Best mobile broadband for backup home router?

FrankGrimes

I have a home network with a Unifi Dream Machine Pro as the router at the center and a number of Unifi Access Points around the house & garden (surprisingly useful!). I run a lot of customer presentations and webinars from home and am finding my Virgin broadband is solid most of the time but I'm getting too many cases where it drops off momentarily at critical moments.

So I bought a Unifi LTE Backup Pro here which I can connect to the Unifi Dream Machine Pro and set it to use that as backup broadband whenever the Virgin connection is disrupted.

It needs a mobile SIM and that's something I'm not familiar with, never looked into it. What do people do for getting SIMs for purposes like this or for a SIM for their home alarm system? My mobile is with Vodafone but I'm not too happy with them as broadband support is patchy and their Chat quoted me something like 30 euro a month for an additional SIM whereas I was hoping for something more in the 10-15 euro range.

Reckon there's some local knowledge on the smartest choices for either getting a standalone broadband SIM or maybe change my mobile provider from Vodafone and get 2 SIMs from them (or 3 as I need to add one to my home alarm also)…and I thought who better to ask than the knowledge boardsies!

smuggler.ie

you will depend on mobile coverage and congestion in your area. you can get good speeds if certain conditions are met, but this is "mobile" so it can degrade at certain/random time
I have no experience with device you linked - perhaps good build, however its outdated tech :
MIMO 2 x 2 LTE Category 4

Current devices are LTE Cat19 , 20 , 21, 22
You still get use of it, but depending on area/coverage you might be somewhat limiting yourself due to Cat4

Three have €20/28d prepay , unlimited

Other providers have similar, potentially with data cap

You need to test-run to determine what provider works best in your place. See comreg siteviewer to find nearest mobile mast and provider/services(4G/5G)

RobiePAX

Realistically there are just three options. Eir, Vodafone, Three. All others like GoMo, 48 ran on one of them.

You could use ComReg map to see which of them is the closest to you and go with them. Most give over 100 GB fair usage for about €20/m . Beware that some Vodafone plans cap you at 5 MB/s .

Ten Pin

Depending on how much data you need to bridge the VM dropouts, there are 2 inexpensive options with a PAYG phone SIM from Vodafone.

1. 5GB add-on for €5 for 28 days.
2. Pay as you use, charged at €0.001861816 per MB, on the Advantage Plus 3 tariff which is the default tariff on the Data Unlimited 5G plan when the plan isn't active. That works out at 2.5GB for €5 but unlike the €5 / 5GB add-on, there's no time limit as long as there's credit on the SIM.

For both options, there is no requirement to top up by €20 every month, just add €5 to pay for the add on or to pay per MB.

Happy_Harry

If Eir has good coverage near you, you could use a Gomo SIM for €15/month. That is what I have, purely for back up purposes. If you stay under 120GB you will have no hassle. I would hope Virgin disruptions are not that frequent.

FrankGrimes

Sorry for overlooking to check back here while travelling for work and thanks for the very helpful suggestions.

Turns out from the mobile coverage site basically everyone bar Vodafone, An Post, Clear have Very Good coverage in our neck of the woods. Guess that explains why Vodafone drops when I leave the house so much and I need to either restart the phone or start and stop the mobile data setting…guess I better look into ditching Vodafone altogether.

Looks like GoMo may be a good option so as 15 euro a month is reasonable. Gotta say though, 120GB doesn't really feel like an excessive amount - not sure how long it'd take to use that up if on constant Zoom calls with 4K camera and someone streaming Netflix in 4K also. Don't get me wrong, when Virgin is down by all means we could throttle our usage, but I'm just a little surprised that there's not more generous packages out there, but that may just be me.

I'll have a look at eir and GoMo options and fire ahead so, thanks!

FrankGrimes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122227796#Comment_122227796

That's quite interesting @smuggler.ie - I got the LTE Backup Pro version and as Unifi/Ubiquiti tend to do excellent professional-grade gear I reckoned it'd be well-specced. Good news at least is that lots of reviews say it does an excellent job so will see how I get on. I've got ethernet ports in most rooms so will avoid the temptation to hide it away in my network server rack in the Plant room and will try find a spot that has good mobile coverage and an ethernet cable to run it back to the server (I'm guessing once it's got PoE it'll work without having to be directly plugged into the Unifi Dream Machine Pro router itself, but time will tell!).