T-Mobile has launched a new plan today, which it’s calling Home Internet Backup. The name is pretty self-explanatory really, this is a mobile broadband plan that aims to serve you when the ISP of your wired internet fails you.
T-Mobile says it already serves five million customers nationwide with unlimited broadband plans like Home Internet and Home Internet Plus, but those are meant as your primary source of connectivity. The Backup plan, on the other hand, isn’t.
The new plan will cost $30 per month with AutoPay, and if you also have an eligible T-Mobile voice line you can have it for $20 instead for a limited time. The plan comes with 130GB of 5G data per month, which the carrier says is “enough to keep a typical household connected with Wi-Fi for up to seven days a month when their primary internet service goes down”.
You also get a 5G gateway included at no extra cost so you can actually use the plan throughout your home or office, as well as promised “fast and easy setup”, going “from box to browsing in 15 minutes or less”.
T-Mobile says nearly 20% of US internet users have the connection go out “at least a few times a month”, quoting data from CivicScience. So this new plan is meant to save you in those times of need. It’s definitely an interesting launch, this one, where the company basically acknowledges that a lot of people don’t need to have a 5G connection as their primary one, but could still use one when the main wired one goes haywire.
Home Internet Backup will be available on June 6 in T-Mobile stores and online via chat at this website.