T-Mobile vs. Verizon Home Internet

Finding reliable internet at a good price can be a challenge, especially if you live in a rural area. There are likely just a few options, and they may not be particularly compelling. 5G home internet aims to solve this problem by leveraging existing cell towers to beam internet to your home.

Among the providers harnessing the potential of 5G internet, Verizon and T-Mobile are the biggest competitors. These giants offer nearly nationwide networks and impressive speeds, all at a fantastic price. Which is the right option for you?

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet is more straightforward than Verizon. There’s just one plan: $60 per month for speeds of 33–182Mbps. As with Verizon, T-Mobile customers can bundle home internet and cell service for extra savings—$10 to $20 off your bill per month, in this case. This brings the price of T-Mobile Home Internet down to just $40 per month with a qualified mobile plan, which is a fantastic deal for high-speed internet.

Verizon offers two plans for its 5G home internet, called 5G Home and 5G Home Plus. Both plans offer unlimited data so you can browse and stream as much as you like. The differences lie in speed and price. 

Verizon 5G Home packs speeds up to 300Mbps and starts at $60 per month, while Verizon 5G Home Plus ups the speed to 1,000Mbps for $80 per month. This makes 5G Home Plus a direct competitor with many top-tier cable and fiber plans—something we haven't really seen before in a wireless internet service. It’s certainly much faster than the average satellite service.

Many internet service providers also offer TV or home phone services, which customers can bundle together to save some money. Since Verizon 5G is based on mobile internet tech, you have the option to bundle with cell service. 

Customers with qualifying Verizon unlimited cell plans can reduce the price of the 5G Home plan from $60 to $25 per month and the 5G Home Plus plan from $80 down to $35 per month. That makes it—by far—the best deal you can find on 1,000Mbps internet. You can get the reduced price with these qualifying plans:

• 5G Do More
• 5G Play More
• 5G Get More
• One Unlimited for iPhone

At first glance, this comparison is pretty straightforward—Verizon seems to just be faster than T-Mobile. Even the slower plan offered by Verizon handily beats T-Mobile Home Internet’s top advertised speeds (advertised being the key word), while Verizon’s faster option rivals some cable and fiber providers. 

Here’s the breakdown:

Now, this isn’t quite as simple as that. Essentially, T-Mobile advertises the average speeds of its actual customers, whereas Verizon advertises the maximum possible speed of a plan—not necessarily the real-world speed you’ll see. This creates a situation where T-Mobile looks much slower, but in reality the two should perform relatively evenly, given the infrastructure in your area is comparable.

Beyond these simple comparisons, it’s also important to note that when you sign up for Verizon’s 5G service, you get 5G. The 4G LTE service is a separate option for areas without 5G coverage. 

T-Mobile, on the other hand, uses LTE as a fallback in areas where there’s little or no 5G, but lumps it all under the same service and plan. This is one of the reasons T-Mobile’s speeds seem to have so much variance.

This race is a bit closer. Both providers are fairly close to nationwide availability, although there’s a lot of variance in what speeds are available in a given location. This makes them both excellent off-grid internet options. 

Verizon’s fastest speeds are clustered around major metropolitan areas, where it has deployed infrastructure for the fast 5G Ultra Wideband technology. Areas with poor 5G coverage need to opt for the slower LTE Home Internet service. 

T-Mobile, on the other hand, lumps both 5G and 4G LTE connections under the Home Internet branding and fills in 5G coverage gaps with LTE in a more seamless manner. Theoretically, this also means that certain areas could see upgraded speeds with no disruption to service, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

The bottom line, though, is that there’s a good chance that one or both of these providers offer some form of home internet service where you live.

Verizon and T-Mobile both offer unlimited data, so you can stream and download as much as you want without worrying about throttling or overage fees. Best of all, this perk is included at no additional charge—unlike some other providers. 

Both providers include a wireless modem/router at no additional cost, as well. These are fairly basic units in terms of features, but they handle the job of converting 5G signals into Wi-Fi well, and they easily support the speeds offered by your plan across multiple devices. 

The routers both support the Wi-Fi 6 wireless standard. If we have to pick one over another, T-Mobile’s unit looks much better than Verizon’s weird square router.

Both Verizon and T-Mobile offer excellent home internet plans. Speeds are fast (particularly with Verizon), and prices are low. Ultimately, we think choosing one over the other comes down to which cell provider you have—if you have Verizon, go with Verizon. And likewise for T-Mobile. This ensures that you get the best price (and thus, best bang for your buck). 

In cases where that’s not possible for some reason (say, you have AT&T or another provider for phone) we recommend Verizon for most people. Although it costs a bit more, you get faster speeds and more value for your money overall.