My daughter has just moved into a new flat. There is currently no telephone line connected to the building, the Telekom should install that in the next couple of months.
So I went looking for an LTE solution to bridge her over until she gets cabled internet.
My current provider offer 200GB “LTE Hotspot at home” for 30€ a month, but it is not available at her address! My smartphone has a full signal, but I have to give an address where it will be used and her address is not supported (no landline!?!).
So I went looking elsewhere. I ended up with a Debitel deal, unlimited data, plus 20GB in other EU countries, up to 250mbps and 3 SIM cards, for 30€ a month for the first 2 years, then going up to 49€ a month after that and I can cancel at any time with 1 months notice…
If it really lives up to its advertising, and the coverage is good, I might actually stick one of the other SIMs in my phone and keep it!
It is also 5 times quicker than the broadband I can get here… That said, I’ll have to wait and see what the actual signal and throughput are like in my house. I had Vodafone and T1 (T-Mobile) here, but I get around 16mbps (5G Vodafone) and 30mbps (LTE T-Mobile), so it’ll be interesting to see what the o2 gives me…
Sounds like a pretty good deal as long as you can get the throughput.
I tried something similar about 5 years ago and it just couldn’t handle more than a couple of people using it at the same time so didn’t really work out. Plus the mobile masts seemed to struggle for bandwidth at peak times. Feels like they should be in a better place now with 5g needing a better backhaul.
Are you getting a router or just using a mobile hotspot?
Be very interested how you get on. We have intermittent broadband here in bad weather (old copper cables in ducts that leak) and I have two options, switch to LTE/5G or wait until FTTP. My guess is the mobile network will arrive first, 5G is already in our nearest big town with data rates 4 or 5 times what I get at home.
Is there a company in your area that’s actively deploying FTTP? I wouldn’t hold my breath if not, you’re probably right about the 5G deployment, capex being what it is with this stuff.
My house got the Bell FibreOp conduit run down my street a few months ago. Still waiting or them to put something in those conduits… maybe this fall. Still concerned how they get the fibre into the house though… they put the pedestal on the wrong side of the house, and my driveway is in the way… so unless they intend to bury conduit all the way around my house (from front on one side, around the back and out to the front on the other side, 270 degrees or so) I don’t know how I could get hooked up anyway.
We have about 60 residents organised, so have asked two companies who are doing installs in the area to quote. With the govt grants (ukgov have committed to 85% coverage by 2025) it ends up costing most people nothing, as you pool the money and hopefully the more complicated installs are offset by the cheaper ones. But I think we’ll need more than 60 people to make it worth it for them. Probably 100+.