EIR 4g home broadband

Sponsorgate · 03-12-2020 10:45am

Building a new house & chances of getting decent DSL are not looking good. (rural)

When I speed test on my mobile(Vodafone) inside the house I am getting approx 8mb speeds. When I step outisde the house , I am getting 75mb speeds! which is great. I was thinking of buying an Huawei mobile router & putting a pay as you go sim into it.

Can anyone offer advice on how best to boost my 4g signal inside the house if can get that high of a speed by just stepping outside house? Will the Huawei router have a better signal than my phone? will I need some sort of booster inside or antenna outside?

3km away from nearest mast

Any advice appreciated
SponsorGate

christy c · 03-12-2020 11:51am

Sponsorgate wrote: »

Building a new house & chances of getting decent DSL are not looking good. (rural)

When I speed test on my mobile(Vodafone) inside the house I am getting approx 8mb speeds. When I step outisde the house , I am getting 75mb speeds! which is great. I was thinking of buying an Huawei mobile router & putting a pay as you go sim into it.

Can anyone offer advice on how best to boost my 4g signal inside the house if can get that high of a speed by just stepping outside house? Will the Huawei router have a better signal than my phone? will I need some sort of booster inside or antenna outside?

Any advice appreciated
SponsorGate

There's a thread in the midband forum about external aerials.

But in my experience, 4g routers are better at picking up signal than phones. So see how that goes first, try out the router in different locations within the house. The vodafone unlimited data PAYG plan is limited to 10 mbps, so might be worth trying gomo or 48 depending on your usage.

westyIrl · 03-12-2020 6:51pm

Also get a 4G router which allows attaching an external antenna; Huawei ones get good reviews from my experience. (ones with two antenna connectors is better) Going by what you are getting on the phone, you should be fine as these 'desktop' routers generally have more sensitive built-in antennas, but the option to connect up an external antenna is there if you need it. It's an exercise in trial and error so take your time! B525 is a solid performer.

Jim

-=al=- · 03-12-2020 7:22pm

If any chance of a fixed line service is low, and you get decent mobile signal, possibly look into getting 5g router or an external antenna capable of picking it up to future proof it a bit. The Huawei ones are mostly used by operators in Ireland, and any 4g one would probably be grand.

If you get decent signal on your phone, you should get 4g/4g+ on popular devices like the b525 or 818. The connection will be far more solid than your mobile from the router, and external antenna will solidify it and improve it even more.

An unlocked router is probably the best to get as you can try different services and find the one that works best for you. If it works fine indoors without an antenna, great. If not, a decent external antenna would prob start at about €50/€60. Just run the cable into the router and your sorted. From there you could try a mesh system, or run a cat5/6 into a switch, or another router for additional networking options if necessary.

If it's for heavy usage or many users and you definitely can't get a fixed line, you probably want to give yourself the best chance of a reliable solid connection from a supplier that doesn't do any traffic shaping or throttling. Might be worth investing a little to avoid any probs

MAULBROOK · 03-12-2020 7:32pm

Sponsorgate wrote: »

Building a new house & chances of getting decent DSL are not looking good. (rural)

When I speed test on my mobile(Vodafone) inside the house I am getting approx 8mb speeds. When I step outisde the house , I am getting 75mb speeds! which is great. I was thinking of buying an Huawei mobile router & putting a pay as you go sim into it.

Can anyone offer advice on how best to boost my 4g signal inside the house if can get that high of a speed by just stepping outside house? Will the Huawei router have a better signal than my phone? will I need some sort of booster inside or antenna outside?

3km away from nearest mast

Any advice appreciated
SponsorGate

The vodafone offer has a trial period of 2 weeks. Try it and see how it works.
If you don't like the speeds then hand it back.

I have the newer offer from Vodafone and im very happy with it, speed never below 50Mbps. been with them for years no and was with 3. VF has been the best by a mile. (i dont work for them)

Im in the sticks so that helps i think

Check Speedtest coverage maps and it will tell you what network give you coverage.

icom · 04-12-2020 3:11pm

I see the EIR 4G Wireless 29.99 a month broadband is now showing as unlimited data on the EIR website.

I'm on this package, but when I log into the app/web page it still shows the 750GB limit.

Does the unlimited data only apply to new customers signing up this month ?

-=al=- · 04-12-2020 5:04pm

Seems like it's still 750GB just under the "no limits" name

I believe they had this mobile bb promotional offer for 29.99 for a short period this summer, with the original price being €52.99.

I presumed the would scrap the €52.99 at some point as it's far to expensive and maybe they've just done that and have it at €29.99 now

wassie · 05-12-2020 2:12pm

Yes 'unlimited' means 750GB subject to their 'Fair Usage Policy" buried in their T&Cs.

Broadband providers in the country have always mislead consumers on their internet offerings, while the toothless regulators make noise but never actually do anything about it. Just look at the way the term 'fibre' is used to cover services other than fibre to the home (FTTH) or advertised speeds vs actual speeds achieved.

Sponsorgate wrote: »

Building a new house & chances of getting decent DSL are not looking good. (rural)

When I speed test on my mobile(Vodafone) inside the house I am getting approx 8mb speeds. When I step outisde the house , I am getting 75mb speeds! which is great. I was thinking of buying an Huawei mobile router & putting a pay as you go sim into it.

Can anyone offer advice on how best to boost my 4g signal inside the house if can get that high of a speed by just stepping outside house? Will the Huawei router have a better signal than my phone? will I need some sort of booster inside or antenna outside?

3km away from nearest mast

Any advice appreciated
SponsorGate

As other posters suggest, try the service out for a week. The B818 actually has very good internal antennas. Try and locate it in a windows facing the mast direction if possible and you will probably be quite surprised by the quality of signal.

It will come down to contention i.e. how many users are connected at one time - generally I notice quote a drop come Netflix o'clock but still useable - YMMV.

digiman · 15-12-2020 11:20am

Does anyone know if the b818 from eir is locked or not?

Can anyone recommend an external antenna for these?

testtech05 · 15-12-2020 11:26am

I've signed up to this package this week also, have just moved to a rural house in Mayo with basic DSL (5mb max) only available even though the house across the way has 1GB fibre but that's a story for another thread.
We have been using a prepaid eir sim with a Huawei B535 router for the past couple of weeks and very happy with the performance so far almost constant between 20-30 download speed with 3Mb upload. Only issue we have with WFH and Netflix etc is the download limit was too low.
Hopefully we will continue to get the same speeds now I am actually tied to a contract.....

Due to receive the router etc today will report back in a couple of days how the eir router compares to my own 535.

SB79 · 15-12-2020 11:29am

is everyone still having a nightmare trying to get to speak to someone in Eir, i need to call but the last time i hung up after an hour and 20 minutes on hold, a shambles of customer care.

wassie · 15-12-2020 11:43am

Your not alone - according to RTE "...The electronic communications regulator, Comreg, received 3,477 complaints from Eir customers in the first nine months of the year. This amounts to two thirds of the overall number of complaints the regulator received during that period."

I was on hold for over 3 hours before I hung up a few months back. Had phone on my desk whilst I was WFH so wasn't exactly waiting around for them either. Very frustrating though.

SB79 · 15-12-2020 11:44am

wassie wrote: »

Your not alone - according to RTE "...The electronic communications regulator, Comreg, received 3,477 complaints from Eir customers in the first nine months of the year. This amounts to two thirds of the overall number of complaints the regulator received during that period."

I was on hold for over 3 hours before I hung up a few months back. Had phone on my desk whilst I was WFH so wasn't exactly waiting around for them either. Very frustrating though.

probably better off going into an actual EIR shop toget our queries sorted out.

wassie · 15-12-2020 11:55am

They will direct you back to CS phone number after purchase generally as they will say they are sales only - that being said I believe some staff have been trained up to handle basic queries to assist. Depends who you get really but cant hurt trying.

SB79 · 15-12-2020 12:27pm

wassie wrote: »

They will direct you back to CS phone number after purchase generally as they will say they are sales only - that being said I believe some staff have been trained up to handle basic queries to assist. Depends who you get really but cant hurt trying.

jaysus what do you so then if you need to contact them, surely they have to assist you if you say you have tried numerous times and cant get through,ill ask in the shop anyway, cheers

jdon72 · 05-01-2021 5:08pm

Does anyone know if the 750Gb limit is enforced? If so, are speeds reduced or is it a full limit?

buyer95 · 10-06-2021 4:16pm

Hi lads,
I got eir mobile broadband last August when I moved into my current rented accommodation. 29.99e for 12 months and the Huawei B818 router. I've been happy with it but moving out of the house I am in at the end of July. I will be cancelling after 12 months but just wondering if anyone knows for sure what happens with the router? Does it have to be returned? Or can I keep it and put in a gomo card into it for next year? Hard to get any clarity on this.

Shpongler · 10-06-2021 5:43pm

buyer95 wrote: »

Hi lads,
I got eir mobile broadband last August when I moved into my current rented accommodation. 29.99e for 12 months and the Huawei B818 router. I've been happy with it but moving out of the house I am in at the end of July. I will be cancelling after 12 months but just wondering if anyone knows for sure what happens with the router? Does it have to be returned? Or can I keep it and put in a gomo card into it for next year? Hard to get any clarity on this.

As far as I know you get to keep the modem/router. I am in the same boat, as my contract is up at the end of July. I will be requesting the sim unlock code from Eir after that, should be fun :pac: . I am expecting some problems even cancelling.

buyer95 · 10-06-2021 8:35pm

Shpongler wrote: »

As far as I know you get to keep the modem/router. I am in the same boat, as my contract is up at the end of July. I will be requesting the sim unlock code from Eir after that, should be fun :pac: . I am expecting some problems even cancelling.

How would one go about putting in an unlock code to a router? Sorry now not the most techie

-=al=- · 10-06-2021 10:56pm

You should be able to request the code when your contract is up from Eir. You should be able to get to keep it

You need the device name and IMEI to get the unlock code generated and then enter the code on the router

It might be unlocked already, you can try popping a different sim in and checking it out

buyer95 · 11-06-2021 7:05am

-=al=- wrote: »

You should be able to request the code when your contract is up from Eir. You should be able to get to keep it

You need the device name and IMEI to get the unlock code generated and then enter the code on the router

It might be unlocked already, you can try popping a different sim in and checking it out

Thank you, yes I will try.

11-06-2021 6:03pm

So can you actually realistically game online with 4g? I was reading google and it says max speeds of eir 4g are only 10mb down? This cant be right can it.

-=al=- · 11-06-2021 6:11pm

It works fine for gaming online. Obviously not as good as a fixed connection and more liable to drop outs, + the ping will be a few ms longer, but gets you out of a pinch

buyer95 · 11-06-2021 7:55pm

Wexman1992 wrote: »

So can you actually realistically game online with 4g? I was reading google and it says max speeds of eir 4g are only 10mb down? This cant be right can it.

I'm in naas and speeds are generally 25-30mb

Shpongler · 12-06-2021 12:52am

For gaming, the latency (ping) is what really matters. You don't need a really high speed connection at all. From my experience, 4g mobile data on Eir is around 20 - 30ms latency which is fine for gaming.

bazrushe · 12-06-2021 10:03am

My experience for online gaming i tryed vodafone,3 and eir sims in my 4g router.Done various tests i live in town vodafone dl speed 8mbps terrible,3 dl speed between 30/50 mbps and eir 50/70mbps the thing i found with 3 when you run a network speed test on the console the upload speed is always higher than the download speed i dont know the reason for this latency was good 40.Eir is the winner latency is 30/40 no lag ever.

shutterclick · 03-07-2021 10:14am

hi everyone,

i don't know if this is a stupid question or not, if it is please forgive me.

we live in a really bad blackspot for mobile coverage. i have an eir sim in my phone and only in the last few weeks (we've been here a year now) have i been. able to get mobile data on the phone. my partner has a three sim and can only get one bar of phone signal in one particular room. i got a vodafone sim to test and it has no signal at all.

the only company we could get wifi from when we moved in were rural wifi. we had a panel antenna out a skylight and everything and the speeds have always been terrible to totally unusable.. like 0.02 to about 3mbps on a very good day. it fluctuates wildly.
i'm paying 55 euro a month for the pleasure.
they sent us an eir sim a few weeks ago (it was a three one before) and it was a bit better.
i asked the tech support on one of the many times i've been on to them if a better router would make any difference. she admitted it probably would. so i spent about 70 quid on a huawei b311 unlocked.
i just did a quick speed test there. on my phone on mobile data (eir sim) i'm getting about 6.5mbps down, which may sound terrible but is actually blistering for here. through the wifi with the eir sim rural wifi sent us i'm getting less than 3mbps.
huawei have a really helpful app that lets to take the router all around the house and test the signal so you can put it in the optimal place. it is not in the optimal place at the moment because from here we need to get a range extender/booster thing.

long story long, i could get an unlimited eir sim only month to month contract for 9.99 a month. 19.99 a month after 12 months. or i could get eir mobile broadband and have to pay 29.99 a month for 12 months and then 50something after that. i'd also have to pay the 50 quid for their router, which is also a huawei one.

am i missing something obvious (other than bending the rules a little)?
would i not be a whole lot better off just getting an eir sim and putting it in the new router i have and cancelling my rural wifi plan?
or do i have to get the eir mobile broadband package? how is it any different?

thanks for any advice on this. i'm pretty clueless.

Ten Pin · 03-07-2021 11:05am

would i not be a whole lot better off just getting an eir sim and putting it in the new router i have and cancelling my rural wifi plan?
or do i have to get the eir mobile broadband package? how is it any different?

There is no difference. It's just a legacy from the pre-smartphone era when phone and data SIMs were billed differently.

What you suggest should work unless Eir have a restriction on the phone SIM but that is unlikely as they allow tethering which is effectively the same as using a router.

basill · 03-07-2021 11:11am

You could try a 4g antennae into a 4g unlocked router with your sim cards and see if that helps? Find out where the nearest cell towers are and put the antennae on a pole and point it directly towards said tower. I think if you read up this thread someone posted a reference to an antennae that worked for them.

-=al=- · 03-07-2021 12:59pm

If a fixed line is impossible for the foreseeable future, can you get a free eir 5g router for future proofing if it’s your only option?

I’d suggest getting an external antenna and the 29.99 12 month eir mobile bb or whatever they offer now

Been using it for years and have never had a single issue with that setup.

I have the antenna on the roof beside the tv aerial for best coverage, an aerial from that to the eir router in the attic, then a cable from the eir router to the main router on the house that has a huge WiFi range and more features

If I was upgrading that system, I’d get an antenna that does 5g or a 5g router, and mesh system. But currently I get solid coverage all over the house with 100 down and 25 up... Which is perfectly fine

EIR 4g home broadband

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