4G mobile broadband with 3

midlander69

Hi,
I currently have mobile 3G broadband with 3 (previously 02). I was thinking of upgrading to a 4G plan (Broadband Pro using the B593s router), and just wondering if anyone can recommend it or highlight any issues. I am in the Tullamore town area. Is there a real noticeable difference between 3G and 4G ?
I'm on mobile BB because I don't have a phone line. Another possibility I guess is to wait for the ESB/Vodafone service later in the year.
Thanks for any feedback.

dvae

changed from 3g to 4g on the three network about 3 months ago now.
was getting about 1-2 mb download on 3g, but it was almost unusable at night.

since changing to 4g im getting 15-20 mb download speeds, with about 10mb upload with 3 bars, on netgear air card ac762s
for some reason it gets better at night.

midlander69

Thanks for that. 1-2 Mb download is what I'm seeing now, so if I see a similar jump it would be worth upgrading (should be plenty for efficient video streaming I guess).
Mind me asking of there was any particular reason to go with the netgear router ? Maybe there are cheaper/better options than the B593s, that 3 offer.

Mc Love

I hope they rollout 4g to more rural towns soon, 3g is atrocious in some rural towns. 4g would be like bringing fibre to them

dvae

the netgear router is basically just a broadband dongle that can connect 5 or 10 different devices wirelessly. theres no eathernet ports.
I got it because its small and light, so I could tape it high up on my window to get a better signal. everything in my house is wireless so this doesn't bother me much.

dvae

Mc Love wrote: »

I hope they rollout 4g to more rural towns soon, 3g is atrocious in some rural towns. 4g would be like bringing fibre to them

I cant believe how fast it is now. cant stop doing speed tests, and rubbing my eyes.

heard that three plan to have all their masts upgraded to 4g by June, but don't know how true this is.
perhaps there's some hope as im living in rural Galway, 3 miles from the mast, with no clear line of sight.

jay93

Wouldn't think all of them would be enabled within the next few months the roll out of 4G will still take another while I'm sure they will be working a lot on enabling 4G on most their masts and the old O2 ones in the coming months though !

ACLFC7

You should try get the Huawei b593s on 4G. 4G is available in Tullamore but you'd want to check the coverage maps on Three's website. You should get maybe 20Mbps on 4G. I think around 7Mbps would be good enough to watch HD on YouTube.

NIMAN

I like the sound of 4G on '3' but I was wondering if you can use this service for things like streaming to your Smart TV or surfing on your laptop (is this tethering?).

seamus1980

We changed three and have 4g,we are using a Huawei B593s-22 LTE/4G Unlocked and are getting 50mbs download and 30 upload on speedtest,My sister lives beside us and she has the same only she is using a netgear Aircard 762s,but we have double the speed with the Huawei router.Hope this helps

BeerWolf

seamus1980 wrote: »

We changed three and have 4g,we are using a Huawei B593s-22 LTE/4G Unlocked and are getting 50mbs download and 30 upload on speedtest,My sister lives beside us and she has the same only she is using a netgear Aircard 762s,but we have double the speed with the Huawei router.Hope this helps

The Huawei makes a MASSIVE difference indeed

midlander69

seamus1980 wrote: »

We changed three and have 4g,we are using a Huawei B593s-22 LTE/4G Unlocked and are getting 50mbs download and 30 upload on speedtest,My sister lives beside us and she has the same only she is using a netgear Aircard 762s,but we have double the speed with the Huawei router.Hope this helps

Unfortunately for me, one of the young ones working in the 3 shop says that the 4g reception in tullamore town centre is not great, and therefore probably worse just outside the town centre. And seemingly 3 don't have a cooling off period where I could cancel a 4g contract if I find that i don't actually have any 4g reception. Plus I don't have a 4g ready device to test the coverage with a sim. So ill have to look at other options.
Thanks everyone for the posts.

lenoude

I'm in Tullamore and have 4g on pay as you go. It's alright, I wouldn't be depending on it for as my main internet access though. I tested it once and got 45mbs download but that was just once.
Might see an improvement after June/July when they start charging pay as you go customers to use the 4g service.

bealtine

Always keep in mind that as more and more people start to use 4G the speeds will start to slow down

markc2951

We have eircom and get max during the day 6 mb download..a family member few doors up got vodafone 4g hotspot and gets 14mb download..some difference

NIMAN

markc2951 wrote: »

We have eircom and get max during the day 6 mb download..a family member few doors up got vodafone 4g hotspot and gets 14mb download..some difference

To be honest, that difference isn't something I'd pay extra for.

If just general surfing and streaming, 6mb will appear just as good as 14mb.

markc2951

NIMAN wrote:

To be honest, that difference isn't something I'd pay extra for.

NIMAN wrote:

If just general surfing and streaming, 6mb will appear just as good as 14mb.

With eircom i play online with ps4..but if someone starts youtube you may forget about it.thats not the case with the 4 g hotspot.

And eircom say they wont do the broadband without the phone

Kristopherus

bealtine wrote: »

Always keep in mind that as more and more people start to use 4G the speeds will start to slow down

I'm sure that will be countered by the addition of 4g capability to dozens upon dozens of masts.

bk

markc2951 wrote: »

We have eircom and get max during the day 6 mb download..a family member few doors up got vodafone 4g hotspot and gets 14mb download..some difference

And if you run out and get a 4G modem as a result, both you and your neighbour will now only get 7Mb/s if you both use it at the same time!

Remember wireless is a shared medium, the more people who use it, the slower it will get, guaranteed.

Kristopherus wrote: »

I'm sure that will be countered by the addition of 4g capability to dozens upon dozens of masts.

Not really. Yes, of course more masts will get 4G and also telcos will use more frequencies, but more and more people will be getting 4G devices and you simply can't overcome the laws of physics.

4G is a shared medium with relatively speaking very little bandwidth available to it. It really isn't meant to be a replacement for a wired connection. It is designed to be mobile broadband. If people try to use it heavily as a replacement for wired broadband, it will quickly slow to a crawl, just like we saw happen with 3G.

chris_ie

I havent had a good experience with 4G so far. I was thinking about switching my broadband provider to use them instead but the 4G connection has been very unreliable at the minute. Speeds drop to 0.4mb. Some days I'll get around 1-4mb. One day I did get 15mb but 10mins later it was slow again down to 1mb. So its all over the place and not worth switching unfortunately.

NIMAN

All this is a bit of a joke isn't it?

They manage to hype up broadband, and have been doing it for years, often falsely telling you of claimed speeds. This "...UP TO" is their get out clause.

4G is being touted as something that will have us all downloading and streaming to our mobile devices at breath-taking speeds. Yeah, as long as not everyone signs up for it, then you can expect 3G speeds, or less.

chris_ie

NIMAN wrote: »

All this is a bit of a joke isn't it?

They manage to hype up broadband, and have been doing it for years, often falsely telling you of claimed speeds. This "...UP TO" is their get out clause.

4G is being touted as something that will have us all downloading and streaming to our mobile devices at breath-taking speeds. Yeah, as long as not everyone signs up for it, then you can expect 3G speeds, or less.

Yeah. I hate the 'up to' rubbish. Wish something was changed that they couldnt get away with that. I do understand that at certain times there will be more users and they cant guarentee the speeds but in that case they shouldnt be allowed advertise such high speeds.

I was once with a provider before that was 'up to 10mb'. During the quiet periods, after 1am or whatever, you would get the 10mb alot of the time. I'm now with an ISP that say up to 50MB, the max ever seen at different hours even 4-6am (I do on call work) was about 28mb. Most of the time during the hours you use it in the evenings its about 3-5mb. They shouldnt be allowed to advertise up to 50mb. Same applies to 4G and the likes.

NIMAN

.... exactly the same as a famous Irish airline (and in fact they all do it) saying "Visit Europe this summer from €9.99 each way".

Check the site and can't find a flight cheaper than €89.99 each way !!

Probably sell one seat on each flight at €9.99 to cdover themselves legally.

Nonoperational

It's hardly practical for them to advertise a range of speeds from 1 to 100Mbit depending on your signal strength or attenuation. That's the way the physics works, selling the products as "upto" is perfectly reasonable.

chris_ie

Nonoperational wrote: »

It's hardly practical for them to advertise a range of speeds from 1 to 100Mbit depending on your signal strength or attenuation. That's the way the physics works, selling the products as "upto" is perfectly reasonable.

Yeah as I said in my post I get the reason behind it. But companies hide behind it when there are problems. I'll go back to my ISP as an example. The hardware they use and the distances involved aren't a limiting factor. Yet we never get close to the advertised "up to" speed even in the mornings 5-6am or whatever. Then speeds drop way down during evening when others are online. All I'm saying is that ISP's advertise certain speeds, they may know that customers will never reach it and hide behind the "up to" excuse. It would be better if they advertised a more realistic "up to" speed. Sure I could start an ISP and say up to 100mb knowing I can only provide 40mb max and use the "up to" excuse.

NIMAN

Maybe they should be made to quote an achieved average speed over a year or something, along with the "up to" figure.

It would be nice to hear "you can get up to 100mb if you surf at 3am, but any reasonable hour you'll probably get 15mb".

jay93

It might improve over the coming months their 4G roll out is very slow. Now that the take over of O2 is fully completed id say the 4G roll out will speed up quite a lot