{"id":4877,"date":"2026-05-09T19:22:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/?p=4877"},"modified":"2026-05-09T19:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:22:48","slug":"minternet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/2026\/05\/minternet\/","title":{"rendered":"Minternet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years now I have been using Xfinity internet. I stopped using them<\/a> for cable in 2018, but they were generally less expensive for internet than AT&T who seem to have set a minimum cost of $50 for any service, whereas Xfinity had intro deals I was able to renew for $30 to $40 per month for their lowest speed, which is all I needed. Last year they wanted $45 (for 150 Mbps), but I found out that T Mobile was doing home internet via 5G (no cable, just a receiver in your house that makes a wifi hotspot) which I could get for $35 per month. Xfinity then matched that, so I kept them. Then my internet connection started getting spotty this year and I wondered if I was at the end of my contract. I was and was now being charged $59. I don’t think it was related though. I think either my cable came loose outside or my modem, which I bought so I wouldn’t have to rent one from them, had stopped working correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good time to look at options and I found that my cell provider, Mint<\/a>, who was bought out by T Mobile in 2024, now offers home internet similar to T Mobile, where you put a 5G receiver in your house and it broadcasts wifi. Mint only charges me $15 per month for cell service (plus fees, so almost $20), but you have to pay for a year at a time to get the best rate. No problem since I have been with them for 8 years now. They do the internet the same way and offer it for $30 per month if you get a year at a time (this is a discount that requires you to also have cell service with them). And, in fact, it seems to just be T Mobile. Although the box it came in had Mint labeling, the device itself (pre-owned) says T Mobile on it. I figured I would give it a shot and then I wouldn’t have to haggle with Xfinity every year. You get to try it for 2 weeks and can return it for a refund if you don’t like it. Meanwhile I had no internet for a few days until it showed up and quickly burned through my 5 GB cell data allowance from Mint, so I paid $20 for 3 more GB this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got the receiver yesterday. They suggest putting it near a window to get the clearest reception. The router does Wifi 6, so it actually covers most of the house pretty well and brodcasts 2.4 and 5 GHz, I think. They don’t want to worry you with details, so all you can really set yourself is the network name and password. My old router had a guest network option that I used for my smart plugs (and guests, I suppose), but that isn’t an option. It also didn’t seem to be an option to turn off the wifi from the T Mobile receiver and send everything to my own router (bridge mode).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I plugged it in by the window and logged in on my iPad to check the internet speed and was quite surprised that it was 500 Mbps. People say that the speed changes depending on how busy the local cell gets and maybe weather can play a factor too, so we’ll see. I think it will generally be less, because I just ran a test on my phone and it was down to 300 Mbps. I then changed the network name and password and started training all my devices to use the new network, which is kind of complicated because it isn’t just my computers, iPad, and phone, but also the 7 smart plugs<\/a>, and two TV’s, the Tablo for local TV broadcasts, and even my car. To get the maximum internet speed to the TV I had connected it directly with an ethernet cable from my old router, but I think it should work just fine with wifi now. That means a few less cables behind the TV. I still connected my home server<\/a> to the T Mobile router with an ethernet cable because I don’t think it does wifi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven’t canceled Xfinity just yet, but probably by Tuesday if everything continues to work well with Mint\/T Mobile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years now I have been using Xfinity internet. I stopped using them for cable in 2018, but they were generally less expensive for internet than AT&T who seem to have set a minimum cost of $50 for any service, whereas Xfinity had intro deals I was able to renew for $30 to $40 per … Continue reading “Minternet”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4878,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877\/revisions\/4878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}