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[re0]

Out of interest, what's the driver for 5G home Internet?

Depends who you ask. For myself, it was to save money whilst having a short contract commitment alongside the benefit of being able to take the service with me. In theory and even in practice in my own case, 5G broadband is faster than FTTC (excluding G.fast). The catch was, for me, the poor single-thread performance during peak hours that ended up being the main reason for cancellation.

I think the appeal is the cost, at least with Three's broadband. But it is also very convenient to just plug and play (and a bit of adjusting to find the best signal) if you live in area with coverage.

... are there areas where you receive 5G but there's no decent FTTC or FTTP coverage?

They do exist, even if they are rare. Though, what should be considered is that even if there is an area with decent FTTC or FTTP, there may be one or more practical reasons to why someone cannot subscribe to it; permission issues, lack of capacity, install not possible due to (x), etc. In those cases, it is easier and quicker just to get 5G (or 4G) broadband.

[adslmax]

I got email from openreach as it has no plan for fttp and told me that 5G isn't good way to have home broadband and suggest me to have G.fast 330/50 instead of 5G home broadband for reliable service and low ping for PC gaming.

[re0]

I got email from openreach as it has no plan for fttp and told me that 5G isn't good way to have home broadband and suggest me to have G.fast 330/50 instead of 5G home broadband for reliable service and low ping for PC gaming.

The latency difference between ADSL, VDSL and G.fast is minimal. All were capable of around or even sub-10ms latency for me providing no interleaving and a good route. 5G is more like 30ms. Jitter is more likely to be a problem on 5G, but it was very hard to notice a problem in the games I played. From my experience in my own area, however, I think I would rather 80/20 FTTC over 5G if I wanted to save a few quid a month instead of having G.fast.

Slightly more off-topic, but I do not want to dump G.fast until FTTP issues have been resolved as I am getting a very good deal currently.

[adslmax]

I used to get 450-650 down and 7-17 up on smarty 5G but that no longer now for more than three weeks. Switched over to Vodafone 4G as it does 100-170 down and 50-70 up at all times. Seem faster than my current sogea 80/20. As my contract expired next month.

Probably going to stayed with 80/20 in a rolling contract until smarty improved 5G in my area.

This is Vodafone speed now. https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/9267596381 and https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/9267608411

[Alex Atkin UK]

Out of interest, what's the driver for 5G home Internet?  Is it cost saving?  Reason for asking is that I've always thought of mobile networks as the solution where landline provision is poor, like ourselves where 4G gives us 20 odd meg, compared to less than four on ADSL.  But given the short-range and urban nature of 5G, are there areas where you receive 5G but there's no decent FTTC or FTTP coverage?

For me it means I have a relatively cheap backup for my primary FTTP connection that is just as fast but costs 1/5 the price of a second FTTP connection.  I also get the nice bonus that I can direct Steam downloads over both connections so things can (though wont always, especially updates) download twice as fast.

Also as others have mentioned, it being a rolling 30 day contract means I can always get rid of it should finances require it.

I accidentally knocked the power cable out of the ONT a few days ago right before going to bed.  My mum never knew as the failover to 5G kicked in.  I only noticed the next day when a friend said my VPN wasn't working.

I wouldn't want to use 5G as a primary connection though as if I max the upload, the latency goes to 600ms or higher.  If the tower is contended even downloads can cause huge latency spikes.

[Chrysalis]

Out of interest, what's the driver for 5G home Internet?  Is it cost saving?  Reason for asking is that I've always thought of mobile networks as the solution where landline provision is poor, like ourselves where 4G gives us 20 odd meg, compared to less than four on ADSL.  But given the short-range and urban nature of 5G, are there areas where you receive 5G but there's no decent FTTC or FTTP coverage?

Seeing the prices that some people are paying I think its cost efficiency.  Plus also a get out of jail card if you in an area with no ultra fast and especially if no super fast broadband available.

I considered it myself when I decided I wanted to ditch VDSL.