Buying a New House Highlights the Potential of LTE
A few weeks ago I moved house. I suffered all the usual stresses and frustrations, mostly because of the archaic way we do property transactions in the UK. However, to my delight, I avoided one previous source of immense stress this time around — all thanks to LTE.
On the last two occasions I moved house, getting a broadband connection turned out to be like a thumping hangover that lingered for days and weeks after the move. I don’t know why my experiences with broadband providers have always been so poor. I’ve tried BT, Sky and Virgin Media, and it’s always been a problem, with the connection coming days or weeks after the move.
This time it was no different. I was previously with Virgin Media as I was lucky enough to have cable in my street. The new house doesn’t have cable, so my best option was to connect to BT’s fibre network. I first tried with Sky, which provides my TV services, but after three attempts and three weeks in my new house, they failed to connect me. I’m now waiting for BT to install broadband but that too has been delayed three times.
When I encountered this type of delay during my last move, it was nothing short of a nightmare. Working from home was virtually impossible and as the “home CTO”, I was blamed by my family for the lack of service. These days it seems that having an Internet connection is more important than food and water for kids.
However, the recent weeks without broadband have caused no problems or sleepless nights, as I live within coverage of EE’s LTE network. A Huawei cellular wireless router provides Wi-Fi coverage for most of the house.
Internet access is flawless thanks to the 20 Mbps (and more) that I’ve consistently experienced, as well as a 5 Mbps uplink. Alarmingly, the best BT and Sky can promise me for my fixed-line broadband connection based on their pre-installation checks is 19.3 Mbps. LTE is actually faster!
So why would I even bother with fixed-line broadband? It comes down to unlimited access. 8GB of data from EE costs £26 a month, not much more than the fixed-line access costs. But I know 8GB is just not enough for the Wood household. We’ve been careful up to now, but I know we’d normally break the 8GB limit every month. Our current strict rules – no data-intensive usage of things like YouTube, Minecraft and streamed TV — would not work over a long period.
However, LTE can now provide a very decent alternative to fixed-line broadband, especially if your data needs are more modest than mine. This would have been unthinkable just 12 months ago. Given all the other stresses associated with moving house, I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it as an interim solution, especially as fixed-line providers seem to have a habit of leaving you in the lurch.
Recent comments by Ofcom highlighted the widening gap between urban and rural broadband. With EE targeting 98 percent population coverage by its LTE network by the end of 2014, I’m certain there’ll be lots of households around the UK that will find 4G irresistible as a permanent alternative to fixed-line broadband.
Perhaps one day the cost will drop to a point where I really don’t need fixed-line broadband anymore. I’ll be able to truly live the mobile dream, particularly if EE deploys double-speed LTE where I live. That’d make a wireless connection twice as fast as the fibre-based broadband I’m currently being offered.