4G/5G home internet or through landline?

[route101]

Moving into a flat, considering 4g/5g internet over broadband, anyone got any advice?

 

[Lewlew]

Depends on the location. Mobile signal indoors can still be a bit weak. I would still opt for hard wired if it was me.

Also, a lot of packages either don't have enough monthly data or will be very expensive for what you need.

 

[najaB]

Moving into a flat, considering 4g/5g internet over broadband, anyone got any advice?

I second @Lewlew's comments - while it can be a convenient option, your quality of service can be a lot lower and it can be more expensive than fixed-line options.

 

[37424]

Moving into a flat, considering 4g/5g internet over broadband, anyone got any advice?

I'm on smarty 4G which is currently £20 per month sim only unlimited Data it was £15 when I got it which is cheaper than any landline broadband I know of when you take account of the landline charge. I have it in a 4G wireless router which cost about £50. Signal can be a bit weak occasionally and hence a bit slow but overall its good enough for me at the moment.

Smarty use the three network which probably isn't the best in some area's

 

[GB]

First thing I would do is find out which networks are available and what their coverage is like.

 

[Harpers Tate]

One suggestion: if you also have a regular mobile phone service - in particular one that supports WiFi calling (along with your handset) - then I'd always recommend using an entirely different actual (host) network. In case of a failure of one or other, you thereby have a backup. If you use a virtual network (on either or both), ensure you don't use one that piggybacks on the same host network as the other; Wikipedia has this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_mobile_virtual_network_operators

 

[Mojo]

I’ve found phone signals can vary quite significantly in my local area, even on the same network between days. I’d mentioned this previously in another thread but since moving to my current house Id been a customer of Vodafone and very happy, but a few months ago the signal suddenly dropped off and never came back; despite saying I was on 4G it just didn’t work, for instance if I was on FaceTime with someone and dropped off the Wifi (eg. at the bottom of the garden) it would just cut off.

Inside the house things can also vary. My home internet went off yesterday & I was logged into a work meeting on a company mobile device. It worked fine when I was on 4G at the desk upstairs, but when I moved to work downstairs for a change of scenery, MS Teams completely cut out and kicked me off the call after a minute of trying to load something.

 

[najaB]

Inside the house things can also vary. My home internet went off yesterday & I was logged into a work meeting on a company mobile device. It worked fine when I was on 4G at the desk upstairs, but when I moved to work downstairs for a change of scenery, MS Teams completely cut out and kicked me off the call after a minute of trying to load something.

Yeah, indoor reception is a bit of a black art. @route101 I strongly suggest getting a modem that has a detachable antenna, that way you can mount a high-gain antenna outside the property and won't have those kind of dead spot issues.

 

[DelayRepay]

I think it depends on what you use your internet connection for and how much of an impact any periods of slow/poor connectivity would have.

If it's essential that you have a stable and reliable connection (e.g. working from home all day) then I would personally go with a wired connection, and use mobile as a backup/contingency.

The problem with 4G is that, until you move in you won't really know if the signal's good enough - and at that point you might have signed up for a 12 month contract.

 

[nlogax]

Good old-fashioned hardwired connection for me. 4g/5g is fine for casual use or as an emergency backup via tethering but I value the consistency of a permanent connection for work and gaming use.

 

[Meglos]

Heavy rain or snow has the potential to seriously affect 4/5G signals. Whilst you might get a good connection on a clear day, if you get a storm you might struggle with a connection. A hardwired connection is less like to suffer from interference from weather conditions.

 

[itfcfan]

I work in technology and depend on a 4G (now 5G) mobile connection as my primary connection. So it can be done!

A strong caveat - I experimented by tethering my phone (making a hotspot) and found over a trial period of several weeks that the connection was reliable (consistently low ping times).

I pay for an unlimited package with Vodafone for £30/month. I used to connect a GSM dongle to my commercial-standard Draytek router but when about 12 months ago I got a 5G Modem (Huawei 5G CPE Pro) I switched to using this modem directly as my router.

Because reliability is important to me I had a backup SIM on another network in case I had problems on my normal network. But in the ~2 years I've been relying on 4G I've never needed it so I recently discontinued this backup.

I wouldn't say its for everyone (certainly your location and the strength of 4G/5G signal is key). But for me it's simplified my setup - I don't have to mess around with a landline or determine whether Virgin or BT-based would be better for me. My downstream reaches ~400Mbps, upstream ~100Mbps. Those speeds are in excess of what I need. They key point is reliability and I can't remember experiencing jitter or having high ping-related problems for realtime communications.

Good luck. I'd suggest you run some tests (covering different times of the day over several days) before committing to it.

 

[route101]

Vodafone and Virgin are not available at the property. Hydroptic fibre is , but to install, a hole needs to drilled above door, not sure if landlord will allow.

 

[najaB]

Vodafone and Virgin are not available at the property. Hydroptic fibre is , but to install, a hole needs to drilled above door, not sure if landlord will allow.

I'd be very surprised if the landlord would object - having a fibre connection would raise the rent (s)he could charge the next tenant.

 

[route101]

I'd be very surprised if the landlord would object - having a fibre connection would raise the rent (s)he could charge the next tenant.

Was one thing I forgot to do, call to ask! I noticed other flats have hydroptic fibre but not seen any holes above the doors. BT speeds shown on their website are quite slow.

 

[Energy]

Check with your landlord if hyperoptic can be installed, it will be more reliable than 4G/5G and id be very suprised if the landlord said no.

 

[route101]

Check with your landlord if hyperoptic can be installed, it will be more reliable than 4G/5G and id be very suprised if the landlord said no.

I emailed yesterday but not heard back. I noticed other flats are using hyperoptic but no evidence of holes drilled above doors.

 

[Energy]

I emailed yesterday but not heard back. I noticed other flats are using hyperoptic but no evidence of holes drilled above doors.

Where the hole will be drilled will vary depending on the building layout.

 

[TheEdge]

Moving into a flat, considering 4g/5g internet over broadband, anyone got any advice?

Run a million miles away from it then run even further!

I took out a 4G home internet contact with Three which never worked properly because of patchy signal inside my building (as opposed to the excellent signal as claimed), months of back and forth with their tech support being told nothing was wrong before eventually being told that actually the blue light on my router meant it had weak signal and would never work well. And after that more back and forth with their customer service trying to get out of the contract which eventually went to the Ombudsman (which I won).

 

[Roast Veg]

There are a range of routers due to market soon with twin 4G antennas. You can use a dedicated mobile app to try out different positions and measure signal strength. Watch this space...

 

[najaB]

I took out a 4G home internet contact with Three which never worked properly because of patchy signal inside my building (as opposed to the excellent signal as claimed)...

For a long time Three only had 1800MHz signals in a lot of areas which meant their outdoor coverage was great but it was next to impossible to get decent indoor reception. I believe that this has been rectified now in most urban areas.