T-Mobile Announces new ‘Away’ Plan Specifically Targeting RVers – Traveling with “Home Internet” Will Soon Be Blocked

One of the most popular connectivity tips shared in RV forums over the past few years has been the encouragement to use T-Mobile Home Internet as an affordable way to keep connected. Even though this $50-$60/mo plan is officially only intended for use at eligible fixed location addresses, it was common knowledge in RV circles that T-Mobile was turning a bind eye to people violating the terms of service and using this plan on the go.

Many T-Mobile reps even actively sold this plan as suitable for RV use - sometimes even signing people up with the store's address as the service location to get the line created.

This loophole is about the be closed - and the T-Mobile Home Internet mobile party is coming to an end.

As an alternative - today T-Mobile is announcing a new "Away" plan that officially targets the RV, camper and nomads market (we assume they meant to include boaters too!), and which at last officially offers a T-Mobile Home Internet like experience to those on the go. 

That's the good news.

The bad new - this new plan costs $160/mo - a steep price increase, especially for those who have grown used to paying as little as $40/mo when bundled with phone service.

T-Mobile Away Video Story

New: T-Mobile Home Internet Plus & Away Plans

T-Mobile announced two new plans today - Home Internet Plus and Away.

These plans are very similar to the current "Home Internet" plan in most ways - and all three plans include a 5G Gateway router as part of your monthly fee so there is no additional hardware to buy.

All three plans will still always be at depriotized service and subject to slower speeds when in congested areas. And after 1.2TB of data usage in a billing period, priority is dropped even lower. 

T-Mobile Home Internet Plus

The new Home Internet Plus bundles a mesh network extender with the Gateway to provide better Wi-Fi coverage inside large homes, and also includes 24/7 tech support for "any Wi-Fi or smart connected devices in the home" so that people struggling to get their tech connected have a single number to call for help.

This new plan will be available starting April 26th for $70/month, or as low as $50/mo for those who have an eligible premium voice line active with T-Mobile. (These prices assume AutoPay is set up)

T-Mobile Away

The other new plan is more interesting for our mobile audience - and in some ways, disappointing.

Unlike the other two plans which require usage only "at eligible home address" - the Away plan officially supports usage anywhere on T-Mobile nationwide network.

But this mobility comes at a price - the Away plan costs $110/mo for 200GB of capped data, or $160/mo for unlimited data. (Prices assuming AutoPay enabled)

Also - all video streams on Away are throttled to 1080P. No more glorious 4K streaming on the go - that is a perk reserved for fixed locations only.

This is a huge price and features penalty being placed on mobile users compared to fixed locations users!

T-Mobile's justification is that it only sells T-Mobile Home Internet plans in locations where it has enough excess 5G capacity to serve the demands of fixed location customers. If there are too many customers in an area - T-Mobile can just stop signing up new users until it has built out enough capacity to serve them.

Mobile users on the other hand put completely different types of demands on T-Mobile's network - as they are regularly traveling in areas without that excess capacity. 

While it's great that there's finally an official unlimited data plan directly available from T-Mobile, for those who have gotten used to $50-60/mo unlimited data under T-Mobile Home or Business Internet - this new pricing will come as a shock. 

The new Away plan will be available starting May 8th.

T-Mobile Home Internet Roaming - Going Away Now That There Is Away?

Now that there is officially an "Away" plan - it wouldn't make sense for T-Mobile to continue looking the other way while RVers, boaters, and others took their current Home Internet service on the road with them.

And indeed - leaked internal T-Mobile customer support documents indicate that "Home Internet Service Address Validation" is coming soon.

The document explains:

"Starting May 8, we'll notify customers using Home Internet at a different location than the one they signed up at to either recheck their current address eligibility, move their gateway back to the address they signed up at, or switch to another plan suits their needs."

After all - the Home Internet Gateway devices do have an internal GPS in them, and of course - the cell towers know pretty much exactly where you are too.

We've long suspected that it was only a matter of time before T-Mobile starting enforcing location restrictions - and it looks like indeed the party is over.

It is not clear how much of a grace period T-Mobile will give current customers who are connecting in unauthorized locations. Hopefully the crackdown rolls out slowly to avoid to much pain and disruption.

Concluding Thoughts

On the one hand - it is great to see a major carrier like T-Mobile specifically offer an unlimited data plan to the RV and nomad market.

On the other hand - a lot of people who have come to rely on T-Mobile Home Internet are going to feel blindsided when they are pushed to move to an "Away" plan that costs three or four times as much.

We suspect that this plan might actually backfire on T-Mobile - driving people towards other cellular options, third party plans and even towards Starlink.

The downsides of the Home Internet plan were easy to put up with when it cost $60/mo - but now the downsides of the Away plan begin to really stack up:

• No international usage - not even Canada or Mexico.
• SIM locked to the Gateway which uses AC power - you can not move your service into a more powerful or flexible router or smaller mobile hotspot device.
• Video throttling - no 4K streaming supported.
• All usage is at a low priority on T-Mobile's network, and usage exceeding 1.2 TB a month is pushed to an even lower priority level.

For anyone feeling that T-Mobile is telling you to "Go Away" - our Plan Picks guide is constantly updated with all the latest options suitable for our RVing and boating audience.

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