How low can you go... time to downgrade?

zappaDPJ · Apr 01, 2021, 15:40:10

According to today's KentOnline nobody can go as low in Kent as me. Our little area's broadband speed is listed as the lowest in Kent @ 36.6 mbps. I actually get slightly above that but it's got me wondering if I should save quite a bit of money by ditching the phone and switching to SoGEA 40/10.

Simon · Apr 01, 2021, 18:16:52

I have no clue on this new fangled phone that isn't a phone stuff. I really need to look into it before it catches up and bites me.

zappaDPJ · Apr 01, 2021, 20:04:56

It simplifies things for me because the only people that contact us on the land line are scammers and the mother-in-law

Simon · Apr 01, 2021, 20:39:01

nowster · Apr 03, 2021, 19:04:01

32Mbps? Luxury! My parents can only get 3-4Mbps, and no possibility of FTTC never mind FTTP, unless they want to spend something like £20,000 for a bespoke build.

zappaDPJ · Apr 03, 2021, 22:30:22

I'm familiar with a couple of connections running at similar speeds. I wonder what OpenReach will do for them when they switch off PSTN and ISDN.

Technical Ben · Apr 04, 2021, 09:52:41

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Apr 01, 2021, 15:40:10
According to today's KentOnline nobody can go as low in Kent as me. Our little area's broadband speed is listed as the lowest in Kent @ 36.6 mbps. I actually get slightly above that but it's got me wondering if I should save quite a bit of money by ditching the phone and switching to SoGEA 40/10.

Been using 3 (though going to a reseller this week) for 12 months now. Apart from the horrendous 5g network upgrade week/month, it's been flawless. Mileage may change as others call blue murder on reception, throttling and, in my experience though to be fair DNS problems.

Gonna be paying £16 a month for around 10mb up and 24-39mb down. More than enough for me. Only problem is gaming sees a lot of jitter, as the signal/packets start and stop for the mobile network throughput (fine for streaming and webpages, but latency/ping dependant games don't like pings changing multiple times between packets

).

Hoping to go off grid living in 6 months time or so, so have made plans to setup my networking and pc for running off a battery. XD

nowster · Apr 06, 2021, 11:18:39

For casual use, Three reselling itself as "Smarty" often has some interesting deals, eg. 50GB for £12/month. Their standard unlimited scheme is £20/month, but they often have deals on that. SIM only, one month rolling contract.

They've recently added VoLTE and WiFi calling (they're essentially the same technology). As usual with mobile networks, latency can be a problem, and everyone is behind CGNAT.

Technical Ben · May 08, 2021, 19:44:57

The wifi calling seemed trash.

So I made sure to turn off wifi when phoning.

robinc · May 09, 2021, 06:20:16

Tried 3 which does v good Wifi Calling but cr*p mobile in rural area.

Switched mobiles to BT.
VoLTE and Wifi Calling both work on non BT phone.
Mobile is good enough if needed.
Still keep a £5.00 / month account with Tesco Mobile for where EE/BT is not available.

nowster · May 10, 2021, 16:15:35

Tesco Mobile is a MVNO using O2's network.

3's problem is that they never had a 2G network on either band. Low band 4G ought to be good for rural use (but it does require working VoLTE).