T-Mobile vs. Starlink: Comparing Speeds, Pricing, Deals, and More

Is T-Mobile or Starlink better?

If you’re stuck between having satellite internet and no internet at all, we’d recommend Starlink thanks to its unlimited data caps, excellent availability, and high download speeds.

But if you’re deciding between T-Mobile 5G Home Internet or Starlink, we’d recommend T-Mobile overall. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet’s no-cost installation and equally fast internet speeds make it the clear winner over Starlink (psst—T-Mobile’s our winner for the country’s best value internet provider).

If you’re going by our annual customer satisfaction survey ratings, both Starlink and T-Mobile rank highly across the board in categories like reliability, internet speeds, and customer support. And in overall satisfaction, Starlink and T-Mobile both made the top five out of 25 internet service providers.

T-Mobile vs. Starlink deals

T-Mobile offers great deals for its customers, including free subscriptions, a $20 internet discount for T-Mobile cell phone customers, and subsidized termination fees. Check out our full T-Mobile deals guide to learn more about the best T-Mobile 5G Home Internet deals.

Starlink doesn’t have major deals, but the satellite ISP does have a 30-day free trial period.

Compare T-Mobile 5G Home Internet to Starlink head-to-head

*With AutoPay.
**Plus hardware, shipping & handling fees, and tax. Fully refundable. Depending on location, some orders may take 2 weeks or more to fulfill.
Data effective as of publish date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Living somewhere without cable or fiber internet service? T-Mobile and Starlink can fit your home’s internet needs depending on your budget and local internet options. Let’s break down what you need to know about each ISP.

T-Mobile vs. Starlink plans and prices

T-Mobile plans and prices

*With AutoPay.
^w/ Auto Pay. Regulatory fees included in monthly price for qualified accounts. See full terms. Delivered via 5G cellular network; speeds vary due to factors affecting cellular networks, including data prioritization.
Data effective as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

T-Mobile’s internet service is a little different from your standard cable ISP. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet is a 5G home internet service, meaning that it uses T-Mobile’s existing 5G mobile data network to bring internet service to your home.

But different tech aside, you likely won’t notice much difference between a normal cable internet plan and T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. With maximum download speeds of around 200Mbps, T-Mobile will be fast enough to cover most homes’ basic internet needs. You might run into problems if you regularly download large PlayStation or Steam games, but T-Mobile will be more than enough for emails or Netflix streaming.

Plus, T-Mobile doesn’t have restrictions like data caps or low upload speeds. You won’t have to worry about racking up overage fees or laggy performance when taking Zoom calls. And the discount you get when bundling their internet with a T-Mobile mobile plan ($10 with Plus and $20 with Unlimited) doesn’t hurt either.

Starlink plans and prices

*Plus hardware, shipping & handling fees, and tax. Fully refundable. Depending on location, some orders may take 2 weeks or more to fulfill.
Data effective as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Starlink’s prices may seem bogglingly high, but like with most satellite ISPs, we’re grading them on a slight curve. Satellite ISPs provide internet access via physical satellites that are launched into orbit, and they’ve traditionally been last-resort options for rural households that don’t have access to cable or DSL internet.

By satellite ISP standards, Starlink beats the competition by a considerable margin. With speeds up to 220Mbps, Starlink provides comparable performance to T-Mobile 5G Home Internet, and you won’t have to settle for low-quality video streams and slow page loading.

Also, Starlink doesn’t technically have data caps, but its data policy requires some explanation. On the Standard plan, you won’t have a hard data cap with overage fees, but your internet data will be second-in-line to Priority customers. Priority customers get 1TB of full-speed data every month, and if you’re a Standard subscriber in an area with high Priority traffic, your internet performance may briefly dip.

T-Mobile vs. Starlink fees and extra charges

Starlink fees and extra charges

Starlink’s biggest downside is its massive equipment costs. Most residential users will be fine with Starlink’s standard kit—the high-performance kit is mainly designed for businesses, power users, and residents who live in polar areas.

But at the same time, Starlink’s $599 equipment charge will likely be a tough ask for most households. Satellite ISPs typically offload their satellite costs onto subscribers, but Starlink’s satellite price laps past the competition: HughesNet’s satellite internet costs $449.99, while Viasat’s service costs $299.99.

T-Mobile fees and extra charges

You won’t have to worry about fine-print fees with T-Mobile. The provider includes internet equipment with your monthly bill, and its contract-free service means you won’t get hit with a surprise annual price hike. But if you don’t want to enroll in AutoPay, you’ll have to pay an additional $5 monthly.

T-Mobile vs. Starlink specs and features

T-Mobile and Starlink aren’t traditional internet providers, so they have their share of quirks and unique features. Here’s what you need to know before you sign with either ISP.

Equipment

T-Mobile customers just have to place T-Mobile’s gateway device (which is a combo modem/Wi-Fi router) near a high point or window to get the best internet signal. The higher-tier Plus plan also comes with a Wi-Fi Mesh Access Point, which is an additional piece of equipment that expands your 5G Home Internet coverage, providing more consistent speeds across your home (i.e., upstairs, basement, back or front yard, etc.)

By comparison, Starlink customers must physically mount the Starlink satellite outside to connect to the internet. Oh, and Starlink customers must pay $600 for their equipment, versus $0 for T-Mobile’s. Bummer.

Understanding download speeds

With a traditional cable or fiber ISP, your internet plan has one maximum download speed listed, and you’ll typically expect internet performance around that benchmark. However, T-Mobile and Starlink’s wider download and upload speed ranges are a byproduct of the tech behind each ISP.

Day-to-day 5G and satellite internet speeds heavily depend on variables like the amount of coverage and network traffic in your area. If you’re close to a 5G tower or have a clear sky view, you’ll likely hit the high end of each provider’s speed range. But if your area has minimal coverage, your internet performance may be inconsistent.

No contracts or data caps

If there are two things we at CableTV.com hate more than anything, it’s contracts and data caps. No one likes getting roped into an internet plan for two years (What if you move? What if Google Fiber comes to town?). And stopping a Netflix binge mid-season due to data overages? No, thank you.

Thankfully, you won’t have to worry about either of these things if you sign up for T-Mobile 5G Home Interner or Starlink. Both providers provide the flexibility of no contracts, allowing you to switch or drop the service anytime you need. And with unlimited data, you’ll also dodge any pesky overage fees. Starlink does reserve the right to throttle data, but you won’t need to budget in any extra data fees.

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet’s availability is the service’s biggest downside. T-Mobile has rolled out the service city by city since it relies on the provider’s existing 5G tower network. But in practice, it means that it’s a crapshoot whether or not your address qualifies for service.

As a satellite ISP, Starlink isn’t restricted by a local, built-in network, so it has nearly coast-to-coast availability within the U.S. At the moment, Starlink is widely available throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. Currently, small areas of states like New Mexico and West Virginia are awaiting coverage, but if you want Starlink, there’s a good chance it’s available where you live.

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet vs. Starlink customer service

Both Starlink and T-Mobile were high performers in our 2024 Internet Customer Satisfaction Survey, ranking second and fifth, respectively, out of 25 ISPs.

Starlink’s results are particularly surprising, given the overall bad rep satellite internet providers (rightfully) get. For example, the other two major satellite ISPs, Viasat and Hughesnet, clocked in at 24th and 25th in that same survey. That’s about as big of a discrepancy as you can get.

We chalk this up to Starlink’s newness, its faster speeds compared to competing satellite ISPs, and its low-Earth orbit satellite system, the latter of which significantly increases its reliability (it came in first in our reliability customer rankings!).

Even with Starlink’s top-notch finishes, we still think T-Mobile is the better fit for most internet users.

We even choose T-Mobile 5G Home Internet for our own personal internet needs! A member of our CableTV.com team, Garrett B., has been using T-Mobile’s Unlimited plan for over a year. There have been no reliability or speed issues for him, even with an entire household’s worth of devices connected to the service. He has no plans to switch from T-Mobile and has even recommended the service to family and friends.

Hear more of what Garrett had to say about his T-Mobile experience in our T-Mobile 5G Home Internet review.

T-Mobile vs. Starlink FAQ

Why you should trust us

We spent a week researching both internet providers and compared them on criteria such as pricing, availability, and download speeds. We also pulled from our existing 5G home internet and satellite internet coverage to understand how each provider stacked up against the competition.

For more on our process, see our How We Rank page.