Starlink and T-Mobile Home Internet get compared constantly because they’re the two names people hear when cable doesn’t reach the driveway. But they solve different problems. T-Mobile beams internet from the nearest cell tower to a small box by your window. Starlink pulls it down from low-orbit satellites to a dish that needs a clear view of the sky. Which one wins depends far less on the brand than on three things about your address: how strong the T-Mobile signal is indoors, how open your sky is, and how much you’re willing to pay each month for the next few years.
We went through both companies’ FCC broadband labels, plan fine print and the latest independent speed data, then ran the multi-year math so you can see what each one really costs. Below you’ll find the honest trade-offs, a cost planner, a test plan that uses both free trial windows, and a clear answer for your situation, whether you work from home, game, live off a gravel road, rent an apartment or travel full time.
Eight Straight Answers Before You Order Anything
These are the questions we see most from people choosing between the two. Short answers first; the detail is further down.
T-Mobile, nearly always. Its plans start at $50 a month with AutoPay and include the gateway. Starlink starts at $55 for a 100 Mbps-capped plan and adds hardware, either $349 to buy or a monthly kit fee.
On national medians, T-Mobile. Ookla measured about 223 Mbps for T-Mobile’s home service versus about 130 Mbps for Starlink in its most recent U.S. satellite figures. At a single address, either can win.
T-Mobile lists typical latency of 16 to 28 milliseconds; Starlink lists 25 to 60. Both handle calls well. For competitive gaming, a strong T-Mobile signal usually feels snappier.
Sometimes. T-Mobile sells it only where it decides the tower has spare capacity. Rural speeds tend to be lower than urban ones, so check your exact address, not just your ZIP code.
T-Mobile guarantees its internet rate for five years, excluding taxes and fees. Starlink has no price lock and raised residential plans by $5 to $10 a month in June, including for existing customers.
Not on the home plans. T-Mobile restricts its home gateway to your registered address, and Starlink Residential doesn’t support in-motion use. For travel, look at Starlink Roam with a Mini, or T-Mobile’s separate AWAY plan.
Neither has a hard cap on home plans. But T-Mobile home users can be slowed during congestion, and further if they use more than 1.2 TB a month. Starlink’s cheapest tier is deprioritized at busy times.
Yes. T-Mobile offers a 15-day money-back test drive, and Starlink offers a 30-day trial when you order directly from Starlink. Overlap them and test at 8 p.m., when networks are busiest.
What You’re Actually Buying With Each One
Most bad experiences with either service trace back to one misunderstanding about how it works. Here’s the plain version.
T-Mobile Home Internet is your phone network, aimed at your house. It’s what the industry calls fixed wireless. A gateway, which combines a modem and Wi-Fi router, picks up T-Mobile’s 5G or 4G LTE signal and turns it into Wi-Fi. You plug it in, find the spot in your home with the best signal, and you’re online in about 15 minutes. There’s no dish, no drilling and no technician. T-Mobile says the service is available to about 70 million households, but availability is address-specific: the company only sells it where it believes the local tower can handle more traffic. It ended last year with roughly 8.5 million 5G broadband customers.
The catch is that you share the tower with phone users and other home internet customers, and phone customers come first. T-Mobile’s fine print says home internet users may see lower speeds than other customers during congestion. That’s why two homes a mile apart can have very different experiences.
Starlink is a dish that talks to satellites a few hundred miles up. Because the satellites orbit much lower than old-style satellite internet, the delay is short enough for video calls and most gaming. The dish needs a wide, clear view of the sky. Trees, roof peaks and neighboring buildings cause brief dropouts that show up as frozen video calls, even if a speed test looks fine. Starlink has close to 3 million U.S. customers and sells service nearly everywhere in the lower 48, but it manages crowded areas by charging a one-time congestion fee or marking a region as sold out.
When we lined up both companies’ terms side by side, the clearest difference wasn’t speed. It was who controls your experience. With T-Mobile, the tower and how many neighbors use it set your ceiling, and you can’t do much beyond moving the gateway. With Starlink, your own installation matters a lot: a better mounting spot can turn a frustrating connection into a good one.
The True Cost: Monthly Price, Hardware and the Fees Nobody Mentions
Sticker prices hide the real gap. Once you add hardware, fees and how long each price is likely to last, the difference grows.
T-Mobile Home Internet plans
T-Mobile sells three main home plans. Rely is $50 a month with AutoPay, with typical downloads of 133 to 354 Mbps on its FCC label. Amplified is $60 and opens up T-Mobile’s fastest available speeds, typically 170 to 498 Mbps, plus a Wi-Fi 7 gateway. All-In is $70 and adds a mesh extender on request, a security suite, 24/7 tech support, Hulu with ads and Paramount+ Essential, plus a gateway upgrade after three years. Without AutoPay, each plan costs $10 more.
If you have a qualifying T-Mobile postpaid voice line, T-Mobile applies a monthly bill credit of up to $20, which can bring Rely down to around $30. Read that fine print carefully: the credit stops if you cancel a line or change plans. Expect a one-time $35 device connection charge and a $2.60 monthly regulatory and telco recovery fee on internet-only accounts. If you leave, return the gateway undamaged or you can be charged up to $370.
Starlink residential plans
Starlink now sells three residential tiers after a price rise that took effect with June billing. Residential 100 Mbps is $55 a month and caps downloads at 100 Mbps. Residential 200 Mbps is $85 and caps at 200 Mbps. Residential Max is $130 with the network’s top residential priority and advertised speeds of up to 400 Mbps or more. The two capped tiers are only offered in select areas, so some addresses see only the $130 plan at checkout.
Hardware is where Starlink gets complicated. The Standard Kit lists at $349 to buy, while many new residential orders show $0 upfront with a $10 monthly kit fee instead, and some low-demand areas get free or discounted hardware. Starlink’s higher tiers have included perks such as professional installation and a Mini add-on at many addresses. In crowded regions, a one-time congestion charge applies to new orders; reports put it anywhere from about $100 to as high as $1,500 in the most strained areas. You’ll only see your number at checkout with your exact address.
Two things jump out from that chart. First, Starlink’s cheapest plan is close to T-Mobile’s priciest one over three years, but it delivers at most 100 Mbps, while T-Mobile’s Amplified plan reaches much higher. Second, the gap probably understates reality, because T-Mobile’s rate is locked for five years while Starlink’s is not. SpaceX has historically changed prices in both directions, but the June increase applied to existing customers too. If you budget for Starlink, leave room for another bump.
The guarantee has limits worth knowing. T-Mobile’s five-year promise covers the price of the internet data on an eligible plan. It excludes taxes and fees, voluntary upgrades, third-party services and network management practices, and it doesn’t restart if you change plans. In plain terms: your $50 stays $50, but the company can still manage your speed during busy periods.
Speed, Upload and Lag: What the Numbers Actually Say
There are two kinds of speed numbers out there: what each company promises on its FCC label, and what independent testing measures across thousands of homes. You need both.
Download speed favors T-Mobile on average, but averages hide your street. Ookla’s latest fixed wireless report put T-Mobile’s median download at 222.7 Mbps, well ahead of AT&T and Verizon. Starlink’s U.S. median sat at about 130 Mbps in Ookla’s most recent satellite data, with every state except Alaska above 100 Mbps. Starlink shines in flat, open, rural states; Nebraska posted a median above 200 Mbps in the second half of last year. T-Mobile, by contrast, is generally stronger in towns and cities. Ookla found rural fixed wireless users get lower speeds and higher latency than urban ones, and about 70% of fixed wireless test samples now come from urban users.
Upload speed is the quiet deal-breaker. If you upload video, back up photos, or spend hours on camera, this matters more than download. T-Mobile’s labels show typical uploads of 12 to 55 Mbps, but Ookla’s measured median was 18.1 Mbps in the second quarter, down about 21% from the first quarter. Starlink lists typical uploads around 35 to 40 Mbps depending on plan. By the end of last year, about 45% of Starlink users in Ookla’s data met the FCC’s 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload broadband benchmark, up from about 17% at the start of that year. For fixed wireless overall, fewer than 40% of users met that bar in 48 states.
The seasonal dip is real for T-Mobile. Ookla attributed the spring-to-summer decline across all three fixed wireless providers largely to leaves growing back on trees, which absorb cellular signals near homes. If you sign up in winter, your summer speeds may be lower. Starlink suffers from trees too, but differently: leaves block its view of the sky rather than weaken a signal through walls.
Both networks are shared, so both slow down when everyone streams at once. An earlier Ookla analysis of T-Mobile’s home service found the slowest 10% of users dropping to around 13.5 Mbps at 8 p.m. Starlink’s congestion shows up as evening slowdowns too, especially on the deprioritized Residential 100 plan. Run your tests between 7 and 10 p.m. on a weeknight, not at noon on a Saturday.
Starlink vs T-Mobile Home Internet, Side by Side
Every row below comes from the companies’ plan terms, FCC broadband labels or Ookla’s published data. On a phone, the table switches to stacked cards.
| Feature | T-Mobile Home Internet | Starlink Residential |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $50 / $60 / $70 with AutoPay | $55 / $85 / $130 |
| With phone bundle | Up to $20/mo credit with a voice line | No phone bundle from Starlink |
| Hardware | Gateway included | $349 kit or $10/mo rental; varies by area |
| One-time charges | $35 device connection charge | Congestion charge in busy areas |
| Price protection | 5-year price guarantee | None; raised $5–$10 in June |
| Typical download | 133–354 Mbps (Rely); 170–498 Mbps (others) | Capped at 100 or 200; up to ~400 on Max |
| Median download (Ookla) | 222.7 Mbps | ~130 Mbps |
| Typical upload | 12–55 Mbps; median 18.1 | About 35–40 Mbps listed |
| Typical latency | 16–28 ms | 25–60 ms |
| Data rules | Unlimited; slowed in congestion, more past 1.2 TB | Unlimited; Res. 100 deprioritized at peaks |
| Installation | Indoor, about 15 minutes | Outdoor dish, clear sky needed |
| Where it works | Only where T-Mobile has tower capacity | Almost anywhere with open sky |
| Use away from home | Locked to registered address | Residential can’t be used in motion |
| Trial | 15-day money-back test drive | 30-day trial (direct orders) |
| Contract | None; $0 early termination fee | None on standard plans |
Cost Planner: Your Total Over the Years You’ll Keep It
Pick a plan from each side, how long you’ll stay, and the extras that apply to you. The planner shows both totals and the gap.
Estimates before sales tax. Your checkout price at your address is the final word.
How the planner works: T-Mobile totals use the AutoPay price, add $10 a month without AutoPay, subtract a $20 monthly credit when you have a qualifying voice line, add the one-time $35 connection charge, and add the $2.60 monthly fee for internet-only accounts. The price stays flat because of the five-year guarantee. Starlink totals use the current plan price, the hardware choice you pick, your congestion charge if any, and an optional yearly increase so you can stress-test the budget. We built the optional increase in because June’s change showed existing customers aren’t shielded.
With the defaults, Amplified versus Residential 200 over three years, T-Mobile comes out well over a thousand dollars cheaper while advertising higher typical speeds. Flip Starlink to the $55 plan with a free kit and the gap narrows sharply, which is exactly the kind of address-level deal that makes checking both checkouts worth five minutes.
Reliability: What Knocks Each One Offline
Neither service fails the way cable does. They fail in their own ways, and knowing which ones apply to your home is the best predictor of whether you’ll be happy.
Weather. Starlink’s dish melts snow on its own surface, but heavy downpours and wet snow can still interrupt the link for short stretches. Cellular signals are much less bothered by weather, but storms that knock out tower power or the tower’s fiber line can take T-Mobile down for your whole area. In hurricane, wildfire and ice-storm regions, the two services often fail for different reasons at different times, which is why some households keep both.
Power. This one surprises people. Starlink’s current Standard dish is rated at roughly 75 to 100 watts in use, more when it’s melting snow, and the router adds more. A T-Mobile gateway is a small indoor box. If you plan to ride out outages on a battery backup or a small generator, you’ll get much longer runtime from the gateway, and with T-Mobile the tower usually has its own backup power. The Starlink Mini is far more frugal, rated at around 25 to 40 watts, which is why off-grid households and RVers favor it.
Network-wide outages. Starlink has had rare global disruptions, including a roughly two-and-a-half-hour outage last summer that the company blamed on a failure of internal core-network software. Cellular networks have had their own national outages too. Neither company is immune; plan for a backup if your income depends on being online.
Which One Fits Your Situation?
Find the card that sounds like your household. Each one names the plan to start with and the trap to avoid.
Start with T-Mobile Rely at $50, or about $30 if you already pay for a qualifying T-Mobile phone line. The five-year guarantee makes it one of the few internet bills you can actually plan around. If T-Mobile isn’t offered, Starlink Residential 100 at $55 is the budget satellite choice, but check whether your address shows a free or rental kit before paying $349 upfront. T-Mobile also markets phone-and-internet bundles for customers 55 and older; ask about them if that applies.
Upload consistency is what keeps you from freezing mid-sentence. Test both during your real meeting hours. A strong T-Mobile signal with low latency is excellent, but a weak indoor signal can leave evening uploads in the single digits. Starlink typically offers steadier upload in open rural areas, as long as the dish has a clean view of the sky; even a single tree branch in the field of view can cause second-long dropouts that wreck calls. If you choose Starlink, the Residential 200 tier avoids the peak-time deprioritization on the $55 plan.
T-Mobile’s typical 16 to 28 ms latency gives it the edge when the signal is strong. Starlink’s 25 to 60 ms is perfectly playable for most titles, but satellite handoffs can cause small, periodic spikes that competitive players notice. For either one, plug your console or PC into the router with an Ethernet cable rather than relying on Wi-Fi.
This is Starlink’s home turf, and it’s where the higher price earns its keep. If T-Mobile’s address check comes back unavailable, or the bars on your phone are weak at home, don’t try to force fixed wireless. Get Starlink, mount it where it can see the whole northern sky in most of the U.S., and use the obstruction tool in the Starlink app before drilling any holes.
T-Mobile is the easy answer: nothing to mount, nothing to drill, and it moves with you if T-Mobile serves your new address. Starlink can work on a balcony or ground mount, but a lease, an HOA rule or a north-facing obstruction often gets in the way. Federal rules give renters some protection for small antennas in areas they exclusively control, such as a private balcony, but not on shared roofs or walls.
Neither home plan travels. T-Mobile’s home gateway is restricted to the address you registered, and Starlink Residential doesn’t support in-motion use. For the road, Starlink’s Roam plans run $55 for 100 GB, $80 for 300 GB, or $175 for unlimited, and the Mini dish was recently selling for $149, well under its typical $249. T-Mobile’s AWAY plan is the cellular alternative, with an unlimited option at $160 a month with AutoPay; it’s strongest along highways and towns with good coverage. For a cabin you visit seasonally, Starlink’s Standby Mode keeps an account alive for $10 a month at very low speed.
T-Mobile’s Home Internet Backup plan is built for this: it starts at $20 a month with AutoPay and gives you 100 hours of use each month, with a lower price for T-Mobile voice customers. That’s far cheaper than keeping a second full plan. Starlink’s $10 Standby Mode is cheaper still, but its 500 kbps trickle is only good for messages and email; switching back to a full plan costs a regular month. In storm country, a satellite backup makes more sense when your cable and the local cell towers tend to fail together.
Heavy users run into T-Mobile’s management policy: during congestion, home customers can be slowed below other users, and further if they pass 1.2 TB in a month. Check your current router or ISP app for last month’s usage. If you’re well above that and your tower is busy, Starlink Residential Max, with top residential priority, or a wired option will be less frustrating.
How to Test Both Without Wasting Money
The trial windows are the most valuable thing either company offers, and most people use them badly. Here’s a plan that gets you a real answer.
Check both at your exact address
Enter your full street address on T-Mobile’s eligibility page and Starlink’s order page. Note the exact Starlink plans offered, the hardware price, and any congestion charge. Screenshot both checkouts; prices at one address can differ from a neighbor’s.
Order Starlink first, directly from Starlink
The 30-day trial applies to kits bought from Starlink itself. Retailers have their own return rules, which are sometimes shorter and may not refund the first month of service. Before mounting anything permanently, set the dish on the ground or a temporary stand and run the app’s obstruction check.
Start T-Mobile’s test drive about ten days later
That way the 15-day window overlaps Starlink’s trial. Walk the gateway around the house using the T-Mobile Internet app’s signal readings. Upstairs, by a window on the tower-facing side, usually wins. Give it a day in each candidate spot.
Run the same tests, same times, on both
On at least three weeknights between 7 and 10 p.m., run a speed test on each network from the same device in the same room, then do a 20-minute video call on each. Write down download, upload and latency. A call that freezes is more telling than any speed number.
Decide early and return cleanly
Make the call before the shorter window closes. Return the loser complete and undamaged, with every cable and power supply. T-Mobile’s refund comes as a bill credit after you return the gateway; Starlink requires the kit in good condition to approve its refund.
Buying a Starlink kit from a store, then discovering a short return window. Mounting the dish before checking obstructions. Judging T-Mobile from a gateway sitting next to the fridge. Forgetting that T-Mobile’s voice-line credit disappears if you change phone plans. Testing only in daylight. Throwing away the box and power cables, which can complicate a return.
Where to Check Availability and Get Help
Phone numbers and pages below come from each organization’s own published contact information.
T-Mobile Home InternetEvery U.S. internet provider must show an FCC broadband label for each plan, listing the monthly price, one-time fees, typical speeds and latency. When we compared the two companies’ labels line by line, the T-Mobile labels were the more revealing ones: they spell out the $35 connection charge and the $2.60 monthly fee that ads leave out. Read the label for the exact plan you’re about to buy, and save a copy; it’s the closest thing to a written promise either company gives you.
The FCC’s National Broadband Map lets you see which providers claim to serve your specific address. If it says T-Mobile covers you but T-Mobile’s own checker says no, believe the checker for ordering purposes. You can also file a challenge to the map if a listed provider doesn’t actually serve you.
Our Verdict
It’s offered at your address and your phone shows a solid 5G signal indoors. You get lower latency, generally faster downloads, no hardware bill and a five-year price guarantee, for $50 to $70 a month. Start with Amplified unless you’re a light user, and use the 15-day test drive at night before you commit.
T-Mobile isn’t available, your indoor cell signal is weak, your local tower bogs down every evening, or you need internet at a cabin, on a farm or on the road. It costs more and the price can rise, but it brings real broadband to places where nothing else does. Start with Residential 200 if your address offers it, and use the 30-day trial to prove your mounting spot.
Your income depends on being online and you live where storms knock out power or towers. A primary T-Mobile line plus Starlink Standby, or a primary Starlink plan plus T-Mobile’s Backup plan, gives you two independent paths for a modest extra monthly cost.
Questions people still ask
Is Starlink worth it if I can get T-Mobile Home Internet?
Usually not. If T-Mobile performs well at your address in the evening, it’s cheaper and lower-latency. Starlink is worth it when T-Mobile’s signal or evening speeds disappoint during your test.
Why does T-Mobile say Home Internet isn’t available when my phone works fine?
T-Mobile limits home internet sign-ups per area to protect tower capacity. Your phone may get a signal, but the sector may already have as many home customers as T-Mobile wants. Recheck periodically; availability changes as capacity is added.
Does rain or snow affect Starlink?
Heavy rain and wet snow can cause short slowdowns or interruptions. The dish heats itself to melt snow, which raises power use. Light rain rarely matters.
Does T-Mobile Home Internet slow down at night?
It can, because evening is peak time on the tower and home customers can be deprioritized during congestion. How much depends on your tower. Test between 7 and 10 p.m. during the test drive.
Can I use my own router with either service?
Generally yes. With T-Mobile, you can connect your own mesh system to the gateway’s Ethernet port. Starlink’s router has a bypass mode for third-party routers, and some kits need an Ethernet adapter. Keep the included equipment for returns.
Is there a contract or cancellation fee?
T-Mobile Home Internet has no annual contract and lists a $0 early termination fee, but you must return the gateway. Starlink’s standard plans are month to month; in some areas, a $0 kit offer requires a 12-month commitment with a change fee, so read the checkout terms.
Can I get help paying for either service?
The federal Affordable Connectivity Program ended in 2024. Ask each company about current discounts, and check the FCC’s Lifeline program for low-income households, which helps with phone or internet bills through participating providers.
Which is better for streaming 4K TV?
Both work well for 4K on most plans. A single 4K stream generally needs well under 50 Mbps. Starlink’s 100 Mbps-capped plan can feel tight if several people stream and video-call at the same time.
Will Starlink raise prices again?
Nobody outside SpaceX knows. Starlink has no price guarantee, and June’s increase applied to existing customers. Budget a cushion, which our cost planner lets you model.
How this page was checked. T-Mobile prices, fees, speeds and terms come from T-Mobile’s plan pages and FCC broadband labels as of October 26. Starlink prices reflect the June increase and its published plan details; hardware and congestion pricing vary by address. Speed and latency medians come from Ookla Speedtest Intelligence reports. Cost figures and illustrations are our own calculations from those published prices. Your checkout price and broadband label are the final word.
This page is independent and not affiliated with T-Mobile or SpaceX. It is general consumer information, not a guarantee of service at any address.
Key sources: T-Mobile broadband labels · Starlink plan pages · Ookla Speedtest Intelligence · FCC