4G unlimited sims

[bobk]

An update.....Router and antenna arrived at the end of last week, along with an unlimited SIM from Three. Tried it all around the house, inside and out, and I can't get a reliable 4G signal anywhere (we're are between 2 masts, both 6-7 miles away, behind hills). 3G seems to get a reliable connection with up to 13 Mb/s, which is about the same as we get from ADSL.
Openreach have been out and found 3 different places where the phone line is crimped over on a pole outside (which leccy guys had re-sited) and ADSL connection has been stable since then.

I'm sticking with the phone line for now, cancelling the Three SIM and putting the equipment in boxes until an unlimited Virgin/EE SIM comes out, whilst looking longingly at the EE mast 1000m away.....

Get an EE one then

 

[neilo]

Get an EE one then

They don’t do unlimited (yet) and their high Gb SIMs are ridiculous money imo.

I did try to push Virgin on it, as I have 2 phones with them already, but no go. The time will surely come though.

 

[dave6470]

smarty are doing a deal £18.75 a month for unlimited data and the best thing is your not locked into a contract you can leave anytime running on the 3 network think 3 owns them

 

[bobk]

Vodaphone have a 100gb deal for £20 / month , others will follow

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Vodaphone have a 100gb deal for £20 / month , others will follow

Virgin (EE masts) were/are? doing 120 GB (with up to 40 GB rollover) for £20. Admittedly that was got on one of their (pretty frequent) sale deals.

Still got one of those SIMs in the router, as backup.

Virgin isn’t as good performance wise as EE even though they use the same masts.

Still found EE was overall faster and have better ping times - that was just swapping an EE sim out and popping a Virgin one in its place. Nothing else changed.

EE is still the best performing network. I’d probably put 3 somewhere around the lower middle. They’re not really that good.

 

[bobk]

Virgin (EE masts) were/are? doing 120 GB (with up to 40 GB rollover) for £20. Admittedly that was got on one of their (pretty frequent) sale deals.

Still got one of those SIMs in the router, as backup.

Virgin isn’t as good performance wise as EE even though they use the same masts.

Still found EE was overall faster and have better ping times - that was just swapping an EE sim out and popping a Virgin one in its place. Nothing else changed.

EE is still the best performing network. I’d probably put 3 somewhere around the lower middle. They’re not really that good.

For me only Vodaphone and EE are worth considering , the rest are pretty useless .

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

For me only Vodaphone and EE are worth considering , the rest are pretty useless .

The same here really. To be fair they are the two largest networks in the country, so kind of to be expected.

O2 trailing them (especially after under investment/consolidation by Telefonica) and 3 as the last “real” network I’d consider the runt of the litter.

The ‘crazy’ deals you see from the “virtual” operators like Smarty and 3 etc is that’s all they’ve got to play for - they buy cheap bulk capacity from the “real” networks and play piggy in the middle with a very lean operating / management model and clever advertising.

 

[Farmer Palmer]

The same here really. To be fair they are the two largest networks in the country, so kind of to be expected.

O2 trailing them (especially after under investment/consolidation by Telefonica) and 3 as the last “real” network I’d consider the runt of the litter.

The ‘crazy’ deals you see from the “virtual” operators like Smarty and 3 etc is that’s all they’ve got to play for - they buy cheap bulk capacity from the “real” networks and play piggy in the middle with a very lean operating / management model and clever advertising.

I thought Three owned their own masts?
Speaking personally I have just ditched one of my out of contract EE 4gee routers in favour of the Three unlimited deal for £22 . Saving me £38 a month. It’s for a holiday cottage and nobody has complained yet (and they usually aren’t shy when it comes to WiFi )

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

I thought Three owned their own masts?
Speaking personally I have just ditched one of my out of contract EE 4gee routers in favour of the Three unlimited deal for £22 . Saving me £38 a month. It’s for a holiday cottage and nobody has complained yet (and they usually aren’t shy when it comes to WiFi )

Correct I apologise for any confusion in that post. Yes Three have their own/shared masts. They are a “real” network as opposed to an MVNO - “virtual” operator like Virgin Mobile, ASDA, Smarty, etc.

 

[Grassman]

Virgin (EE masts) were/are? doing 120 GB (with up to 40 GB rollover) for £20. Admittedly that was got on one of their (pretty frequent) sale deals.

Still got one of those SIMs in the router, as backup.

Virgin isn’t as good performance wise as EE even though they use the same masts.

Still found EE was overall faster and have better ping times - that was just swapping an EE sim out and popping a Virgin one in its place. Nothing else changed.

EE is still the best performing network. I’d probably put 3 somewhere around the lower middle. They’re not really that good.

Wish O2 would get some sensible data packages. I have a perfect line of sight of their mast and it's very close!

 

[Steevo]

According to my SamKnows box the Three 4G router I've trialled will do about 20mbps download, and 7.5mbps upload.

Latency is approx 35ms.

If you're getting similar @Farmer Palmer then I can see why your holiday let customers can't see an issue.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Over the years I keeping coming back to Speedtest, for a fairly accurate errr speed tests

However if you use their app on your phone or the website from a laptop connected to your router using WiFi the results aren’t really that accurate as WiFi tends to add delay and throttle the connection.

The best way is testing with laptop connected directly using Ethernet - either right at the router or wired port on “modem” for xDSL or fibre.

Saying that I would do random Speedtest on the phone just for sheer convenience factor. EE was pretty good....better upload than FTTP, and that wasn’t the fastest one I did.

 

[bravheart]

Over the years I keeping coming back to Speedtest, for a fairly accurate errr speed tests

However if you use their app on your phone or the website from a laptop connected to your router using WiFi the results aren’t really that accurate as WiFi tends to add delay and throttle the connection.

The best way is testing with laptop connected directly using Ethernet - either right at the router or wired port on “modem” for xDSL or fibre.

Saying that I would do random Speedtest on the phone just for sheer convenience factor. EE was pretty good....better upload than FTTP, and that wasn’t the fastest one I did.

View attachment 814218

Recently did a mobile phone speedtest test in a few rooms around the house, boy did that burn up the data, used about 600mb of my 1g monthly allowance in quick order.
It did show some good figures though averaging 20mbps down and in one room 15mbps up, which compared to the current copper rate of around 2.8 mbps seems a leap forward.
Come on O2 time to step up to the plate data sim deal wise.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Recently did a mobile phone speedtest test in a few rooms around the house, boy did that burn up the data, used about 600mb of my 1g monthly allowance in quick order.
It did show some good figures though averaging 20mbps down and in one room 15mbps up, which compared to the current copper rate of around 2.8 mbps seems a leap forward.
Come on O2 time to step up to the plate data sim deal wise.

1 Gig monthly allowance? Did you lose some zeros off the end of that or is your phone a Nokia 6210 from 2001?

 

[bravheart]

1 Gig monthly allowance? Did you lose some zeros off the end of that or is your phone a Nokia 6210 from 2001?

No zeros in gigabyte
Had the contract 18 months now and never got halfway through the allowance, what am I missing or do you guys just have too much time on your hands?

is your phone a Nokia 6210 from 2001

Current phone (huawei) spends more time in the repair shop than my pocket, so sim gets put back in an ageing windows phone, reliable enough but slow (occasionally picks up an H strength signal) and nobody writes apps for them, so maybe.

Could probably fish out a Nokia brick from the drawer if you wanted, and would have at least a 10 day battery life yet, how tech has moved on, never had any repair issues with them either.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Yeah doesn’t take very long at all to blast through a Gig of data allowance on a modern smartphone.

I have no pangs of nostalgia though to go back to using something a 6210 either.

Saying that I do still keep my old SonyEricsson T630 in a drawer for ‘managing’ the odd PAYG SIM. They do have their uses!

 

[Farmer Palmer]

I’m just out of contract with my EE 4gee home router package and the deals were rubbish that they offered me . So I have quit , got the unlock code for the router; does anyone know whether the new Vodafone unlimited sims will work in a router? I am with Vodafone with my phone , did a speed test ( the mast is in my neighbours field 400 meter away) only about 4mbps! Do they throttle the speed ? I know the new sims have 3 different unlimited plans at different prices depending on speed so they obviously have the capability

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

I’m just out of contract with my EE 4gee home router package and the deals were rubbish that they offered me . So I have quit , got the unlock code for the router; does anyone know whether the new Vodafone unlimited sims will work in a router? I am with Vodafone with my phone , did a speed test ( the mast is in my neighbours field 400 meter away) only about 4mbps! Do they throttle the speed ? I know the new sims have 3 different unlimited plans at different prices depending on speed so they obviously have the capability

How much data do you need a month?

As a near alternative, you could consider Virgin Mobile, but again may need to wait for them to have “flash sale” or something of that ilk.

In my experience, they are a bit slower than EE despite using their masts. I suspect, but can’t prove of course, it’s to do with differences in the VM backhaul network and prioritisation in the data network from the masts to the core and thence internet.

EE is still arguably the best performing 4G network across the country - but yes you do pay for it

 

[upnortheast]

So I have quit , got the unlock code for the router;

Lot to be said for buying your own "unlocked " 3 / 4 G router. Then you can pop in any sim you can get a good deal / service on

 

[bobk]

I’m just out of contract with my EE 4gee home router package and the deals were rubbish that they offered me . So I have quit , got the unlock code for the router; does anyone know whether the new Vodafone unlimited sims will work in a router? I am with Vodafone with my phone , did a speed test ( the mast is in my neighbours field 400 meter away) only about 4mbps! Do they throttle the speed ? I know the new sims have 3 different unlimited plans at different prices depending on speed so they obviously have the capability

Doesn't matter if you go out of contract , you pay the same as before with no contract , I've been out of contract for over 12 months now