Just want internet: Mifi viability

d70cw6

I'm currently with Virgin with their 50MB fibre broadband / TV / Phone package for something like £35 a month.

I would like to cut the price i'm paying and am considering going with a Mifi setup which would cost ~ £15 a month. Tbh i dont want the landline and I only really watch freeview channels anyway....yes losing the tivo box would be a pain, but i presume i can just pick up a standalone tv recorder equivalent.

What's people's experience with Mifi internet for use at home? is it significantly slower than my virgin 50MB fibre i currently get? will i care? i play a lot of steam games (though not multiplayer stuff).

Thanks for any comments.

Anthorn

With Virgin you should be able to cut the phone and tv to just have fibre broadband.

If your mobile phone provider provides tethering either as part of the package or as an extra or both (Three, Giffgaff), then all you need to do is enable the wifi hotspot on your mobile phone. In that case MiFi is not needed.

d70cw6

Anthorn wrote: »

With Virgin you should be able to cut the phone and tv to just have fibre broadband.

If your mobile phone provider provides tethering either as part of the package or as an extra or both (Three, Giffgaff), then all you need to do is enable the wifi hotspot on your mobile phone. In that case MiFi is not needed.

i was under the impression that BB only was basically the same price as the basic phone / tv / BB package with Virgin.

Regarding mobile tethering, yeah I could do that - it's a paid for by work phone too, so would be effectively free!

kwikbreaks

Dropping TV and phone won't save much with VM.

Have you got a TV aerial? Does it work?

You need to worry more about data allowance than speed although the speed will be a lot less. Downloading games or updates from Steam will chew through your data allowance pretty fast.

Mobile broadband for gaming will be poor in terms of ping.

You wouldn't save huge amountd going to ADSL either once the initial low rates available finished.

I suspect work might be pretty miffed if you run up a big data bill.

Best bet is to call VM and tell them you are looking to save money by moving over to mobile BB and ask if they can offer you a better price. Virgin Media run their business like a car boot stall - if you want the best deal you have to haggle.

Anthorn

d70cw6 wrote: »

i was under the impression that BB only was basically the same price as the basic phone / tv / BB package with Virgin.

Regarding mobile tethering, yeah I could do that - it's a paid for by work phone too, so would be effectively free!

No. It depends if you currently have an all-in package. If you cut out TV and phone you will pay the full price for broadband. But that also happens if you upgrade something. When I was with Virgin I had three for £30 but when I upgraded my broadband and the TV the all-in price increased to the full price of £74 which is why I'm not with them now

There is no real difference between mobile tethering and MiFi. It's all mobile data, 3G or 4G depending on your provider.

benjus

I used EE Mifi for a few weeks 2 years ago when we moved into our new place and had to wait for the broadband connection.

My experience:

1. The max speed was good (about 24Mbps down)
2. It was less reliable than fixed line broadband - sometimes it would just drop for a short period
3. It was more expensive than fixed line - I was surprised how much data we got through, and that was while making an effort to cut down on data usage.