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A phone ideal for 4G/5G testing?

I could sign a one month Three contract to see it it worked
Just grab a smarty SIM, shouldn't be any difference at all, plus no credit file impact, or grab a three pay and go sim, think the £10 bundle has 21gb? Could be wrong. Also no credit file impact, and shouldn't see any variation of signal between contract and the above.

Shouldn't - is the key word.
 
Thanks Meritez.

Sounds a good bet at the price and I could probably get at least half back on eBay if I could not think of another use.

Now I look at Smarty I realise I am overpaying for my o2 but it's so 'cheap' I would need more than that reason to change. I have been with o2 since it was BT and it has been reliable.
How much do you pay for O2 and what data allowance do you get?
 
I'm paying about £10 a month for 2gb data and only using about a quarter of it. I could get the same for something like £6 from Smarty so I'd save £48 a year. I'm not mega rich but it has never let me down whenever I travel or at home and I work on the 'if it aint broke' principle. My wife has an o2 unsmart phone and is happy with it. OK I could save a hundred pounds a year but.......

My broadband is daft - about £72 a month. I had been hoping that we'd be getting FTTP in our block but there is a wiring problem. I'd feel much more stable with fibre. But when I think what I could pay per month for Three I am curious - and hence my interest in testing the signal.

I feed my network with Devolo Magic plug devices. I have an Android Ethernet Adaptor. If I could get a 5g phone I could test the speed with Speedtest and maybe even plug the phone into the Devolo instead of my BT router and see what speed my PC registered.

Or instead I could disconnect the Devolo Magic from the BT router and use the cellphone connected to Three as a wifi hotspot.
 
My broadband is daft - about £72 a month
Agreed. My VDSL line at 50mbps.(75mbps package but distance renders the extra speed unusable) I pay £14 for broadband, £5 for calls and £18 for line rental. I was doing BTs upfront line rental till recently but I am moving to 5G internet in April when my contact is up. Family mobiles comes to £31 a month for all 4 phones (A family smarty plan for 2 iPhone SE 2020s and a Galaxy A12 plus my phone with Three, I may well move onto the family plan if the price is right once my 3 contract is up).
 
I'm paying about £10 a month for 2gb data and only using about a quarter of it. I could get the same for something like £6 from Smarty so I'd save £48 a year. I'm not mega rich but it has never let me down whenever I travel or at home and I work on the 'if it aint broke' principle. My wife has an o2 unsmart phone and is happy with it. OK I could save a hundred pounds a year but.......

My broadband is daft - about £72 a month. I had been hoping that we'd be getting FTTP in our block but there is a wiring problem. I'd feel much more stable with fibre. But when I think what I could pay per month for Three I am curious - and hence my interest in testing the signal.

I feed my network with Devolo Magic plug devices. I have an Android Ethernet Adaptor. If I could get a 5g phone I could test the speed with Speedtest and maybe even plug the phone into the Devolo instead of my BT router and see what speed my PC registered.

Or instead I could disconnect the Devolo Magic from the BT router and use the cellphone connected to Three as a wifi hotspot.

40GB O2 12 month contract £10

I think O2 are ripping you off.


4GB O2 12 month contract £6
 
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Perfect test device:

Xiaomi recently changed their update policy:
Looks like a good choice that.

Are Xiaomi's easy to root?

Second question, is network signal guru still the best for signal diagnostics?

Heard it's pretty expensive but can't find any pricing.
 
Looks like a good choice that.

Are Xiaomi's easy to root?

Second question, is network signal guru still the best for signal diagnostics?

Heard it's pretty expensive but can't find any pricing.
Network signal guru is the best that I have found, you can use it for free but some of the features are paywalled which is £50pm but gives you access to things like earfcn locking, viewing SIBs to find out mast vendors, pausing and rewinding on the information, ability to produce signal maps, dual SIM support + more that I haven't used yet
 
Network signal guru is the best that I have found, you can use it for free but some of the features are paywalled which is £50pm but gives you access to things like earfcn locking, viewing SIBs to find out mast vendors, pausing and rewinding on the information, ability to produce signal maps, dual SIM support + more that I haven't used yet
Does it give you 5G if you don't have 5G Tom153619? :unsure:
 
Does it give you 5G if you don't have 5G Tom153619? :unsure:
Actually yes, I have found that when I'm on the very edge of a 5g area and my phone connects to a closer mast which doesn't have 5g I can use cell locking to lock to a more distant mast which does have 5g enabled to give a speed boost
 
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Actually yes, I have found that when I'm on the very edge of a 5g area and my phone connects to a closer mast which doesn't have 5g I can use cell locking to lock to a more distant mast which does have 5g enabled to give a speed boost
Hmmm there are three 5G masts, but think they might just be too far for that, I will wait impatiently for my own PoW I think.

Always fancied NSG, but always scared of wrecking the phone. :giggle:
 
I've asked on Amazon but whilst I wait does anyone know if this would allow me to connect a cellphone and drive the internet into the socket of a Devolo homeplug network device?

would reccomend one of these to keep your phone charged also

 
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I've asked on Amazon but whilst I wait does anyone know if this would allow me to connect a cellphone and drive the internet into the socket of a Devolo homeplug network device?

If you're on android and it can do ethernet tethering get this, it allows you to connect a network cable & charge the phone at the same time:

 
Brilliant Lucian,

Now FTTP seems unlikely for quite a while I will explore the ethernet from cell systems. The block of flats next door is covered in aerials and probably some will work better than others in my flat.

What I thought I'd do is get one of those £95 unlocked 5g phones and with the bit of kit you have suggested I can try a variety of PAYG sim cards and see which worked best when plugged into my Devolo home plug network. I could then move to a proper router.

Having completed the exercise I can work out whether I want to keep the phone and adapter. If not I could advertise it on eBay or even HERE !!
 
What I thought I'd do is get one of those £95 unlocked 5g phones and with the bit of kit you have suggested I can try a variety of PAYG sim cards and see which worked best when plugged into my Devolo home plug network. I could then move to a proper router.
Do make sure the device supports ethernet tethering as not all do. Android 11 has this feature, but some manufacturers disable this.
Having completed the exercise I can work out whether I want to keep the phone and adapter. If not I could advertise it on eBay or even HERE !!
Yeah, why not. I bought my Xiaomi phone from here :)
It's currently our backup "router" in case the primary (Huawei CPE Win) goes down - on a different operator obviously. It's also our "mobile" router when we travel.
 
Hmmm there are three 5G masts, but think they might just be too far for that, I will wait impatiently for my own PoW I think.

Always fancied NSG, but always scared of wrecking the phone. :giggle:
This is my concern. I wrote off my old P20 Pro trying to install magisk on it.

Do you still have to wait 7 days for the boot loader to unlock on Xiaomi?
 
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