4G for Home Broadband

[jamesianbriggs]

Living in the sticks I'm stuck with expensive, glitchy but usually usable satellite and a BT line that drives me nuts and is currently awaiting their most ninja engineer (or so they tell me).

Browsing today I came across home 4G from 3 that offers 40GB plus unlimited Netflix for £25. I reckon two of those might just do it for our family but I'm not entirely convinced. I can get a 3-bar 4G signal in the house on my phone but wonder whether it's going to hold up as our main connection.

Anyone have any experience of 4G as a home wifi option and/or kit such as aerials or boosters?

Thanks


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[hafle]

I did not get it as a dedicated home Internet package, but bought an unlimited 4g sim only contract for £20 a month with 30 day cancellation (and then used software to bypass tethering limits and link up to my laptop etc).

Even in London where it ought to be super fast, I found that even YouTube was pretty much out of bounds. I know others have had better experiences, but mine was a download speed of 1mbps if I was very lucky. I think that three offer the data levels they do because they are far slower than the competition and it becomes swings and roundabouts. That is my experience at least.

[jamesianbriggs]

Thanks. That's what I'm worried about. Unlimited Netflix isn't much use if it doesn't work.

If only the UK priced and regulated the market in terms of what you actually get rather than what's theoretically possible. It feels like getting a restaurant bill for what you COULD have eaten if there was actually enough food available and nobody else wanted any.


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[hafle]

Best bet, if finances allow, is to just get a 30 day rolling sim contract to see what kind of speeds you get in your area, and then cancel it.

[sswiss]

Interested in this post.

I'm currently self building and the complete nightmare that Openreach are to deal with leads me to wonder if wireless 4G would be a viable option and just not bother with the land line.

[jamesianbriggs]

Best bet, if finances allow, is to just get a 30 day rolling sim contract to see what kind of speeds you get in your area, and then cancel it.

Yep. It's just that the hardware is 'free' if you take out a year's contract at £24 – rather than buying it for £60 if you go for a month's notice at the same rate. So if it works then there's a decent 20% saving to be had.

Anyone within 20 mins of A1 jct 9 who fancies home cooked pizza while I try theirs out?!

[Saint-Just]

Can you subscribe online? You would then presumably benefit from the right to cancel.

[MB2]

I have a router with LTE capability- you can load balance or use it for failover. The control panel lets you monitor the signal strength and you can add external antenna for improved signal - this might be an alternative as can then easily borrow or play with various providers' SIM cards. Only problem is can't hot swap them and have to configure each service but these details are readily available either on web or call network provider.


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[MB2]

Ofcom signal checker app also seems fairly accurate in my experience so you can start with most likely provider - for 4G where we are is EE although voice is O2 so pays to check


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[Captain Morgan]

Buy a three payg sim and try it in your home, get up into the loft if the signal is poor and see if it improves there.

If strong then give it a go, all contracts should have a cooling off period just check that detail and then do this,

I have a router with LTE capability- you can load balance or use it for failover. The control panel lets you monitor the signal strength and you can add external antenna for improved signal - this might be an alternative as can then easily borrow or play with various providers' SIM cards. Only problem is can't hot swap them and have to configure each service but these details are readily available either on web or call network provider.


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[Bravo73]

Yes, I do.

I have one of these (https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/produ...-link-dwr-953/) and a Three 4G pay monthly SIM card (Advanced plan, 'All-you-can-eat data').

Unlimited broadband for £140 + £28 (I think) per month. Also not committed to an 18-24 month contract.

Download speeds are very respectable and I have no problems streaming 4K content. It knocks the spots off my previous (rural) broadband contract. And obviously not paying for a landline, which was never used.

[jamesianbriggs]

Thanks everyone. Looks like it's worth pursuing.


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[Foxy100]

Are you sure the 3 contract is for tethered internet? When I last asked (albeit about a year ago) they offered me 50GB but only on my phone. I had rubbish internet at home and work and found Vodafone could offer 20GB for £25 (plus VAT) per month. I think they now do 25GB but might be making that up. I set up the phone as a hotspot and with a 4G connection was getting very good download and upload speeds, similar to the superfast BT broadband speeds I now get.

[catch21]

I've just checked ofcom signal checker for two specific locations in my rural Dorset village and found it to be "optimistic" for both of the networks I use, Vodafone and three. I've had to install a (supplied FoC) suresignal box at one of the locations where voda is shown as "you'll be fine" in order to make voice calls and send texts (i.e. previously no signal).

Would not say the signal checker is all that reliable around here at least.

[tredders]

Living in the sticks I'm stuck with expensive, glitchy but usually usable satellite and a BT line that drives me nuts and is currently awaiting their most ninja engineer (or so they tell me).

Browsing today I came across home 4G from 3 that offers 40GB plus unlimited Netflix for £25. I reckon two of those might just do it for our family but I'm not entirely convinced. I can get a 3-bar 4G signal in the house on my phone but wonder whether it's going to hold up as our main connection.

Anyone have any experience of 4G as a home wifi option and/or kit such as aerials or boosters?

Thanks

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I had the same idea as you a while ago. We live in a small village and my broadband ran at 1mb/s, whilst my phone ran at 20mb/s. Just as I bought a 3 MiFi to connect my router into at home, BT announced they were putting fibre into the village...

Anyway, long story short, I have the MiFi (with I think 12gb data per month). If you want to borrow it for a couple of weeks and see how you get on, drop me a PM.

[Bravo73]

Are you sure the 3 contract is for tethered internet? When I last asked (albeit about a year ago) they offered me 50GB but only on my phone. I had rubbish internet at home and work and found Vodafone could offer 20GB for £25 (plus VAT) per month. I think they now do 25GB but might be making that up. I set up the phone as a hotspot and with a 4G connection was getting very good download and upload speeds, similar to the superfast BT broadband speeds I now get.

The Three 'All-you-can-eat Data' is capped at 30Gb of tethered data. However, when the sim is in the router, it doesn't treat it as tethered data so it's unlimited.

(Don't worry, I've checked this plenty of times. Before I bought the sim, I thought that I might be limited to 30Gb per month. But, I'm not. It's unlimited. The connection is also a lot more stable than the previous wired connection. I very rarely have to reboot the router. Maybe once in 4 months).

[Foxy100]

The Three 'All-you-can-eat Data' is capped at 30Gb of tethered data. However, when the sim is in the router, it doesn't treat it as tethered data so it's unlimited.

(Don't worry, I've checked this plenty of times. Before I bought the sim, I thought that I might be limited to 30Gb per month. But, I'm not. It's unlimited. The connection is also a lot more stable than the previous wired connection. I very rarely have to reboot the router. Maybe once in 4 months).

Dammit, I wish I'd known! I was pulling out my hair. The office is in the centre of Winchester but BT could only supply basic internet, around 65kb/second upload speed, which is rubbish when you run a photo agency! The 20gb from Vodafone really helped but I still had to be careful how much I used. Virgin said they could give me a very fast cable internet but two months later when the engineers arrived they told me they couldn't fit it because the building is listed. Fortunately I now have very good BY internet at home and work. Ironically after pointblank refusing to fit their cable despite the council saying it would be ok, just after the BT broadband was finally sorted, Virgin did for cable to the office bevy next door and made a huge mess of it and ran foul of the council. Idiots.

Still, I feel your pain!

[dice]

The Three 'All-you-can-eat Data' is capped at 30Gb of tethered data. However, when the sim is in the router, it doesn't treat it as tethered data so it's unlimited.

(Don't worry, I've checked this plenty of times. Before I bought the sim, I thought that I might be limited to 30Gb per month. But, I'm not. It's unlimited. The connection is also a lot more stable than the previous wired connection. I very rarely have to reboot the router. Maybe once in 4 months).

That is excellent to know, cheers. I'm currently in a similar situation to OP and this looks like the route I'll be heading down too.

[Carlton-Browne]

The Three 'All-you-can-eat Data' is capped at 30Gb of tethered data. However, when the sim is in the router, it doesn't treat it as tethered data so it's unlimited.

(Don't worry, I've checked this plenty of times. Before I bought the sim, I thought that I might be limited to 30Gb per month. But, I'm not. It's unlimited. The connection is also a lot more stable than the previous wired connection. I very rarely have to reboot the router. Maybe once in 4 months).

Just to check something - is this actually OK according to their T&Cs or is it something they're just not enforcing? I ask because I have a Three PAYG SIM that spends most of it's time roaming; I realise that things are fluid since the roaming directive came in last month but I know they could challenge my usage pattern at any time but appear to choose not to. Contractually I wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

[Bravo73]

Just to check something - is this actually OK according to their T&Cs or is it something they're just not enforcing?

I suspect that it says somewhere in the T&Cs that this particular sim should/must be used in a mobile 'phone (they offer dedicated (limited) data SIMs after all). However, the sim currently recognises the router as a 'phone (it doesn't eat into its monthly thethering allocation). So until something changes, I'll treat it as unlimited.

[hafle]

and if they do change it, then there is a little app you can install and have unlimited wireless tethering from a phone :)

[Maysie]

Watching this with interest, as I have a very similar issue.

In case it is of any use, the thread I started a short while ago is here:
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ences-to-share

I suspect I will be going down the 4G route (in lieu of Sat BB), but still need to test the 4G signal strengths when I am next in the area.

[Carlton-Browne]

and if they do change it, then there is a little app you can install and have unlimited wireless tethering from a phone :)

And that is?