Anyone tried a mobile phone company 4G broadband service?

bear66

bear66

Well-known member
They seem to be relatively cheap and my 4G phone download speed seems to be more than adequate. I have been a Virgin broadband user for over a decade, but recently it goes off now and again; never more than for a few hours, but at the price I don't think it should be happening!
 
bear66 said:
They seem to be relatively cheap and my 4G phone download speed seems to be more than adequate. I have been a Virgin broadband user for over a decade, but recently it goes off now and again; never more than for a few hours, but at the price I don't think it should be happening!
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I've advised a few rural clients to get this, rather than pay for dedicated a wired broadband service (which is effectively putting me out of pocket), it's definitely worthwhile, but depends how you use the net.

If you're a datacentre or hardcore gamer, then I would say, no, don't do it (yet), but if you're just on social media or doing a bit of streaming then it will be fine. Just maybe check which phone provider has the best 4g for your area? Also 5G available in some places.

I actually had to rely on my old 3G phone for this, years ago, and it worked better than the wired "broadband", we got like 10MB through the phone (as a router) and were getting 2MB from the phone line.
 
I tried the Three 4G mobile broadband - it was rubbish. Kept swapping between connections & dropping out and could barely keep up with normal day to day usage. I wouldn't go there again.

That said I know someone who has mobile broadband with Sky and he swears by it.
 
We had an EE one when we first moved to a rural office in my last role and were waiting for the landlord to install fibre. It supported 4/5 of us adequately most of the time, but did have periods where it dropped off.

It was also annoying being the card holder when I needed to top it up, especially if I was in a meeting at the time.
 
DCI_Gene_Hunt said:
I tried the Three 4G mobile broadband - it was rubbish. Kept swapping between connections & dropping out and could barely keep up with normal day to day usage. I wouldn't go there again.

That said I know someone who has mobile broadband with Sky and he swears by it.
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I get a good, reliable 3 signal and download. Is the 3 mobile broadband different in some way?
 
bear66 said:
I get a good, reliable 3 signal and download. Is the 3 mobile broadband different in some way?
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Three on my mobile is absolutely fine, I'd recommend it anytime but the router I had locked into 2 different signals and kept switching between the 2 but the switch always resulted in losing the connection for a few seconds. When it was steady on one signal it was ok for a while but to stream iplayer was a struggle and it was just generally slow all round.

I got shot of it within the cooling off period and stayed with Virgin - more expensive but for me much more reliable.
 
bear66 said:
They seem to be relatively cheap and my 4G phone download speed seems to be more than adequate. I have been a Virgin broadband user for over a decade, but recently it goes off now and again; never more than for a few hours, but at the price I don't think it should be happening!
Click to expand...
I have the 4G EE wifi and its astonishing. In fact, I was xbox gaming off my smartphone before it arrived with EE. I live in Looe, Cornwall and my broadband was about 2gb. I get speeds of around 75gb and it is better than the broadband I had in Plymouth. Its definitely the future with 5G as well. I have unlimited for £55 a month and its invaluable for me.
 
5g will be a game changer, particularly for people living in rural areas.

I tried it before the pandemic in london with EE. They had a 5g booth with devices. It was incredibly fast
 
There's Starlink too, we can get that in the UK but it's expensive, for now, it's like £90 a month.

5G will be fast, but I'm not sure how that is going to go rural, not where it's using higher frequencies as the higher the frequency the worse it will be at travelling distance, getting past obstructions and through walls etc. Unless we start putting up massive antennas and people have a receiver put on the outside of their house.
 
Have advised 2 family friends to move to 3’s 4g broadband solution. Both happy with it but they both live in rural areas without poor fixed broadband speeds. I would only advise a switch from fixed broadband to mobile broadband if you live in poorly served fixed broadband areas.
If you do go down that solution ensure you choose the mobile broadband supplier with the best signal in your home.
If you are with Virgin are you sure it’s not a WiFi issues rather then a broadband issue? ( not teaching you to suck eggs btw). If it’s a WiFi issue then go down the mesh route and you will be happy. If it’s a broadband issue that’s dropping out it is easily identifiable on Virgin.
 
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