW, the analogy I use when explaning high gain antennas, is comparing a regular light bulb to a focused flashlight beam. It's easy to understand, that the flashlight focuses the given light. The same thing happens with high gain antennas. By using a narrow focused beam, the signal is concentrated, resulting in a stronger signal. (works on both transmit & receive).
Both are radiation just the light is visible I can't find a flaw in what you said
in this video elevating the antenna is underrated yet the best improvement that was not mentioned here, just saying. and I am expert about this.
The first is a Yagi(-Uda) antenna. In a pinch, you can make one for $0 if you have some PVC, an old tape measure, and a coax cable. TH-cam instructions abound. Still, this is a nice encased unit that gives better speed than my cable ISP. Thanks!
Try the antenna test in at lest 2 locations. Foliage is a signal killer. If you are at a shoreline, test at various antenna heights. Reflections off the water or flat ground can interfere with the signal. There can be multiple nulls varying with height, they are easier to observe than peaks, so set the antenna height between nulls. The other thing is signal width. The 'line of sight' signal is not like a rifle bullet, but more like a sausage stretched between the tower and your antenna. It has considerable width. This means being able to see the tower with binoculars looking between the leaves of the trees isn't good enough. You need the signal path to be as clear as possible for at least the first 500 feet from your antenna. What works in winter may degrade in spring when the trees sprout leaves. You may opt for a pole mount antenna with underground feed, a weekend project, so test thoroughly before you commit. Putting the pole at a fence corner means you won't have to mow around it and strapping the pole to an existing post could save some grief if you later need to change something at the top. In worst case, a guyed pole at a 4 way fence corner is a no-brainer if available. Think about deer fences and similar locations. Ideally, find the location and install the fence at the same time as the antenna. Do you need to protect a garden spot from foraging animals?
what antenna do you recommend for getting above a treeline?
I’ve watched many videos on rural internet since moving to a mountain property two months ago. This is BY FAR the best one I’ve seen! Thank you for posting and very thorough!
Wow I really appreciate that!
Thanks for this video. I’m currently working from home on the T-mobile 5G home internet, which I was told by T-Mobile is not available in my area. I used a family members address and brought it out to my rural home, and got decent speeds like you did. But working from home is not idea considering I am constantly making phone calls (internet soft phone) and zoom calls. My calls are almost always choppy and delayed. This sounds like the perfect solution to better my work days. Thanks!
After being without cell service, electricity, and internet for 11 days in the mountains of North Carolina… I purchased a Starlink. That shizz ain’t going down unless some country blows it out of orbit. Just purely for emergencies I bought this thing… I hooked it up the other day and I’m impressed. I’m covered with trees and it still does 100 down and 35-50 up.. I literally just threw it out in my yard and it worked. I’m told with roaming enabled I can take it anywhere… I like the idea of being able to take it anywhere with a simple rechargeable power supply. It doesn’t beat my wired connection- nothing wireless ever will … but when those wires are dead you’ll be glad you have a backup. Trust me.. I lived this nightmare. No carrier had service for DAYS!
On most LTE routers, there is a way to look at the DB gain of the signal... So pull up that page, and use that to "see the signal strength" as you aim the antenna... Also, look for more than one tower, and some towers are disguised as trees, or are on top of buildings or other high points... Notice too that Starlink uses a motorized directional antenna to "point at the signal"...
I’m fortunate enough to have multi-gig symmetric fiber where I live so this video wasn’t for me, but it was still really interesting to hear what you went through.
Since you’re paying for two connections, have you considered bridging them? Might make for an interesting video!
I live in a big city and when I saw that T-Mobile had internet available at a lower price and higher speeds with no caps that that AT&T garbage I had been forced to use, I jumped on it. I'm much happier now.
Dude..I'm in!! Show us how to wire the t-mobile stuff to the antenna..and please finish showing us how to do it!!
This is great. Internet was the main thing keeping me from considering some rural properties. A real game changer for tens of thousands of people living with slow internet if they are good with tech also. I wish there was a simpler solution for some of my older family tho. Definitely some product opportunities here.
Where I live, when the power goes out, which is often, so does our cable internet even though we use a back up generator. Then cell data becomes congested to the point of being unusable. If the power is off long enough, more than a few hours.... the cell towers die. Starlink is free from those issues. As long as I can supply power from the generator, our home carries on like normal.
I have been paying for my T mobile router for 6 months and haven’t been able to get it to work at my lake home using a WeBoost cell tower. I have made several 3 hour trips to adjust to get better signal by adding omnidirectional antenna on top of roof and inside square antenna ( great 5 bars for Verizon and ATT but only 2 bars for T Mobil. This looks like a great solution that hooks directly to antenna port on router and thanks for sharing 😊
Thank you so much for this! My wife and I live in a spot in Oregon that has only one ISP. I've talked to everyone else and they all said they can't help me, including the really small guys. This helps because although I was told T-Mobile doesn't have service where I am for this home internet, that may not be strictly true. I have something to work with and that really gives me hope. Thanks again!
Dropping serious knowledge! This was very educational and helpful, thank you.
Much appreciated thank you, I hope it is helpful
Thanks! This is amazing!
Starlink changed my family's life. Where we are does not have good cell and even with high end antennas it wasn't very good and we where never able to get a good consistent internet through cell. Ever since starlink it has been perfect we waited forever to get ours but it's fantastic, I can play competitive games and other family members can stream video with no issues. It truly is magical IF you can get your hands on it.
Same here. My brother & my best friend both got starlink after I had it for a year. All 3 of us love it. Absolutely life changing.
Can Sterling be used without electricity?
@@DogGuy19can starlink be used without electricity?
@@jenniferpetrellicarslearni2265 It requires a wall outlet to run. You will at least need something that can give it that, generator battery. There is a more portable version that might be powered differently but don't quote me on it.
So nice to see all these people with star link while I’m still waiting for the one I ordered 2+ years ago that allegedly “ships in 2 to 4 weeks”
Love watching your projects. In Washington state we too went the route of dropping DSL in favor of Cell providers. Unfortunately after a year of woes, aiming antennas, and trying multiple carriers and towers we could never hit more than 10mbps down and 3mbps up. I would say this likely due to heavier thicker terrain. In our case Starlink was the only viable method and we love it. I encourage all those who watch this to take the time and research their option like Silver Cymbal is promoting.
I'm in Western WA & Starlink went from "available in 2023" to "so your order may not be fulfilled until 2023 or later." I hope I'm able to find an alternative means to connect because DSL is awful.
@@kisha-maries9016 Already have Starlink, I too am in a "unsupported" area, but you can mitigate by paying an additional $30 for the RV package, same hardware but they will ship it. A low speed for us right now until coverage gets increased is 100mbps. Many times better than cell towers. We have PTZ cameras, Xbox, flatscreens, VOIP phones. We are finally modern.
@@connorh5930 Not all heros wear capes! Thank you, I'll look into it today.
I'm in that boat too but Starlink will never give me my dishy... They are backdoor dealing with hughsnet to not but in on their buisness I guess
Doesn’t tree cover affect starlink? I’m surrounded by tall trees very limited sky view so I haven’t given it a shot yet
This video is just- YES
Great explanation, succinct and inclusive of people with less tech experience- greetings from someone who recently had all their equipment bricked by a duct-tape-held NBN connection in the suburbs in Australia
Cellular band is pretty high up there in frequency, UHF and beyond. Makes the signal pretty lossy over long cable distances, so don't be too tempted to go any longer than that 30ft cable that comes with the antenna. Go shorter if you can; have the router as close to the antennas as possible.
I have been tinkering with Starlink business for a few weeks now. Yes, the speed and quality of service varies widely.
I added a 25ft SMA low loss cable to the 30ft cable because it was not long enough to route into my home. I have not notice any loss. My ping is still 25 my Download is 480 and my upload is 60. I’m also only 2 miles away from an antenna and I have a clear view with no obstruction to the antenna.
The loss from air is significally MORE...
1000 feet cable would be less then 1ms loss(likely less then 1ms in a 10 mile cable)
As a guy thats just about to make the leap from a sticks and bricks into a 5th wheel full time for work purposes, and REALLY cares about good internet, this is a wealth of information. Thanks man
Chris and Cherie are awesome! Thanks for all your research from a fellow NH resident!
They really are, they do a lot of great work on this subject
This was probably one of your most interesting videos. Thank you for taking the time to dig into this.
The effect you are describing is called "beamwidth". How wide an area (in the horizontal domain) does your antenna cover? Usually the wider the beamwidth the lower the antenna gain (its ability to pull in a signal). That said, there are some antennas such as the flat one you bought that have both a wide beamwidth and high gain.
I am always learning something new from your videos. Keep up the great work.
I have had starlink since it first became publicly available and it was uneven at first, but greatly improved since. Ping times are generally less than 100ms, and it even works thru a ⛈️.
I did something like this when I was deployed. my antenna could plug into my pc with a usb port and I got internet. this was well over a decade ago so it is nice to see how this tech has progressed.
I use a directional attenna with router like you show and an additiinal line(SIM) thru AT&T in upper Michigan. 102 down, 25 up. unlimited plan. Also in my area app locating towers is dead on.
Thanks for the thorough video on WIFI , the internet, routers & antennae. I am on the same path of discovery you’ve been on, regarding Rural Internet...
Using T-Mobile for over an year with good success and cost about the same than ATT DSL
Using T-Mobile here. Worst experience ever.
Who comes up with this idea!? It’s mind-blowing! Thank you so much for sharing. I really appreciate your research.
You are so welcome!
Yes! I haven't seen anyone endorse the T-Mobile home wi-fi yet and it is simply an AMAZING deal. No other company is offering anything close to it yet (as far as I've seen yet). Very cool to see an external antenna is possible, I may have to try this on a few family members who have the T-Mobile setup already. Thanks for the info!!
Verizon I'm paying $25 per month for lte internet. 5g is $50 but a solid connection on 4g can stream 4k
@@andrewk8636 Woah, cool! Do you have a hotspot/wifi router type device you can leave running 24/7?
@@elishmittywerminghanjensen1264 yeah the 4g lte box(built in wifi 6) Didn't pay anything up front for it, just $25 per month. Idk if new customers get the same perks or not tho. $25 and $50 is the price if your phones are on verizon as far as I know. Stop in a store and ask them tho. Also input your address and see if it's available where you live as it's dependent on emif they have enough bandwidth available in your area. I can't get 5g where I'm at but I can't afford it anyway and 4g is fast enough for me. Tmobile only offers 5g and its unavailable for me too. The home internet get better connection than my phone does and my signal isn't the best because of where my house is. If I drive 1 minute away the signal is perfect lol but regardless it's enough to stream and anything else I do. It is definitely not perfect tho, speeds dip down to 25mbps sometimes but once again my connection isn't perfect here, I haven't tested moving it around the house yet tho
@@andrewk8636 I appreciate the follow up, thank you!!
in 2016 my wife steffy and i arrived in south dakota , living completely off grid. i paid $200 for a hughes net satelite dish and an installer came out and installed it at NO CHARGE, he had NO problem with my being completely OFF GRID. i paid $54 a month for the service which was GREAT! JUST NEEDED A VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN SKY. I LIVED THERE AND USED IT FOR 3 YEARS WITH ZERO PROBLEMS!!
I live in a rural area and i gotta say thank you my internet is so crappy imma haft to try this and see if it works!
Definitely try it, an antenna will always give you more speed, the only negative is buying it and putting it in, but you are guaranteed to get an improvement once you get the direction set
Good info to have, one note I bought starlink when it first come out because it was unlimited data. I guess once they figured out everyone and their brother was buying Starlink started throttling back data and limiting. Like you I have a Starlink that has been in the box for a year. This is good info to have, Good video
T-Mobile and other carriers would be smart to implement something like this into a more consumer oriented product! They could sell an antenna that would plug directly into the router just like Starlink for a seamless experience. I’m shocked no one is doing it!
I live in Italy, and since we're a bit behind other big european countries on the FTTH, a lot of carriers offer the same thing that T&T has in this video, with or without Unlimited data. Oftentimes, they will offer two options : one with a plug and play modem / router you can put inside your house; another, with an external antenna/modem assembly and an internal router which will be then installed by a carrier technician
Leftist company’s are very bad at meeting the needs of their customers. In my world T-Mobile would have a local service tech to help people with setting up T-Mobile home internet which I found to be full of pitfalls. Then you get to spend a week with foreign service techs that not only did not understand the product but could not communicate as well.
@@KalebStorm What does WISP stand for?
@@kimf587 Wireless Internet Service Provider.
There are people who will a buy a fast cable/dsl/fiber internet service connection (like your home internet service) which they are allowed to resell. They then put-up wireless antennas and sell access to user to access the internet through there wireless infrastructure.
WISPs are also cellular networks that sell internet service like T-Mobile home internet etc
It would also be nice if TMobile would allow us to disable the router function of the router/modem and use our own router. It's the only thing keeping me from switching right now.
Thanks for sharing your setup, your videos are always very informative! Keep them coming bud!
Much appreciated, thank you
This was very informative. Can't believe we still have data caps with cell/internet providers. Makes no sense. Starlink would be a good backup. Actually I am a firm believer of having landline/wireless/satellite mediums and in the future we will hopefully have protocols built that allow us to use all 3 at once.
There's nothing stopping you from using more than one ISP at once right now. You just need a router that is capable of multiple WAN connections. While you're not likely to find this on a plug-and-play consumer router, it can easily be done using something like pfSense or OPNsense. These can be installed on a router-oriented mini PC (I use one from Protectli) or a normal PC with a multi-port Ethernet card. Then they can be set up to use your multiple connections as fallback, load balanced, or with policy routing (picking a connection based on the traffic). Because of the way networking actually works, true link aggregation across multiple ISPs is possible, but requires more work than most people can justify (such as running an SD-WAN service through a cloud server).
Glad you came out with this video. I’ve been going rounds getting internet to my camping property.
The only tower that I’ve verified, while still far away is Verizon. I’ve had issues getting trial sims to work on the Verizon network out there. To be continued.
The biggest takeaway is that not everything we have been told for 30 years about Verizon and AT&T is accurate. We get beat into our heads that smaller brands can't be as good when in reality T-Mobile has been a solid performer for quite some time.
For the most part Verizon was the best carrier but this day and age all carriers piggy back off each other. T mobile really put an effort in their 5G speeds I’m pretty sure you could get a gig in most cities with a setup like this. On my phone I could get 300+mbps which is pretty impressive.
Verizon is still way better. Tmobile just happened to roll this out quicker than verizon. I have the verizon internet and it's works well. Tmobile is know to have the fastest internet for phones but is less reliable than a German car. That's why I switched to Verizon actually. My wife still has Tmobile and the amount of times I have data and she doesn't outnumbers the vice versa 5 to 1
@@andrewk8636 Which carrier is best is entirely determined by who has the most coverage and capacity in your area.
If you really want to look at the future, which one is going to be best will be whoever has the most spectrum available which is tmobile.
In the city if pittsburgh at&t is the best. T-Mobile sucks for calls.
Sooo T-Mobile is small in the USA? :o
I live in a suburb in the SF Bay Area. I took an offer from Verizon for Home Internet 4G LTE after problems with my old AT&T Uverse modem/router. AT&T had been reliable, but they would force me to pay a monthly lease on any new modem/router plus the monthly charges. And, they said I couldn't self install.
The VZ home internet has been fantastic and met all of our needs. It is the cheapest option around here two. The instructions said it was limited to 5 devices (that's changed now) but I found that by hardwiring my Orbi router into it and turning off the VZ wifi, I could put all 54 devices in my home on it via the Orbi downstream. Go figure.
I'd like another one for another house I have some 30 miles away. I want cheap because it's will be very limited use. Just four or five devices. And, I want self install because I can't be around for some installer. And, I don't want a phone line (AT&T or piggyback) or cable (Comcast) hook up because that would mean some wiring in my garage. So, another VZ box would be fantastic.
What's the catch? VZ online and in the store, says VZ SERVICE IS NOT AVAILABLE at either of my houses! Even the one I currently have it in! WTF?
I've begged to just let my try it in the second home. Just like they did in the fist home where I have it installed now. I get great cell signal there. But, VZ says they can't do that. That it is not available for either location.
It makes no sense. All that I can figure is that VZ is looking at the availability of their new, 5G version, which isn't available in either of my locations and doesn't want to sell any more 4G versions. Although they show them on their website and I continue to get some great email offers from them as a current VZ customer. It's frustrating.
Nice connection. I got the most bars aiming at one tower nearby but it wasn't the fastest speed. I'm getting about 330/70 which is extremely acceptable. My peak was 430/50 at one very specific weird spot but it was hard to keep it exactly in the correct position. Out at my off-grid spot I get about 30/2. Thanks for showing your external antennae so we can see it in action. I read about how to do it but haven't seen anyone actually hook one up yet on video. I appreciate it
Man Your solution with that T-Mobile direct antenna hookup is brilliant
I have the Verizon Home 5G 300 down 20 up for $25 a month. It is consistent and we have a good line of sight to the cell tower in our rural community. I also have the local Fiber company. I use a load balancing switch/router that utilizes both and if one goes down the other is a fail safe.
They sold me verizon and don't work aty house, now m returning the white box
Excellent video. I have a very similar learning curve in rural North Carolina. I ended up with the directional antenna. One addition you may consider to your video is a comment about using two directional in a V formation. It will increase the download speeds.
The reason the MIMO antenna works is it is flipping frequencies to maximize bandwidth, using two of the directional antennas in a right Angle with each other you get 2x2 MIMO with the proper router. I was mulling about setting that up with a cell booster.
Did you eventually utilize a cell booster as well? What make/model? Thank you!
I don’t live out in the country, but the T-Mobile and other cellular internet style providers have made life SO much better. My apartment only had one ISP (25Mbps down/5 Mbps up) and now with this has made it internet connectivity AMAZING (200-500Mbps down/15-25 Mbps up)!! I use T-Mobile and can vouch my view of T-Mobile has changed.
TMHI is awesome, ive had it for quite a long time. Its always location dependent on where and how fast you get speeds also, your speeds depend on what band of 5G (or LTE) your TMHI box is connected to. I stand behind my TMHI, I got it while it was in the beta phase. Just really hope they upgrade my tower to the n41 band (currently on n71 (5G) and B66 (LTE)) so I can get faster speeds. Mine doesn't have any extra attenas on it, but I have no need to add any since mine gets 3 bars and the cell metrics are good, little noise, plus I have a tower I can see from my front yard. Great video, well put together.
I get 38 ms latency, 150 mbps down and 20 up on star-link. No cell service where I live. We work from home and star-link has been the best.
Excellent video Chris! I would love to move to a rural environment someday. I appreciate you talking about your results with this setup.
Thanks for sharing. I’m on fiber now but come retirement I expect I’ll be away from civilization. This gives me hope that I will still be able to get high speed internet with just a bit more latency.
We were able to get the Verizon Home Internet in some parts of rural Tennessee. Oddly enough, it was only certain areas. Even if they already had lte service there.
I’m also in Tennessee sadly Verizon didn’t offer this 😭 I don’t feel like I live in a super rural area either
I have the same setup - T-Mobile and a Waveform antenna, if you have 2 cell phones with T-Mobile, put the plan on autopay the internet is only $30 a month which is incredible. My speeds vary 400 on a good day, 180 is more typical. The tower is 8 miles away line of sight on Oregon Peak in the Sierra foothills (I can see the red light flashing on it at night).
This is very helpful. Now I will try to transfer this information to my life in the Philippines......
You can also build an antenna. That looks like a four bay array with a plate reflector.
Also remember, height over local terrain counts so an omnidirectional antenna up 50’ with a good low loss coax “might” be a cheap option.
Excellent video. After almost waiting a year for home internet service from T-Mobile, they finally emailed me service was available in my area. I signed up and am waiting for my router in a few days so once I receive it, I will check out the signal for strength. If unsuitable, I will try an antenna as you suggested. Thanks so much!
I have both StarLink and T mobile on my farm. StarLink is consistently faster. T mobile is prone to slow down to very slow speeds when the leaves blossom for the summer and I only show two bars of signal strength. I’ve thought about trying an antenna for it and after watching this video will probably order one.
I have Starlink and love it. I've been using it for over a year. Glad you have a good solution.
T Mobile is advertised as Unlimited but you’re actually deprioritize at 100 GB, I’ve been fighting with them for the past 3 months. I’ve been a customer for over a year. The service is not bad but if you’re in a somewhat populated area just believe you will be deprioritize after 100GB… just saying don’t plan on doing any live streaming anytime soon…
As far as cell phones are concerned they have what is called carrier aggregation, meaning they have the ability to combine different frequencies giving you a better output than your antenna will if your modem does not have carrier aggregation. Hope that makes sense.
I would never use that much data in one month more like 10 GB. And I watch a lot of TH-cam videos. 73
I live in the middle of Tennessee in a rural area. Cell phone service stinks all over the place, but somehow, I have “full bars” in the middle of the woods. Imagining what a nice antenna could do…
Wonder if you'd do a similar video on getting over the air TV? I really enjoyed this topic. Lately I've been thinking about putting in an outdoor antenna. I know there's a "man" TH-cam channel for that 😁, but he doesn't really show the installation process in his video (esp as well as you would). Maybe this is basic knowledge for some, but you always make such good how-to videos. Thank you for what you do.
Yeah.
I totally needed this information!
THANK YOU
As more of us move to very rural area's this kind of stuff should rocket in terms of views. Please keep posting.
Thanks for your advice. I've been interested in T-Mobile's home internet service for the pass six months. My brother-in-law has it in New Orleans, but I live in a rural area that ONLY provides ADSL service between 0-5 mbps download and 0-.72 mbps upload. I posted a question on a local Facebook group asking about people's experiences with T-Mobile in my area. The responses came back very poorly, at best - spotty. But, you have revived my interest in your rural situation. However, being 75 on a fixed income, the cost of the antenna is prohibitive for me.
My question, has anyone made a semi-directional antenna from home materials: wire, electronics components that might work well enough?
I got T-mobile home internet about a year ago. At that time it worked great, 250mbps down, 30mbps up, much better than the comcast I had been using. In recent months though it has gotten much slower and sometimes is just intermittent. I have a suspicion that cell tower congestion might be an issue. Probably more people on T-mobiles 5G network now and they may need to add more cell tower capacity. I’m still mostly happy with it because as an addition to our cell service account it’s only $30/mo. which is probably impossible to beat. Thanks for the video.
That could be a lifesaver for me, I live in a Rural Area.
I hope it helps. Its night and day
Very good video. Where I'm at has NO internet, or so I thought. I tried T-Mobil on a whim and boom, internet. Now three of my brothers us it and I can see me using an external antenna in the very near future.
Keep in mind tho when T-Mobile runs your address if they tell you it’s not available, it technically is there but they don’t allow you to get it in that area specifically cus of bandwidth limitations. So if you put it in an area where it says it’s not available when they run a imei and sim update check it’ll check location and could shut off if not at the proper address when you set it up.
I'm an online gamer and this video was very helpful. Love your channel!
What needs to be discussed is the actual installation including the coax length from the antenna to the T-mobile. The signal losses are high for these frequencies especially if
your mounting the antenna on the roof of your home with long coax runs. You could end up with the gain you might get with the antenna could be lost in the losses of the cable.
You can get larger diameter coax generally offering less loss but that could be problem getting it to where the T-Mobil unit is located. They do sell very expensive smaller diameter cable too. The best case would be the antenna can be
as close to the T-Mobile device as possible, for example the antenna looking through a window (the window will attenuate some signal) or the antenna mounted to the side of a house
with the T-Mobile device with 4-6 feet inside the house.
At least RG6, attention to things like bending radius, deformations of any type, high quality connectors (expensive), etc. Anything less means a Very Short run of cable. As noted, it takes very little to loose antenna gain...very little.
How do I hook up my T-Mobile gateway to the antenna on the roof? I don't see a coaxial cable input from the antenna to my gateway??
Thanks!
Nice vid. Few things.. the beamwidth of your directional there is ok, so a slight change does not mean no Internet. Depending on yagi or log periodic. The router there looks like the huawei cpc2, which most service providers use, so you can check them online. Good antenna company is poynting, brilliant performance. Also have decent cable, because it can reduce your speed massively.
I always thought about this as a possible solution for rural areas. You just confirmed my thoughts.
Very interesting. I have lived in my rural New England town for over 25 years. We are close to five major colleges. Over the last ten or twelve years I noticed houses just being abandoned. I am talking very nice homes. One day I was in the town hall and I ask someone in there what was up with this issue. She told me it was the lack of high speed internet. I had DSL and I was one of the lucky ones. Most had nothing or satellite which worked so so and was fairly expensive for the speeds your were getting. My town had been trying to get internet since I moved there and three years ago it happed. It’s been life changing and all of those abandoned homes have been sold and are looking great. Trying to sell a home without high speed internet is almost like trying to sell a house without electricity. That is why getting high speed internet is so important throughout the country. Thanks for making this video and putting in all the leg work. Many people do not realize how important internet is not only for the user but the seller of a home. I know no high speed is a deal breaker for me, especially now that I know what it can do to your town. Take care and thanks so much.
With a good router (pfsense) you can load balance / failover multiple wans
I have the directional antenna, and I use an old phone that's not in service. I stand next to the mast, and I marked the pole with small dots, and a pipe band with a thin line.
I use a pipe wrench to turn it a tiny bit, and then run speed test.
I do this maybe 6x before I have the best spot located.
I notice a difference from night and day, clouds, and fog from the ocean, to absolutely clear.
They all come back different, and tiny movements are needed to adjust. Within an hour, I can go from full 5G, to low 3G. All because of the change of weather, and time of day.
How do you connect the antenna to the T-Mobile device
Look up Nater Tater here on utube......he shows you how to connect the antenna to the TM device.
As a T-Mobile customer one problem is they don't upgrade their towers in rural mountainous areas. I've been on their Home Internet service waiting list ever since they offered it and still not available in my area. I've had Starlink now for 17 months, it was my only way to a decent internet connection. Starlink will become more available once Starship is in service, it can deploy many more satellites per lift off than the current Falcon 9 rocket.
Great video, is performance impacted by bad weather? (rain, etc.)
Finally. An explanatory video. Keep them coming!!
I went from 12/1 ADSL to 2500/800 fiber. I don't miss ADSL one bit.
Wow! That is amazing. DSL is so bad.
@@SilverCymbal yup, France decided to get with the times. It's 50€ a month too with tv and landline. Another ISP has a 5 and 8gbps plan as well. Most European countries are so affordable for the internet.
The thing about the tower apps, not sure on iPhone side but on the Android side I got one and it worked great, pointed it at the tower it showed, could either show the map or you could show which direction it was pointing, an important thing to note is you also need an app that gives you info about which bands it uses and what bands the antenna supports
I'm curious, are you going to stick with the actual T-Mobile hardware or use a dedicated 5G/LTE Modem that has exposed SMA antenna connectors instead of taking off the shell of the T-Mobile equipment? Also will you be using something like Ubiquiti UniFi (Dream machine) for Wi-Fi
The T-Mobile is free. They just charge for the service.
@@mlhm5 sure, I don't disagree with that. I guess what I'm saying is sometimes service provided equipment isn't as good as third party dedicated equipment is