Using 4G through a router - can this be done?

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Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2007
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Im looking for some advice, this may be very stupid but I'm a bit clueless so please excuse me if this is a ridiculous question.

I have recently moved to a rural area, we have pretty poor broadband speeds with about 8 meg best case scenario. Due to the precise location of the property this is unlikely to change any time soon.

However what i do have is very good 4g coverage with speeds of around 25-30 meg. When Im using 4g on my phone it is considerably faster than my internet connection.

My question is this, is there any way of using the 4g coverage to power a router so I can get 25-30 meg on all the devices in my house? If I was to get an unlimited data sim or one with a high monthly allowance do I have any options? Obviously I can put it directly into a phone but can it go into a suitable router?

Basically is there anything I can do to take advantage of the 4g that will negate the disappointing actual internet speed? I'll be keeping my 8 meg internet regardless so this would an "as well as" rather than an "instead of" situation.

Apologies if I'm not being very clear, Im not 100% sure what Im asking myself! Happy to answer any questions and thanks for reading!
 
I know that you can get routers that will allow you to insert sim cards or wireless dongles into them to take advantage of a 4g network. I'm not sure how they work though when pairing with a broadband connection though sorry. Unsure if OCUK sell them but other well known stores do.
 
You can get routers than take sim cards. You can also get routers that'll take 3G/4G USB dongles.

AFAIK no one is offering unlimited usage on data sims (certainly not for a reasonable cost). You can set sims for phones with high/unlimited data allowances but they aren't intended for this type of usage (and they will be able to tell).
 
So if i had a router that took a dongle or sim I would need a specific plan that was designed for this purpose and that would probably be overly expensive?

I knew there would be an issue somewhere!

Basically I just want a faster speed using what I have available which seems to be 4G.
 
8mbit is survivable, yes large downloads will be slow, but for general usage it’s not that bad. Your other option is either a community partnership or satellite. The former may not exist, the latter has horrible latency but the install is usually covered by a grant if you meet the criteria.
 
I have a TP-Link AC750 router that uses a sim card and/or router connection to provide connectivity. It can actively select the SIM connection when the router goes down and I used this when I moved into my new home which at first only had 3-4MB on broadband.
 
Vodafone allow tethering or use as a hotspot on all their plans though they don't really do ultra high allowances - currently £30/m for 50GB roughly and it can be expensive if you go over. Though potentially worth contacting them as while hit and miss some people have been offered custom data plans.
 
Peplink routers (which are quite expensive to be fair) can send different types of traffic across the different links, and drop the 4G service once your cap is used. So you could force Windows Update, Netflix etc. across the ADSL and then leave the 4G for the things that need the bandwidth.
 
Think Im already out of my depth here!

If I bought a router that accepted a sim card I can buy a sim only unlimited data plan from 3 for £27 a month, however 3 also do mobile broadband which is about £30 a month for 40gb which obviously is absolutely no use for streaming. I presume they have some way of telling if you put an unlimited data sim into a router?

Assuming that's the case it would appear that this is a bit of a dead end?
 
Putting a sim into a router, tablet, or dongle isn't tethering.

I can't see any reason why you couldn't use a cheap phone and tether to it permanently. Connecting it to the network would be more complicated, but far from impossible.

I'm pretty sure the 'unlimited' will have some sort of fair usage clause so you'd still need to not take the ****.
 
bremen1874 said:
Putting a sim into a router, tablet, or dongle isn't tethering.

I can't see any reason why you couldn't use a cheap phone and tether to it permanently. Connecting it to the network would be more complicated, but far from impossible.

I'm pretty sure the 'unlimited' will have some sort of fair usage clause so you'd still need to not take the ****.
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So in an ideal world I could keep my current internet package with the 8meg speeds and just use that for day to day stuff where faster isn't really a requirement then set up a phone with the unlimited data plan and use that for streaming where faster speeds would be beneficial?

Again apologies if Im being thick here!
 
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