Switching to 4G/LTE?

[AlGale]

We've had FTTC for several years now, and frankly the d/l speed is no better than it was with ADSL

Speedtest gives us 12 Mbps d/l, 1.0-2.1 u/l (ethernet, through Nordvpn 13/2.9 without VPN)  These figures are much the same as when installed, although more reliable than the ADSL

WiFi on phone has very similar speeds again with VPN

I freely accept that there may well be issues with the internal wiring in our house which could improve the speeds if fixed, and that normally the speeds achieved are acceptable for streaming to TV/phone/tablet etc and for home working stuff

Now, placing a phone (Samsung S10) against a 1st floor window gets me 30/3.9   (on Smarty SIM, i.e. 3 network) Holding it about 300 mm outside the window on 2nd floor gets about 60-80 Mbps d/l depending where I locate it.  With the wonders of 4G propogation, the signal at the rear of the house (that's the direction where the transmitter is) is about 75% worse!

So, as I'm paying about £67/month for a landline (which I don't use) and broadband, my intention is to cancel the whole BT thing once the contract expires in December and install a 4G external antenna and router, almost certainly with a mesh system for WiFi. Unlimited data SIM from Smarty is £20/month

I could recoup the hardware cost in 5-6 months I estimate

Any comments? adverse or otherwise

Full fibre is not really an option (village in banjo-country in Essex), as the providers here seem unwilling to extend to our house (200 m from kerb) and the costs are high beyond the early 12 months or so

Al

[NigelB72]

Have you looked into a Skylink system?

[AlGale]

Have you looked into a Skylink system?

Apologies if I've misunderstood, but do you mean Starlink?

That's £529 for hardware at £88/month (quoted today)

If I lived with no fibre connection or 4G/5G signal I'd consider it even at that cost

[NigelB72]

Yeah that's what I meant 🤣

[rbz5416]

What does the broadband checker say you should get? If significantly higher it would be worth pursuing that first.

BT Broadband Checker

From what I've read the two potential issues with a 4/5G connection are poor latency for gamers & the available bandwidth disappearing of an evening when the service is saturated. You could always just buy the 4G router first to test before committing to anything. That would give you a good insight to reliability of the service.

[AlGale]

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@rbz5416wrote:

What does the broadband checker say you should get? If significantly higher it would be worth pursuing that first.

We're well down on that, but IIRC the 'guaranteed' d/l rate is nowhere near those figures anyway.  We're 200 m from the cabinet I guess, and I suspect the internal cabling from (ancient) box to my office was wired by some numpty with a hammer and 12mm socket!

BT Broadband Checker

From what I've read the two potential issues with a 4/5G connection are poor latency for gamers & the available bandwidth disappearing of an evening when the service is saturated. You could always just buy the 4G router first to test before committing to anything. That would give you a good insight to reliability of the service.

Good thought - the gaming thing isn't an issue, since I abandoned that after Quake3 and MS FS2000 or so (I get enough keyboard time during the day!).  But I will check the evening bandwidth. And a router stuck on the inside of window isn't too expensive. TP-Link Archer MR400 AC1200 Dual Band 4G Mobile Wi-Fi Router at about £75-90 depending on model (from Amazon)

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[rbz5416]

Try a quiet line test on 17070, it should be silent bar maybe a very low hum. Certainly no pops or crackles.

If you haven't already, it would also be worth trying the test socket in the master socket to eliminate your internal wiring.

At 200m away I'd expect much better still. I'm around 500m & get 60mb, but wiring can take a scenic route between between property & cab.

Would also be worth posting your line stats from the Hub.

[AlGale]

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@rbz5416wrote:

Try a quiet line test on 17070, it should be silent bar maybe a very low hum. Certainly no pops or crackles.

If you haven't already, it would also be worth trying the test socket in the master socket to eliminate your internal wiring.

At 200m away I'd expect much better still. I'm around 500m & get 60mb, but wiring can take a scenic route between between property & cab.

Would also be worth posting your line stats from the Hub.

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Quiet line test has some lovely pops and crackles (on a DECT phone - we don't have a wired phone - and I appreciate auto-gain circuits may make it sound worse)

Firmware version: v0.33.00.12274-BT
Firmware updated: Wed Apr 13 22:40:13 2022
Board version: R01
GUI version: 1.74 12_11_2020
DSL uptime: 12 days,23 Hours29 Mins04 Secs
Data rate: 2.617 Mbps / 14.999 Mbps
Maximum data rate: 2.586 Mbps / 16.810 Mbps
Full Fibre (FTTP) Mode: Off
Noise margin: 5.8 / 7.3
Line attenuation: 12.5 / 26.5
Signal attenuation: 12.5 / 27.2
VLAN id: 101
Upstream error control: Off
Downstream error control: Off
Data sent / received: 16.3 GB Uploaded / 170.3 GB Downloaded
Broadband username:
Public Wi-fi status: Activated
2.4 GHz wireless network name:
2.4 GHz wireless channel: Smart (Channel 11)
5 GHz wireless network name:
5 GHz wireless channel: Smart (Channel 36)
Wireless security: WPA2
Wireless mode: Mode 1
Firewall: On

[rbz5416]

If it's still present on the test socket, report the noise as a landline fault online.  Hopefully that will be confirmed & fixed in a few days. You might be pleasantly surprised at the results.