✅ There Is Only One WINNER! - T-Mobile vs Verizon 5G Home Internet - Some Work Better Than Others

Here's the pros, cons and differences of these 5G fixed wireless cellular home internet offerings from Verizon and T-Mobile. I compare Verizon's 4G LTE, Verizon's 5G C-Band and UWB and the T-Mobile 5G home internet gateways and service. I cover the T-Mobile Nokia "trashcan" and the Arcadyan KVD21 "darth vader". I compare the services of each of these devices and give some first hand experience of their performance for things like speed, ping, consistency, VPN, VoIP, gateway settings, port forwarding, unlimited data, gaming, streaming and geolock. All of these are "fixed wireless" home internet solutions and are intended to remain at your service address (home) but I test whether these can be moved and still work and how you can sign up for the service when your home address "isn't available".

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The one I test here is the MOFI5500-5GXeLTE-EM9191

Be sure to see my other Verizon and T-Mobile Home Internet Videos:

#verizon #5g #tmobile #mmWave #fixedwireless #speedtest #comparison

[isaacsaw]

I’m in a great area for both services -5G UC for TMo and 5G UW for Verizon. I have tested three gateways - Nokia, Arcadyan for TMO and the small white cube for Verizon. Verizon wins hands down on consistency and bluffer-bloat management meaning I have no issues with competitive gaming even while someone else streams Netflix for example. Verizon gives me me a solid 300 down / 20 up no matter the time of day. TMobile had better overall speeds -I got anywhere from 300-6/700 down and 40 up and it was a solid connection BUT anytime I tried to game while my wife was watching Netflix, the lag on the gaming was terrible. I’ve done numerous and repeated bluffer-bloat tests on waveform for both services and Verizon was always a solid “A” for me while TMO was generally a “D” or “F”. If T-Mobile can resolve the bluffer-bloat issue, they’d have a winner. I decided to keep Verizon.

[faithfulec]

We had T-MOBILE FOR ABOUT 2 YEARS. We are loving it. Connections are great . I used to have Verizon and att. Had to cancel the service because I live close to beach and lots of trees around it. Plus they are expensive. T-MOBILE straight $50.00 never up of price. Straight $50.00, plus it is unlimited internet never SLOW DOWN. I LOVE MY T-MOBILE. I REALLY DO LOVE T-MOBILE.

[righteousone]

I've had T-Mobile (Nokia) for 5 months and I honestly couldn't be more happier coming from Comcast!
I've had to power it on/off weekly the first month because the internet would freeze but after that I've never had any issues.
Verizon might be faster but it's always been more expensive.

[derrickmd]

i had comcast and I was getting 1gb service for over 100 bucks a month. verizon 5gmm wave they installed a tower 1 house down from me and i'm getting 1.629GB of speed and 400mb of upload for 70 a month. :-) I canceled comcast.

[BudFuddlacker]

I was shipped a Nokia Gateway when I first signed up. I constantly had multiple error messages, always had to reset, non-stop unproductive time-sucking calls to customer service for outages…..they replaced with another Nokia—all the same problems. They sent me yet another Nokia——AGAIN all the same problems. I called and ‘demanded’ an Arcadyan gateway or I was going to cancel. They sent me the Arcadyan and I haven’t had a single problem since. I think it really depends on your area/tower/bands which one works better. If you’re having a lot of problems with the Nokia and want to cancel, I would give the Arcadyan a try first

[frank-bmtz]

Interesting fact based on my experience. I had the Arcadayn gateway (regular T-Mobile home internet plan) and now I have the Nokia Gateway and signed up for the small business internet plan and my performance has been a lot better and more consistent. I had the Arcadayn unit replaced three different times, and so far I'm super happy with the Nokia gateway.

[JRPittman]

I had the old T-mobile “trash can” gateway for a year and was happy with it until the end of March 2022 when two storms hit a week apart. The local tower stopped broadcasting 5G and the signal strength of the LTE dropped by half. T-mobileswears there is nothing wrong with the tower, but after 2 1/2 months of only having internet by hotspot off my phone I had to turn in the gateway and cancel my service. Until that point it was great having wireless internet. After Hurricane Ida last year we had internet as soon as we started a generator. That cable lines were torn up for weeks.

Verizon home internet is not available in my area.

[NEAJ]

I have both the T-mobile trashcan and the Verizon C-band cube (non-plus plan). Ignoring that I had to add external antennas to the T-mobile gateway to get good speeds (n41), I prefer the Verizon cube for several reasons.
1. Although the T-mobile gateway can get over 400Mbps at off times, at peak times it may fall below 200. The Verizon gateway is actively limited to 300Mbps and it is that speed every time (it peaks close to 400, but then you see the speed limit in work as it drops to 300). I'd much rather have the consistent speed of the Verizon gateway of 300 down, 20 up every time.
2. The T-mobile trashcan will jump from a decent 4G primary signal on B66 (at -99dBm) to band B2 at -109dBm. When it does that, I don't get n41. I have to restart the trashcan once or several times to get back to n41 (b66/n41)
3. Minor point, but the Verizon cube looks better than the trashcan

T-mobile takes the win for me on ping.... often 15-19mS. Verizon ping is not bad and usually in the low to high 20mS. I get an "A" grade on the buffer bloat test on Verizon.
We are fairly rural (propane tanks and septic tanks, but <10 minutes out of town) with lots of open fields in the area so I thought I won the jackpot when I saw Verizon UW was available to me. I found out (a Verizon tech gave me a street name) that Verizon put a cell site in a big nursery across the valley. No tower in site so it must be something on a pole or green house.
I use T-mobile as a backup/failover internet source (dual WAN router). I'd be paying $100 on Starlink if that ever materialized so I don't mind paying $100 to have good internet and a backup ($50 each service). I paid $50/month for 5Mbps / 0.6Mbps DSL so I am living it up streaming 4K.
Thanks for the great videos Nate. I wondered if you would come back to do more on the Verizon gateway(s) since it seemed to work better for you than T-mobile.

[carolanderson]

Other then a 2 week period where I was only getting 50Mbps down I've been averaging 200 to 300 Mbps. Something today though has changed, (for the good) today I'm getting 600Mbps down with upload speed of 60Mbps. My trashcan has been rock solid. With my employee discount TMHI is 30 dollars a month cheaper then the local cable co. 6 months in very satisfied with TMHI.

[KhunJH]

Thanks for your video on this. Previously I had the T-Mobile black color, but probably the previous model. It barely did ok, using a small computer cooling fan and getting it pointed in an exact specific location for best speed. I bought the external antenna system you recommended, HOWEVER. On the fourth and last internal wire...I broke the terminal on the circuit card. I gave up, reassembled it, and fortunately it continued to work, so that particular wire must've been an internal antenna that I didn't need. I returned the external antenna kit back to Amazon (I used your link when I ordered). A few months later, I left for extended travel and canceled and returned the T-Mobile router. I never heard a word about the broken wire...it was just loose inside the router and not connected. Fast forward, I'm returning soon and need a service again. I think the new silver color T-Mobile will be better for me at the same location as two years ago. Do you have a vid and recommended external antenna that is specific to the newer silver color T-Mobile? Thanks for your help and reply.

[Kodihi]

Yep got the 5g home internet and it is absolutely fantastic. Left Xfinity the same day.

[tolust]

Hey Nate " tool man " Tater, I tape my finger on the LIKE button on all your videos ;)

[BTimmer]

I've been on TMHI (Nokia) for 5 months in the south Seattle area. It's been terrific with download speeds generally in excess of 130mpbs and uploads from 4 to 18 and latency in the mid 30's. I only can get 2 bars no matter which direction I face it. It's been fabulous saving $100/month compared to Comcast. We did have to subscribe to YTube TV to get local TV stations as we live right under the approach to a major international airport and we couldn't get satisfactory over the air TV signals.

[catnipkitty]

Im really happy with Tmobile internet. I have never been impressed with Verizons customer service so that tips the scale for me.

[jamesmelone]

I just got Verizon 5 g internet and it’s been fantastic so far no complaints what’s so ever.

[Just_Manny]

Curious to know, do any of these services throttle your speed in high usage situations like they do to our cell phones when we’re at a major event?

[asianstud]

Loved all your videos on the subject of 5g Home internet so far. Thank you for your through reviews and hard work!!

[gperz]

Love the unbiased review! They should throw in a deal for your honest thoughts though!!

[roncraft]

With any cell signal, the location is normally the deciding factor. Neither is inherently superior. Some places T-Mobile is king and in other places Verizon is king. If they are both good where you are, then decide for yourself which will best serve your needs. Personally, I have T-Mobile and I’m very happy. My home internet connection is to band n41. I have another T-Mobile hotspot that connects to n71. They default to each other so I never have a loss of service.

[Jeffisright]

Great video! I’ve had the T-Mobile 5G for a little over a week now. So far it’s been reliable. Verizon 5G home internet is not available in my area at the moment, so it’s not an option. I also currently still have my Spectrum internet because I want to make sure my T-Mobile 5G is reliable before I go to the trouble of canceling it. I can also get AT&T fiber too. But for the moment, I’m going for the cheapest, which is T-Mobile at $50 month. It is $25 a month cheaper than Spectrum, I’ve been promised a $50 prepaid Mastercard if I keep it 2 months and I get Paramount+ free for one year and $10 a month off my Philo streaming service for one year. I’ve experienced Wi-Fi speeds with the 5G T-Mobile in the 100-500 mbps range, but it’s more consistent at around mid 200. Honestly, I don’t check it anymore. As long as I’m streaming HD with no problems and not having issues with my other connected devices I’m happy. Not had to reboot or unplug the gateway I was sent like others have stated yet. Time will tell. If Verizon opens up in my area I will give it a try. But I believe the cell tower no more than a quarter of a mile near me does have 5G on it because all but the last bar is constant with my gateway. Honestly, Verizon has always sucked in my area and I live in the city. AT&T is currently my cell service because their speeds have always been very reliable and very fast. Verizon will really have to step up their game for me to try them, because it’s all about data speeds for me, in cell phone and certainly now with 5G internet starting up around my area.