For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By Grelly
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1860323
Hi All,

My story...

My neighbour wanted better internet speeds, so he upgraded his Sky package to take advantage of fibre to the cabinet. The engineer, somehow switched our lines, so that I got his phone calls and he got mine. Neither of us was left with a working internet connection. It took two days to sort it out.

We also live in a poor mobile reception area, so trying to work via our phones was a non-starter. My wife and I both work from home, so this was a major pain in the ****!

Any suggestions on some sort of broadband fallback device? I don't mind an upfront cost (within reason), nor paying for a month of data when needed, but I don't want to pay a monthly fee for something I might never use.

Any advice much appreciated :-)

Thanks,

Grelly
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1860327
You say you have poor mobile reception. Is that on all networks? With a booster?

If wired internet breaking is what you're protecting against - mobile is the obvious candidate.

Otherwise you are left with satellite based systems (such as Starlink, https://www.freedomsat.co.uk/satellite- ... d-for-home (other providers available - but there can be serious latency ) ) or microwave, (if you happen to have a provider line of sight to you , eg https://luminet.co.uk/microwave-broadba ... -provider/ is London only)
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By rikur_
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#1860330
Depends how poor the mobile reception is.

I have a 4G router mounted in the loft which gets a steady 15 - 20mbps connection, whilst down in the house mobile phones struggle to make a call stably.

If there is adequate mobile coverage up high, the cheapest option may be to get an extra SIM on your existing mobile contract. With EE for example an additional SIM is £8.50 per month, and you can gift data from your mobile to the data device as required.

If that's not suitable and you've got adequate Vodafone coverage, then an Asda Mobile SIM might be a suitable solution for 'emergencies only'. The advantage with Asda is that balances don't expire providing you use at least 1Byte of data every 6 months. They still offer classic PAYG at £0.04 per MByte to keep the SIM alive (not cheap), but you can buy 'bundles' when needed that are more cost effective.

Starlink is available in southern England (see separate thread) - but unlikely to be cost effective.
Some (mostly rural) areas still have legacy microwave networks that preceded widespread FTTC availability.
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By GrahamB
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#1860331
BT are offering an ‘unbreakable broadband’ option which I believe switches to mobile if the fibre carps out.

Subject to decent mobile reception, presumably.
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By Paul_Sengupta
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#1860333
GrahamB wrote:BT are offering an ‘unbreakable broadband’ option which I believe switches to mobile if the fibre carps out.


With EE.

GrahamB wrote:Subject to decent mobile reception, presumably.


The only decent mobile reception where I am in Wales is Vodafone, thanks to my dad! ;-)
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By Grelly
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#1860370
rikur_ wrote:Depends how poor the mobile reception is.

Pretty rubbish (2.4Mbps) compared to the landline (20Mb/s). And using that as a hotspot for multiple devices makes it worse.

rikur_ wrote:I have a 4G router mounted in the loft which gets a steady 15 - 20mbps

That would do. If I get similar results, that is.

rikur_ wrote:If there is adequate mobile coverage up high, the cheapest option may be to get an extra SIM on your existing mobile contract. With EE for example an additional SIM is £8.50 per month, and you can gift data from your mobile to the data device as required.

Didn't know that was possible. Thanks.

rikur_ wrote:If that's not suitable and you've got adequate Vodafone coverage, then an Asda Mobile SIM might be a suitable solution for 'emergencies only'. The advantage with Asda is that balances don't expire providing you use at least 1Byte of data every 6 months. They still offer classic PAYG at £0.04 per MByte to keep the SIM alive (not cheap), but you can buy 'bundles' when needed that are more cost effective.

Sadly, the Vodaphone signal is even worse than EE's.

rikur_ wrote:Starlink is available in southern England (see separate thread) - but unlikely to be cost effective.

That one is definitely out of my price range. Besides, it seems to be vapourware at the moment. One of my colleagues paid for it 9 months ago and is still waiting.

rikur_ wrote:Some (mostly rural) areas still have legacy microwave networks that preceded widespread FTTC availability.

Ditto on cost.

I'll look in to the 4G router idea though.

Thanks all,

Grelly
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By rikur_
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#1860396
@Grelly
The 4G router that I've got is an older version of this: https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products ... tl-mr6400/

If you spend a bit more, this one https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products ... her-mr600/, does carrier aggregation - so if there is more than one 4G band available in your location it will bond them together for greater throughput.

Grelly wrote:Pretty rubbish (2.4Mbps) compared to the landline (20Mb/s). And using that as a hotspot for multiple devices makes it worse.

Sounds familiar - I've just tested and I'm getting 1.14mbps on the phone in the house, and 15.56mbps from the router in the loft. In our case we do suffer from being in a low flat area, so the extra height makes a big difference, won't necessarily be the same everywhere.
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By Grelly
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1860518
So, 4G router ordered. I'm going to try sticking my phone's sim in when it arrives. Once I see how it performs, I'll consider the best choice for a sim.

Thanks All

Grelly
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By wonko the sane
#1861622
Grelly wrote:
rikur_ wrote:Some (mostly rural) areas still have legacy microwave networks that preceded widespread FTTC availability.

Ditto on cost.


Not always expensive. I'm in a very rural part of the North Yorkshire Dales. I use Boundless networks, who supply point-to-point microwave through a small wall mounted dish. They offer 30MB/s for £30/month, 50MB/s for £40, and I think their 100MB/s is £50. That comes with (as far as I can tell) zero contention (I always get the full bandwidth) and also they have the best customer service I've ever had from any ISP. I think PlusNet would charge around £23 for their best telephone line based offering round here and they wouldn't be able to get near 30MB/s (I believe most locals are getting 4-6MB/s if the wind is in the right direction)

I also use 4G. Originally I invested in this as a backup as we are two full-time home office workers and the previous house had very flaky FTTC connection. However, for this property I bought a good outdoor antenna and that gives me a solid 70+ MB/s, which I load-share with the Boundless network using a Draytek Vigor 2682 router (the L variant has 4G built in), giving me 100MB/s overall - but most of the load is going over the 4G. That's to an EE cell tower about 6 miles away down the valley, with a hill in the way. I only get a weak mobile telephone signal if I stand outside the house (and get nothing from inside most of the house due to solid stone walls) - the antenna was a great investment.

The funny thing is, that internet connection is up to 25 times better than anything I could get when I was living in Central London 3-4 years ago. I lived half way between The City and Canary Wharf and yet, because the BT infrastructure there, couldn't get a VDSL/FTTC line and no cable companies would provide services, so 4-6MB/s ADSL (on a good day) was all you could get.
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By wonko the sane
#1861623
As an aside, some 4G providers do deals with routers. I originally had (indeed, must still have somewhere) the EE 4GEE router - and it's utter rubbish. Couldn't get a stable signal in the last house from it at all, whereas with the Draytek I got a good, stable 40ish MB/s. So you definitely need to buy additional hardware if you go for these deals.