Mobile SIM 4G Question.

Efour

Efour

Efour

Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
Posts
30,569
Location
Norrbotten, Sweden.
Ok so i move in 2 weeks its time to select a provider for my Internet data until i get Fibre in the house..

One of the companies is offering an Unlimited data SIM in 2 flavours.

1st one is 30 swedish quid the 2nd is 35 swedish quid....

1 is packaged as a mobile contract, unlimited SMS Voice calls and 4g data....
2nd is packaged as a mobile broadband SIM. Unlimited data.

Now is there something i'm missing here? As far as i have read and been told as long as the sim fits in the slot Huawei B535-232 then who cares???

Can they have different capped max speeds? My current Phone Company i can easily hit 300mbit on 4g early mornings when its just me using the connection.... Remember i live in the middle of nowhere. :P
 
A few years ago I picked up a Three PAYG SIM which had a nice data allowance on it, it was sold as being a Phone SIM. When I put that SIM into my iPad it didn't work, when I tried to visit a webpage I got an error saying that the SIM I was using wasn't a mobile broadband SIM and would only work in a phone. True enough, it worked fine in a phone.

I'm not sure how it's done, but there is a way a provider can tell if you're using a SIM in a phone or another device. IMEI checking perhaps?

For the extra few SEK I'd go for option 2 to save any potential problems.
 
I think the EU net neutrality rules now mean all SIMs have to be treated the same, regardless of what you use them in. They can cap speeds, but only if it applies equally to mobile phone data, tethering or router, and they'd have to say up front that it is capped. Three and someone else got in trouble with ofcom after the new rules came in, for doing what the-evaluator had issues with, so now there are no tethering or speed caps on any plan, all usage just comes out of your allowance if any. Might want to check the reviews if those operators use their own masts though, there could be speed differences if one of them is oversubscribed.
 
Having looked back, I wasn't wrong when I said it was 'a fewyears ago' that I tried a SIM sold as being a phone SIM in an iPad. It was 2013 so things have likely changed since then.
 
The IMEI tells them what kind of device you are using. And there is a thing called ‘hops’ which is the number of process steps the signal goes through From your system to theirs. A phone will only have 1 hop. A tethered device with have at least 2 hops. A device attached to Wi-Fi on a 4G router could have 4 or 5 hops. When it arrives at the cell tower they just say ‘How many hops? You’re having a laugh. No data for you!’
 
Very happy here. Bridge mode into my Decent TPlink router, the Huawei one has garbage 5g wifi. That will do me fine for a while.

Plus i got 3 months free unlimited 4G Data as a trial from a Swedish Provider, something my GF can register to after the time runs out... Lol Im a tramp!

Gonna run this all weekend to see if there is much slowdown and or annoyances.

Certainly not the 500 Mbit up and down i had but :P
dSEtGb9.png
 
Efour said:
Very happy here. Bridge mode into my Decent TPlink router, the Huawei one has garbage 5g wifi. That will do me fine for a while.

Plus i got 3 months free unlimited 4G Data as a trial from a Swedish Provider, something my GF can register to after the time runs out... Lol Im a tramp!

Gonna run this all weekend to see if there is much slowdown and or annoyances.

Certainly not the 500 Mbit up and down i had but :p
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity which router do you use? I'm thinking of getting 4g for broadband. Despite being in the city centre I'm stuck on 10Mbps ADSL, so even if the speeds aren't consistent they'd likely be significantly better on average.
 
lord filbuster said:
Just out of curiosity which router do you use? I'm thinking of getting 4g for broadband. Despite being in the city centre I'm stuck on 10Mbps ADSL, so even if the speeds aren't consistent they'd likely be significantly better on average.
Click to expand...


I got this one but it was on sale roughly half price. Huawei 525.

If you live somewhere really busy I doubt you're gonna get high speeds but over 10mbit... Lol probably.
 
I would have considered others more focused on stability or signal strength if i lived more rurally.. but I don't so meh.
 
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