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Despite all the bad decisions the company makes, one thing T-Mobile has always done (mostly) is apply speed rules to everyone equally. Different priorities on the network may affect speeds for people differently, but assuming there’s no congestion in an area, all customers no matter what plan they’re on could be expected to get the fastest speeds possible with their equipment.
This is in contrast to competitors like Verizon, where they restrict 5G access depending on the plan you’re on.
Now, for the first time, T-Mobile is artificially limiting speeds on one of their plans. They’ve also done some price changes, too.
T-Mobile Rely Home Internet
The cheapest 5G Home Internet plan, Rely, has been changed.
For new customers, the Rely plan is now, internally, called “Rely Home Internet Capped”. This is effectively a new plan in T-Mobile’s systems, and will apply to all new customers moving forward who sign up for this plan.
Existing customers on the Rely plan should be safe, as since this is a new plan, those customers will be on the “old” Rely plan.
So what’s new? Hidden in the FAQ on the Home Internet plans page, T-Mobile details that the Rely plan will now have a maximum download speed of 354 mbps. All the other plans (and the prior version of Rely) lists no maximum speed, and instead offers a “typical” speed listing of 170 – 498 mbps.
The change is also present on the Broadband Facts sheet for the plan.
As far as we’re aware, this is the first time in well over a decade that T-Mobile has offered a plan with an artificial speed limit. As mentioned, there are varying priority levels on the network, and different plans may see reduced speeds during times of congestion. But that’s not a hard cap like this is.
The Amplified and All-In plans remain the same in terms of speed.
Price Changes
Another under-the-radar change T-Mobile has made is that all three 5G Home Internet plans have had their prices raised by $5. However, the autopay discount has also been increased by $5.
That means most people will still be paying the same $35/$45/$55 price as before, assuming they have both autopay enabled and at least one postpaid voice line on the same account.
As a reminder, these changes are also only for new customers. Existing customers have nothing to worry about (for now).
Overall, this new “capped” version of the Rely plan could be a sign of things to come. Will we soon see the Essentials voice plan have a speed cap? Perhaps even Experience More will have a max speed cap, and only the premium Beyond customers get uncapped speeds? Only time will tell.
