Forum Discussion
How hard is it for a non-tech person to switch to TMobile home internet?
Up front, I am a "senior citizen" and non-technical. But I can still read a bill, and I really want to switch to TMobile home internet to save money. We have not had any options in Tampa, FL besides Spectrum and Frontier until recently. Constant outages, prices always going up, everything bundled and "on promo," promos expiring, and they are shifting their interest to business customers. We are retirees who go online with 4G TMobile phones, do email, have a laptop we don't use, and stream Netflix and Hulu TV with Roku TV. We don't even watch the TV that comes with cable. So compared to most people's our setup is primitive. But we do need something reliable. We have had decent customer service for phone issues (usually ended up going down to the store). The store has already told us any internet performance issues would have to be handled by the call center or website (is this true?), and the internet specialist at the call center said they can't discuss TV, only internet (although they did offer to sell me a new phone.) Installing apps, connecting equipment, moving channels around will be challenging, but possibly huge cost savings ($50/mo and if you bundle with the TM phone plan for age 55+ which we noe have, it is further discounted to $40). Would appreciate any advice or feedback. Please do not hesitate to dumb it down. Gracias.
Its not that difficult. One of the more time consuming parts is trying to find the best location for the gateway. There is plenty of info available on how to do that. Set up is done via the app. Once you complete setup you will need to reconnect any devices to the new network. Things like your Roku and your phones. They will all require the new network name and password to connect. If you use your cable companies modem as a router as well it will be very similar. If you have a separate router, for simplicities sake it will be easier to use the T-Mobile gateway for wifi access and not try to connect a router.
Also, since there is no contract you have nothing to lose by trying it. Get the gateway, set it up and try it out before you cancel your cable. That way you can be sure everything works to your satisfaction.
BTW, I'm 74 but with an IT background, so its not all exactly new stuff for me. Any questions or if things don't work as you'd hoped, just come back here and ask.
How non-technical are you? Cave person seeing a toilet for the first time? :P It's pretty straight firward. If you can use a smartphone, then setting up T-Mobile Internet should be something you can do.
I was in relatively the same boat as you. My setup was a nightmare and half of that was dealing with the inexperienced and just insanely stupid questions the "tech support" asked and asked me to do. Short story, 2 gateways, 5 days and countless hour long calls and i have to return everything because their service does NOT have coverage in my area despite all the testimonials from tmobile to the contrary. Tech support would be better if they bothered to actually LISTEN. example from first day: I am asked for the imei which i provide. They half listen and ask for it again. I provide again. The next day back with tech support. Same person. Who again asks for imei. I provide it a third time and support says its not right. Not what was on their records. Why didnt you say that yesterday? They put customers through so many hoops including having me buy a new sim card at a tmobile retailer as the sim provided wasnt reading . I try that and no dice. They have me opening the gateway and checking the pre installed sim, then doing it again and describe step by step what I am doing. I told them I wanted assurances me opening up the gateway wouldnt void my warrant. I got no such assurance so I try everything I can for days and all I get is "sorry for the inconvenience". By this point inconvenience was about 4 days ago. After 8 years i think I am finally ready to look for a new carrier.
