5G Home Broadband - any experiences/views?

[PreacherCain]

I have had a bit of a rummage, but struggled to find anything specific to 5G... I am tearing what little remains of my hair out, since BT are struggling to provide the broadband service we need for our new house. Current address has FTTP and is fantastic, new one is FTTC and Openreach have been failing to fix a cabinet problem for the past three weeks, with fix dates that roll around and get extended with metronomic regularity. When the next one gets extended we will have had no service at all for a month.

Our bit of South London appears to be within the 5G coverage for both Three and Vodafone's 5G home broadband product: does anyone on here use these? Any views/comments on quality, stability and speed? The router would be located in the roof space, where our rack and switch live, so hopefully that will help signal strength.

[Maysie]

Given where I live (very remotely!), it will be several years, if not decades, before 5G arrives here I suspect.

I use a 4G service and find it great, so my assumption (and it is only an assumption) is that 5G will just be a substantially faster version of what 4G currently does, in which case there is nothing not to love about it based purely on my personal experience of 4g home broadband.

You are probably a bit ahead of the curve though in terms of the availability of 5G routers and data plans, so they may be a bit toppy pricewise until 5G becomes more commonplace(?).

[mondie]

We have an unlimited plan with EE that includes 5G. It has arrived down the road in Llandudno on all networks except EE who state they have no plans yet.

I expect a good 5G modem will be expensive but it will be worth it. Staff at work claim they get >300Mbs!

[Brighty]

We have an unlimited plan with EE that includes 5G. It has arrived down the road in Llandudno on all networks except EE who state they have no plans yet.

I expect a good 5G modem will be expensive but it will be worth it. Staff at work claim they get >300Mbs!

Is that an unlimited phone plan? I've been looking at EE, but they dont do an unlimited data plan and i've read they limit you to 11 connected devices if you use a phone sim, i have about 25 devices connected at the moment

[Maysie]

Is that an unlimited phone plan? I've been looking at EE, but they dont do an unlimited data plan and i've read they limit you to 11 connected devices if you use a phone sim, i have about 25 devices connected at the moment

Yes they do, I have an unlimited plan with EE (4G) for my entire home broadband.

Whatever you are reading is probably out of date info, as everything in our home is connected to it and it works brilliantly.

Linky added: (which appears to be 5G where available too)
https://shop.ee.co.uk/benefits?groupNumber=2

[Christian]

I live in Greater London and in the centre of town 5G is pretty good overall. However, outside in the suburbs, my phone still shows as connecting on 5G but I quite often find it worse than 4G. Loading a internet page seems to do nothing for ages/hang then appear suddenly.

[junglebert]

5G signals struggle to propagate through walls, so to do it properly you’ll need an external antenna.

[Brighty]

Yes they do, I have an unlimited plan with EE (4G) for my entire home broadband.

Whatever you are reading is probably out of date info, as everything in our home is connected to it and it works brilliantly.

Linky added: (which appears to be 5G where available too)
https://shop.ee.co.uk/benefits?groupNumber=2

Sorry, i didn't word that well. I meant they don't do an unlimited mobile broadband sim, only phone sims.
Googling suggests they limit to 11 devices if you stick a phone sim in a router. Interesting you're not getting that problem.
Their T&C's seem to back that up, also the 600GB limit on the 'unlimited' plan is putting me off. Same with giffgaff/o2 as well, 650GB limit on their 'unlimited' plans. Looks like i might try vodafone
https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help...Conditions.pdf

[Maysie]

Sorry, i didn't word that well. I meant they don't do an unlimited mobile broadband sim, only phone sims.
Googling suggests they limit to 11 devices if you stick a phone sim in a router. Interesting you're not getting that problem.
Their T&C's seem to back that up, also the 600GB limit on the 'unlimited' plan is putting me off. Same with giffgaff/o2 as well, 650GB limit on their 'unlimited' plans. Looks like i might try vodafone
https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help...Conditions.pdf

Absolutely no need to apologise.

We usually use around 250GB of data per month, so will never have fallen foul of the 600GB limit. The sim supplied by EE for our home broadband is indeed a phone sim, we just don't use any of the free texts or minutes which are bundled with it and that is the one recommended by the EE advisor when I ordered it from them directly - specifically for home broadband use. I asked if the data was genuinely 'unlimited' and was told by the advisor that it was. Your attached T&C's suggest otherwise - but that is fresh news to me!

[PreacherCain]

5G signals struggle to propagate through walls, so to do it properly you’ll need an external antenna.

Interesting - The router would be under the roof tiles but an exterior antenna would be simple to add.

[junglebert]

Interesting - The router would be under the roof tiles but an exterior antenna would be simple to add.

Yeah you'll need to do that I think, these guys know their stuff:

https://www.badland.co.uk

[Captain Morgan]

Interesting - The router would be under the roof tiles but an exterior antenna would be simple to add.

Slowise Steve of this parish works in this area, perhaps worth a pm?

https://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-routers.htm

[PreacherCain]

Interesting results from my first test - the Three router arrived this morning. It’s a Huawei box, the same thing Vodafone call a “Gigacube”.

Wow.

I plugged it in on our dining table, as close to the centre of the house’s ground floor as you can get, LoS only to a window facing away from the relevant mast. Download shows 200Mbps, upload 11.8, ping 19ms. Which compares well with the FTTC numbers I’ve been told to expect by BT.

Even forcing the router to 4G is adequate, and gives 39Mbps down/7 up, which is enough to keep the home-working up and running.

Hopefully it will do even better when I test it in the new place, which is directly in LoS of the mast and about 450m from it. But I’m well impressed so far!

[mondie]

That's phenomenal PC, I wish EE would hurry up and roll it out here. What did the modem set you back - was there a premium for 5G?

[Christian]

I notice the local residents on my facebook group are fighting against the planning permission for 5G masts in our area.

[ViperStripes]

I notice the local residents on my facebook group are fighting against the planning permission for 5G masts in our area.

Yep Nimbys here managed to get a 5G mast blocked

[PreacherCain]

That's phenomenal PC, I wish EE would hurry up and roll it out here. What did the modem set you back - was there a premium for 5G?

I got a 24 month contract from Three. £15 a month for the first 6 months, £22 a month thereafter, unlimited data. Not at all bad.

The router arrived the next day, took about a minute to set up.

And in an optimal place indoors, facing the tower, it’s giving me 323Mbps down / 34Mbps up, which is “adequate”.