No fibre available - what do I do?!

matelodave

Have shufti at this - it gives you some info on 4g broadband and how to maximise it's performance - Review of 4G Mobile Broadband and Guide to Increasing 4G Speeds | Increase Broadband Speed

There's a lot to take in but it mainly boils down to

1 - 4G is definitely a viable alternative to landline/fibre broadband and in some cases better than ADSL

2 - Not all providers cover all areas, so you need to test. Coverage checkers should give you a rough idea but in the end, due to the vagaries of wireless transmission, then only a signal/performance test will verify what is actually achievable at the location

3 - A proper 4g router is better than a portable MiFi unit, which in turn is better than a smart phone, especially for long term use

4 - location of the router can make a significant difference to both speed and reliability
 of the broadband connection (upstairs is usually better then downstairs, by a window and even whether its in the front or back of the house)

4 - an external antenna can also help improve speed and reliability

dsingh26

flashg67 said:

I have only 2mb via landline so used a 4G Huawei router (£50 used on ebay). Testing different sims showed Vodafone to have he best signal, so I now use a Lebara unlimited sim for £25 p/m which gives me between 25-70 mb down and around 8mb up, depending on the time of day. It's been a good solution for me, working from home, streaming and running several smart devices. 
I'd ignore the online signal checkers - all the providers said I'd get a good signal, but only Vodafones was really any good in reality. Depending where you are, you may be able to get a wireless provider - member list here - WISP internet providers, UK: Members list of UKWISPA

That's amazing, well done!

This definitely sounds like the ideal option for me. 

I'm just waiting for my Vodafone sim to arrive, I really hope the coverage is good! I've also enquired about WISP as they have a Leicestershire provider.

I guess you had ADSL before, but now completely transitioned to mobile home broadband?

Also, Do you have any antennas/signal boosters with your router? 

dsingh26

matelodave said:

Have shufti at this - it gives you some info on 4g broadband and how to maximise it's performance - Review of 4G Mobile Broadband and Guide to Increasing 4G Speeds | Increase Broadband Speed

There's a lot to take in but it mainly boils down to

1 - 4G is definitely a viable alternative to landline/fibre broadband and in some cases better than ADSL

2 - Not all providers cover all areas, so you need to test. Coverage checkers should give you a rough idea but in the end, due to the vagaries of wireless transmission, then only a signal/performance test will verify what is actually achievable at the location

3 - A proper 4g router is better than a portable MiFi unit, which in turn is better than a smart phone, especially for long term use

4 - location of the router can make a significant difference to both speed and reliability
 of the broadband connection (upstairs is usually better then downstairs, by a window and even whether its in the front or back of the house)

4 - an external antenna can also help improve speed and reliability

That was a very good read, thank you!

I'm definitely steering down the mobile broadband route instead of ADSL after the information provided from yourself and l@flashg67

I've gone abit sim crazy and ordered EE, Vodafone, GiffGaff and Lebara sims which should arrive in a few days so I can really gauge which has the best coverage in our home, and also enquired about 4G National Broadband to know more.

Has anyone used 4G National Broadband before?

matelodave

When it comes to 4g/5g there are only four service carriers, Three, O2, Vodafone and EE.

All the others just piggyback onto one or other of them. GiffGaff uses O2 as a service carrier whereas Lebara uses Vodafone, so you'll get the same performance from Lebara as with Vodafone and GiffGaff as on O2.

Smarty & IDmobile use Three, Voxi is Vodafone, 1p mobile is EE, so is Virgin, Tesco is O2, not sure who ASDA is with at the moment as they keep changing providers (they've been Vodafone and Three in the past)

So you need to find out who the service carrier is to confirm performance from the network otherwise you could be just trying several sims on the same carrier

dsingh26

Yep your completely right, I wasn't aware of this when I made the order, thank you!

I'll just test the 4 main carriers and see which one is the best. 

Let's say that Vodafone is the best, do I  go through them, who I believe are offering either a gigacube router or 4G dongle, or 4G National Broadband, who offer a 4G router?

QrizB

dsingh26 said:

Let's say that Vodafone is the best, do I  go through them, who I believe are offering either a gigacube router or 4G dongle, or 4G National Broadband, who offer a 4G router?

This being a Moneysaving forum, you might want to compare their offers with buying a sim-free 4G router outright and using a MNVO SIM (eg. Voxi for Vodafone or Smarty for Three), although from MSE's "cheap SIMs" page it seems Voda and Three themselves are pretty reasonable.

matelodave

Have  a look here - they are mostly deals but it does give you some insight as to how good, bad or indifferent the supplier's routers are - Best 4G router and 5G router

Dont get a dongle, they only work with the device they are plugged into, you need a router to be able to connect multiple devices

As QrizB suggests, you migh be better off getting your own router and then you'll have the flexibilty of putting any sim into it rather than tying yourself down to just one provider and it could be useful if there's an outage to be able to shove in a different providers sim card.

Try to establish your requirements - do you need ethernet ports for wire connections as well as wifi. Not all routers have the option of an external antenna which might be difference between a good signal and a just about adequate one so it might be useful if you had the option.

My mate has an external antenna on his boat which allows him to maintain a decent service as the boat rises and falls with the tide, whereas he used to lose it completely twice a day at low water.

Another advantage of 4G is that you can take your router away on holiday and still have wifi

GrumpyDil

My suggestion would be too find the fastest carrier for you but then to consider a mobile router plus external antenna . Using that combination we managed to consistently get 70mb + on the O2 network. Without the external antenna speeds were up to 20mb.

dsingh26

I was at my house earlier today and managed to test both the o2 and Vodafone sims. The speeds fluctuate on both sims in different rooms, at different times of the day but overall, it seems o2 was better. Upstairs I placed both devices near the windows and with o2 I was getting 20mbps (even sometimes nearly 30mbps!) whereas with Vodafone it was slightly lower. Downstairs behind the TV the speeds were not great on both (10mbps, sometimes even 4-5mbps) but near the window was higher. In the kitchen I could get 20mbps on o2 and slightly lower on Vodafone.

I'm waiting on a Three sim to arrive and will test the mrs phone (EE) before making a final call, but so far o2 seems the best option!

GrumpyDil said:

My suggestion would be too find the fastest carrier for you but then to consider a mobile router plus external antenna . Using that combination we managed to consistently get 70mb + on the O2 network. Without the external antenna speeds were up to 20mb.

Do you have a link to the router plus external antennas by any chance mate?

[Deleted User]

EE has the fastest data on all independent tests so hold out for that one.