T-Mobile says $30/month “backup” 5G is the solution to home Internet outages

T-Mobile is hoping that home Internet customers who suffer from frequent service outages will pay $30 a month for a “backup” 5G plan. T-Mobile’s new “Home Internet Backup,” announced today, is intended to be used only when a user’s primary home Internet service goes down.

One big drawback is that T-Mobile clearly intends for customers to subscribe to the $30 monthly plan indefinitely, even though a user likely wouldn’t need it during some months and might need it for just a day or two in other months. The pricing terms make it so that canceling and resubscribing as needed is not feasible.

T-Mobile said the plan provides 130GB of 5G data each month, “enough to keep a typical household connected with Wi-Fi for up to seven days a month when their primary internet service goes down.” After 130GB, speeds will be reduced to “up to” 600kbps.

Many people already use their mobile phones as hotspots when their primary Internet service goes out. However, the T-Mobile backup plan is similar to the company’s standard wireless home Internet service in that it uses a 5G gateway device to create a Wi-Fi network.

T-Mobile says its 5G Home Internet plans are available to over 50 million homes nationwide. The US has about 131 million households. T-Mobile said customers can order Home Internet Backup starting on June 6 at this link, which hasn’t gone live yet.

T-Mobile’s pitch

T-Mobile’s pitch for the backup plan says that many home Internet users suffer from outages a few times a month. “It’s something nearly everyone has experienced—at the most inconvenient time, the Internet goes down and all productivity is lost,” the company announcement said. “With T-Mobile’s new Home Internet Backup plan, cable and fiber Internet customers can get peace of mind knowing they have a way to stay online during those unexpected outages.”

T-Mobile said the required 5G gateway is “included at no extra cost,” but there is a “$35 device connection charge due at sale.” There’s no annual contract, but there also isn’t the kind of flexibility that would make it convenient to cancel and re-subscribe as needed. T-Mobile confirmed to Ars today that if you cancel, you have to send the gateway back, and resubscribing would require paying the $35 connection charge again.

“Customers will need to return their gateway to T-Mobile if they cancel service, and if they decide to sign up again will need to pay the Device Connection Charge,” a T-Mobile spokesperson told us.

The $30 price requires enrolling in automatic payments, and it costs $35 if you’re not enrolled in autopay. T-Mobile said that wireless customers with “an eligible T-Mobile voice line” can subscribe to Home Internet Backup for $20 a month “for a limited time.”

Another drawback is that when the network is congested, T-Mobile Home Internet plans are on a lower prioritization level than other T-Mobile plans. “During congestion, customers on these plans may notice speeds lower than other customers,” T-Mobile said.

The backup plan is effectively another tier of T-Mobile’s 5G Home Internet, which is $60 a month with autopay as a standalone service or as low as $40 a month when bundled with mobile lines. The existing version that’s advertised as a primary home Internet service comes with 1.2TB of high-speed 5G data.

T-Mobile doesn’t limit the number of days the backup service can be used, so it would be possible to use it as a primary home Internet service if you stay under 130GB a month. “Home Internet Backup comes with 130GB of 5G data and is meant to be a backup service when people experience outages from their primary ISP. Customers can use the service every day of the month if needed, and once their 130GB of data is used their speeds will be reduced to 600kbps until the start of their next billing cycle,” T-Mobile told Ars.

T-Mobile Home Internet can be installed without a technician as the router-modem gateway just connects to the 5G network. T-Mobile sends the gateway to new customers with two-day shipping.