Using mobile broadband as a home broadband replacement with the LTE difference

Mega Maniac

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I have just moved into a new flat, frustratingly despite being a fairly new complex and being close to central Manchester I am limited to ADSL speeds, this maxes out at an 'estimated' 17Mb down, but realistically this is actually 8-9mb, sometimes half of that, with a frankly pathetic 300kb up. I am also obviously left paying £12pm for a phone line I dont use and this "top" package brings the bills up to about £35 pm.

I have heard a lot recently about Three and their one plan, they allow tethering and their angle is truly, truly (no really i promise) unlimited mobile broadband. I am inclined to suspect they block certain traffic, but I cant seem to find anything that suggests this.

So, given this knowledge I could go ahead and stop getting ripped off by BT for the phone line I dont use and the internet that costs too much for the speeds I get.

As far as I can see there are two flaws in this plan, one is reception, and the other one is real world speed and latency.

Reception - this one is pretty simple, if its bad the plan is moot, but this is near enough central manchester, the 3G on my t-mobile phone is full bars all the time. Three is likely to be good, if not great, and if its rubbish the sim only contract is a one month roller, so easy to cancel.

Real world speeds and Latency - So even when I have full 3g, my speeds are pretty rough, around 0.5-1mb down, and roughly the same for the upload, with a 150ms latency. This could be better on a less used network like three, but its no replacement for home broadband.

But this is where LTE comes in, its theoretical speeds are crazy, but even in real world usage it will be beating out my home broadband and for a better price. In addition to this the latency drops down to below 50ms making gaming totally possible.

BBC News - Not so fast - testing 4G - bbc article on real world speeds

Three plan to roll out 4g/LTE this year, I have assumed that it will simply be an upgrade to the existing network, meaning "The one plan" would simple get faster and retain its unlimited nature. This may be a bit hopeful, but I can keep my fingers crossed.

So what are peoples opinions on this, can anyone poke a huge hole in my LTE home broadband dreams? I honestly believe that this is the way broadband will be in a few years, with the advent of LTE paying for that landline and homephone you just dont use any more is going to sting ever more. Not just this but the mobile companies have got to realise that there is a huge market here, the home broadband folks have got to be a bit worried, if the networks can get to the stage where they can cope with the demand then why would anyone stick with a more expensive home option? The days of tying your mobile contract into your home broadband and them both operating on the same network are near... if you ask me.
 
I work in the city centre (at the new hospitals) and 3 is poor speed wise there. The network is congested and they did have plans to improve this but have put them back. I struggle to watch youtube videos in HD on my phone. I would try a pay as you go sim first to see what kind of speed you get, and check it though out the day
 
Yea, my speeds on t-mobile are pretty dire as mentioned above, my guess was also congestion.

So would the speeds on a payg sim be the same as those on a monthly unlimited sim? I cant see a reason why not...
 
Yea, my speeds on t-mobile are pretty dire as mentioned above, my guess was also congestion.

So would the speeds on a payg sim be the same as those on a monthly unlimited sim? I cant see a reason why not...

Should be. As you said no reason why not
 
Your plan is flawed as the 4G sell off has not yet been completed in the UK. :lesson:Until that is done you could find yourself in limbo if certain suppliers don't win.
BBC News - Operators' 4G bidding war begins as Ofcom launches UK auction

You will need a 4G compatible device.
You need to read the small print, no plan is unlimited. Most use traffic shaping and some imposed strict controls on certain types of traffic at particular times. Virtually all have max data limits and fair usage policies. Landline BB just throttle your connection if you go above these. Mobile providers, if you go above your data cap, charge you at extortionate rates.
Do you really think you are going to get unlimited use when the companies concerned are going to have to invest significant capital in upgrading their infrastructure ?:facepalm:
 
Your plan is flawed as the 4G sell off has not yet been completed in the UK. :lesson:Until that is done you could find yourself in limbo if certain suppliers don't win.
BBC News - Operators' 4G bidding war begins as Ofcom launches UK auction

You will need a 4G compatible device.
You need to read the small print, no plan is unlimited. Most use traffic shaping and some imposed strict controls on certain types of traffic at particular times. Virtually all have max data limits and fair usage policies. Landline BB just throttle your connection if you go above these. Mobile providers, if you go above your data cap, charge you at extortionate rates.
Do you really think you are going to get unlimited use when the companies concerned are going to have to invest significant capital in upgrading their infrastructure ?:facepalm:

I have used over 10gb with 3 some months and never been charged. They are also introducing 4g later this year
 
Yea, maf, honestly that is exactly what I thought.

But then all I read is posts like the one above by Delvey.

If you can show me that they have some small print somewhere about the type of traffic or any fiar use policy then that would confirm my natural suspicions. But three explicitly state on their website that there is no fair use policy

(Terms & Conditions - Privacy & cookies)

This link also states it is for use only on your phone unless you have the one plan which allows tethering.

They also state here that they are getting 4g in 2013

(Message - Support - Three) )

Every network will get 4g eventually, even if other networks have to 'share' the spectrum they buy, this happens to ensure every network has a fiar playing field. I also dont think Three would be stating on their website that they are getting 4g if there was a chance they wouldn't, as this would means thousands of new subscribers could cancel contracts.
 
I just thought I would drop in withan update here, I have recently switched to Three and even their current offerings wipe the floor with T-Mobile who I was with before...

Currently Three offer unlimited (totally, no limits or caps) interent and tethering on their one plan. Whilst they dont have 4G yet they do have HSPA+ (something the Americans call 4G) and honestly I cant fathom why you would go with EE with 4G if you had tried this option.

In Manchester I get 2-4Mbps down and 2Mbps up on my new phone (compared to my T-Mobile 3G on which I could barely browse the web) with a latency of around 50ms. Just having this freedom has meant my internet usage has rocketed, I now watch TV on my break at work, and can use the internet with no slowdown when tethering to my laptop and away from home.

EE would require at least £46 a month for me to use the same amount of internet (4G Mobile Phone Plans | Super Fast 4GEE Smartphones | EE), and its limited, and you can forget about tethering. What can be the point of offering such great speeds when you are SO limited by the bandwidth.

Honestly the only reason you could want to go with EE is because of the better speeds on 4G, but the only reason I could see you needing this is if you wanted to do some serious downloading, something which you cant do because of the limits, and costs. For mobile BB Three's speeds are more than enough, and their contracts are cheaper.

I think I missed a problem with the whole home internet thing however. You would have to live by yourself, as most of the time the phone is with you, so you take the internet with you. The mobile contracts still cost more than a home broadband connection, and Three dont go anywhere near unlimited broadband with their dongles aimed at the mobile broadband market.

I can certainly see a point in the future where mobile broadband takes over, perhaps more spectrum is needed before its feasible.

But yea, my plug for Three remains. If you want a new smartphone and internet is important to you, Three's HSPA+ network is everything you will ever need for mobile broadband usage, at a much lower price than EE's 4G.
 
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I love using Three UK to tether with my Galaxy S3 LTE phone.I use my phone as a portable Wi-fi hotspot (which is why I'm selling off my Mi-FI but no ones buying on here.It's crazy).

I get around 6-14MBps on Three UK where I live currently (somewhere in West midlands,not saying where I live).

Since I'm on the £15 all you can eat bundle,I can't tether officially but I use a workaround (as I think paying more than £15 a month for anything is extortionate nor can I afford to really.Life is expensive for students and graduates) so I tether freely and without trouble.I never got suspended once yet.

I wish EE would just roll out unlimited data (but they're too greedy to do that) already so I can finally enjoy decent speeds (20Mbps+ are decent for me,any less is a joke for me speedwise).
 
I have a slightly different approach to MBB. Both Mrs W and me have Three £15pcm PAYG All you-can-eat on our iPhones and here in South Birmingham I get 9 - 10 mbps on my iPhone 5, which is fine for most things. Three has pretty wide, robust coverage in the West Mids too.

I also have a Three MBB dongle which is permanently attached to my PC. The signal has improved significantly over the last few years and when I checked last night, I was getting 9.5 mbps. Now that's not lighting fast, but I don't do gaming or anything I can think of that needs anything much faster. I use the £25/7gb/30days PAYG package and as I don't download lots of media, that's fine for me.

I know there are cheaper ways of doing it, but this the no hassle way for me - the phone's the phone and turn on the PC and the internet's always on. I had my BT landline taken out over a year ago and I don't think I've missed it once.
 
Film - How much data do you use on your tether? do you do a lot of downloading or is it mainly just browsing?

considering you already get 6-14Mbps down, why do you still want to switch to 4G, why do you consider less a joke?

Only reason I ask is that 6-14Mbps is easily enough for everything, even streaming high def video, so the only place it falls down is how quickly it downloads large amounts of data.

William - Perhaps you should consider getting rid of your dongle, you can always tether if you root your phones anyway, and if you and your wife both have the same plan you wont be without internet at any point.

Also, just a side note, you dont need speed for gaming, not once you get past about 1Mbps. The important aspect is the latency which is how quick the data travels from the game server to you. Its not the size of the pipe, its the speed of the pipe. :)
 
Film - How much data do you use on your tether? do you do a lot of downloading or is it mainly just browsing?

considering you already get 6-14Mbps down, why do you still want to switch to 4G, why do you consider less a joke?

Only reason I ask is that 6-14Mbps is easily enough for everything, even streaming high def video, so the only place it falls down is how quickly it downloads large amounts of data.

Also, just a side note, you dont need speed for gaming, not once you get past about 1Mbps. The important aspect is the latency which is how quick the data travels from the game server to you. Its not the size of the pipe, its the speed of the pipe. :)

I use as much as I can (downloading/streaming/torrents-legal of course,uploading my film works to other sites for critics and assessment,etc)

I want 4G as high speeds are guaranteed rather than a lottery (typically 20MBps+ rather than wide flutuations with non-4G internet services from my experience in my area)

I consider less than 20MBps a joke due to numerous issues I had with all ISPs really and it seems to me that if it's less than 20Mbps I can never have a trouble free internet experience like I deserve when paying a fair amount of money each month (buffering,things not loading in the blink of an eye for me,traffic management,frequent throttling as ISPs throttle less on higher tiers for some reason.)

Less than 20MBps connections also are too slow for upload speeds which I rely on for uploading my film works/online skype collaborations with my editors,etc. :)
 
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I think you would find (certainly at the moment) that 4G would be much more flakey than 3G coverage, it may well improve down the line however.

One of the reasons I think Three's network speeds on 3G are so significantly better is that their network simply isn't bogged down as much as their competitors. I mean 3G has theoretical speeds of 7-8Mbps, but with T-mobile I got dismal speeds, as mentioned in my first post. If 4G is widely adopted and used to its full potential (i.e. lots of downloading, streaming etc) then it will only succumb to the same poor speeds on a clogged network that I have experienced on 3G.

I actually work as an Editor, so I appreciate how frustrating slow speeds are, here in my flat the best landline internet I can get has a down of 7-8Mbps and an up of 500-700kbps, its quicker to upload from my mobile now than it is from my home internet.
 
I think you would find (certainly at the moment) that 4G would be much more flakey than 3G coverage, it may well improve down the line however.

One of the reasons I think Three's network speeds on 3G are so significantly better is that their network simply isn't bogged down as much as their competitors. I mean 3G has theoretical speeds of 7-8Mbps, but with T-mobile I got dismal speeds, as mentioned in my first post. If 4G is widely adopted and used to its full potential (i.e. lots of downloading, streaming etc) then it will only succumb to the same poor speeds on a clogged network that I have experienced on 3G.

I actually work as an Editor, so I appreciate how frustrating slow speeds are, here in my flat the best landline internet I can get has a down of 7-8Mbps and an up of 500-700kbps, its quicker to upload from my mobile now than it is from my home internet.

Do what an increasing number of young people (that I know from news articles) do which is simply get rid of all their landlines (both phone and internet) and switch purely to 3G/4G mobile services (data/voice/SMS,etc) as you save a fair amount from not paying 'line rental' (I mean come on BT,this is just a tax for me.No extra taxes for me) or puttng up with a lottery for internet speeds. I only pay £15 a month on PAYG and I get generous voice/SMS and all you can eat allowances so I just use that for my everyday needs (1 fee,many benefits) :)

I use a workaround to avoid the £25 a month fee for the service with official tethering support (Hint all VPNS work just fine for this,any other tricks are just bogus from my testing experience anyway) as I think that's too much to spend. £15 for 12 months means I only spend £180 a year on unlimited data,calling and text messaging needs.Pretty good eh? :)
 
Do what an increasing number of young people (that I know from news articles) do which is simply get rid of all their landlines (both phone and internet) and switch purely to 3G/4G mobile services (data/voice/SMS,etc) as you save a fair amount from not paying 'line rental' (I mean come on BT,this is just a tax for me.No extra taxes for me) or puttng up with a lottery for internet speeds. I only pay £15 a month on PAYG and I get generous voice/SMS and all you can eat allowances so I just use that for my everyday needs (1 fee,many benefits) :)

Less of the age bit please! ;) I retired a couple of years ago and ditching the landline was one of the best things I did. It's got to be the future, right?
 
Less of the age bit please! ;) I retired a couple of years ago and ditching the landline was one of the best things I did. It's got to be the future,right?
I didn't mention the age bit to be offensive but when I pull info from a research paper or an article that mentions an age group or cultural background and the topic,it's best to mention it I think.

I'm glad you ditched the landline. Who in the right mind wants to pay twice (line rental and subscription fees)? I certainly can't stand the thought of paying more than £15 a month for unlimited internet via unofficial tethering on my phone (VPNs do the job nicely to hide your tethering but slows things down a bit), well it beats paying £25 anyday :)
 
I hate paying 3x what I do for my broadband to rent the line, its seems absurd.

Unfortunately we need landline internet, my housemate needs the internet when I'm out, and I do long jobs where I rent out my room, and the person staying needs the internet.
 
I get around 8mbps at home but speed is flakey where I work
Walking 200 yards down the road vastly improves it
4G struggles just as much with congestion as 3G imo. A lad at work had it and only got 3mpbs, and just touched 20mbps at home
 

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