New 5G and satellite technologies offer more choices for home broadband

Millions of people in the US have no home broadband or a really poor, pricey form of it at a time when being online has become almost as essential as having clean running water. Now what?

Two new home broadband options are hitting the market, offering service where it's either not available or not competitive. Starlink is a new satellite ISP that seeks to erase the often negative connotations of satellite internet and do so almost anywhere you can set up a small dish aimed at the sky. T-Mobile Home Internet is a 5G-based service providing broadband to the premise, not to the mobile devices that T-Mobile is known for. Each service creates Wi-Fi in your home so you don't really have to care if it its powered by satellite or a 5G cellular network.

My CNET colleagues John Kim and Rick Broida did early tests of Starlink and T-Mobile Home Internet, respectively. In a nutshell, Starlink turned out to be a great new option for people who live in areas with little or no broadband access, while T-Mobile Home Internet adds competition to the limited ISP choice in most urban or suburban areas. 

Watch their video conversation with me for a hands-on report on what it was like to use these new services; You'll also learn which of my colleagues liked the service they tested so much they signed up for it in their own home.

Neither Starlink nor T-Mobile Home Internet are intended as a direct rival to something like cable internet, which will tend to offer a lot more speed for less money. And if you're moving or verifying you have the best broadband service available in your area, visit our sister site Allconnect for a quick, comprehensive comparison of your options.