Help please. Broadband renewal anxiety

iniltous

If you are inside a minimum term with PN , then the PSTN  switch off , and potential move to FTTP at your address current is irrelevant, you stay as you are for the time being , ignoring any offers to switch , as far as ETC , no point in concerning yourself yet , as you don’t know how much it will be , as it’s based on the remaining months with you can’t yet know until you have a date to move into the new address , similarly it’s pointless trying a mobile solution at your current address , as when you move there is no reason why the mobile signal strength will be anything like it is at your current address , so possibly you start using it where you are and it’s useless at the next address once you move in .
When you move , if there is no current Openreach line , generally taking out a 24 month deal gets one installed for free , the cost is amelioration into the monthly fee you agree to pay , and if telephony isn’t wanted , you could avoid ETC from Plusnet by using them at your next address , even if it doesn’t have a current working Openreach line .

millie

We had a leaflet through the door a few days ago from a company called BRSK . They were quoting £24 per month for broadband cannot remember what speed and I have thrown the leaflet away. They were promising no mid contract price rises. I do not think it is available everywhere, they are just putting cabling in by us.

Scrounger

moneysaver said:

Has anyone got experience of mobile broadband? In particular Three mobile broadband. I see they have a 30 day sim I could try and was thinking of using my phone as a hotspot temporarily.

Would this be a good idea or not?

@moneysaver, I recently ditched NowTV broadband (& phone line) @ £24/month for a mobile solution (my 4g/5g coverage is not the best - line of sight to relevant phone masts obscured by trees & tall buildings).

After buying a few items from ebay and a couple of cheap data SIMs, I set up two working independent mobile broadband systems:

Main system: Samsung A22 5g mobile phone (£40), ASUS RT-AC68U router (£20), 6-metre USB A to USB C data/charging cable (£7).

The phone is mounted as high as possible in the apex of the loft and controlled by the Asus router (using USB tethering and charging), located in the bedroom below. The Samsung phone incorporates a 'battery protection' option which limits battery charging at 85% charge, also the router is switched off for a few hours in the early hours (using a Tapo smart plug), in order to cycle the phone battery a little bit.

Average 5g speed: 100Mbps DL / 10Mbps UL, (Peak: 130Mbps/18Mbps)

Backup system: TP-Link MR600 4g router (£30), Huawei Wide Coverage 4G LTE MIMO Antenna (£10).
The antenna (about 6 inches square, 1/2 inch thick) is mounted via the loft, into the cavity behind the plastic soffit, with the 4g MR600 router positioned below in a bedroom/office, thus keeping the antenna leads as short as possible (about 1.5m).

Average 4g speed: 12Mbs DL / 8Mbps UL (Peak: 20Mbps/12Mbps)

Data SIMs: 

3 500GB/month until Nov 2027- £75 (Eqiv £2.68/month) - Scancom via Amazon

Lebara 100GB/month until Jan 2026 - £1.10/month - Lebara 6-month intro offer

The main system has been running for about 3 weeks now and usually has about 30 devices permanently connected by cable and wifi (Ring doorbell,  multiple smart sockets & cameras, 3 echos, Firestick, NowTV stick, 2 or 3 pcs and several mobile phones).  The Mrs works from home P/T and I'm finding our combined average data use is only about 10GB/day so the Scancom 500GB/month should be ample.

No problems so far and I'm enjoying the savings of about £20/month. 

Scrounger

moneysaver

Scrounger said:

moneysaver said:

Has anyone got experience of mobile broadband? In particular Three mobile broadband. I see they have a 30 day sim I could try and was thinking of using my phone as a hotspot temporarily.

Would this be a good idea or not?

@moneysaver, I recently ditched NowTV broadband (& phone line) @ £24/month for a mobile solution (my 4g/5g coverage is not the best - line of sight to relevant phone masts obscured by trees & tall buildings).

After buying a few items from ebay and a couple of cheap data SIMs, I set up two working independent mobile broadband systems:

Main system: Samsung A22 5g mobile phone (£40), ASUS RT-AC68U router (£20), 6-metre USB A to USB C data/charging cable (£7).

The phone is mounted as high as possible in the apex of the loft and controlled by the Asus router (using USB tethering and charging), located in the bedroom below. The Samsung phone incorporates a 'battery protection' option which limits battery charging at 85% charge, also the router is switched off for a few hours in the early hours (using a Tapo smart plug), in order to cycle the phone battery a little bit.

Average 5g speed: 100Mbps DL / 10Mbps UL, (Peak: 130Mbps/18Mbps)

Backup system: TP-Link MR600 4g router (£30), Huawei Wide Coverage 4G LTE MIMO Antenna (£10).
The antenna (about 6 inches square, 1/2 inch thick) is mounted via the loft, into the cavity behind the plastic soffit, with the 4g MR600 router positioned below in a bedroom/office, thus keeping the antenna leads as short as possible (about 1.5m).

Average 4g speed: 12Mbs DL / 8Mbps UL (Peak: 20Mbps/12Mbps)

Data SIMs: 

3 500GB/month until Nov 2027- £75 (Eqiv £2.68/month) - Scancom via Amazon

Lebara 100GB/month until Jan 2026 - £1.10/month - Lebara 6-month intro offer

The main system has been running for about 3 weeks now and usually has about 30 devices permanently connected by cable and wifi (Ring doorbell,  multiple smart sockets & cameras, 3 echos, Firestick, NowTV stick, 2 or 3 pcs and several mobile phones).  The Mrs works from home P/T and I'm finding our combined average data use is only about 10GB/day so the Scancom 500GB/month should be ample.

No problems so far and I'm enjoying the savings of about £20/month. 

Scrounger

Thanks for taking the time for going in to all this detail about your system, you have gave me lots to think about. I will definately take it all in to consideration when I change on to mobile broadband.

This forum is great when people try to help others rather than nitpick on misuse of words and being no help at all.(one of my other recent posts)

Moneysaver

Scrounger

Just as an addendum to my cheap 5g Broadband solution above (in case anybody is interested):

Due to the recent spell of warm weather, I've had to install a small cooling fan to help cool the Samsung phone as I was noticing a drop in data rates with a major reduction in battery capacity.  The Asus router supply/charging current being limited to 4.5W (5V/900mA USB 3.1 specs) and supplied through a 6m long USB cable.

I had a feeling from the outset that stifling hot temperatures in the attic may be problematic for the phone handset so had already installed a spare mains supply cable for a cooling fan.  I used a small 240V 15W axial fan which is blowing air upwards at about 45 degrees to the phone.

Fortunately this has fully resolved the phone problems so far and the data rates are back to normal.

In the longer term I'll try and implement thermostatic control for the fan.

Scrounger