Using mobile wifi in the home?

[Southdowners]

I wonder if anyone can advise please?

On reading another thread on a similar subject and not wanting to hijack that thread I wanted to ask whether it’s possible to dispense with home Wi-Fi and landline?

Our situation is that we have a landline to supply our internet connection as we don’t have fibre optic where we live. We stream all our tv using an Amazon firestick and watch YouTube a lot.

We have an EE mobile wifi router which is really good when travelling so I’m wondering if we can dispense with the home wifi and landline.

Has anyone done this? If so, were there any downsides?

 

[almichie]

It is possible but relies on good mobile data signal strength where the router is placed or an external aerial.

as soon as we have sufficient service, I.e. 5G, I will be swapping to this type of system.
the disadvantage is if the local mast drops, your service drops. Also the number of users can affect the speed of service

 

[highwayman]

I frequently use my mobile as a hotspot indoors as our home broadband drops out so often. I have 5g and to be honest it's more reliable than our talk talk router.

 

[denisejoe]

We have a 3 mobile router for home use and its 12v so made a lead to use in the van whilst away in the van.
as highwayman says busy times the signal is very slow

 

[TOAD on Tour]

Although we have sky wifi at home, I use our mobile EE WiFi for work (work from home) and have no issues. The reason I do this is that I get a far stronger signal with the EE mobile WiFi than I do with sky.

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[Gellyneck]

We very occasionally use our Huawei mifi units at home (without external aerial) as a fallback if we've issues with fibre connection.

 

[Bolti]

I wonder if anyone can advise please?

On reading another thread on a similar subject and not wanting to hijack that thread I wanted to ask whether it’s possible to dispense with home Wi-Fi and landline?

Our situation is that we have a landline to supply our internet connection as we don’t have fibre optic where we live. We stream all our tv using an Amazon firestick and watch YouTube a lot.

We have an EE mobile wifi router which is really good when travelling so I’m wondering if we can dispense with the home wifi and landline.

Has anyone done this? If so, were there any downsides?

Yes. Not had a landline for years now.
Find which phone providers have the strongest signal where you live and purchase an unlimited sim. A router will give better home coverage than a mifi.

 

[Southdowners]

Thanks for replies…

The thing I’m wondering about is our tv and YouTube usage. We stream everything on our tv and my husband is watches YouTube a lot. Does anyone else have heavy streaming usage on their mobile wifi? I suppose we will need an unlimited data package?

 

[Southdowners]

Yes. Not had a landline for years now.
Find which phone providers have the strongest signal where you live and purchase an unlimited sim. A router will give better home coverage than a mifi.

Thanks for the info… which provider do you use?

 

[ChrisL]

Check the small print of your sim provider, some like Tesco (and probably O2) say you mustn't use the sim in a home router or you risk being disconnected but mobile devices are okay.

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[eddie]

We dumped our landline four years ago as tThe download speed was appalling

We pay £20 a month with EE and we down load about 50mbps

The router is 12volt and when we go away in the van, the router gets chucked in the last minute bag along with Kindles and iPads

 

[ChrisL]

Thanks for replies…

The thing I’m wondering about is our tv and YouTube usage. We stream everything on our tv and my husband is watches YouTube a lot. Does anyone else have heavy streaming usage on their mobile wifi? I suppose we will need an unlimited data package?

I use between 300 and 400 gb's a month in my mifi.

 

[Southdowners]

We dumped our landline four years ago as tThe download speed was appalling

We pay £20 a month with EE and we down load about 50mbps

The router is 12volt and when we go away in the van, the router gets chucked in the last minute bag along with Kindles and iPads

Are you saying that you have a home router (not mobile dongle) which is 12 volt?

 

[Idberr]

Recently moved and have no landline due to slow internet speed……sub 2mb download
Use 4g EE based setup with voip (Vonage) to give a local landline number.
Generally no problems but be careful when setting up as some numbers are not recognised when dialling ie 999, 111, 112
Unless specifically enabled.
I wouldn’t have a landline put in now regardless, seems unnecessary and this system is £36/ mth total!

 

[EzeeRider]

I have wondered the same about ditching the LL and think it would be fine if you only wish to browse the Internet and use email. However I have doubts about even using 5G to fulfill multiple users and all the streaming we now do instead of watching live TV.
ezee

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[Bolti]

Thanks for the info… which provider do you use?

Only O2 and vodafone work in my area and I am currentky using a Vodafone sim (I am aware of O2's restriction regarding routers)
Use search there are posts on here of people using\converting routers in the van

 

[busby]

I just use my phone as a hot spot..No problem using it on my Firestock at all.Havnt had a landlines or cable Internet for two years now.We are away 5 months a year so why pay for something your not using.BUSBY.

 

[Drexl]

After being subject to multiple price hikes for the sky landline broadband we decided to test out a mobile phone signal router earlier this year. We have a mobile phone mast approx 400m line of sight from our house - shared between 3 and EE. Initially we got a smarty (uses 3 network) sim 30gb to test the signal over a couple of weeks. We bought a Huawei B311 router for the test. We are getting >50Mbps download speed 95% of the time - miles better than our landline broadband speed which varied between 15 and 30Mbps. Mobile router does very occasionally buffer for a few seconds in the evenings using the fire stick but we can live with it. So we dumped the landline broadband and phone service. We took a 3 unlimited broadband pay monthly deal via Fonehouse that works out at £14 per month. 3 are currently doing a deal for unlimited sim and router for £10 per month first 6 months then price goes up to £20 per month.
We have a sky sim in a Huawei 5577 in the van using roof antenna and we also take the house router with us when we go away. So we have choice between van wifi (sky O2), house router wifi (3) and can also tether to phone using Plusnet (EE) when away.
Try this www.cellmapper.com website to check which networks towers are nearest.

 

[Drexl]

Are you saying that you have a home router (not mobile dongle) which is 12 volt?

All home landline routers I have had are 12v.

 

[Geistguy]

Most previous posts are spot on. We live in a very rural area with terrible home wifi but superb 4g coverage (EE) , we recently made the decision to move totally to 4g for phone and internet. EE supplied us with a mini router (£40) and unlimited 4g internet for £21 per month and a seperate contract for my phone, my wife is a very low user so uses 1p Mobile which uses the EE network. An added bonus is that I can take the home router (12v) with us in the motorhome for internet rather than "hotspot" my phone.

The costs compared to the home system are about £5 per month less which is an added bonus.

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[AndyPK]

We’ve now got 5G in Cirencester (surprisingly!) via Three, so I’m going to get a 5G router and ditch our Plusnet broadband - just waiting for ‘price-reduction offers’ on the routers now……

 

[AndyPK]

Update on my post #21 above:-
Bought a Huawei H112-370 5G router, put in a ‘3’ unlimited data SIM (£8/month) and tried it in the house - no 5G….!
Put it in the ‘van on the drive - still no 5G - rats!
Last night, connected to the router (still in the ‘van) as Plusnet was down again(!) and - 5G!
Download averages at 150Mbps which is way better than the 28Mbps from Plusnet even if latency is worse….
I believe that ‘3’ are tweaking the 5G signal in Ciren atm so I’ll keep an eye on how it progresses as I’m in a fringe area. Watch this space!

 

[gus-lopez]

All home landline routers I have had are 12v.

My TP link MR6400 is 9 volt. I just bought a 12 v to 9v transformer & also a 12volt multi adjustable transformer & use those in the van. Our nobile internet works excellently all over europe & the Uk but is worst here at home as we are 1 metre lower than all the surroundings so struggle with even line of sight satellite internet which we had before.

 

[denisejoe]

Update on my post #21 above:-
Bought a Huawei H112-370 5G router, put in a ‘3’ unlimited data SIM (£8/month) and tried it in the house - no 5G….!
Put it in the ‘van on the drive - still no 5G - rats!
Last night, connected to the router (still in the ‘van) as Plusnet was down again(!) and - 5G!
Download averages at 150Mbps which is way better than the 28Mbps from Plusnet even if latency is worse….
I believe that ‘3’ are tweaking the 5G signal in Ciren atm so I’ll keep an eye on how it progresses as I’m in a fringe area. Watch this space!

3 are tweaking the service where we live so far in 3 months had 2 months free as signal a rubbish they say all will be good at end of August

 

[Kannon Fodda]

Would like to do this and only have one data service using the mifi. But with "smart" services such as hive heating you need home to be online even if you arevout and about.

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[Fragle]

Would like to do this and only have one data service using the mifi. But with "smart" services such as hive heating you need home to be online even if you arevout and about.

Good point. But only needs that if you’re away in winter I would say. Otherwise you can turn the whole lot off.
We are away atm 3 months and it’s turned off as we will have no need to turn on whilst away. Obviously in very cold weather you need it.
My only other thought is how much the security cameras use and the ring doorbell.
But another point is as everyone cuts back to save money this is a reasonable saving as well. The best we could get virgin media to for internet and basic tv was nearly £50 pm it’s reliable and good but we are away for 5 months this year and still have to pay and other than being able to answer the doorbell if it rings.

 

[Kybod]

I've had a 3 at home router for over two years now, no real problems except the occasional upgrade work which reduces the signal. It is far superior to the service I received from virgin on a cable connection.
I watch the likes of films on Amazon and YouTube everyday, I don't even think about data use.
The signal in my fair sized town is 4g and I'm probably close to an antenna.
Got rid of a landline for telephone calls over 10 years ago.
Mike

 

[Hagstrom]

We live 300m from a mobile mast and get 30mbps download speed over 4gLTE using a portable (9volt?) Teltonika router which goes with us in the van whilst away. It's a "3" unlimited data sim only contract at £16/month and it replaced a Virgin Unlimited, download capped at 2mbps, at £50/m.
The Teltonika has 2 antenna inputs so we attach 2 x LPDAs whilst at home for a signal strength of 57dBm.

 

[GoldenVision]

But is unlimited truly unlimited? What about the dreaded "fair usage"? (I'm talking about use in the UK only).

Usage can really mount up. Has anyone used masses amount of data over a long period of time?

Has anyone fallen foul of UK fair usage with mobile data?

 

[Kybod]

But is unlimited truly unlimited? What about the dreaded "fair usage"? (I'm talking about use in the UK only).

Usage can really mount up. Has anyone used masses amount of data over a long period of time?

Has anyone fallen foul of UK fair usage with mobile data?

I've just checked my router, it is saying that since the 1st of August its streamed 2500 GB of data. Its not something i usually look at but this last month i've been at home and used it as normal. Had it two years or more without issue.
Mike

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