Mobile Broadband - best options?

basill

Worth noting that 48 like most operators/mvnos have a fair usage policy. 100gb per month is their interpretation of "unlimited" data. In mobile phones this isn't normally an issue as you go in and out of WiFi coverage but for a home broadband solution might be an issue for some.

Sue de Nimes

My wife and I are returning to Ireland in a few weeks time. We have sold our home in the UK but with the lockdown haven't bought anything in Ireland. We will be staying in an empty house for a few months until we buy somewhere. We need to get some sort of internet access for that period of time.

Are there any options available that won't tie us into a long contract and will give a decent usage limit (ideally unlimited). We don't mind paying a premium for the short contract we just don't want to be limited to 5GB of useage. It won't need to be the fastest service either, just enough to allow for streaming of video on a single device.

basill

Sue de Nimes wrote: »

My wife and I are returning to Ireland in a few weeks time. We have sold our home in the UK but with the lockdown haven't bought anything in Ireland. We will be staying in an empty house for a few months until we buy somewhere. We need to get some sort of internet access for that period of time.

Are there any options available that won't tie us into a long contract and will give a decent usage limit (ideally unlimited). We don't mind paying a premium for the short contract we just don't want to be limited to 5GB of useage. It won't need to be the fastest service either, just enough to allow for streaming of video on a single device.

AFAIK Ireland doesn't have "unlimited" broadband. What they have is a number of plans that purport to be "unlimited" but when you read the T&Cs there are fair use policy caps. The highest I have seen is the Eir 5G offering which is 750gb per billing cycle. Most are around the 100gb range. Some also throttle download speeds. The regulator has shown little teeth to date in pushing the operators to refrain from using the term "unlimited" and it doesn't appear that anyone has bothered to take a test case.



Having said all of the above it really depends with mobile broadband where you live, type of house construction, line of sight, router used, antennae, number of people using service concurrently etc etc. All of the operators will have coverage maps but the reality is that until you test out various sim cards over a period of time you won't truly know.

48 is an MVNO that uses the 3 Network in Ireland. It is 10.99EUR per month and uses an app whereby you sign up to become a member. There are no lock in periods. They do have a small fee for the sim card. You would need to purchase a 4g router and another poster above gave an example of one that works for them.

Sue de Nimes

Thanks, I've looked at that and it might do the job.

I contacted someone in the live chat on the EIR website. I explained that I was looking for a broadband service with a reasonable amount of data on a short-term contract. He offered me a PAYG sim with "unlimited mins, texts and chats"

Hibernia93

I've got 3 Mobile Broadband using the Huawei 525 I purchased last year for my Parents Caravan in Meath. It worked fine last year regularly got 17 to 20 Megs. This year however its been shockingly low of about 2 to 4 Megs has anyone ever bought a Booster Or Antenna?

Oz91

Not sure if you noticed but Vodafone also lunched a new offer for 45 euro unlimited mobile broadband (5g/4G+).

chiral_fluid

Oz91 wrote: »

Not sure if you noticed but Vodafone also lunched a new offer for 45 euro unlimited mobile broadband (5g/4G+).

Link please?

Oz91

chiral_fluid wrote: »

Link please?

If you will just press in but now for 300GB then it will ask you about device type and if you want to keep or move the number. Just choose something and then it will give you slide option for 300GB, 20GB and unlimited new option.

https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/broadband/mobile-broadband.html

Oz91

Oz91 wrote: »

If you will just press in but now for 300GB then it will ask you about device type and if you want to keep or move the number. Just choose something and then it will give you slide option for 300GB, 20GB and unlimited new option.

https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/broadband/mobile-broadband.html

Here is the SS

smuggler.ie

Oz91 wrote: »

If you will just press in but now for 300GB then it will ask you about device type and if you want to keep or move the number. Just choose something and then it will give you slide option for 300GB, 20GB and unlimited new option.

https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/broadband/mobile-broadband.html

Sounds very promising!
Its just...
1. B818 is 4G+ router, were you get all benefits of CA, "5G ready" is just gimmick.
2. Click on T&C bring you to the page that list hell-of-a-lot, but i was not able to find one that apply to this particular plan, especially in relation to speed.

From what i can see, VF are capping their "unlimited" plans except most expensive
It sounds to good to be what it might look like on first glance, unless you kindly could point to where it confirms "unlimited and no speed restriction"

Oz91

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Sounds very promising!
Its just...
1. B818 is 4G+ router, were you get all benefits of CA, "5G ready" is just gimmick.
2. Click on T&C bring you to the page that list hell-of-a-lot, but i was not able to find one that apply to this particular plan, especially in relation to speed.

From what i can see, VF are capping their "unlimited" plans except most expensive
It sounds to good to be what it might look like on first glance, unless you kindly could point to where it confirms "unlimited and no speed restriction"

We are using this currently and we just upgraded yesterday to unlimited option. They told us on the phone that they give for free the 4G+ router and if you are willing to pay 99 euro then they can give you a 5g ready router. Anyway, Vodafone is not the best for 5g coverage, if you are in 5g area then go for it but I am in normal 4G area and my speeds varies from 20mbps to 80mbps(different time of the day) but most of the time around 40mbps and seems like they are truly unlimited like no fair usage at all.

smuggler.ie

Oz91 wrote: »

We are using this currently and we just upgraded yesterday to unlimited option. They told us on the phone that they give for free the 4G+ router and if you are willing to pay 99 euro then they can give you a 5g ready router. Anyway, Vodafone is not the best for 5g coverage, if you are in 5g area then go for it but I am in normal 4G area and my speeds varies from 20mbps to 80mbps(different time of the day) but most of the time around 40mbps and seems like they are truly unlimited like no fair usage at all.

Fair enough.
Experience from years back thought me not to trust what was said over phone - tomorrow another rep might deny most of it and you will have no prove for anything.
Providing coverage and your setup are good, 4G+ with B818 can go beyond 80Mbps, in fact ~3 times that on a good day. And this would be more than enough for most users if not all. Even cap @100 would

Oz91

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Fair enough.
Experience from years back thought me not to trust what was said over phone - tomorrow another rep might deny most of it and you will have no prove for anything.
Providing coverage and your setup are good, 4G+ with B818 can go beyond 80Mbps, in fact ~3 times that on a good day. And this would be more than enough for most users if not all. Even cap @100 would

100% agree with you because first rep said there is no offer for unlimited mobile broadband and we ringed again and then they said yes you can upgrade to it 😄😄 anyway I think their modem b818 263 is not great for Wi-Fi signal, it’s a bit poor so you might need to get an extender.

smuggler.ie

Oz91 wrote: »

100% agree with you because first rep said there is no offer for unlimited mobile broadband and we ringed again and then they said yes you can upgrade to it ���� anyway I think their modem b818 263 is not great for Wi-Fi signal, it’s a bit poor so you might need to get an extender.

My take - wire all that has Ethernet port.
Non of home routers are great for WiFi, perfectly covers the room it is in, but anything behind solid wall and signal degrade.
Balance price vs speed vs allowance is main concern, LAN/WLAN is next concern, other means possible/available.

Oz91

smuggler.ie wrote: »

My take - wire all that has Ethernet port.
Non of home routers are great for WiFi, perfectly covers the room it is in, but anything behind solid wall and signal degrade.
Balance price vs speed vs allowance is main concern, LAN/WLAN is next concern, other means possible/available.

Do you recommend any good extender? I bought last year a tplink but it transmits only 2.4ghz and it’s fairly slow.

smuggler.ie

Oz91 wrote: »

Do you recommend any good extender?

Don't use them - cant recommend, what i can recommend is .... don't use them.
Corse, there are situations where you might have no other options, last resort...

Oz91

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Don't use them - cant recommend, what i can recommend is .... don't use them.
Corse, there are situations where you might have no other options, last resort...

Ahaha I prefer to not use them but then I need to wire all house

chiral_fluid

Oz91 wrote: »

Do you recommend any good extender? I bought last year a tplink but it transmits only 2.4ghz and it’s fairly slow.

Buy unifi or omada. Don't use extenders and avoid meshes if possible. Use star topology with many access points across your house and a good switch in the center.

Oz91

chiral_fluid wrote: »

Buy unifi or omada. Don't use extenders and avoid meshes if possible. Use star topology with many access points across your house and a good switch in the center.

Yeah, I checked unifi, seems to be very good. Thanks for the tip

xebec

The 5G version from Vodafone is up there now and the router appears to be free on the same 12 month contract as the 4 G router…

https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/broadband/mobile-broadband.html

smuggler.ie

xebec wrote: »

The 5G version from Vodafone is up there now and the router appears to be free on the same 12 month contract as the 4 G router…

https://n.vodafone.ie/shop/broadband/mobile-broadband.html

Ah, wasn't there yesterday.

The estimated maximum speeds are those which you would realistically be able to achieve in different locations however the exact speeds experienced across the network will vary and may be higher.

https://n.vodafone.ie/support/mobile/data-speed-information.html
5G 25Mb DL/5Mb UL
Well, nothing different than Three. If one manages to get better speeds - hurray, otherwise you wont even stand chance to complain.

Oz91

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Ah, wasn't there yesterday.
https://n.vodafone.ie/support/mobile/data-speed-information.html
5G 25Mb DL/5Mb UL
Well, nothing different than Three. If one manages to get better speeds - hurray, otherwise you wont even stand chance to complain.

But the same page shows that 4G max speed is 10mbps although I am getting often around 40mbps. Does it mean that what shows for me it’s just a figurative and not real download speed?

xebec

Oz91 wrote: »

But the same page shows that 4G max speed is 10mbps although I am getting often around 40mbps. Does it mean that what shows for me it’s just a figurative and not real download speed?

Pretty sure that's a legal requirement to give an estimated speed and not a limit. Whatever you're getting on Speedtest is closer to the speed you're actually getting.

Oz91

xebec wrote: »

Pretty sure that's a legal requirement to give an estimated speed and not a limit. Whatever you're getting on Speedtest is closer to the speed you're actually getting.

Oh then it's great. Otherwise it would be real shame to get 25mbps in 5g.

smuggler.ie

xebec might be right. Its just to prevent you calling and complaining that you have 25 instead 500. That 25 is not MIN , but estimate MAX.
Also, if not mistaking, H122 5G CPE (H122-373) has no external antenna ports.
Basically either you live under 5G capable mast or don't be expecting much
Even on 4G+ you will need very good coverage signal to get speeds

chiral_fluid

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Also, if not mistaking, H122 5G CPE (H122-373) has no external antenna ports.

Yeah, no antenna. Though it helps to stick it in the attic

Oz91

chiral_fluid wrote: »

Yeah, no antenna. Though it helps to stick it in the attic

Yeah but it has a setting that you can switch off 5g and stay with 4g. H818 has antenna ports but it comes without them in the box. Although you can buy it on eBay

ECookie13

Do Three disclose their data fair usage amount?

Tempted to stick one of these SIMs in a 4G home router.

smuggler.ie

https://notifications.three.ie/contract-change/broadband/august-2022