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New to 4G/5G broadband. Where to start?

Quantum

Member
I've been with Plusnet for many years and my contract comes to an end in a few months time.

I currently get 60 download/15 upload.

I can get full fibre to my house. I don't need the high speeds that are available, but even if I get similar speeds to what I now have it is quite expensive.

I then came across articles about 5G broadband and the great deals you can get.

I can't get 5G in my area but I've checked and have a very good 4G signal with all four networks.

I've read that I can test by tethering my mobile, but one network will be better than another, so what would be the best way of getting cheap data sims to test with my 4G mobile?

Can I test a 5G sim card in my 4G mobile (Pixel 4a), even though it is a 5G sim card, will it switch to 4G, or is this not possible, and if it isn't, how do I go about testing the 4G signal?

If I find a network that seems to be better than the others, I will then have to think about getting a 5G router, but that will be for another day......
 
All 5G SIM Cards are backwards compatible. It will work just fine in a 4G router or phone.

EE Is typically the fastest 4G Network in most areas. But of course there are definitely exceptions to the rule.

If you can get full fibre, it's probably worth doing so. It's going to give you consistent speeds, great reliability, and low latency. Mobile broadband is good, but it doesn't really replace what you'd get with full fibre. It doesn't have to cost loads of money either. Onestream can do you 80Mb Down/20Mb Up Openreach full fibre for £20 a month for example.
 
@Koda:
The company that laid the cable in my area is Cityfibre.
I went on their website to see what deals I can get, Onestream was not one of them.
I wonder what other companies are out there that I don't know about and which the Cityfibre website does not show.

Cityfibre's website is showing a company called Octoplus: £21 a month for 150 up and down.

There are a total of 15 companies I can choose from, most of them I have never heard of, including Octoplus.
How have these companies suddenly appeared, some with silly names that we the customer are supposed to take seriously?

"*The monthly price for your broadband plan will increase each year from April by a flat rate of 3.9%"

This is what puts me off these FTTP companies compared to 4G/5G broadband, from what I can remember seeing, where there won't be a price rise for the whole contract.
I can't remember this happening before, where the price rises each year in March/April. Is this a new way of getting more money out of us?
 
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@Koda:
The company that laid the cable in my area is Cityfibre.
I went on their website to see what deals I can get, Onestream was not one of them.
I wonder what other companies are out there that I don't know about and which the Cityfibre website does not show.

Cityfibre's website is showing a company called Octoplus: £21 a month for 150 up and down.

There are a total of 15 companies I can choose from, most of them I have never heard of, including Octoplus.
How have these companies suddenly appeared, some with silly names that we the customer are supposed to take seriously?

"*The monthly price for your broadband plan will increase each year from April by a flat rate of 3.9%"

This is what puts me off these FTTP companies compared to 4G/5G broadband, from what I can remember seeing, where there won't be a price rise for the whole contract.
I can't remember this happening before, where the price rises each year in March/April. Is this a new way of getting more money out of us?
It's not a new way, we're with Virgin Media and it's happened on my phone (risen by £2.37 a month since starting my contract in August 2018) and the broadband for years

Is Octoplus related to Octopus Energy? Parent company owns broadband brands if I'm not wrong?
 
@Koda:
The company that laid the cable in my area is Cityfibre.
I went on their website to see what deals I can get, Onestream was not one of them.
I wonder what other companies are out there that I don't know about and which the Cityfibre website does not show.

Cityfibre's website is showing a company called Octoplus: £21 a month for 150 up and down.

There are a total of 15 companies I can choose from, most of them I have never heard of, including Octoplus.
How have these companies suddenly appeared, some with silly names that we the customer are supposed to take seriously?

"*The monthly price for your broadband plan will increase each year from April by a flat rate of 3.9%"

This is what puts me off these FTTP companies compared to 4G/5G broadband, from what I can remember seeing, where there won't be a price rise for the whole contract.
I can't remember this happening before, where the price rises each year in March/April. Is this a new way of getting more money out of us?
Ah, just you said Plusnet so I assumed you meant Openreach had full fibre. I didn't realise it was just CityFibre!

I wouldn't touch Octaplus with a 10ft pole. They have taken on a lot of the people looking for the cheapest broadband and don't serve them very well. A lot of reviews suggest when things go wrong you're on your own.

Brawband is a decent company to go with on the CityFibre network and are well reviewed. There is no annual price increase or mid-contract changes with them either so the price you pay is fixed for the full duration. They are more expensive at 27.95 a month for their cheapest 150Mb-160Mb package, but it's double the speed of Onestream and with faster upload speeds too, and also price certainty.

Onestream will likely still be available for you if you check on their own website, but it will come down the exact same part-copper line as your current Plusnet connection. Same speeds. Not full fibre. Still one to consider if you just want the cheapest price. (They resell Vodafone broadband, but with UK Customer service)

Also almost every phone contract for 4G/5G Service will have an annual price increase written into it too. It's hard to escape these increases.

Is Octoplus related to Octopus Energy? Parent company owns broadband brands if I'm not wrong?
Nope, just happens to be a similar name. Octopus temporarily own Shell Energy's broadband, but they are about to dump off all customers onto TalkTalk in the coming weeks.
 
I'm now thinking of getting FTTP.
One question: I find with Plusnet at the moment, if I am uploading a large file (to my NAS for instance), it slows down the internet connection.
With FTTP will this problem now not occur?
 
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I'm now thinking of getting FTTP.
One question: I find with Plusnet at the moment, if I am uploading a large file (to my NAS for instance), it slows down the internet connection.
With FTTP will this problem now not occur?
If you saturate your connection the performance will struggle a bit. This will be worse for you partly because BT Group's (Plusnet) connections seem to be quite bad for it, but also because you have a fairly slow upload speed so it's easy to max it out. With CityFibre you'll always get the same upload speed as you do download so much more bandwidth to play with.

As long as you have a half decent router with your new FTTP Connection you shouldn't have anywhere near as much of a problem with your connection performance dropping during large uploads.
 
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