4G solutions

Overview of 4G and Internet broadband.

4G was the next advancement from the 3G Internet that is still available and both can still be picked up by most routers. 5G is becoming increasingly available in most areas now.  Most of the content in this post is applicable to all generations of mobile Internet but we are mainly focused on 4G in this blog post.

Some of the obvious benefits of 4G include the ability to work almost anywhere. 4G is transmitted from a local mobile network tower and picked up by your sim card enabled router or mobile phone. This is especially true when using battery-powered routers that you can also charge off mains.  However, in my experience, the hotspot options from my smartphone is usually sufficient when on the go with the laptop to justify not having or topping up the battery-powered routers. One thing to consider when hot-spotting from your smartphone is that the internet connection tends to drop down to a lower speed connection like 2G or 3G if someone were to call you and you were in the middle of an important teams call. Another drawback with hot spotting from your phone is that the connection can time out and you have to turn back on the hotspot.  

And there is also mains adapters routers which are the most common 4G routers which can also be backed up by UPS (Universal power supply).  A UPS is typically quite pricey to have to back up your home connection but may justify itself if you run important meetings and were likely to experience an outage, or your home alarm was connected to the internet.

4G can work for those working from home and some remote working hubs, either long-term or while waiting for a fixed connection if the hub needs to open sooner.

4G speeds can often be faster than other broadband connections such as the older DSL copper connection and potentially some fibre-to-cabinet connections.

Pricing

In my opinion, 4G is generally the most lucrative Internet connection you can obtain for your house or small hub. There are very little exceptions to this rule such as in very rural areas where there is almost no signal available from any network. The cheapest way to get up and running is to purchase a second-hand router or use a post-contract router that you or someone received from typical 4G Internet providers.  In either of these cases, you may need to unlock the router if you wish to change to a different provider. By unlocking a router or purchasing an unlocked router, you can avail of the strongest or least congested network signal for your given area and also get the best value.  

Currently in Ireland, the 48-network operator has a starting package of €6.50 for 3 months and then €12.99 euros after this with a cancel anytime. 48 are using the 3 network. 48 impose a 200GB fair usage policy which should be loads for households with 2 or 3 people, once the 200GB is used up, you will be unable to use any data services until you purchase your next plan or you purchase a 1GB Data Add-on for €3.  

The GOMO network offers an unlimited 4G and 5G data sim for €14.99 euros with a cancel anytime also. GOMO impose a 120GB fair usage policy, so after 120 gigabytes of usage, they may slow down the network until your next billing cycle but the key thing is, you will still be always connected. GOMO uses the EIR network.

Other mainstream providers such as Three, Eir and Vodafone typically average around €20 no contract sim deals for unlimited usage. Again, its important to check the data allowance within the fair usage policy in these sim-only deals.  1-2 year contract deals average around €35 a month with some tracking inflation but you will usually get the router free of charge and get to keep. If joining one of these contracts, it may be a good idea to ask if they can provide the best category router and pay the difference in price, it could be the difference between being able to stream video consistently or not.

Ways to optimize speed.

There are different types of routers. Some routers are 5G enabled with the ability to switch to 4G also.

There are also different categories of routers, the higher the category the faster the speeds. Currently, in Ireland, providers you join through a contract,  will be category 7 to 12.  Three is offering category 7 and the Eir network have category 12 routers.  Typically shops like Harvey Norman, sell category 4 or 6 and these routers come already unlocked. All routers can be unlocked by requesting an unlock code from your provider once you meet and certain criteria such as being out of contract. There are companies that offer unlocking options you could search for on the web.

In order to receive the best signal into your house there are certain things you can do to optimise this such as placing the Router at a window or perhaps in your attic and pointing it at the network tower if its location is known for that given network.  External Aerials can be mounted to most routers and some areas can be outdoor but it’s important to note that signal losses can occur from some outdoor aerials to the router due to the length of cable and in many cases experience lower speeds using an externally mounted aerial.

As also mentioned above, congestion can be one of the biggest drawbacks of 4G and can be typically during the evenings when most people are on. This is why it’s best to experiment with different SIM providers to obtain the strongest signal across your 30-day billing or top up cycle and also identify where the strongest signal may be in the house.  You can search your local mass locations on the comreg website (ComReg SiteViewer) to try figure out which is the best signal for your house and where you would like to position the router. See also this link; Service Coverage – Commission for Communications Regulation (comreg.ie). It’s important to notice that the closest and most direct line of sight may not be the fastest signal when you take into account congestion which can be 1 draw back of mobile internet.

Another factor which can affect speeds is that the 4G routers 10 collect data similar to a computer device and by doing a factory reset every few weeks or months it will help restore speeds. The reset button is usually at the back or the bottom of the router and you will need to press and hold with a sharp object to perform the factory reset. If you’ve configured a different password or settings, you will probably need to redo this.  Some routers display the signal strength on the outside and many have it showing when you connect to the router via ethernet on a laptop or through a smartphone app for the router. This way you can position the router and check where the strongest signal is and also by doing a speed check.

Other notes to consider

Connected to the admin access of the router you can also configure different settings such as turning off either the 2.4Hz or the 5Hz Wi-Fi or both if you wanted to just use the router as a modem and hardwire the router to your computer or another Wi-Fi only router. This way you can obtain a strong 4G signal from a window or attic and then position your router in a more central location in the house that may not have a strong 4G signal such as under a stairs. This is especially true in well-insulated concrete homes. By doing this you can just have one Wi-Fi network for simplicity and also reduce the risk of Wi-Fi congestion. Some health experts suggest that all routers emit small radiation, so the fewer transmitting devices you have the best. There are signal extenders that use the power connections in your home to send a hardwired signal around the house if you don’t have Internet cables already in your walls.