Broadband or Mobile Data?

beed84

After house sharing with others for the past 10 years, I've finally moved into a place of my own. It's great.

Amongst all the adulting things I need to see to broadband is one of them. However, I mostly use the internet for things like eBay, emails, general browsing, and my Nintendo switch when I play online. Internet use is fairly modest. 

I also have O2 5GB of mobile data. As I am generally tight and would like to save money where possible, would it be better to up my mobile data, or is there an affordable broadband package that will cover all my needs? 

Any help would be appreciated. 

m_c

The answer depends on what speeds you can get, and how much you use it.

I've just ditched broadband in favour of mobile broadband, but that's because I can get faster speeds on 4G than I ever did on broadband (there is 2 miles of copper between the house and the fibre cabinet).

To give an idea of speeds, I could stream video over the broadband without any issues, and that usually sat around 6-8Mbps connection speed. Mobile varies a lot more depending on weather and time of day, but the lowest speed test I've had was around 5Mbps, but can be over 20Mbps.
The biggest improvement is upload speeds are no on par with download speeds, whereas before broadband was only around 0.5Mbps upload.

After running tests with my Netgear mobile hotspot, I have invested in a dedicated mobile broadband router.

BigMonka

To be honest I would only consider it if you can get an unlimited data contract (there used to be good deals on the 3 network at around £20/month). Otherwise streaming videos will just completely demolish your allowance in no time.

m_c

Unlimited data deals aren't that bad.
I'm on Vodafone, and it's £33 per month for a 12 month contract, or it will be, as it's 50% off for the first 6 months.
GiffGaff was £35, and O2 was £34.
I never looked at Three/Orange, as they didn't provide good enough coverage to be worth trying.

If you are considering mobile, I would suggest getting a suitable mobile hot spot, and trying out networks via some PAYG sims. I found although O2/GiffGaff had similar speed tests to Vodafone, Vodafone was noticeably more responsive than O2/GiffGaff.
With O2/GG, there was often a noticeable delay between clicking a link, and the next page loading.

fretmeister

My BB speeds are 50 down and 20 up.
I couldn't get anywhere near that on mobile data.

BB is often more stable too.

maltingsaudio

Don’t forget using iPlayer and catch up Netflix etc use a shed load of data and need a broadband connection if you use them., also bare in mind if your happy with your phone go sim only to save a couple of Bob a month 

jonnyburgo

I get 20gb of data, unlimited calls etc on ID mobile for £8 a month and it is a fantastic service around here. 

shuikit

I noticed this deal the other day that might be of interest
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sim-only-from-three-12-month-contract-unlimited-data-unlimited-calls-and-texts-ps16-a-month-3704617

LastMantra

If you only want one or the other phone would probably be handier as you can use it anywhere. I was doing that up until just recently and it was fast enough for most things. I imagine online gaming will use a fair bit of data though. Unlimited would obviously be best.
You might get a good deal for both.

octatonic

We have broadband in Oxfordshire and mobile broadband (from Three) in London.
We don't know how long we will have the apartment for our own use before tenanting it again so I didn't want to get tided down to a contract.

Broadband we get 300Mb/s.
Mobile Broadband we get 30Mb/s, which is actually enough for 2 people to be on laptops and streaming Netflix, which is the most we use it.

guitartango

jonnyburgo said:

I get 20gb of data, unlimited calls etc on ID mobile for £8 a month and it is a fantastic service around here. 

Thats a days surfing for me

mrkb

fretmeister said:

My BB speeds are 50 down and 20 up.
I couldn't get anywhere near that on mobile data.

BB is often more stable too.

I think people confuse broadband speed (network to house) with Wi-fi speed (wireless in house). Most issue will be poor Wi-fi or too many devices sharing the network capacity. If you can hardwire your TV, streaming devices then they work more reliably.

beed84

Thanks for all the replies. After weighing the pros and cons, I decided to go broadband and keep my mobile as is — £37 per month overall, which I think is pretty average.