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Help with EE 5g

LeeWillRockYou

Pro Member
Hi.

I am debating whether or not to buy a plan with EE 5g. I can see that they have a 5g router + unlimited data for £50p/m + £60 setup fee for 18 months.

£50 seems like a lot, when I'm currently paying £27p/m for a 30 day rolling EE unlimited data SIM.

EE is currently the only network offering 5G in my area. I tested out my SIM card in my wife's Samsung 5g phone and saw speeds of 120mbps, which is great but I'm not sure how consistent that would be?

I'm currently using a 4g modem and whilst it's okay, I'm on the very edge of town and the signal is at its limits. I'm guessing 5g might be worse, as I believe it's short range?

I'm also waiting to see if I ever get fibre optic / 1gb internet available, it's building in my area but feels like it will never come, due to my location.

To get to my real question haha, is there a better way to get myself 5g EE and a 5g router, let's say I buy the router separately? I'm not sure where to start though.

Thanks.
 
EE 5G Unlimited Data Sim - Preloaded each month from now until 21st MAY 2024 - No Contract & One-off payment - Perfect for Wifi Routers, Tablets & Phones https://amzn.eu/d/atFEONX

You could always save a little more money on a Scancom EE data only sim.(Link above)
I use this sim in an NR5103E and can confirm it works just fine.

Remember though LeeWillRockYou, it is a Data Only sim.
 
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Good grief that's a cheap way for 5G internet. Works out as around 14 quid a month currently. And no contract either with prices going up in the middle. I appreciate its not as good as fibre or possibly copper broadband? But for a 5G service that'll hit over 100mbps it's very tempting. Just get a decent aerial on the chimney, run some wires and grab a modem and done.
 
Good grief that's a cheap way for 5G internet. Works out as around 14 quid a month currently. And no contract either with prices going up in the middle. I appreciate its not as good as fibre or possibly copper broadband? But for a 5G service that'll hit over 100mbps it's very tempting. Just get a decent aerial on the chimney, run some wires and grab a modem and done.
Deal: Three Unlimited 5G Data SIM - Preloaded Every Month from now until 8th December 2025 - Perfect For Wifi Routers, Tablets & Phones - Business Grade Data https://amzn.eu/d/1rmjlda

Yes the Scancom sims are a good way to save the old pennies MarkyR74.

They do three as well if you're that way inclined. :giggle:

£255 valid until December 2025.

No contract and no stinky April price increases. (y)
 
Scancom is indeed amazing value but I'm wary about MNO issues for such long term prepayment.
Case in point - I started with Lebara (Vodafone) and it worked great for about 8 months until their backhaul dropped completely and in the evenings I got less than 1mbps - virtually unusable even for browsing. (they say I should have 5G but I don't)
I then got a Smarty (3) SIM which worked great as well (200+ mbps down via 5G) but only 1-2mbps upload (via 4G) and any sort of upload would kill the connection until completed.
I eventually moved to Lyca (O2) which is a weird one (the MC801A shows LTE+ but the CA shows b1+b3+b20+n78) - so not true 5G but it uses n78 for CA) - and I get great downloads (200mbps) and great upload as well (20-30mbps).

I got a 1p mobile sim to test EE (when I found out about Scancom) - cellmapper shows me in fantastic range of a cell having all bands - but to my surprise virtually no reception and download/upload in the range of 2-3mbps.
Turns out that they have an ongoing mast issue and various council related issues (that lasted so far more than a year and still on going).

So in my case if I would've prepaid 1+ year(s) of EE I couldn't have used it at all. Unfortunately for EE there are no MVNOs giving their 600GB ("unlimited") data.
 
My thoughts. I faced a similar situation. 5G had become available on VF. I was on FTTC. FTTP had been built right past my house. It looked like I was going to miss out on FTTP. FTTC was doing the job, but I wanted a faster connection. Was still in contract with current ISP. So I had to wait really.

From experience and backing up reading on the forum to get the best possible speeds with 4G or 5G depends on how good the 4G or 5G modem is in the router. Typically smartphones (even a couple of years old) have the best modems. So testing with a smartphone gives best case example. When I was trying EE here (which has very good 4G coverage) I was getting 100 Mbps to 120Mbps consistently on my iPhone 12. On a TP Link Cat 6 4G router – same location was getting 50 to 60 Mbps.

In the end, I was able to speak to the correct people at Openreach and get my house ( and a few neighbours) connected to FTTP. I was impatient, pretty happy with Plusnet, so did an in contract upgrade.

Two methods with 4G or 5G set up. You let the mobile company supply the router and the SIM. So the monthly cost is (like a smartphone contract) also covering the cost of the router. The mobile company won’t guarantee you speeds even though they supply the router. Buy a 5G router separately and they can be £200+. £300 typically? Deals to be had on second hand units and offers. So you could buy the router separately and get own SIM. You just have to find the cost up front for the router. However, you can avoid being tied into a contract. 30 day rolling. Switch to virtual mobile operators to get best deals or even switch networks if a better 5G signal becomes available in the future.

At my house, speeds:

5G Ping = 23ms Down = 194 Mbps Up = 13.2 Mbps £25 a month (Lebara SIM)
4G Ping = 28ms Down = 190 Mbps Up = 18.8 Mbps £25 a month (Lebara SIM)
FTTC Ping = 13ms Down = 68 Mbps Up = 17 Mbps £24 a month (prior to increase)
FTTP Ping = 10ms Down = 150 Mbps Up = 28.7 Mbps £34 a month (after increase)

So FTTP I pay for 145Mbps down and 30Mbps up. They key for me was the reliability (speeds and uptime) of a wired fibre connection. If FTTP wasn’t going to be an option, I would have considered 5G when I was out of contract.

Monitoring now on VF (Lebara) I do see the speeds vary quite a bit. Download is usually 100Mbps+ (4 or 5G) but the upload can go as low as 1 to 2Mbps.
 
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When I was trying EE here (which has very good 4G coverage) I was getting 100 Mbps to 120Mbps consistently on my iPhone 12. On a TP Link Cat 6 4G router – same location was getting 50 to 60 Mbps.

there could be more than meets the eye here.

it's important to know which bands each device was using because higher frequency bands (like B7) will have significantly more throughput than lower frequency bands (like B20).

There's also Carrier Aggregation.
IIRC CAT6 modems have a single supplemental band in the CA whereas the iPhone 12 would probably have at least 2 if not more and this is where lots of extra throughput comes from.

As I mentioned previously, my MC801A aggregates 3 LTE bands plus n78 (for some reason it's not 5G, it's only adding it as an aggregation band over LTE) and gets over 200mbps down on Lyca (O2) currently.

At the same location, an iPhone (LTE only) only gets 10-20mbps down so the bulk of the throughput comes from n78.
 
higher frequency bands (like B7) will have significantly more throughput than lower frequency bands (like B20).
It's important to note it's not the frequency of the carrier that provides greater throughput, but instead the bandwidth (in the frequency domain) which the service provider has in that band that determines available throughput (all else being equal).

 
there could be more than meets the eye here.

it's important to know which bands each device was using because higher frequency bands (like B7) will have significantly more throughput than lower frequency bands (like B20).
Unfortunately, I've never had a router that offers that specific detail, so all I could see was the difference in Cat. Thanks for the extra info.
 
Below is an example of what the Teltonika RUTXR1 shows in case something similar can be found.
1679912881870.webp
 

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EE 5G Unlimited Data Sim - Preloaded each month from now until 21st MAY 2024 - No Contract & One-off payment - Perfect for Wifi Routers, Tablets & Phones https://amzn.eu/d/atFEONX

You could always save a little more money on a Scancom EE data only sim.(Link above)
I use this sim in an NR5103E and can confirm it works just fine.

Remember though LeeWillRockYou, it is a Data Only sim.
Weirdly it's cheaper direct from Scancom, probably the March sale they are doing this week.
 
Weirdly it's cheaper direct from Scancom, probably the March sale they are doing this week.
Remember the Scancom website usually doesn't include VAT though meritez.
 
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EE 5G Unlimited Data Sim - Preloaded each month from now until 21st MAY 2024 - No Contract & One-off payment - Perfect for Wifi Routers, Tablets & Phones https://amzn.eu/d/atFEONX

You could always save a little more money on a Scancom EE data only sim.(Link above)
I use this sim in an NR5103E and can confirm it works just fine.

Remember though LeeWillRockYou, it is a Data Only sim.
Is there a risk at this at all? I spoke to a sales person in the ee shop today and he had never heard of this sim or deal...
 
Is there a risk at this at all? I spoke to a sales person in the ee shop today and he had never heard of this sim or deal...
Not really wawapng, Scancom have been with us for years (26), best deal for cheap data with no contract or annual price rises. :)

They are authorised three and EE partners. (y)

NB The prices on their website exclude VAT.
 
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Not really wawapng, Scancom have been with us for years (26), best deal for cheap data with no contract or annual price rises. :)

They are authorised three and EE partners. (y)

NB The prices on their website exclude VAT.
What about the 600gb limit?
 
What about the 600gb limit?
I've gone over 1TB about 3 or 4 times in 8 months of having the Scancom sim but I've not not noticed any difference to my connection or received any warnings.
 
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