Unlimited Data Vs. Prepaid Plans

madgasser on 16/09/2023 - 10:32

For those that pay like 75$+ for like 200+ GB to unlimited data per month, do y'all just hotspot your data and not get wifi for your home at all? If so do you get enough coverage/speed with it via hotspotting on a 5G plan?

I think I hardly ever used past 5gb/month just cause I'm always around wifi, so was trying to understand the reasoning for paying like ~1k yearly instead of getting a prepaid plan.

I'm on the woolies yearly one, and although the network is fairly shit I think I likely end up making a few dollars profit to use them with the 4% GC + 10% shop, although I'll likely just drop them next year when the plan ends since they removed the online option.

Mobile

Comments

  • Darsh01 on 16/09/2023 - 10:58
    +1

    I wouldn't recommend getting an unlimited plan if you hardly use data cause it can be unreliable at times

    • capslock janitor on 17/09/2023 - 12:35

      why unreliable

      • Darsh01 on 27/09/2023 - 00:00

        Data for me tends to disconnect and reconnect. Sort of like on and off

  • ihfree on 16/09/2023 - 15:16

    Main reason I would go on a postpaid plan would be to get a good deal on a phone.

    I've used 4g connected to my router for about a week when I had issues with ADSL. There were no issues other than it being a bit slow(Vodafone prepaid SIM). Stability and speed really depends on the network in your area. Latency - if gaming, might also be an issue.

  • Smigit on 17/09/2023 - 12:25

    On a Telstra plan with 180GB data, but I would be happy to be on say 100 but the next step down is 50GB which I could exceed in a given month.

    I couldn’t and wouldn’t hotspot for home internet. Back when it was only me and I was renting a room in a share place, maybe, but got a family and computer gear etc that needs to operate 24/7 so I need an internet connection when not at home. Security cameras I may want to check remotely, PCs running backups, consoles updating things, etc. Wouldn’t want it coming off my phone and needing it to be plugged in 24/7 because the hotspot was burning phone battery.

    On the family side…I’m not sure there’d be a way to do this nicely in a family scenario and easily allow devices to fail over to other family members devices.

    Also just checked our usage and we’ve done 3TB in the past 9 days, so any sort of mobile cap won’t be sufficient.

    Personally so much of our devices now days are internet connected that I think the vast majority of people should have a dedicated home internet connection if they are remaining in the one place, complemented by suitable mobile plan.

    That all said. When I do hotspot the speeds are good and while latency is worse, download and upload speeds can exceed my 100mbit NBN connection, often by a considerable margin.

    • madgasser on 18/09/2023 - 11:18

      Interesting, it seems wild to me to reach 50gb+ a month even since I spend so little time without wifi. I get it if you have like long commutes and stream a lot of video or have frequent videos calls on data though.

      3TB over 9 days for home usage seems even more wild though lol.

      Also, wouldn't dream of reaching over 100mbps w my woolies plan if I hotspot, maybe 30ish at best. How big of a difference do you have with latency when hotspotting compared to NBN?

  • Smigit on 19/09/2023 - 20:18

    Mobile: https://www.speedtest.net/result/i/5777221970
    Wifi: https://www.speedtest.net/result/i/5777223475

    My speed test at the router are a tab better than over Wifi. I do find mobile can be pretty variable depending on when I run it. Mobile is Telstra 5G. Took both tests indoors on my couch in my living room near my TV where much of the gear needing networking would be.

    In terms of my data use, it is pretty variable. I probably waste a stack of data by having YouTube playing videos on my drive. I don’t actually have the video visible, phone will be in my pocket, but I do listen to some tech channels on my drive and tend to just use YouTube rather than a podcast. Probably wasting a stack of data on video I’m not actively watching. I do like to have enough mobile data to not think about it.

    For the 3TB home internet, this months probably higher than normal as I rebuilt my NAS and am doing a big backup to Backblaze. So it’s probably not typical, but it’s also the sort of thing I probably couldn’t do if I was exclusively using mobile data via my mobile carrier.

    Personally with a family having things just work is important, especially for my wife, and having gear drop off because I pop out to get groceries wouldn’t be palatable.

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