Are you using 4G for Home Broadband?

Gidster · August 9, 2019

Is anyone using 4G for their home broadband, as opposed ADSL, fibre etc.
I see here there are a few folks stuck with BT and limited speeds due to being out in the wilderness (if the UK has such a thing): https://community.fing.com/discussion/41/bt-the-uks-biggest-isp-manages-an-average-of-40mbps
Could 4G be a good solution. I moved my mother-in-law to 4G - popping a £20/mo unlimited data SIM from Three into a £70 4G router from TP-Link. She was struggling to get 2mbit/s most of the time on copper but with 4G its usually in the 6-20mbit/s range.

ddaw215 · August 9, 2019

I have a Magic Box from Sprint (although I don't use it for broadband)! Seems to work well. I only got one because I like toys and its free. I don't know if its an option in the UK or if there are similar devices.
https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/services/magic-box.html

keith · August 12, 2019

In Australia and I guess other places, we have "fixed wireless" in some rural areas.
Put simply, by me, it is like WiFi with directional aerials, range 15 klms or so Max.
Recently I found mobile services, 4G LTE, providing over 200mbps speeds for data, in a country town.
I investigated using mobile for my data at home.
Coverage was ordinary to say the least, using Samsung Note 4, hotspotting.
By accident, spoke to a Samsung support tech, he said newer phones, Note 9, 10, perform about twice as well, it's true, same tower but now connection is solid and phone makes an excellent backup when our fixed wireless is totally congested during peak hours. Netflix:(
BTW both services are Not line of site. Fixed wireless - 90db, 4G LTE much worse.
BUT, data cost is too high for 4G LTE (5G) so only good, for me, as backup.
Works well streaming and work.

Gidster · August 12, 2019

There's only one residential fixed-wireless operator I know of in the UK - Relish. I'm not sure they work outside London but they don't have a great reputation - unless you know otherwise?
Actually just read they were bought by Three and rebranded earlier this year as "Three Broadband"

keith · August 14, 2019

I have had fixed wireless for 5 years I think.
Two generations of hardware, first was only 12/2 capable, second is about 50/25 capable maybe more.
The best I have seen is an actual 45/20 and super solid.
One dumb isp tech, little training, put me on 100/50, he thought it might help the congestion.
As I mentioned the main issue is congestion, has been four 4 years.
I am not LOS shooting over a hill through trees, only about 5 klms.
Despite identifying congest as the only issue, 6 week trained staff always blame weather, signal strength, distance, my plan, I think they are trained to say all that stuff.
After literally hundreds of attempts the get the infrastructure issue fixed, I gave up.
Fixed wireless is excellent technology If the infrastructure is adequate.
They are trying to improve things by adding new users on 3.xghz, hopefully people closer to the towers.
2ghz range is about 14 klms, 3.xghz is I believe half that and less tolerant of objects in the path.
Give it a try if you can.

MIBSWE · August 23, 2019

I used to have 4G for broadband. It was limited to 100GB of data each month for 200kr (£18). It worked well as I was based on the City and occasionally it would lose the 4G connection, but it general it worked very well. But now that most use is to stream content, the data limit was too restrictive, so had to move. However, when I looked at costs for 4G broadband, the rates had jumped much higher, so it would have cost a lot more to get 4G again.

atomicboy · August 23, 2019

In Ontario, Canada, about 7 miles from the tower (in the fresnel zone) running 3 Fixed Wireless LTE A 4G (IFWA-630 systems) from the same IP into a Load Balancing Router that allows WAN bonding through VPN tunnels to an Amazon Web Services EC2 instance.
This takes the 3 services that are 25 down x 1 up and combines them into 75 down x 3 up ... Minus some overhead required by the process. Allows for higher redundancy if a WAN drops or performance degrades plus lots of monthly usage. This has to suffice until fibre comes in the next year or two.