Anyone use 4G house modem?

[pmrid (Peter)]

I’m moving house soon and will need to make some decisions about internet and telephone access. For the past 5 years or so, we have made do with mobile phones in lieu of landlines and a mixture of satellite-NBN on the farm and now in town, plain NBN. But at $69 a month, that seems excessive. Adding our basic mobile phones and our NBN, we’re spending about $110 a month for pretty minimalist services. Altogether, that strikes me as too much.

So I have been looking at 4G modems being offered as an alternative to the NBN. We’re not in the city so our 4G is pretty marginal at best. 3 G is a stronger signal but its being closed down soon I am told so there’s no point making decisions premised on it.

I wonder if there are any IISers who have experience with these 4G modems and what your experience has been.

[alpal]

Yes - I have an Optus 4G modem.
I can usually get 40 mega bits per second.
It does drop out sometimes but usually only
for 5 minutes and it's back on.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by alpal

Yes - I have an Optus 4G modem.
I can usually get 40 mega bits per second.
It does drop out sometimes but usually only
for 5 minutes and it's back on.

Capital city speeds. Sadly, we in the boondocks are lucky too get a fifth of that.
And Optus and Vodaphone are not strong in the sticks either so we’re probably locked into the big T.

[alpal]

Capital city speeds. Sadly, we in the boondocks are lucky too get a fifth of that.
And Optus and Vodaphone are not strong in the sticks either so we’re probably locked into the big T.

I'm in the East of Melbourne - 25 k/m out.

Remember that the speeds available from a 4G modem are much greater
than the mobile phone 4G speed.


My Optus mobile phone is lucky to give 3 Mbps but
the 4G modem can go as high as 130 Mbps.

[pmrid (Peter)]

That’s encouraging. Thanks.

[TrevorW]

Wait 5G coming to your area

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Used a 4G modem at home in inner suburban Sydney for about a year.
Worked well most of the time with Mbps speeds in the low 30's.
Every now & then it would just drop out for a few minutes (but once or twice for many hours) sometimes the dropouts seemed weather related but other times not. I did report a fault (Optus network) & the response was that we were in a poor reception area.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Wait 5G coming to your area

Not in my area. Not in my lifetime.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

While I lived in WA, Telstra delayed connecting due to the future upgrade in my area, My only option was Wireless but i didn't want Mobile 4G so I went with a company that provided 4G Internet only providing unlimited access.

I lived though just outside the area of coverage, so being a Wireless Engineer I rigged up a special 4G external antenna (Purchased from an auction MRSP $250.00, Auction Price $20.00) that give me good signal. I lived comfortably on this while studying at Uni.

If you are in a marginal area, then a 4G Yagi (a decent one, not chinese copies) could be the way to go. I was getting in some cases up 40Mb/s but averaged around 20Mb/s.

Only one thing though, some require installer to carry out the work and may not accept the Yagi as an option. Mine did but I knew the consequences. The other issue is if your signal is weak then the support could be touchy.