topic Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet? in Get Support

Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

Old4 — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 22:58:09 GMT

Wondering if I switched to a 5G plan and used my phones “ hot spot” settings I could eliminate my home internet service. Would the hot spot be sufficient to work on my MacBook and stream Netflix movies on my smart TV?

Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

softech — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 13:50:20 GMT

@Old4 it would work but it depends on your usage.

The most you can get from current PM plan is 50GB and it is not a lot for home use. A MacBook OS update can easily be 1 to 2Gb, a Netflix movie can be 300 to 1GB or more depends on the quality. 50GB is not a lot honest. For one person home use, you can easily use 200GB a month at home alone I would not suggest you to do so.

Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

DennyCrane — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 13:50:36 GMT

I've never found reliability of hotspot to be that great. At some point the connection gets interrupted. Also like @softech said, most of us would blow through that data bucket pretty quick this way. I use about 1.5 TB per month on my home internet; everyone's use is different, but 50GB won't go that far when using it in a computer.

Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

Old4 — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:41:25 GMT

My question is more about if the hot spot speed would be sufficient. Also what would be the speed of the unlimited data after the plans 5G speed is used top?

Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

softech — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:42:18 GMT

@Old4 Yes, it is as good as your 2.4 or 5.0 wifi speed on your phone and PM 5G speed in your area

Theorethical speeds for the Wif are (again, it is capped by your PM 5G speed):
2.4 GHz: up to 600Mbps, it has more interference and less channels but bigger range coverage
5.0 GHz: up to 1,300Mbps, it has less interference and more channels but range coverage is less

Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

Old4 — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:48:34 GMT

@softech wrote:
@Old4 Yes, it is as good as your 2.4 or 5.0 wifi speed on your phone and PM 5G speed in your area
Theorethical speeds for the Wif are (again, it is capped by your PM 5G speed):
2.4 GHz: up to 600Mbps, it has more interference and less channels but bigger range coverage
5.0 GHz: up to 1,300Mbps, it has less interference and more channels but range coverage is less

The 5G speed of up to 1.3GB seems good - HOWEVER I just checked my Bell home internet use and to my surprise last billing period it exceeded 550 GB. Sooooo as pointed out 50GB data would not be enough.

Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

softech — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:49:50 GMT

@Old4 Yup, it won't work. It is good as a backup (when Bell Home internet is down), but hard to use it as a replacement 😞

Re: Using 5G hot spot for home internet?

DennyCrane — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:28:48 GMT

Speed is one thing. Latency and consistency of the connection is another. Even if you're getting 250Mbps, it won't mean much if the cellular connection and/or the hotspot connection keeps cutting in and out, which is what I've experienced. Some times are better than others, but there's no way I'd rely on it for work from home purposes.