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[adslmax]

My SoGEA FTTC expired next month with UnchainedISP

FTTC 74/19 always getting download of 74 and upload of 19 but my 4G with Vodafone (Lebara) always getting download of between 80 and 170** and upload of between 57 and 75**

Question is will I be better off dump Openreach FTTC 74/19 and have 4G home broadband instead?

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/0707a0d5-076a-4047-8273-cf321e5f5a07
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1683930754157487255

Please note ** overnight speed between 1am and 5am

My Three (Smarty) are varies speed of download between 450 to 650 and upload between 7 and 17 but 5G are sometimes disconnection switch to 4G are so annoying. So, Vodafone 4G is very stable connection.
5G smarty: https://www.speedtest.net/result/14371990689

[Derpy]

Whats the price difference?

[adslmax]

Smarty £12 per month (social tariff)
Lebara £25 per month (standard price)
UnchainedISP SoGEA 80/20 £39.98 per month (from next month)

I can see Voxi (social tariff) offered £10 a month (only six months) as voxi and lebara are on vodafone network

[Alex Atkin UK]

I've said it many times, I wouldn't rely on the mobile network for home broadband personally.

Its fine most of the time, but when a tower has problems it tends to go on for months.

My initial impression was Vodafone was really stable here, until it wasn't.  Three was rock-solid for the first two months on my contract, then it wasn't.  By the nature of how many customers are running off the same tower its just much harder to maintain consistent performance, and you have the bonus factor of weather can impact your signal.

The issues Zen have had in the time I've been with them have paled in comparison to that, as mostly they never impacted just basic web browsing whereas the mobile problems have.

If you can afford to do so I'd stick to what you have been doing, FTTC for main connection with mobile as a backup in case of problems.

[adslmax]

Very true. Maybe I should stay with fttc until fttp come along. Don't want G.fast because it too pricey.

[meritez]

Vodafone are currently mass enabling b8 lte as they switch off 3G.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/newscentre/press-release/uk-3g-switch-off-from-june-2023/

I expect the stability to increase from next month, but Lebara regularly offer their unlimited data bundle for £9.98 for three months instead of £24.95, with only a 30 day commitment.

I'd take the Lebara 3 months deal and keep swapping sims...

[adslmax]

Will it work with existing customer?

Here my speed test from lebara this morning

[Derpy]

Smarty £12 per month (social tariff)
Lebara £25 per month (standard price)
UnchainedISP SoGEA 80/20 £39.98 per month (from next month)

Since you are social tariff eligible I would go with BT/EE on their social tariff while paying less then Lebara and having a much more stable connection.

Given your history of stat chasing that would make your life simpler then the whole huge thread (on ispreview) of you switching networks and spending money on 5g routers and stuff in the loft of your house all to get a little better speeds and you would actually save money.
You have been paying for all 3 over the last few months at different stages based on that thread and you had to buy a 5g router and possibly antenna so you could be wasting money left and right to get a less stable service for more cost (Lebara) instead of saving all that wasted cash and just getting a BT social tariff AND you would avoid to obsession with speeds and testing.

Your anger on that thread when things are not working (smarty 5g for example) blaming everything for why you cant get as high speed highlights why you should avoid mobile broadband.

You have said multiple times you dont need huge bandwidth so I dont know why you would bother with the problem of mobile broadband given you get cheaper prices on stable broadband anyway.

[tubaman]

...

You have said multiple times you dont need huge bandwidth so I dont know why you would bother with the problem of mobile broadband given you get cheaper prices on stable broadband anyway.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts on this one.

[adslmax]

Vodafone are currently mass enabling b8 lte as they switch off 3G.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/newscentre/press-release/uk-3g-switch-off-from-june-2023/

I expect the stability to increase from next month, but Lebara regularly offer their unlimited data bundle for £9.98 for three months instead of £24.95, with only a 30 day commitment.

I'd take the Lebara 3 months deal and keep swapping sims...

Just ordered thanks, going to put cease order on the line next month. Will using 5G hub with lebara 4G+ £9.98 for three months and swap sim every three months. BARGAIN.

No thanks I don't want BT or EE social tariff because of hard search credit check will ruined my credit rating.

[XGS_Is_On]

No thanks I don't want BT or EE social tariff because of hard search credit check will ruined my credit rating.

A single search will drop your credit score for perhaps 3 months. Are you planning on applying for a loan, credit card or mortgage in the next three months given you're eligible for social tariffs? Decision made but don't let fear of a credit search change your mind on things that'd otherwise be beneficial. If it's the best choice take it, don't be deterred 

[adslmax]

A single search will drop your credit score for perhaps 3 months. Are you planning on applying for a loan, credit card or mortgage in the next three months given you're eligible for social tariffs? Decision made but don't let fear of a credit search change your mind on things that'd otherwise be beneficial. If it's the best choice take it, don't be deterred 

Yeah that very true as I never use any loan, credit card or mortgage. I think I am going to order BT Social Tariff next month when my current isp UnchainedISP expired contract. Will go for BT unlimited fibre plan £20 a month (that £20 cheaper than UnchainedISP £39.98)

I think I stick to reliable landline broadband as other has saying mobile could be congestion and even downtime and took them months to fix it.

[re0]

I would take the BT FTTC social tariff over a 4G/5G connection based on my own experiences and what I have seen others mention over the years.

Reasoning below:

• All mainstream mobile operators use Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT) bar Three (on a specific APN, which is a bit iffy unless you manually disable IPv6), and this can impact even general usage.
• Maintenance can take out services from a tower, forcing you to another mast and degrading the service you receive, usually for hours and rarely for days or weeks.
• Single-thread speeds can be pretty awful, especially on Three in my experience, and the impact on downloads over HTTP can be huge with downloads taking many times longer than off-peak hours.
• Latency can be quite a bit higher, and there may be noticeable jitter and packet loss, which is not good for low-latency applications and games.
• Mobile connectivity is not always cheaper than the wired equivalent of the same speed (practical speeds, not theoretical), especially if you have to source your own hardware.

I could elaborate on some of the above if asked. Though, a few have already mentioned in my other thread (here).

I considered switching to a social tariff, but going from 330/50 to 80/20 for a little under half the price did not appeal to me. I can, in theory, get 500/500 for £20/m for the contract period (+ inflation), but this has not happened yet.

[adslmax]

I would take the BT FTTC social tariff over a 4G/5G connection based on my own experiences and what I have seen others mention over the years.

Reasoning below:

• All mainstream mobile operators use Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT) bar Three (on a specific APN, which is a bit iffy unless you manually disable IPv6), and this can impact even general usage.
• Maintenance can take out services from a tower, forcing you to another mast and degrading the service you receive, usually for hours and rarely for days or weeks.
• Single-thread speeds can be pretty awful, especially on Three in my experience, and the impact on downloads over HTTP can be huge with downloads taking many times longer than off-peak hours.
• Latency can be quite a bit higher, and there may be noticeable jitter and packet loss, which is not good for low-latency applications and games.
• Mobile connectivity is not always cheaper than the wired equivalent of the same speed (practical speeds, not theoretical), especially if you have to source your own hardware.

I could elaborate on some of the above if asked. Though, a few have already mentioned in my other thread (here).

I considered switching to a social tariff, but going from 330/50 to 80/20 for a little under half the price did not appeal to me. I can, in theory, get 500/500 for £20/m for the contract period (+ inflation), but this has not happened yet.

I agree as you can see UnchainedISP are pretty good with zero jitter and packet loss.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Credit ratings are such bunk.

I followed all the advice, actually completely paid off an old debt and after months finally managed to reach Fair, but then one large spend on my credit card dropped it to Needs Work, even though my income history showed I could pay that off in 2-3 months.

Yeah that very true as I never use any loan, credit card or mortgage.

Therein lies the problem, you can't get a good credit rating without using credit.  Yes it will initially drop your rating, but not missing payments and not remaining in debt is what increases your rating.  The people with good ratings pay for everything on a credit card, never use more than 25% of their limit and pay it off every month - so basically they don't NEED credit in the first place.