I'm looking at Vodafone cell phone plan for 500gb of 5g data, followed by 25mbps speed after that 500gb is used up. Price is $60 a month with no contract.
Alternatively, TPG NBN internet plan is $80 a month for 90mbps speed, with an additional $80 for a modem without a contract.
I primarily stream movies and play games all day. Im wondering if it would be practical to have the phone plan to replace the wifi plan?
Keep your NBN, don't replace your NBN connection with a 5G phone and hot spot. One way to wear out the phone and have it constantly warm from hot spotting.
Move your NBN to someone else, $80 for a modem is a joke! You can get them for free with some providers.
is that also the case with tethering?
Tethering, Hot Spotting = Same thing.
The answer to 'can you?' is Yes. The answer to 'should you?' is It Depends.
I'm assuming here you don't mean hotspotting off your primary phone, but acquiring a dedicated device (or even another phone) that receives 4G/5G and connecting to it via WiFi or Ethernet cable.
There are many options out there ranging from super budget prepaid SIM-cycling, to provider premium mobile broadband plans and 5g modem/routers that might turn out to be more expensive than NBN.
Sorry in advance (it's a giant rabbit hole full of research and conflicting opinions) and good luck!
Will you ever need Internet access at home when the phone is not present?
If so, then no.
Otherwise, then yeah, it's possible. I'd be checking on speed at various times of the day to make sure you can live with it.
eg housemate (including Wife/Husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/kids) or Smart home devices that need an internet connection to operate.
I lived off 4G Mobile Broadband for 2 years until NBN was connected. It was… ok… Speds were meh and there were some dropouts at times where I just needed to reboot the modem. BUt I would use a dedicated mobile moden rather than your phone. They are more reliable.
What's the wifi plan you are on? What are you calling "wifi" in the context of an internet plan?
How much data are you currently using a month?
Do you require 99%up time?
Do you care about tower congestion?
Do you care about speed slowdowns when the tower becomes faulty?
Do you care if the tower becomes unresponsive when maintenance spans a few days?
Can you get 5G where you are?
Are there any buildings going to be built between where you will be placing the modem and the tower in the future?
Are there any trees between where you will be placing the modem and the tower in the future?
5G does not propagate long distances and is prone to interference by objects between the modem and the tower. Mobile towers are notorious for having maintenance on them or having issues from time to time that only seem to affect data plans.
Depending on the answers to these depends on whether you should get 5G?
IMHO Overall if you are not traveling allot then go with some NBN FTTx plan until 5G is rolled out to allot more areas and better / cheaper modems become available.
i'm not even getting 99% up time with nbn, its actually worse than my old adsl connection lol
4G and 5G broadband are less than that over a full year and the speed when the tower is being worked on or congested make the old 56K modems look good.
there was a whole week where i had no internet, i'll take some internet over no internet any day
@abctoz: Even 1 to 2k/sec for hours on end and everything timing out. Been there with a 4G modem that was locked down by Optus so I could not change bands. Eventually gave up and bought a newer modem and I could then change bands when the tower became faulty. Optus eventually paid for the modem after making a formal complaint and going through their complaint process.
The optimal (instantaneous) client connection is a straight path of dedicated wire direct to the server. Where there are bends in that straight path such as a wireless hop then that's where lag will be introduced.
The goal of Internet network providers is the elimination of all mobile wireless hops until the Internet is entirely wired. Mobile hotspots are only meant to be a temporary solution until a permanent superior wired connection is established.
I can definitely help out because I am ex-sale of 1-of-big 3 Telecommunication company.
Its all about your location. How far away from your place to the 5G tower? And what is your home internet type? (FTTP/FTTC/FTTB/FHC….) With all of this information, there will be clearly and helpful recommendation.
I am also ex-sale of big 3, and I can tell you that you will find cellular disappointing compared to NBN with the amount you use.
Do you skimp on the phone you use, and the computer you use? If yes, maybe money is more important than anything else, but if you want a good connection for lots of data, terrestrial is better.
If you were scrolling a bit of Facebook and a bit of web surfing, I’d say differently, but gaming and streaming need data, low latency and consistent performance.
That all said, you can try the 5G for a month and get NBN if it isn’t any good, so you only have a month of frustration to lose it is no good.
You can try it, but watch and read the terms and condition of the plan and modem as you may get stung with paying $300 to $600 for the modem that has customized firmware for the carrier you sign up for (this is what optus do if you read the conditions, Telsra also have some gotchas and Vodafone is VF).
Fair. I was reading OPs claim of no contract.
Mobile carriers use Carrier Grade NAT and this can break online games and Plex. For gaming stay with TPG or an ISP on the nbn that doesn't use Carrier Grade NAT.