For those of you that have T-mobile, there is a painless way you can get a free AC1900 router! As part of them promoting WiFi calling, for the past year, T-mobile has been offering a free router to those folks who have poor reception in their home. The router is pre-programmed to prioritize WiFi calling, but will otherwise function as a regular router. The device is actually just a rebranded ASUS RT-AC68U The process is straightforward. I called in and explained that I was having poor reception in my home and was interested in the "CellSpot Router." The rep knew what I was referring to and ran my address in the system (as a formality) and agreed to send me a router. In most cases they will ask for a $25 deposit, but I guess I didn't have to since I have been a long-time customer. There is no monthly rental charge or anything, but the fine print mentions that you must return the router to them if you cancel T-Mobile service. Otherwise if you damage or lose the router, you will be charged $99. Here is the Slickdeals thread that mentions the offer ------------ Totally Optional: Spoiler If you are interested in the router, but don't want T-mobile's WiFi-calling firmware, there is a way to flash it with the stock ASUS, Tomato or DD-WRT firmware. It took me about 30 min to become familiar with the steps and around an hour to actually perform them. It really is pretty straightforward and I'd be glad to provide guidance. The same slickdeals thread extensively covers the flashing process. --------- TL;DR: T-Mobile customers are eligible for a powerful router for free after a 15min phone call.
They've been offering that for a while and yes its a very high quality router. For most people it'll be a fairly noticeable upgrade. The only thing that's different on the T-Mobile version is that the firmware prioritizes bandwidth for wifi calling which no one will ever notice since most people will have connections that are fast enough to easily accommodate wifi calling.
replaced my cheapo 20 dollar N router with this awhile back. Chromecasting and Plexing are awesome now.
I got this a while back as well and it solved all my WiFi signal woes. Streaming bandwidth up to 11. Heartily recommended.
