I’ve Used 5G Home Internet for Years. It’s Closed the Cable Gap and Is Only Getting Better

I have spent years covering the wireless and home broadband companies and considerable time studying and testing a variety of networks. In the age of 5G, these two worlds have intersected, and for regular users in 2025, this is a great thing that finally brings some much-needed legitimate alternatives and competition. 

After spending the last few months living with several different 5G home internet products, it’s clear that they can compete with traditional broadband for most everyday tasks. It may not be faster than a multi-gig fiber connection, but for most people, it can certainly be more than enough. 

Know the players 

On its website, AT&T promises download speeds between 90 and 300Mbps (higher is better) for its 5G home broadband service (which it calls AT&T Internet Air), with uploads between 8 and 30Mbps. The carrier says that its service’s typical latency, or responsiveness, is between 30-65ms (lower is better). 

T-Mobile promises similar performance with its base T-Mobile Home Internet service that uses a less powerful modem (what it calls Rely Home Internet). Per the FCC’s Broadband Facts listed on its website, users of the Rely base version can expect download speeds between 87 and 318Mbps, uploads between 14 and 56Mbps and latency between 18 and 36ms. 

Stepping up to the higher-priced Amplified plan with the better modem promises a faster download average between 133 and 415Mbps and more responsive latency between 16 and 28ms. These speeds are similar to those of its priciest All-In plan, which has the same modem but throws in a few additional perks, like a Wi-Fi mesh access point and subscriptions to Hulu (with ads) and Paramount Plus Essential for an extra $10 per month.

Speeds for Verizon 5G Home Internet are trickier to figure out as the carrier doesn’t make them easily accessible on its website. Instead, its FAQ encourages people to put in their addresses in order to see which options are available in their areas. In one location I looked at in upstate New York, download speeds were listed as being between 50 and 85Mbps on its base 5G Home plan, with uploads between 5 and 10Mbps and latency between 37 and 57ms. 

Stepping up to the pricier 5G Home Plus plan for an extra $20 per month resulted in download speeds between 85 and 250Mbps and upload speeds between 10 and 20Mbps, as listed in the Broadband Facts. 

T-Mobile and Verizon both include taxes and fees in their respective sticker prices, but AT&T does not. All three carriers offer discounts if you bundle home internet with some of their wireless plans and sign up for things like automatic payments, which could bring the prices down even further. 

For most users, lower speeds should be more than fine

The above speeds may be significantly lower than a comparable plan from a local cable company or fiber provider, depending on where you live. 

T-Mobile’s Rely Home Internet offering without bundled-in wireless service runs $55 per month, which for me is pricier in New York City than getting Spectrum, which is $50 in my apartment building with “typical” download speeds of 551Mbps, upload speeds of 21Mbps and latency of 20ms. 

Promotional pricing would knock it even cheaper, down to $40 per month for a year. This is all good news. 

As 5G networks continue to develop and mature, speeds should only get better and competition should continue to increase. For the last few months, I have been testing and switching between T-Mobile’s base router (which I’ve used for years), its newer router that is included with its pricier plans and AT&T’s Internet Air in New York City. 

All three have easily handled the many tasks that I, my friends and my roommates have thrown at it: From multiple people making video calls and streaming at the same time, to streaming 4K Netflix, watching multiple games at once on YouTube TV and online gaming both a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. All three, just like my prior tests with Verizon’s 5G Home and even millimeter-wave options from companies like Honest Networks, have handled these tasks just fine. 

This is to be expected. Many of the popular services we rely on today are optimized to work across various types of networks and don’t need gigabit connections. Want to stream Netflix in 4K? They recommend a download speed of just 15Mbps. Want to Zoom? A group call needs 4Mbps, while a 1080p one-to-one call needs just 3.8Mbps download and 3Mbps upload. 

Looking to watch YouTube TV? You only need 13Mbps to stream in HD and 25Mbps to watch in 4K. Xbox Cloud Gaming or Sony’s game streaming with PlayStation Plus? Microsoft recommends a minimum speed of 20Mbps for consoles, tablet or PCs for its service, while Sony needs a minimum of 5Mbps to work (and recommends at least 15Mbps for 1080p streaming). 

You don’t want to be at the minimum for an optimal experience, and if you are doing more intensive tasks (particularly something that requires regularly downloading or uploading large files), a cable or fiber connection is almost assuredly still the better option. But assuming you have decent coverage where you live, 5G could be a very capable alternative.  

Is it perfect? No, but it’s getting better

Yes, there have been random moments on 5G home internet where things didn’t seem to work, which I’ve also had with regular cable and fiber internet providers. But in my last few months, those were few and far between and often resolved themselves both on their own and in moments. It was so quick that I didn’t even have time to check if it was a connection issue with the modem or something wrong with my router or the app and device I was using. 

In running various speed and download tests, I also noticed that T-Mobile’s newer equipment performed better than the original Nokia gateway I’ve used since the service’s launch years ago. Downloading games like Marvel Rivals to my Xbox Series X was significantly faster using T-Mobile’s newer gateway, with speeds topping 700Mbps. I also enjoyed playing online games like NBA 2K on the newer gateway, as its connection seemed to be consistently snappier. 

This leads to the best part: Wireless providers aren’t only continually working to improve their 5G networks, but they should also have better 5G gateways rolling out this year. 

T-Mobile told me last year that it will launch a new modem in 2025 that will not only be able to double as a Wi-Fi 7 router but should be able to take advantage of more advanced networking radios to run faster and more efficiently on its 5G network. AT&T is similarly working on new home internet gateways.

And as cable companies react by improving their speeds, performance and offerings – which we’ve seen with recent emphasis on multi-gigabit offerings and faster base tiers – 5G providers will need to answer in kind. 

When added together, this means you can now call your regular provider and give them a real threat to switch to if they can’t lower your bill or improve your service.