4G as Home Broadband?

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17-04-14, 15:18
Curran

4G as Home Broadband?

Moved into a new house, and its not really served with many options for Broadband...not giving Eircom the money they want and other providers can only offer mickey mouse packages!!

Was using the phone (Galaxy S4) the other night, as a WIFI Hot Spot so I could do something quickly on the laptop and it worked OK.....due to the fact that Im with "3" and they've upgraded me to 4G for a few months at no extra charge!

Tempted to go with the...
4G-Enabled Router
or the
MiFi Hot Spot - could be handy to bring on the go with the laptop?

Both work out at 35 quid a month on an 12 month contract (60GB Limit) - 49 quid for the MiFi, 109 quid for the router.

Anyone got any experiece with either? And is it a viable solution to the run of the mill broadband packages?

Cheers!
17-04-14, 19:04
eddiem74

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

What are eircom looking and is their efibre service available at your address. I pay eircom €50 per month for efibre unlimited and have no complaints.
17-04-14, 20:33
hamish262001

Re: RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddiem74

What are eircom looking and is their efibre service available at your address. I pay eircom €50 per month for efibre unlimited and have no complaints.

Same here.
I find eircom quite competitive these days

Sent from my HTC Desire X using Tapatalk
17-04-14, 21:02
JohnH

4G as Home Broadband?

We have a phone and broadband package from Eircom and it's only €30 per month, though it goes up after the first 6 months.
It's cheaper than our old Vodafone package
17-04-14, 21:36
Curran

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

Assumed Eircom were still very pricey as a neighbour mentioned that it was pricey but reliable....so wrote them off based on previous price checks....more research needed.
18-04-14, 07:26
Curran

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

Eircom is 35 quid for the first 6 months and then 50 quid a month after; 18 month contract – Speeds of up to 100Mb and Unlimited download
30 quid a month for 6 months and 45 quid after on 18 month contract – 100Mb but limit of 30GB

Downloaded the Speed Test App for the phone and with 2 bar on the 4G signal, I got:
PING: 42ms
Download: 30 Mbps
Upload: 13 Mbps

Will have to do a few more checks during the day, but thats not too bad??

"3's" package is 35 quid for 4G speed with a limit of 60GB

Suppose Ive got to weigh up if its worth risking having poor signal and crap connection if I were to go with 4G verus the reliability of Eircom.
18-04-14, 08:43
Curran

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

Did another quick check....
PING: 39ms
Download: 37 Mbps
Upload: 11 Mbps

Could live with that...if the signal isnt going to drop in and out!

Is that the average 4G speed; somewhere in the 30 Mbps range? I know 3 say its supposed to be 10x faster than 3G which is around 7 Mbps??
18-04-14, 16:05
Moses

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curran

Did another quick check....
PING: 39ms
Download: 37 Mbps
Upload: 11 Mbps

Could live with that...if the signal isnt going to drop in and out!

Is that the average 4G speed; somewhere in the 30 Mbps range? I know 3 say its supposed to be 10x faster than 3G which is around 7 Mbps??

Also don't forget the speed they quote you is the total speed on the mast for all their customers using it so the speeds and latency will vary alot.
18-04-14, 16:22
Curran

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

So what speeds are the masts?

Say if 3 people are using it at 30 Mbps - does that mean the mast is 90Mbps? And if 30 people were to use it, Id only get 3 Mbps??
18-04-14, 16:32
Moses

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

I don't know what speed the masts have you would need to ask rebel.ranter as he works in that industry.
18-04-14, 17:15
Curran

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moses

I don't know what speed the masts have you would need to ask rebel.ranter as he works in that industry.

Any ideas @[rebel.ranter] ??
18-04-14, 19:11
rebel.ranter

RE: 4G as Home Broadband?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curran

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moses

I don't know what speed the masts have you would need to ask rebel.ranter as he works in that industry.

Any ideas @[rebel.ranter] ??

Where do I begin to answer that?

It all depends on the following:

- what the backhaul is from the site
- how many active customers on the site
- whether 3G (900 or 2100) or 4G is installed

I reckon just as with 3G in the past you'll see varying speeds. I've seen 90Mbps on 4G, I know the lads in Oz are getting over 100Mbps.
Don't forget that data usage is normally "bursty", which means that even though there might be multiple users on a site they may not be downloading at the same time so the speeds isn't necessarily divided by the number of users on a site, nor the number of active users.