Broadband wifi

[Anonymous]

What's the major difference's between the Huawei 4G pocket hotspot and the plus?

[MI5]

The Plus is 4g.
The Plus can take an SD Card.
The Plus is 125g heavier.

Basic one: https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband/huawei/4g-pocket-hotspot

Plus version: https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband/huawei/4g-pocket-hotspot-plus

[sheepdog]

The Plus (or E5770 or Mobile Wifi Pro) is obviously locked to the o2 network but is an awesome bit of kit. Its bonus is the ethernet slot so you can connect that up to a network switch or router if you want and expand your own network. There aren't that many devices out there that has that functionality.

Only downside is that you can't switch off the wifi itself which is annoying though wifi signal strength is rather good on the upside. 

[Anonymous]

Ok thats great. I would be looking to set it up as a home hub as my house broadband speed is 1mbps! I have a strong 4G signal in house however. Is this the product you would recommend? Nick 

[MI5]

How much data do you think you'll use?
These aren't designed as a broadband replacement.

[Anonymous]

At the minute I'm willing to try anything that gives me more than 1mbps. I see theres a plan for 40Gb a month for £30. So straight away that is £5 cheaper than I am paying at the moment including line rental. I don't think I would use anywhere near that as I work offshore 6 months of the year. As long as it will improve my speed I am willing to give it a go. 

[MI5]

Should work out ok for you then.
Have you done any speed tests on the o2 signal?

[sheepdog]

Just so you know, I'm just biding my time to replace my landline broadband and have successfully been using 4G since about May this year as my main broadband. I have a 50GB/30 day plan on (ahem) Vodafone as O2 were a touch expensive in comparison. 

My usage has rarely exceeded 50GB each month and I work from home (VPN/remote desktops mainly) and that alone is around 5GB a month. Usual things I do is Netflix, 2 hours per night at SD quality depending on much binge watching I do it may be closer to 4 at times;  Youtube; game updates plus browsing and device updates which end up being the biggest consumer of data per month. Bear in mind if you have multiple devices that allowance will rapidly disappear. Devices are usually on for a great deal of the day. 

I'm currently at 33GB with another week to go before rollover though admittedly I've not used it as much in the evenings this month. 

Speedwise, I did have a rather stable just under 3MBits on the landline before TalkTalk applied DLM so now its down to less than half of that which fortunately about the same time I discovered that the local mast got the 4G upgrade. Now I get somewhere between 6.5 to 20 MBits and well over 10MBits upload which is more useful to me working from home. So some results taken just now and I think you can guess which is which:

I have seen it close to 25MBits in both directions in the evening and the 4G signal has only caused me an issue once for a couple of hours. Whilst on VF,  I know that the local mast is shared with o2 and there is little difference in speed though bear in mind it may not be the same in your locality. EE/3 where I am is rather poor as being in a rural area so they were not on my list.

As Mi5 suggests, get hold of some PAYG data sims not only from o2 but VF/EE/3 and see what performs the best before committing. Check out ebay for unlocked devices as well which may seem a cost to experiment with but trust me, its worth doing. 

My next plan is to find a dedicated 4G router plus external aerial as another downside of these devices are that they battery powered and a pain being unable to turn the wifi off to stop heavy drain whilst in use. Good in one respect if you suffer power cuts but if plugged in all the time but I'd prefer not to have it that way. A powered usb hub is also a worthwhile purchase especially one that can output 1A or  more. 

As for fibre, well thats appeared in my village on Anglesey and although I can see the green box, it has a ridiculous route before it goes to the house! And yet a recent cold caller offering fibre didn't seem to understand that whilst it may be an massive improvement than ADSL, I'm still paying for a potential half speed service that may not even been that. Certainly wasn't going to commit to 2 year contract to suffer that!

[MI5]

My lot can use 50gb in a day!
Last time I checked we’d got through around 250gb and it was even near month end.

[Anonymous]

50GB a day!! Theres only 2 of us we won't use that much. May have to rethink when the kids get a bit older. I have done a speed check and we get 23mbps through 4G. Hopefully that will be our download speed. Thanks for all your help.