Using 4G for Home Broadband?

mxxx

We have just moved to a new house and after waiting ages to get our phone line installed we've found we can't have fiber broadband and are stuck with ADSL. Sadly the speeds we are getting are slow at best (just over 1Mbit) which is too slow for streaming video, youtube, iplayer etc.
Sky have just been out and failed to improve the speed but the engineer was telling me about his 4G speeds. I initially thought this was out of the question as mobile signal is pants here too (on Vodafone and O2) but he had a tablet on EE and was able to get over 10Mbit and then his phone on 3 was getting 18Mbit.

So, this could be a solution, I have seen both 3 and EE offering all you can eat/unlimited data bundles but it doesn't seem you can use them tethered without limits being re-imposed (4GB on 3) and the dongle tariffs are all quite small data packages too. Has anyone come up with a clever solution or is there a product out there that i've missed? I can only get a 4G signal on EE or 3 but I have the equipment to be able to link my home LAN up to a dongle or MiFi unit so i'd be able to then use it like a home broadband connection. I'd need a big data allowance (ideally unlimited) as we stream a lot and I also game on the PC (and i'm amazed at how big some of the updates/patches are these days)

benjus

I don't think there are any unlimited 4G mifi/dongle/tethering services out there except for Relish, which is central London only at present. EE used to do a 50GB package for £50/month, but it looks like they may have pulled this now.

The latency on a mobile connection may cause issues with gaming as well.

fishybusiness

Used to have the same problem, ended up with a 15GB dongle contract with Three, still nowhere near enough and we regularly went over our limit.

Only other option is satellite broadband, in our area it is a good alternative, but has a fairly hefty installation cost - circa £200.

mxxx

Frustrating... the new house is in a City (Exeter) and apparently fibre broadband is available but the cabinet is full so we cant have it until they upgrade the cabinet which no one can give me a timeframe for. Satellite broadband sadly isn't an option as there is some sort of environmental agreement which means we aren't allow to put sat dishes on our houses.

Retrogamer

mxxx wrote: »

Frustrating... the new house is in a City (Exeter) and apparently fibre broadband is available but the cabinet is full so we cant have it until they upgrade the cabinet which no one can give me a timeframe for. Satellite broadband sadly isn't an option as there is some sort of environmental agreement which means we aren't allow to put sat dishes on our houses.

That's pretty annoying.

4G tethering should be fine browsing and other things but if you do find an unlimited package and use it often for high data use purposes (streaming / downloading games & patches) then it's likely to flag on the providers system somewhere. Especially if it's a busy area and they'll either throttle you or tell you, you're breaching the FUP (fair use policy)

[Deleted User]

I've been using a 3G Mobile Dongle (recently switched the sim to a MIFI Modem) for years, for my home BB.

I'm not a massive data user (3GB pm is usually enough for me, but occasionally I'll put 7GB on it), and I find video (eg. Youtube) happily streams on it, with little or no buffering.

NiftyDigits

The cheapest and best option on a rolling 30 day contract is 15GB for £20 or 25 GB for £30 per month with EE(4GEE Extra).
The Osprey 4G modem is supplied free through some stockists on the 30 day contract.

parttimeskint

mxxx wrote: »

Frustrating... the new house is in a City (Exeter) and apparently fibre broadband is available but the cabinet is full so we cant have it until they upgrade the cabinet which no one can give me a timeframe for. Satellite broadband sadly isn't an option as there is some sort of environmental agreement which means we aren't allow to put sat dishes on our houses.

Has fibre been available on the cabinet for long? People move, people cancel, and so on. When this happens, that fibre slot will then become available. You don't necessarily need to wait until the cabinet is upgraded, which can be years away - you need to just check regularly.


I was in a similar situation and checked daily first thing. After just over a month or so, when checking, it said it was available so left it at that, checked with my partner later that day, and went back to order it but, by that time, it was no longer available.


Repeated the process and, after another few weeks, it showed as available again so placed the order there and then and has been fine ever since


Just an option to consider

cookie365

Is cable through Virgin Media available?

Pincher

mxxx wrote: »

apparently fibre broadband is available but the cabinet is full so we cant have it until they upgrade the cabinet which no one can give me a timeframe for.

Make friends with a neighbour who does have fibre broadband.


You run a Wi-Fi extender in your house, using the neighbour's broadband. The beighbour runs on 192.168.1.*, but your extender runs it's own DHCP server on 192.168.2.* , so you have a separate subnet, and so PCs and printers cannot see each other across the two houses.

Retrogamer

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I've been using a 3G Mobile Dongle (recently switched the sim to a MIFI Modem) for years, for my home BB.

I'm not a massive data user (3GB pm is usually enough for me, but occasionally I'll put 7GB on it), and I find video (eg. Youtube) happily streams on it, with little or no buffering.

~
The problem is if the OP is using it for downloading games and patches it will use a lot more data than that. A lot of the games i play on the PC are approx 60GB each