So - When Do I Get 5G Home Router Choices?

[K12beano]

So come on - taps desk impatiently - has anyone got a 5G home router yet?

Can't find anything sensible on the main providers' sites... it's all seems to be "Coming Soon" - although (and I'm outside London but inside M25) one "coverage checker" says it's 5G covered here, just cannot see an obvious package.

But how long before I will get the choice of replacing cables with a 5G Home Router - 4G doesn't currently compete with my VM broadbean, but clearly the expectation is that 5G will piss all over it for speed and reliability.


When?

[alorotom]

I think Xiaomi do one that's meant to be pretty excellent - not had any first hand use though

[Sy1441]

We use the Huawei ones from Vodafone in our shops, not in 5G areas so can't really comment on 5G performance.

[mmm-five]

5G will only 'piss all over' the Virgin BB (mine's 220mbps, but the 500mbps is available with the promise of 1gbps shortly) if they use the correct frequency/spectrum, and you're sitting on top of an antenna, and you're the only one using it

I can get 100mbps from my EE 4G unit - but that uses multiple channels/frequencies to do so, which I assume will start to be eaten up by 5G roll-out and then I'll have to upgrade to 5G just to get the same speeds I was with 4G

I might not bother upgrading at all, as it's only a fall-back solution for when Virgin BB goes down (hasn't for over 3 years). But I could also use my 4G phone with unlimited data as a back-up.

[beko1987]

I'll wait until 5g is in my area before I upgrade that's for sure. My 4g (with my 4g router cabletied to a specific beam at a specific angle in the loft) nets me only 20/30mb down...

My contract is up in August 2021, and I doubt my little area of Oxfordshire would have had a mast upgrade by then so I'm not hedging my bets just yet...

Would also need to be an unlimited data plan, otherwise the costs for me will skyrocket, even on my own and without really meaning to I manage to chew through 200+gb a month

[PrinceRupert]

mmm-five said:

I might not bother upgrading at all, as it's only a fall-back solution for when Virgin BB goes down (hasn't for over 3 years). But I could also use my 4G phone with unlimited data as a back-up.

Really?

Virgin BB in our area seems to go down every other week at the moment...

[Russ T Bolt]

mmm-five said:

and you're the only one using it

which I assume will start to be eaten up by 5G roll-out and then I'll have to upgrade to 5G just to get the same speeds I was with 4G

Don't have time to break your post down, but.

5G doesn't work like that, you will have full capacity regardless who else is on it and it will be independent of 4G. Final speed will be faster than anything you get from 4G.

[mmm-five]

Russ T Bolt said:

Don't have time to break your post down, but.

5G doesn't work like that, you will have full capacity regardless who else is on it and it will be independent of 4G. Final speed will be faster than anything you get from 4G.

That's not what's happening in the US with AT&T's 5G service.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/202...

If it all works then great, if not you might end up with an AT&T level of service...hence the caveats in my post

[Russ T Bolt]

mmm-five said:

Russ T Bolt said:

Don't have time to break your post down, but.

5G doesn't work like that, you will have full capacity regardless who else is on it and it will be independent of 4G. Final speed will be faster than anything you get from 4G.

That's not what's happening in the US with AT&T's 5G service.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/202...

I'm not in the US so can't comment on their design or service

You could do a bit of googling to see what is happening in the UK (unless you are in the US)
https://5g.co.uk/guides/how-fast-is-5g/#:~:text=Th...

Edited by Russ T Bolt on Wednesday 9th September 13:40

[louiebaby]

Using the 5G coverage map at the below, it seems that we can see where the individual beacons/antennas are:

https://www.nperf.com/en/map/5g

With this in mind, I had a look at Sheffield, where my bro is looking to rent a flat. It seems it might be quite easy to work out where the engineers live, as there are a few random beacons in residential areas:



How do I get one installed outside my house?

[page3]

Some of us already use 4G to offer significantly more reliable and faster broadband than FTTC, and that’s only 20 miles outside London.

Our village is too rural for FTTP, cable or 5G but not remote enough to benefit from any of the broadband schemes. I’m sure it’s a typical story up and down the country.

If you have VM I’d just be glad.

[pidsy]

I’m inside the m25 and in a London borough yet FTTC still only provides 10meg on a good day.

the infrastructure round here is awful and I doubt BT are going to run new cable if I ask so this is one way to go I guess.