Landline BB to Mobile BB - sounds crazy ?

tinofapples

Hi,
I've been growing steadily p*%^ed off with our broadband through our landline lately. Resident in Co.Galway , the phoneline was only enabled 3/4 years ago to carry BB. At the time we had landline telephone and BB with Airwire so it was a no brainer to combine the two. The reliabilty of the speeds has actually got worse recently, add that to the fact that I think we can manage without the landline I am considering ditching the landline service altogether and replacing the BB with a 3G provider. Over the last week or so I have run speedtests while connected to my WIFI and 3G on my mobile provider (Meteor), here are the results:




€20 or thereabouts a month rather than the €45-50 we're currently paying ?? Can I expect the same speeds on the 3G network on one on those mobile BB devices as I am getting on my Galaxy S3 ? Am I missing something else ?

tinofapples

Anyone any thoughts ? Or anyone done the same ?

gerryR

Provided you use the same operator you should get the same speeds. Two things to look out for are

A - Latency, generally a 3G connection will have higher latency resulting in poorer performance with things like online gaming, voice/ video chat.
B - Download cap, mobile broadband contract usually has a significantly smaller download cap than fixed line.

HTH
gR

selfbuilder1

I agree with gerryR watch out for the download caps with mobile. I would find it hard to have a cap with using Netflix, Sky on demand etc.

yomamasflavour

I was considering the same, jump from my Eircom land-line to a 3G/4G service. Though looking at the caps changed my mind.

Three do 60GB/month and that's for €35.
Meteor do 30GB/month for €22.5.
Vodafone do 20Gb/month for €30.

As you can see, they're all fairly crap for usage.
Whereas Vodafone over your land-line do 300GB+ for just €35/month. Though you'd still be stuck with a crappy download speed.
I suppose it all depends on how much you regularly use.

long_b

I have a similar set up with 0.75 Mb max download in my land line and sporadically good 3G download speeds of 2.5-6 Mb down.

I use mobile for day to day and when that runs out I (manually) fall back to land line.

I also keep both as the 3 is not that reliable.

Wouldn't be sure what to do in your situation. Maybe hang on till 4G and Fibre come to your area.

Like me though I suspect distance from the cabinet may mean fibre won't help you.

boardzz

You could also get unlimited 3G broadband if you want to for 20 euro a month. Just gotta know what to ask for when your in the phone shop.

tinofapples

boardzz wrote: »

You could also get unlimited 3G broadband if you want to for 20 euro a month. Just gotta know what to ask for when your in the phone shop.

Do tell ? Don't see that listed for 20 a month on their site.

galait

3 PAYG Topup with €20 gives you all you can eat data , No Limits

2012paddy2012

yomamasflavour wrote: »

I was considering the same, jump from my Eircom land-line to a 3G/4G service. Though looking at the caps changed my mind.

Three do 60GB/month and that's for €35.
Meteor do 30GB/month for €22.5.
Vodafone dod 20Gb/month for €30.

As you can see, they're all fairly crap for usage.
Whereas Vodafone over your land-line do 300GB+ for just €35/month. Though you'd still be stuck with a crappy download speed.
I suppose it all depends on how much you regularly use.

Tesco do 50 gb for 30 - uses 02- have it few week's grand- combined phone hot spot - sufficient for netflix you tube etc

yomamasflavour

galait wrote: »

3 PAYG Topup with €20 gives you all you can eat data , No Limits

On mobile, yes though tethering is against the contract terms and can result in termination.
Though if you're anyway technically minded you can get around their detection policies.

2012paddy2012 wrote: »

Tesco do 50 gb for 30 - uses 02- have it few week's grand- combined phone hot spot - sufficient for netflix you tube etc

Have Tesco mobile finally got the speed caps raised by O2?
As far as I was aware it was still gimped at 2Mb/s or less.

2012paddy2012

boardzz wrote: »

You could also get unlimited 3G broadband if you want to for 20 euro a month. Just gotta know what to ask for when your in the phone shop.

Doesn't exist

2012paddy2012

galait wrote: »

3 PAYG Topup with €20 gives you all you can eat data , No Limits

There are limits read small print

AdrianII

i think the limit is 7.5Gb a month

galait

2012paddy2012 wrote: »

There are limits read small print

Show me the small print so ... My experience is no limits , 50 gb or 60 gb and more per month and no issue

galait

AdrianII wrote: »

i think the limit is 7.5Gb a month

Do more than think and show me something more concrete

Scruff

galait wrote: »

Do more than think and show me something more concrete

kettle-pot!!
I definitely wouldn't buy a said sim, top up by €20 and proceed to download the internet just cause someone on the interweb says it works for them....

boardzz

Ok you don't do that then.
Works for me fine.

galait

Here you go all you can eat

http://www.three.ie/shop/phone-plans/prepay/

galait

2012paddy2012 wrote: »

Doesn't exist

Yes it does -

http://www.three.ie/shop/phone-plans/prepay/

richardw001

Guys

One other thing just if anyone's considering ditching the landline/dsl for mobile broadband

I've noticed the mobile broadband speeds varying depending on time of day to be much greater than with dsl.

So if you are considering it - I would suggest using mobile bb completely with the dsl turned off at your router for a week or two
(before you switch over and burn any landline connections!)

We have both and to give you one example we found that the kids can use the mobile bb for netflix during the day no problem - however come 6 O'Clock - its a non-runner.

Scruff

galait wrote: »

Here you go all you can eat

http://www.three.ie/shop/phone-plans/prepay/

there ye go, you are no longer the pot

yomamasflavour

Three's 'mobile' pay as you go used to be €20 top up for 15GB of 3g internet access.
They've since changed that to completely unlimited (as in, if you look in the small print it actually says that you can download the entire internet)

However tethering/using it as a 3g hub etc. isn't allowed, it's supposed to be a handheld mobile only plan.

tinofapples

I forgot to mention one of the key reasons for me considering mobile bb is my location in proximity to mobile masts, O2, Three, Meteor and Vodafone all present within 1 km of my house. This should provide a steadier service, shouldn't it ?

tinofapples

Look at this rubbish :

[URL="[URL=http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3479746811][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/3479746811.png[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]


"Slower than 96% of IE"

long_b

I think your last two posts have fairly summed up the joys of mobile midband as a broadband substitute.

bk

One thing people should take into account.

Mobile broadband is a shared medium, so the more of you who give up your landlines and use it intensively as a wired broadband replacement (netflix, youtube, etc.) the slower and worse it will get.

Mobile broadband really isn't designed for this sort of intensive usage.

So think carefully before you drop your wired connection for this wireless broadband.

Another option to look into is a fixed wireless internet provider, they typically have a much more reliable service.

tinofapples

I went ahead with the mobile bb today (7 day cooling off period) and initial signs are :

[URL="[URL=http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3480227325][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/3480227325.png[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

tinofapples

bk wrote: »

One thing people should take into account.

Mobile broadband is a shared medium, so the more of you who give up your landlines and use it intensively as a wired broadband replacement (netflix, youtube, etc.) the slower and worse it will get.

Mobile broadband really isn't designed for this sort of intensive usage.

So think carefully before you drop your wired connection for this wireless broadband.

Another option to look into is a fixed wireless internet provider, they typically have a much more reliable service.

bk , can't the same thing be said for my existing landline, the more using it the slower speeds for all !!

bk

tinofapples wrote: »

bk , can't the same thing be said for my existing landline, the more using it the slower speeds for all !!

No, not at all.

A landline between your home and exchange/eFibre cabinet is yours only, you don't share it with anyone, you get the full speed you connect at.

From the exchange/cab you do share the fibre line back onto the rest of the internet. But Fibre is so ridiculously high bandwidth, you should never notice any significant slow down.

Wireless works totally different. There is only a certain, very limited amount of licensed radio frequency bandwidth. This bandwidth is shared with all your neighbours and everyone else connected to the same radio tower.

The more people connected and using this wireless frequency, the slower and more congested it gets.

It is all to do with physics, there will just never be enough radio frequency bandwidth to allow wireless to replace fixed line bandwidth.

galait

bk wrote: »

No, not at all.

A landline between your home and exchange/eFibre cabinet is yours only, you don't share it with anyone, you get the full speed you connect at.

From the exchange/cab you do share the fibre line back onto the rest of the internet. But Fibre is so ridiculously high bandwidth, you should never notice any significant slow down.

Wireless works totally different. There is only a certain, very limited amount of licensed radio frequency bandwidth. This bandwidth is shared with all your neighbours and everyone else connected to the same radio tower.

The more people connected and using this wireless frequency, the slower and more congested it gets.

It is all to do with physics, there will just never be enough radio frequency bandwidth to allow wireless to replace fixed line bandwidth.

Still talking crap I see

ED E

galait wrote: »

Still talking crap I see

Except he is 100% correct....

bk

galait wrote: »

Still talking crap I see

!!!! And exactly how is anything I wrote incorrect?

Non of what I wrote is even mildly controversial or questionable. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of networking and wireless tech (or any education in physics) knows it is correct. And any one of dozens of very technically competent people here on this forum can easily confirm it.