Sponsored Links

What do you use for backup?

Evanz

Pro Member
Having just moved right out into the sticks with abominable landline internet, I’ve entered the wonderful world of LTE, and after endless faffing about, trying different routers and networks, spending hours standing at window sills, moving the bloody things a nanometer at a time, watching levels on a phone, I find myself with a Scancom EE SIM (works out at £12 odd over 20 months) sitting in a Huawei b818-263 on my bedroom window sill, and a Three 4g+ hub sitting on a corner of the same room.

The Three hub is going to be a backup to the Huawei, because obviously, EE are going to go down sometimes and that Three (Sercomm) router is going to need a Three or Three MNVO SIM card in it, with some data on it, ready to take over at the drop of a hat.

I’d appreciate any suggestions about what should go in there, which provider, what sort of plan, now much data should be on it etc. I’d also be interested to hear about what you knowledgeable lot on this forum use for backup.
 
Not typical circumstances because we are only solely dependent on mobile data when at our country residence (of the wheeled variety) in Wales. I take the unlimited Three sim out of my iPad and use that. Using a dual sim router helps, although the dish aim needs tweeking.
 
@Evanz typically EE and Three share masts, there is a good chance both might go down at the same time. Worth looking at Vodafone or O2.
 
Sponsored Links
Just returned from travelling around Wales and with a continued volatility of coverage/performance within the UK it reaffirmed to me a two SIM solution or even a three SIM solution.

At a fixed location a two SIM should be OK. However when considering what you are backing up against (weather, maintenance, local load, seasonal change) in my view the underlying service providers for the SIMs will depend on whether they are using the same mast (as highlighted by Lucian), ideally different directions and to maintain seamless performance the solution is based on some form of balancing not signal strength.

Each location will be different but in my recent visit in West Wales I used either a Vodafone/EE or EE/O2 pairing. The coverage maps in BIDB can be used to eliminate and then use test SIMs.
 
I've learned a lot about all this malarkey from van dwellers. I've just seen a Scancom 80gb a month prepaid SIM for 100 quid, valid till 8th July 2025. What's that? 4 quid a month? Is it worth it for a standby SIM?
 
@Evanz typically EE and Three share masts, there is a good chance both might go down at the same time. Worth looking at Vodafone or O2.
Good point. Trouble is, they're pretty poor services where I am. I haven't investigated them thoroughly though - maybe I should.
 
Last edited:
Trouble is, they're pretty poor services where I am.
Yes surveying in my view it is a must to ensure you get an effective service for your main and backup.

From different directions around your home and from different heights (I use a telescopic pole but otherwise use the loft). Test internal reception against external reception to see if an external antenna/CPE would make an appreciable difference.

Initially test using PAYG (ASDA/Voxi/1p/Lebara/Tesco etc) which I think is worth the investment unless you can eliminate suppliers on coverage or theoretical speed (strength/band).

Prepaid SIMs are currently a good option but you need to read the detail. If you are not going to get fast performance then a speed restricted package may suffice and be cheaper. The problem is we have no way of telling what mast upgrades are scheduled and you may wish to keep any commitment short so you can switch if things change.

I use Sky as my O2 backup as the data allowance is low but unused data accumulates. As always it will depend on your use case and whether the backup will mostly stay idle. I have a second EE SIM that can be donated from my other EE SIM. The combinations are many.

In poor reception areas it has to be best to determine the base providers in descending order then consider the other factors.
 
Sponsored Links
I'm within the M25, in a fairly built-up area and have three or four viable towers per network in my area so haven't found a backup internet connection to be necessary during 24 months with Three UK and 24 months with EE.

Having said this, I do currently have a backup internet connection with Lebara of about 2 GB allowance (99p/mth for six months) active-active load-balanced with my EE connection in a ratio of 99:1 on a Teltonika RUTXR1 as the secondary gateway. The primary gateway is a Teltonika TRB500.

Downstream of both of these gateways is an OPNsense firewall with rules to use the two gateways appropriately.

The most useful thing my backup internet connection has achieved for me is keeping an online chat with EE alive as we debugged an issue which required removing the EE SIM to a mobile phone in order to successfully activate a free 6 month Apple TV+ subscription.
 
I use EE as UL Data on 4G Locally plus a sniff if n78 5G too many miles away, but with some n78 Only Antenna Trickery can pull in around -100dbm RSRP on 3.5ghz, which is enough to boost me up to around 400 DL and 80 UL.

for Network Back up its Vodafone very similar story to above as the Masts are in similar locations, the Voda Sim is my main Mobile Sim but comes with 100gb per month which I hardly use so that's enough to get thrown into the Router if need be and get me out of trouble.

I normally find the EE Network very rarely gives up completely, normally just degrades slightly if there's an issue or they are working on the Masts.
 
Well, you’ve all definitely made me think again, especially concerning the 3/EE going down at the same time situation. I think Vodafone, at least on paper, is possibly the best bet for me around here. I’ll investigate the various virtual operators and see where I can get a cheap deal for a few gigabytes a month.
Thanks for the input.
 
Last edited:
So I am particularly rural. Indoors, I get no useable signal on Three or EE and 3G on O2/Voda and the phone line might as well be replaced with a tin can and string.

I've opted for the biggest feasible MIMO parabolic antenna combination, fat cables and router mounted as close as possible on 4G, Three £10 unlimited, all mounted and installed outside. PoE brings it indoors. Regularly see 200Mbps+ down, 20Mbps+ up. Mast is 5 miles away.

As a backup, I've got a 'frankantenna' installed in my garage loft space pointing at a completely different mast in a completely different direction on EE. VLAN brings that indoors from garage. That when tested regularly sees 130Mbps+ down, 5-7Mbps up. Mast is 8 miles away.

And as a backup to my backup, I've got a crappy Bluespot antenna that I've cut the cable down on, straight into a PoS TP-LINK USB Cat4 portable router on a Lebara SIM.

I was going to go for one of the EE Scancom SIMs and have the backup live constantly and just load balance however a newly installed mast 2 miles away should be going live any day now and will have a plethora of Three bands and so I'm hoping that might be a better option given that it tests well.
 
Sponsored Links
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules