Using phone hotspot to replace home broadband

Scarfacé · 13 Jul 2019 at 18:53

hi guys,

I’ve never really given much thought to living costs. I’ve got an ok paid job and my way of living has always been as long as there’s more coming in then going out then I’m ok. However, since having a family and a child my priorities have changed somewhat. Also looking at my fixed outgoings has shocked me somewhat and I’ve decided I need to cut them down somewhat.

I live in a new development and my house only has FFTP. We unfortunately can only go with BT or Zen. They are both very expensive . Me and the wife don’t actually use the Internet much on the laptop or iPad.

I have an iPhone X with three and 4gb of data. Wife has my old iPhone 6s with Vodafone with 4gb of data. 4gb is plenty for us but obviously we are on WiFi when at home.

I’m thinking of changing my plan with three to their unlimited data plan. My idea would be to cancel BT home broadband and I could the use my iPhone as a personal hot spot so the wife could use my data over WiFi as usual when she is at home.

We don’t really do much data intensive things online. Mainly just browsing. Occasional Netflix stream.

What are everyone’s thoughts in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of trying to do this? Another option would be to get a dedicated 4g router but that might be pointless as they are quite a lot per month and would still in addition to the cost of my phone contract.

Thanks for any help

Semple · 13 Jul 2019 at 18:58

That'll be a fair big drain on your battery if you're planning to have a hot spot running 24/7!

Is your iPhone X paid up? As monthly costs on some of those contracts can be insanely high.

MartinPrince · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:00

Just double check with Three that the plan you're referring to includes tethering. If it does then it's the way to go as your usage doesn't sound that high and the speeds should be fast enough for what you want to do.

MartinPrince · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:02

Semple said:
That'll be a fair big drain on your battery if you're planning to have a hot spot running 24/7!

Is your iPhone X paid up? As monthly costs on some of those contracts can be insanely high.

If he's at home he won't be far from a charger.

silverblack · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:03

I plan to do similar next month when my contract is up with NowTV broadband.
However i'm going for the 12 month unlimited 3 sim and have bought a Huawei B612 4G router.
I got the router for £80 but you can pick up the basic Three 4G router for around £60 on ebay.
I wouldn't use my phone to tether for long periods like that will ruin the battery.
The sim is £22 a month for 12 months.

terley · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:12

Threes data plan used to include unlimited tethering, it was recently changed afaik.

I use around 50-60gb mobile data per month and i used to rely on my tethering when my broadband went down and when i moved house it was invaluable as a wifi replacement.

However i believe its limited now to around 10gb or so for tethering.

PiKe · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:15

Hang on, surely you must have a traditional copper telephone line into the property? Why can't you get ADSL/VDSL on that?

Randomface74 · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:19

PiKe said:
Hang on, surely you must have a traditional copper telephone line into the property? Why can't you get ADSL/VDSL on that?

Nah I'm in an FFTP only area too and the phone goes over the fibre, so there's usually no copper at all.

OP - Check if you're tied into a contract with BT/Zen.
I think Netflix over 4G sounds sketchy, but if you're really trying to save money perhaps cancel Netflix too. If saving money, I would cancel anything else that is a big cause of data usage to avoid paying for unlimited 4G. For general browsing, a tethered phone to a laptop should be ok and not use much data at all.

silverblack · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:20

terley said:
Threes data plan used to include unlimited tethering, it was recently changed afaik.

I use around 50-60gb mobile data per month and i used to rely on my tethering when my broadband went down and when i moved house it was invaluable as a wifi replacement.

However i believe its limited now to around 10gb or so for tethering.

No limit it's unlimited now.

lltfdaniel · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:20

I recommend smarty.

Best thing is no contract, uses the three network so you should be able to get 10-20mbps varying on signal and you can cancel anytime if you do not like the service which is a plus.

Should be able to pop the sim into a 4g router maybe prehaps.

https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

Dan.

Randomface74 · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:24

That looks like a good deal tbh.

lltfdaniel · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:25

billysielu said:
That looks like a good deal tbh.

Yeah the best thing is no contract so you can cancel anytime if you are not happy with the service so i think the op could give smarty a go.

I know you can get cashback which lowers the actual monthly price but this deal is good indeed from smarty.

beamer · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:28

OP - Not sure what "very expensive" means in this context but the 50GB data only sim deal here is currently a very reasonable (to my mind) £25 / month - https://www.vodafone.co.uk/data-only-sim.
Grab a second-hand mobile hotspot device for £20-30 and, going by what you've said about your usage on your mobile phones, you can cut your data down on the mobile phone packages alongside too.
Do you due diligence around whether the Vodafone coverage is adequate for your flat - i.e. don't go committing to any 12/18 month deals until you've done a bunch of speed tests over a reasonable period of time).

Scarfacé said:
hi guys,

I’ve never really given much thought to living costs. I’ve got an ok paid job and my way of living has always been as long as there’s more coming in then going out then I’m ok. However, since having a family and a child my priorities have changed somewhat. Also looking at my fixed outgoings has shocked me somewhat and I’ve decided I need to cut them down somewhat.

I live in a new development and my house only has FFTP. We unfortunately can only go with BT or Zen. They are both very expensive . Me and the wife don’t actually use the Internet much on the laptop or iPad.

I have an iPhone X with three and 4gb of data. Wife has my old iPhone 6s with Vodafone with 4gb of data. 4gb is plenty for us but obviously we are on WiFi when at home.

I’m thinking of changing my plan with three to their unlimited data plan. My idea would be to cancel BT home broadband and I could the use my iPhone as a personal hot spot so the wife could use my data over WiFi as usual when she is at home.

We don’t really do much data intensive things online. Mainly just browsing. Occasional Netflix stream.

What are everyone’s thoughts in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of trying to do this? Another option would be to get a dedicated 4g router but that might be pointless as they are quite a lot per month and would still in addition to the cost of my phone contract.

Thanks for any help

Semple · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:28

MartinPrince said:
If he's at home he won't be far from a charger.

Those constant charge cycles would absolutely ruin the battery.

beamer · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:39

See this deal that combines the SMARTY unlimited sim others have mentioned and a brand new router - https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5573Cs-322-unlocked-networks-configuration/dp/B0179F9EVO. You could always grab a secondhand mobile phone to turn into a "router" but I'm not sure that they are engineered for the mobile network transceiving and WIFI transceiving to give you the best performance for your intended usage.

lltfdaniel · 13 Jul 2019 at 19:44

Well since your after a home broadband replacement here are some 4g mobile networks that do unlimited data, not sure on all of them if they offer unlimited tethering hotspot though but i know three and virgin media mobile do so am a bit rusty.

Vodafone do unlimited data at £30 a month on a contract > https://www.vodafone.co.uk/unlimited-data-plans/

Three do unlimited data at £23 a month on a contract > http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones just click unlimited data on the left of that webpage

Smarty do unlimited data @ 18.75 with no contract > https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

Virgin media mobile do unlimited data at £27 but the catch is you need to be a phone or broadband customer > https://www.virginmedia.com/mobile/...aw.ds&contractDuration=12&tariffID=1709109124

Giffgaff do unlimited data but the catch is you only get full speed with a 40gb limit then it is reduced to 384kbps from 8 am to midnight > https://www.giffgaff.com/sim-only-plans

https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/unlimited-data

Dan.

MartinPrince · 13 Jul 2019 at 20:17

Semple said:
Those constant charge cycles would absolutely ruin the battery.

As long as he doesn't leave it charging while it is in use then he should still get decent life out of it.

zipp0r · 13 Jul 2019 at 21:47

could try and get a re-contract offer and down grade your speed to bt's 40/10 £29.99 package

NightSt@lk3r · 13 Jul 2019 at 22:25

lltfdaniel said:
I recommend smarty.

Best thing is no contract, uses the three network so you should be able to get 10-20mbps varying on signal and you can cancel anytime if you do not like the service which is a plus.

Should be able to pop the sim into a 4g router maybe prehaps.

https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

Dan.

I just ordered one of those last night, moving to a house with no FTTC so will be giving this a try until FTTP goes live in a few months.

Avalon · 14 Jul 2019 at 14:02

Deal in facts, how much is the best deal from BT on its slowest FTTP you can negotiate? How much is the upgrade to unlimited data? How much is your partner being dependant on you being at home for her to have unlimited data going to be a problem? How little do you value battery life/longevity on your X? How much data are you both using in an average month on 4G/wifi? TBH if you are in a situation where saving £50 is important, review your mortgage or rent, can you get a better deal? Clearing down debts/borrowing or making it more efficient, changing energy providers, insurance, banking etc. reviewing transport costs, eating out, clubs/memberships/subscriptions (netflix and occasional use?) and cutting things like taking a contract out for a flagship model iPhone when hardly seem to use it may make more sense? Combine switching with Quidco/TCB and you'll save a decent chunk of cash usually.

Either way when someone starts looking at the £50 broadband bill to save money, it's normal indicative that they should be looking at the bigger picture.