Mobile Phone Broadband

[Northernboy]

As I’ve posted on other threads, my combination of awful broadband, patchy WiFi and terrible phone signal inside the house needs to be fixed, and the next step is to try to get a good 4G or 5G signal into a cellular modem, to try to get a consistent data flow far better than the 14Mb I’m getting at present.

4G is fine outside the house, and two streets away I can get 700Mb/s on my phone, so I’m wondering if sticking a high gain antenna at the top of a big stick on the roof might get me there.

I’d welcome any thoughts on this scheme, and any recommendations for service providers and / or equipment.

[plasticpig]

Simplest route to this is to use EE 4G home broadband and their external antenna installation service: https://shop.ee.co.uk/broadband/4g-home-broadband

[Northernboy]

plasticpig said:

Simplest route to this is to use EE 4G home broadband and their external antenna installation service: https://shop.ee.co.uk/broadband/4g-home-broadband

Thanks.

I’ve ordered an EE 5G sim, and will stick in in a dumb phone with good reception first to see what we can get. If I go up on the roof.

[page3]

Just be aware that EE don’t do an unlimited data plan, it’s all 600Gb “fair use policy”. Streaming can use around 3Gb to 7Gb an hour. Combine that with family use, chatty IoT devices, working from home, voip and general internet use and it doesn’t go far.

[Northernboy]

page3 said:

Just be aware that EE don’t do an unlimited data plan, it’s all 600Gb “fair use policy”. Streaming can use around 3Gb to 7Gb an hour. Combine that with family use, chatty IoT devices, working from home, voip and general internet use and it doesn’t go far.

Thanks it’ll be for work, which doesn’t use so much. I’ll use my normal broadband for things like streaming.

[khushy]

Vodafone Gigacube for us - we get 4mbs on a bt line and average phone signal - clocked 4g broadband at 150mbs last week - pretty good imho

[Northernboy]

khushy said:

Vodafone Gigacube for us - we get 4mbs on a bt line and average phone signal - clocked 4g broadband at 150mbs last week - pretty good imho

Do you know if you can attach an external antenna to that?

[FunkyGibbon]

OP - I have a spare dual sim 4G router your can try to see if this all works for you before you embark on what can be a costly solution.

One of these: https://teltonika-networks.com/product/rut955/

PM me if you are interested,

[dmsims]

page3 said:

Just be aware that EE don’t do an unlimited data plan, it’s all 600Gb “fair use policy”. Streaming can use around 3Gb to 7Gb an hour. Combine that with family use, chatty IoT devices, working from home, voip and general internet use and it doesn’t go far.

they do for 4G, if you are a customer

[Northernboy]

dmsims said:

they do for 4G, if you are a customer

I may be missing something, but aren’t all users customers?

[dmsims]

Northernboy said:

I may be missing something, but aren’t all users customers?

If you browse the site, you cannot see the unlimited option. If you login (as a customer) it appears

[page3]

dmsims said:

page3 said:

Just be aware that EE don’t do an unlimited data plan, it’s all 600Gb “fair use policy”. Streaming can use around 3Gb to 7Gb an hour. Combine that with family use, chatty IoT devices, working from home, voip and general internet use and it doesn’t go far.

they do for 4G, if you are a customer

No, they don’t. They do “unlimited” with a 600Gb “fair use policy”, reduced from 1Tb just as we went in to lockdown.

[dmsims]

page3 said:

No, they don’t. They do “unlimited” with a 600Gb “fair use policy”, reduced from 1Tb just as we went in to lockdown.

Meanwhile EE say (and I quote)

"All of our unlimited plans are uncapped so you can use as much data as you like, as long as it's for personal use."

[page3]

dmsims said:

page3 said:

No, they don’t. They do “unlimited” with a 600Gb “fair use policy”, reduced from 1Tb just as we went in to lockdown.

Meanwhile EE say (and I quote)

"All of our unlimited plans are uncapped so you can use as much data as you like, as long as it's for personal use."

There’s more buried deep, I know as I went over it a week ago. Currently using Smarty until end of the month then back to my EE connection.

“If you regularly tether 12 or more devices, we will consider this non-personal use and have the right to move you to a more suitable plan. We will consider usage above 600GB/month to be non-personal use and have the right to apply traffic management controls to deprioritise your mobile traffic during busy periods or to move you to a business plan. “

Edited by page3 on Sunday 21st February 19:29

[DuckSauce]

I'm on Three, which is unlimited.
Use a B818 router with external antenna
I get around 40 down and 10 up, which is way more than any fixed line can give me.

In the last few months, we've used 1.5TB of data

That's a family of 6, we stream Netflix, Disney, Prime, Xbox online gaming and a host of other things

[22]

I have an unlimited EE business sim (he did say was for work). No landline in the office so tethered and abused permanently.

[Murph7355]

page3 said:

There’s more buried deep, I know as I went over it a week ago. Currently using Smarty until end of the month then back to my EE connection.

“If you regularly tether 12 or more devices, we will consider this non-personal use and have the right to move you to a more suitable plan. We will consider usage above 600GB/month to be non-personal use and have the right to apply traffic management controls to deprioritise your mobile traffic during busy periods or to move you to a business plan. “

Edited by page3 on Sunday 21st February 19:29

The business plans also have fair usage limits - I think of 1Tb.

I guess the thing with these limits is they don't have to apply them all the time/at all. They are just reserving the right to should network needs dictate.

Where I am (out in the sticks) the EE 4G network is 4x faster than the next best (3). Speeds are roughly 50-90Mbps download here (ADSL2 is all that's available cabled...and that's around 12-14Mbps download and 1Mbps upload).

Just use their router etc - am having issues with a third party router/gateway combo. Still intent on getting to the bottom of it, but it'll be easier for their tech support people (who have been very good) to help if you're using their kit.

[page3]

Murph7355 said:

The business plans also have fair usage limits - I think of 1Tb.

I guess the thing with these limits is they don't have to apply them all the time/at all. They are just reserving the right to should network needs dictate.

Where I am (out in the sticks) the EE 4G network is 4x faster than the next best (3). Speeds are roughly 50-90Mbps download here (ADSL2 is all that's available cabled...and that's around 12-14Mbps download and 1Mbps upload).

Just use their router etc - am having issues with a third party router/gateway combo. Still intent on getting to the bottom of it, but it'll be easier for their tech support people (who have been very good) to help if you're using their kit.

Don’t get me wrong, the EE 4G is great. Same as you it’s by far the fastest and hugely better than my broken FTTC. With the AAISP VPN giving me a fixed IP I’m really happy with it. I just wish they wouldn’t advertise it as unlimited when it isn’t. The reduction to 600Gb was also a kick in the teeth, especially badly timed.

[GlenMH]

Northernboy said:

khushy said:

Vodafone Gigacube for us - we get 4mbs on a bt line and average phone signal - clocked 4g broadband at 150mbs last week - pretty good imho

Do you know if you can attach an external antenna to that?

Yes - we used one in a metal portakabin with an external antenna and it worked very well.

[Northernboy]

I bought a £60 Huawei 4G router in the end. It worked OK so I decided to return it and get a better one, then saw that Three sell the good one for £19, with unlimited data for 20 a month, so got that.

I’m now getting 25Mb/s without an external antenna, which I’m happy with.

If I can get a better signal up on the roof I’ll stick it in a cabinet up there with a solar panel and a battery and use a repeater in the house to bring the signal in.