Unlimited Data SIMs - are they really unlimited?

Unlimited Data SIMs - are they really unlimited?

Author
Discussion

bitchstewie

Original Poster:

50,790 posts

209 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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I pay around £35/month for home broadband and get around 40mbps down and 10mbps up.

Usage is around 300GB perhaps on an average month and that isn't anything crazy just web and streaming Sky and iPlayer and the likes.

I've noticed the likes of Smarty are offering unlimited data SIMs for "only" £20/month so with a cheap mobile router that starts to look an interesting option.

Does anyone do this and if so have you found any issues around "unlimited" not really meaning unlimited?

Jazoli

9,086 posts

249 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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I have a couple for the kids with huawei mifi's both through 3, unlimited is unlimited and they are more than capable of streaming HDTV, works out around £15/month with the half price for 6 months offer.

alorotom

11,908 posts

186 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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There is still a “fair usage policy” with them all which may throttle your speeds if you exceed certain volumes of data usage. This varies by network though.

Bikerjon

2,202 posts

160 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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£35 p/m for fixed line BB is fairly typical and there wont be any huge cost savings by switching to 4G. Smarty however currently do unlimited for £20 p/m and providing you can get a good strong signal on the Three network then it's a great deal. I'm currently using Smarty 4G and Vodafone VDSL via a load balancer and it's a nice setup.

RammyMP

6,729 posts

152 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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As mentioned they come with fair use policy. I had an unlimited sim with Three, the trouble was that the data speed is so slow with them that I never could use that much!

AJB88

12,269 posts

170 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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I've been hammering my Smarty unlimited sim for months (100gb+) and had no issues.

rooney1000

121 posts

211 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Yep, EE unlimited here. 75mb download, 12mb upload. Use with a router, supports whole house and range from 200 to 400GB a month, never any issues.

PushedDover

5,623 posts

52 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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kinda similar to the Rooney...

EE with a phone sim -unlimited data in it. Its been happily providing the internet throughout my house / home office for the last 5 months.

Lots to read in the long thread here, but I would be wary about going all in with Three. it seems they are a throttler? (and their Customer services are just abominable)
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

theboss

6,878 posts

218 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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No fair usage with Vodafone that I can see (I did scour the T&C)

I’ve been putting anywhere from 100-600GB a month through a £25/month SIM and haven’t heard a peep, nor has it been throttled or traffic-shaped.

BobSaunders

3,027 posts

154 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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8.05TB in 222 days on Three network (7 months).

I am however starting to suffer slow down, but i think that is primarily due to changes on the network.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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I'm thinking of getting a 4G router as I can get 120Mbit down and 60Mbit up at home on my phone which smashes my Plusnet connection (47/18). Thinking that as long as the latency isn't too horrendous it might be worth adding a 4GEE unlimited data SIM to my existing account...

theboss

6,878 posts

218 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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I use mine in conjunction with a fixed wireless broadband connection (40/10). I thought it would be used as a backup but actually it’s faster (50/30) and the generally more reliable. At the moment I use WAN link load balancing on my router - outbound TCP connections are distributed evenly across the links - so traffic is split pretty much 50/50 with seamless failover if either link dies.

Works pretty well... all I need to do now is setup some policy based routes so certain devices on the network have a preferred WAN path.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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That sounds ideal; what router are you using?

theboss

6,878 posts

218 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
quotequote all
Funk said:
That sounds ideal; what router are you using?
Ubiquiti USG

Bikerjon

2,202 posts

160 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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Funk said:
Thinking that as long as the latency isn't too horrendous it might be worth adding a 4GEE unlimited data SIM to my existing account...
IME latency on 4G tends to be around 25 - 50ms. VDSL is usually just under 10ms. FTTP is 3-4ms. Despite this it sometimes feels like general web browsing is faster on my 4G connection than VDSL!

The only other notable downside of 4G is not getting a public IP address, but that wont be an issue for most people.

megaphone

10,694 posts

250 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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As above, you don't get a public IP address with 4G BB, this means any CCTV or Dynamic DNS remote viewing etc won't work.

It has made me rethink my next move as I was determined to try 4G as an ISP option. I run dynamic DNS services and have a couple of web servers and CCTV which need to work.

Mammasaid

3,777 posts

96 months

Wednesday 12th February 2020
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Bikerjon said:
£35 p/m for fixed line BB is fairly typical and there wont be any huge cost savings by switching to 4G. Smarty however currently do unlimited for £20 p/m and providing you can get a good strong signal on the Three network then it's a great deal. I'm currently using Smarty 4G and Vodafone VDSL via a load balancer and it's a nice setup.
Should be able to get fixed line BB for ~£20/month for superfast unlimited.

I'm with Vodafone for that price for but there are others.

bitchstewie

Original Poster:

50,790 posts

209 months

Monday 17th February 2020
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Well one cheap and bloody obvious lesson is don't run too many 4G speed tests on your mobile phone using your PAYG SIM hehe

I seem to be able to get around 40mbps down but anything from 1-10mbps up depending when I try.

Not sure what might be the constraint on upload and if there is anything I can do about it but I expect not.

Any thoughts on a cheap and cheerful way to try this out "in production"?

A Smarty unlimited SIM seems cheap enough but any thoughts on a suitable router where if I stick with it I wouldn't be chucking it away?

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

260 months

Monday 17th February 2020
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I bought my router from Amazon. About £65 I think.

OldGermanHeaps

3,801 posts

177 months

Monday 17th February 2020
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megaphone said:
As above, you don't get a public IP address with 4G BB, this means any CCTV or Dynamic DNS remote viewing etc won't work.

It has made me rethink my next move as I was determined to try 4G as an ISP option. I run dynamic DNS services and have a couple of web servers and CCTV which need to work.
3 gives you a proper nattable public IP