Learn about Home Internet availability, geofencing restrictions / service address validation, and gateway recommendations (LBDR).
Availability, restrictions, and geofencing: Home Internet
Home Internet requests
Check out Home Internet plans and Small Business Internet plans for additional information on the types of plans available.
Online
- New and existing customers (without T-Life) can visit https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet to check availability and place orders online.
- Consumer customers with active T-Mobile accounts can add Home Internet by using their T-Mobile ID to log into T-Life.
Customer Care
- New customers can call Home Internet Sales to check availability and place orders.
- Existing customers can add Home Internet through Customer Care.
- See Inbound Sales call handling: Home Internet for details.
Retail
- New and existing customers can visit T-Mobile stores to check availability and activate Home Internet service.
- See Retail: Home and Small Business Internet for details.
Eligibility
- Home Internet is designed to be used at approved addresses customers provide during the registration process in eligible locations where the network has enough capacity to provide good experiences to customers.
- Home Internet is available in locations where network coverage is expected to provide speeds typical to Home Internet speeds.
- Home Internet service in certain locations may not be available due to local coverage even if towers have extra capacity.
- Capacity is defined as the number customers including Home Internet devices that can connect to our network and provide reliable and fast service.
- Regular evaluations are performed to determine the number of customers who can be supported in a given area.
- Customers might have an Unlimited Home Internet plan even though an area is no longer eligible for unlimited.
- Customers in these situations should not have their plans changed to a Home Internet Lite plan unless there is account change that removes their unlimited eligibility.
- When customers activate service (voice and/or Home Internet) and join our network, capacity and supportability is reduced.
- Customers may not be eligible for Unlimited Home Internet service due to low tower capacity even if they have good coverage.
Address validation
- Home Internet plans are determined by the line's Broadband address which was originally approved for service and is the only approved location for the gateway and service.
- The Primary Place of Use (PPU) should not be used to determine if customers use their service at an approved address.
- Multiple Home Internet lines can be used at the same address if each line is approved as eligible to activate.
- Customers are notified during the activation process and per the Terms & Conditions that their service is approved for use only at one location.
New addresses
- Newly established addresses can take a few months to appear in eligibility checks or be validated by the United States Postal Service (USPS).
- Eligibility checks may display messages such as:
- "Please choose an address from the list"
- "Address entered does not match our records."
- Alternative addresses should not be used in these situations (even if they are nearby) since nearby addresses may have different eligibility results.
- Direct customers to https://postalpro.usps.com/ppro-tools/address-management-system to identify the local address manager and to have their address submitted to the USPS.
- Customers can periodically check eligibility at t-mobile.com/isp (Addresses will show as ineligible until validated by the USPS.)
Business addresses
- Addresses checked using T-Mobile.com that are recognized as a business address will display a message stating "This appears to be a business address, we'll redirect you to the T-Mobile for Business website to continue your journey. Press continue."
- Even if the address is in a residential area, USPS may recognize it as a business address (such as customers who have business licenses registered to their address or have a Limited Liability Corporation).
- Dash may present the same address as eligible for consumer plans, so employees should always check plans presented (since an eligible status may mean Capped (Lite plans) instead of Unlimited Home Internet plans.
Some account changes (such as a Change of Responsibility or resuming from cancel) may require a new Home Internet plan and an address eligibility check. The message provided from the address eligibility check below can be used to offer an appropriate plan for customers based on their address.
| Premium, Unlimited, Capped, or Nomad eligible | Great news! 5G+LTE Home Internet Unlimited is available at this address. Advise the customer that if they decide to activate at a later date, they’ll need to recheck their eligibility and their status might change. AWAY and/or Backup are also available for this customer. Review these options with the customer to ensure they are the right fit.
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|---|---|
| Lite and AWAY eligible | Neither Home Internet Unlimited nor Backup is available at their address just yet, but capacity is growing fast. Enter their contact info in the waitlist and we will let them know when unlimited internet is available.
Review these options with the customer to ensure they are the right fit.
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| Only AWAY eligible | Home Internet Unlimited, Lite, and Backup are not available at this address, but capacity is growing quickly. Enter their contact info in the waitlist and we will let them know when unlimited internet is available. AWAY is available for this customer.
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| No category available | T-Mobile Internet is not available at their address just yet, but our network is growing fast. Enter their contact info below to join our waitlist, and they may impact where we grow our network next. Once service becomes available at their address, we'll let them know.
|
Address not eligible in great coverage area
- Although coverage is an important part of service eligibility, it is only one factor.
- If Home Internet service is activated at addresses without available T-Mobile network capacity, it may lead to congestion and poor experiences for customers (including customers with voice only plans).
Neighbors have Unlimited Home Internet
- New customers who register for Unlimited Home Internet may not have their addresses approved even though another customer in their neighborhood is approved for service.
- This is because the area is no longer available for new service due to the available capacity needed to support Unlimited Home Internet service which could negatively impact all customers in the area.
- Customers in these situations should be offered a Home Internet Lite plan if available and be added to the Unlimited Home Internet waitlist to be notified when their address is available for Unlimited Home Internet.
Not qualified for Unlimited Home Internet
- Addresses may not be approved for Unlimited Home Internet based on their distance from towers, potential interferences in their areas, or coverage that is not capable of delivering download speeds to support typical Home Internet speeds.
- Customers in these situations should be offered a Home Internet Lite plan if available and be added to the Unlimited Home Internet waitlist to be notified when their address is available for Unlimited Home Internet.
Slow or varying speeds compared to neighbors
- Some customers with approved addresses may experience slower than expected speeds typical of Home Internet speeds.
- This may be due to their address being located further away from towers or there may be potential interferences in their area (such as an office building or a sports stadium) compared to their neighbors.
- Since Unlimited Home Internet customers receive the same data prioritization as Heavy Data users, speeds could be impacted during busy times (such as during a sporting event).
Unlimited Home Internet with approved address shows as not eligible in tools and resources
- Customers with Unlimited Home Internet service may be located in areas that show their locations as not being eligible for Unlimited Home Internet since the available capacity for the locations have been fully allocated, and there are no additional spots for new customers.
- However, there was capacity for Unlimited Home Internet service when customers originally registered for service, so their addresses were approved.
Geofencing / service address validation
- Home Internet is designed to be used at approved addresses customers provide during the registration process in eligible locations where the network has enough capacity to provide good experiences to customers.
- Customers are informed about this at the time of activation and per our Terms & Conditions.
- Customers will be notified by T-Mobile to take action if they use their Home Internet service at different addresses other than the one they were approved for at the time of activation.
- The email or SMS notification impacted customers receive advises them to return to the originally approved address, update their address to an eligible location where they will use Home Internet, or switch to another Home Internet plan that meets their needs to keep their service.
- Impacted customers will have a Geofence Violation memo on their accounts that state "Internet service has been paused due to use away from broadband address approved at location."
- Customers will also have a HIGFCNTRL line level SOC added to the accounts that cannot be manually removed. The SOC will be systematically removed and service restored within approximately 60 minutes after customers take action to correct their address.
- The Atlas Gateway tool also shows details under Gateway details if customers are identified for service address validation.
- Newly activated Home Internet customers who use their Home Internet service in the San Juan Islands in Washington state have the Geofencing treatment added to their line, and they are eligible to move to the AWAY plan.
Customers who are impacted by service address validation receive the notification below via an email or SMS. They may experience service interruption if they do not check their email or SMS regularly.
Customer notification
Action Needed to resume home internet service
We’re reaching out to you to let you know that your home internet service has been limited. Our records show that your gateway is currently being used at a different location than the one provided and approved when you signed up, which isn’t permitted under our T&Cs. Using Home Internet at the approved location helps ensure that your internet experience meets your needs and that we can provide great network experience. To get your service back up and running, please click the link (the link to the website is temporarily unavailable at launch), or call Customer Care at 1-844-275-9310.
Customer actions
Customers can check alternative addresses for eligibility by calling Customer Care.
- If addresses are approved for the plan they currently have, Care can update the broadband address, and service will be restored within 60 minutes.
- If addresses are not eligible, customers must return to the originally approved address, move to an alternate eligible plan, or be placed on the waitlist, cancel service, and return the gateway.
Customers can use T-Life to see the treatment alert and to check alternate addresses for Unlimited eligibility.
- If addresses are approved, customers can update the broadband address in T-Life to restore service within 60 minutes.
- Customers are limited to updating their broadband address in T-Life to four times per calendar year.
Home Internet lines should not be cancelled for the purpose of creating a new line. This is outside of T-Mobile compliance standards and may negatively impact customers.
Customers with Geofence SOC and memo
- Determine the originally approved broadband address in Atlas > Troubleshooting > Devices > Broadband Address.
- Ask customers if they moved since activating service.
- Conduct an eligibility check for the new address if they moved - This should be the primary address where they plan to use Home Internet service.
- Update the broadband address in Atlas if the new address is eligible for service with their current plan.
- Select the Device view on the Troubleshooting tab in Atlas.
- Select Edit this address next to the Broadband Address in the Support section.
- Enter the address where the customer is currently using the service in the expanded window and click Validate.
- Accept or deny any USPS address suggestions and select Update Address.
- Inform the customer their service should be restored within approximately 60 minutes.
- Contact your CEC manager if the new address is not eligible for the current plan but is eligible for the AWAY plan, and the customer wants to change to the AWAY plan.
- Special exception: The plan change can be backdated (even bill-current accounts) if the customer is changing to a higher MRC Home Internet plan.
- CEC manager and above: Perform a backdated plan change in Atlas to the start of the current bill cycle (or to the start of service if a bill has not run) regardless of bill-current and bill-arrears. Samson will release the treatment once it recognizes the rate plan change.
- Set billing expectations with customers when backdating a plan change.
- Contact your CEC manager if the new address is not eligible for the current plan but is eligible for the Lite plan, and the customer wants to change to the Lite plan.
- CEC manager and above: Perform a backdated plan change in Atlas to the start of the current bill cycle or to the start of service if a bill has not run (regardless of bill-current and bill-arrears).
- Check data usage for the current bill cycle, set billing expectations with customers if they used more than the Lite plan allows before changing the plan.
Customers wants to cancel
- Cancel the Home Internet line using cancel code HUNF if the options above do not meet the needs of customers.
- Process the return label and set expectations with the customer to return their gateway.
Escalations
Review the scenarios below if you feel customers were treated in error based on the use cases:
- Customer moved back to the approved address, but our systems do not recognize to update the treatment - Must be active at the approved address for at least 60 minutes.
- Customer opted for a plan change to AWAY, backdated the plan change, but it has been at least two hours, and service has not been restored.
Escalate to your CEC manager to have the SOC removed (since they are the only ones who have access to remove the SOC). Customers will still appear as being in treatment in the Atlas Gateway tool. This will be updated within 72 hours of SOC removal.
Gateway recommendations
- Location based device recommendation (LBDR) is a system logic that provides gateway recommendations to new Home Internet customers based on our network capability and their broadband address to deliver optimal performance.
- This logic takes priority over the Home Internet plan chosen. For example, new customers who activate service on a Rely plan could be assigned a G5AR/G5SE gateway.
- There are no system indicators for this logic, and the gateway assignment presented in the sales flow is correct.
- Different gateways should not be selected.
- Customers cannot choose to be included in LBDR.
- This logic only applies to new Home Internet customers and does not include existing Home Internet customers who move to a new address.