5G home internet
In recent years 5G home internet has become a suitable alternative to regular phone line or cable broadband solutions. If your in a position where you don’t have a landline then this is great news and possibly even vital., For those of us who are looking for flexibility then %g broadband really is becoming the go to option.
If looking to potentially switch over to 5G home internet then there are some major points to take into consideration which we will get into the details of in this article.
In brief these are:
5G availability – do you have 5G connectivity in your desired location?
5G speed – this varies by location, proximity to transmitting masts and local interference
5G internet costs – Is it competitive with landline or cable deals?
5G Routers – which is the best 5G router?
5G Antennas – Do you need an antenna? What’s the cost?
5G availability
The availability of 5G Broadband speed internet has grown substantially of the last few years. Availability can vary significantly based on the service provider. Some of the service providers make confident claims such as 90% coverage in the UK. although this is true, else they wouldn’t be able to claim this fact. The problem is that although yes you may have 5G connectivity, in many cases it will still be very slow and unreliable. (if you are experiencing this, make sure you read our section on external antennas further along in this article).
To check Uk major service providers projected coverage try these links. Just remember they aren’t always very accurate in determining reliability and speed for that you will require a full independent survey.
The truth is that 5G is growing and is expected to catch up with 4G in terms of availability and reliability in the next 3 years. What we would suggest is don’t fully trust the providers, before putting all your eggs in one basket you should consider testing with either a 5G phone with multiple providers or running a full signal survey such as the one provided by us (here). The good news here is whilst you wait for 5G, 4G is a suitable alternative that is more likely to be available. Most 5G broadband kits are compatible with 4G connections. Meaning if you purchase a 5G kit it will work with 4G whilst you wait for 5G to eventually become available. 4G is a lot slower but still more than suitable for 95% of the things we use the internet for, such as web browsing, social media, working from home, watching videos and more..
5G Home internet speed
5G is able to achieve speeds of up to 20 Gigabits per/second (Gbps). Download speeds in the UK can fluctuate by location and service provider but 200Mbps should be achievable with suitable connection quality. To put this into perspective, this is 10 times what you would expect with a 4G connection and puts it at double what most landline home broadband contracts offer.
For those of us who don’t understand all this jargon let’s make it simple.
To stream TV such as Netflix, Sky Glass, Amazon prime and Apple TV, you will require a connection speed of around 15Mbps. Streaming TV is likely the most demanding usage of your connection in terms of outright speed requirement. With 5G offering around 200Mbps you have more than 10xs that speed available as long as you have a good connection.
5G internet costs
The cost of 5G internet has become more competitive and can be compared with that of traditional home broadband costs.
At the time of writing this article BT home broadband using traditional landline is at £32.99 a month. Whereas EE 5G unlimited data is £30, Three 5G Unlimited data is £25. Admittedly this does not include the router, these are available with the 5G routers but will cost a little more. You should be aiming for £40 a month max for unlimited data.
If you choose a full router kit and sim with these providers please bear in mind that you may want to boost your signal further via an external antenna. Most service providers don’t include this but you can boost your speed, reliability and signal strength significantly by purchasing one. You can find some of our external antenna kits at our store.
Want to avoid Monthly contracts?
If you don’t want to get stuck to a monthly contract there are still some great options available.
We personally really like Giffgaff as they offer great data deals with no contract. They offer what they call Goodybags. These Goodybags allow you to purchase one month of data. They offer differing levels of data based on your budget. If you are looking to stream lots of TV then we would recommend unlimited Data. Also you can sign up to auto renew which you can cancel at any time. This service provides you a further discount on your 5G data, just remember to turn off Auto renew when you don’t need it any more. If this sounds like a good option to you, check out our link below and receive £5 free credit with your sim.
There are also similar offers to GiffGaff provided by Smarty and numerous other providers but these two are market leaders.
5G routers
5G routers are still fairly new to the market. Because of this there are a limited number on the market and they tend to be quite expensive. As with our recommendations on 4G routers we suggest keeping to the bigger brands to ensure overall satisfaction. Many of the cheaper copies we have tried have proven to be problematic at best. We would recommend brands such as Tp-Link, D-link and ZTE.
Expect to pay from £250 to £600. Yes we know, this is a lot of money but they are well worth the investment if you need fast speeds.
Look for routers with external antenna ports, this way if you want or need to upgrade to an external antenna kit, you can do so without purchasing a replacement router.
5G External antenna kits
If you have weak/inadequate signal at your location you can install an external antenna kit to further boost your signal strength. These connect directly to the compatible router via 50 ohm cable (not TV coax) to an antenna. These Antennas can boost signal significantly. Directional antennas offer the best improvement but must be pointed in the correct direction/towards a suitable local 5G transmitting mast of your chosen service provider to work properly. To find the correct direction you will require a full signal survey. We offer such surveys here.
Omni directional antennas are antennas that don’t need to be pointed in a particular direction, however they offer less gain therefore less improvement in signal. These antennas are great where indoor signal is poor due to interference or signals being blocked but outdoors is good quality. Omni directional antennas are generally easier to set up but are not suitable for poor signal areas.
When purchasing an antenna try to ensure it covers both the 4G and 5G frequency bands in the UK. As a rule of thumb look for a range from 800 mhz to 5ghz. This way you are fully 5G/4G ready.
