Has Anyone Gone Full Mobile Data for Home Internet?

[Space Bandito]

Spinning off the internet speed thread, I am curious if anyone has used a mobile provider for internet service in their home?

I am moving into a new house this weekend, and have set up broadband service, but they can't come out to install until the 27th - I went on Amazon and purchased a sim router, and then went over to Vodaphone and bought an unlimited data 5G sim for $45/month. Seems to work pretty well, but just to be on the safe side, I also bought an outdoor antenna to plug into the router to ensure the best signal possible. It's not the 1GB speeds we're talking about, but it's well over 150mbps (which is honestly way more than most of us need)

Now, I did this as a short term solution, given its the only way for me to have internet for a few weeks, but has anyone done this long term? What are the pros and cons vs traditional broadband?

 

[pumbaa]

If you are using for internet and light streaming it should be fine. I think when you are full streaming/video game household the ping and latency become an issue.

My son plays games, i play some, he watches twitch, we stream our tv services. With all of that the ping and latency I think it would crumble.

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

Reception is too poor to consider this in my current home.

 

[goalie]

Nope. I work from home and it wouldn't be enough speed or allowed by my employer.

 

[Space Bandito]

If you are using for internet and light streaming it should be fine. I think when you are full streaming/video game household the ping and latency become an issue.

My son plays games, i play some, he watches twitch, we stream our tv services. With all of that the ping and latency I think it would crumble.

So my son watches Youtube videos a couple hours a day. I will stream a show or two (maybe a football game or golf) in the evenings. The TV is rarely on during the day, but both my wife and I spend a lot of time in video conferences.

 

[pumbaa]

Nope. I work from home and it wouldn't be enough speed or allowed by my employer.

didnt even think about that. i wfh also and i bet our vpn would destroy it.

 

[BuffaloPlunger]

Not really savvy when it comes to this kinda of stuff but we have Verizon fios. Don’t really have any complaints about it other than the setup was kind of annoying

 

[Space Bandito]

Nope. I work from home and it wouldn't be enough speed or allowed by my employer.

I don't have any sort of requirements, Considering my wife manages full day meetings in various platforms at our place in France on like 10mbps, I can't imagine 150-200mbps could ever cause an issue

 

[Space Bandito]

Not really savvy when it comes to this kinda of stuff but we have Verizon fios. Don’t really have any complaints about it other than the setup was kind of annoying

That's what I like about this so far. I just turned on the router and popped in the sim. There was no set up at all.

 

[Golfers Anonymous]

Live in rural area so was just about my only decent option and I’m a fan. I can watch videos and movies easily, I don’t play video games so no clue on that end but the T-mobile package with the box included for 50$ a month is more than worth it for myself and has worked well for over half a year so far.

 

[BuffaloPlunger]

That's what I like about this so far. I just turned on the router and popped in the sim. There was no set up at all.

All we had to do was plug the router in and connect the Ethernet but actually setting up the account and getting it running was a pain. It was the classic “set up in 1,2,3” but they don’t list out the 2a, 2b, etc. steps

 

[Space Bandito]

All we had to do was plug the router in and connect the Ethernet but actually setting up the account and getting it running was a pain. It was the classic “set up in 1,2,3” but they don’t list out the 2a, 2b, etc. steps

Oh bummer. This is a pre-paid sim, so there's no account.

 

[goalie]

I don't have any sort of requirements, Considering my wife manages full day meetings in various platforms at our place in France on like 10mbps, I can't imagine 150-200mbps could ever cause an issue

I use an internet phone to speak with patients. It's not allowed at this time by my employer. I don't do IT and don't know why, I just know I can't do it.

 

[YukonLiving]

No, it's not really a viable option for us up here. With spotty service, it's almost better to have both residential and cellular data.

 

[Greg Kulbick]

I have AT&T for cell. The signal is so bad, I have to use WiFi calling through my 3-10mbps CenturyLink home internet if I want to make and receive calls. Neither T Mobile nor Verizon say their home internet is available to my address. I may have to break down and try for Starlink if any more people move into the area, because CL is just adding new customers to switches already out there.

 

[Golfers Anonymous]

I have AT&T for cell. The signal is so bad, I have to use WiFi calling through my 3-10mbps CenturyLink home internet if I want to make and receive calls. Neither T Mobile nor Verizon say their home internet is available to my address. I may have to break down and try for Starlink if any more people move into the area, because CL is just adding new customers to switches already out there.

Will say see if they’ll allow a test of the equipment. I received a 10 day free trial as the 5g technically wasn’t in my area but still works quite well out of their zone.

 

[Scooby45]

we recently swtiched to T-mobile and it's been great. No gamers in our house but a lot of streaming content plus some pretty big work download/upload stuff with no real issues for me.

 

[alistaird]

I used it for a while at about 30-40M. Worked well but now use it as a backup to a 100+M microwave link as quote for fibre was about $70k connection charge!!!

A

Sent from my SM-F711B using Tapatalk

 

[jdtox]

Nope haven't even considered it.

 

[BigMac]

I'm considering it, but haven't made the jump yet. We only have one cable internet provider here (Suddenlink), and they suck - the only thing worse than the actual service is their (nonexistent) customer service. Verizon and T-Mobile both offer home cellular internet, and they're a lot cheaper and probably just as fast. Another consideration is that Allo is bringing a fiber network to town, but it might be a while before it hits our neighborhood.

My biggest curiosity, which I haven't found an answer to yet, is if I can still run a mesh network within my house from a cellular internet modem. I'm currently using a Deco system to eliminate dead spots in the house, and it would be a no-go if I couldn't use it with the cellular box. (Edit: looks like it works with T-Mobile, not sure about VZW)

 

[pumbaa]

I'm considering it, but haven't made the jump yet. We only have one cable internet provider here (Suddenlink), and they suck - the only thing worse than the actual service is their (nonexistent) customer service. Verizon and T-Mobile both offer home cellular internet, and they're a lot cheaper and probably just as fast. Another consideration is that Allo is bringing a fiber network to town, but it might be a while before it hits our neighborhood.

My biggest curiosity, which I haven't found an answer to yet, is if I can still run a mesh network within my house from a cellular internet modem. I'm currently using a Deco system to eliminate dead spots in the house, and it would be a no-go if I couldn't use it with the cellular box. (Edit: looks like it works with T-Mobile, not sure about VZW)

Netgear makes sim/wireless mesh specific systems also but I'd assume it works with any since it is just routing information to and from the modem.

 

[DaveGolfer15]

Not at home but I did it in my office with Three. It worked great tbh.

 

[Buckeyegolfnut]

That's what I like about this so far. I just turned on the router and popped in the sim. There was no set up at all.

My old router went bad, and not being all that computer literate, went to the shop where I bought my (used, but refurbished) computer for a new one! They told me that it belonged to my ISP, and to send it back to them and they would send me a new one. And yes, it was basically plug and play.

 

[MGoBlue]

We have no wired options on our street. Next street has ATT fiber but it seems no chance for us. Long story.

Anyway we were an early customer for TMobile’s whole house 5G gateway and it’s been great. We are a ways from the nearest 5G tower but we still get 100mb+ consistently. We can have two TVs streaming HD/4k content and I can be on a Zoom meeting for work at the same time with NO problems.