5G Wireless (1 Viewer)

[ChiefD]

Does anyone have this yet?

If so, what kind of speeds are you getting?

Is it possible with 5G to use your mobile device as a hot spot and power a whole house of wireless? 

We are thinking of moving to a remote-ish area. We should have some internet options, but I'm looking for a backup plan in case we can't get the speeds we need. Our main function is my wife will be working from home, and then the possibility of the 3 kids having to do remote learning if the school isn't open. So that is our worst case usage scenario.

The area we are looking in within a 5G coverage map. Any thoughts or experiences?

Thank you!

 

[FBG26]

Short answer is no, haven't used 5G.

But it's important to understand what 5G does ( you maybe do, but many don't). If the 5G uses so called low-band or mid-band frequencies similar to the 4G frequencies, then the 5G and 4G speed will be about the same. If the 5G uses mmWave (high) frequencies, that's where you can get faster speeds. But you need direct line of sight to a tower to use the high frequencies because radio waves don't travel through objects at those high frequencies. I'm just guessing, but I'd guess that the cell providers are using the low band frequencies in the parts of northern MN where you're looking, so speeds will likely be similar to 4G. You can still probably hotspot a few devices for work on 4G LTE if needed. 

 

[Zasada]

Might want to look into a short-term option, and then Starlink for your long-term.  

 

[msommer]

You should probably be warned that some people believe it spreads COVID-19

 

[Spanky267]

Does anyone have this yet?

If so, what kind of speeds are you getting?

Is it possible with 5G to use your mobile device as a hot spot and power a whole house of wireless? 

We are thinking of moving to a remote-ish area. We should have some internet options, but I'm looking for a backup plan in case we can't get the speeds we need. Our main function is my wife will be working from home, and then the possibility of the 3 kids having to do remote learning if the school isn't open. So that is our worst case usage scenario.

The area we are looking in within a 5G coverage map. Any thoughts or experiences?

Thank you!

We have intermittent 5G service in my area. 

Your cell service provider wont allow you to use your cell phone as a hotpsot to power a whole home. Even if you have "unlimited data" most plans will still throttle you at a certain point. 

We are also moving planning to move farther away from the city and suburbs. There are plans you can purchase that will allow you to have home internet via cellular service, if services like ViaSat and Hughesnet dont get your motor running. Many of those plans will provide you with a wireless router. But depending on your location you may want to augment that with an outdoor antenna that you can point at the closest cell tower to boost signal strength and performance. Most of these plans are 4G right now as 5G hasnt filtered out into the rural areas very much yet. But a few that I have seen are offering 5G. 

There are a ton of videos on Youtube discussing this subject. Here is a good one. This guy has several videos on the subject. https://youtu.be/gyn3uNXE1ck

 

[FBG26]

Your cell service provider wont allow you to use your cell phone as a hotpsot to power a whole home. Even if you have "unlimited data" most plans will still throttle you at a certain point. 

This is a good point. Looks like Tmobile has a home internet service that might work in the area he's looking at. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp.  Looks like maybe 25 Mbps, so passable but probably not for lots of video streaming. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/FAQs 

Other cellular providers might have something similar.  Verizon appears to have something, but speeds are even worse at 5-12 Mbps. https://www.verizonwireless.com/home-services/home-services/#lpTabsWrapper

 

[urbanhack]

Your cell service provider wont allow you to use your cell phone as a hotpsot to power a whole home. Even if you have "unlimited data" most plans will still throttle you at a certain point.

This is a good point. Looks like Tmobile has a home internet service that might work in the area he's looking at. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp. Looks like maybe 25 Mbps, so passable but probably not for lots of video streaming. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/FAQs

Other cellular providers might have something similar. Verizon appears to have something, but speeds are even worse at 5-12 Mbps. https://www.verizonwireless.com/home-services/home-services/#lpTabsWrapper

BUMP

Anyone using 5G wireless for home WIFI? I'm thinking about signing up for TMobile.

 

[Jaysus]

Your cell service provider wont allow you to use your cell phone as a hotpsot to power a whole home. Even if you have "unlimited data" most plans will still throttle you at a certain point.

This is a good point. Looks like Tmobile has a home internet service that might work in the area he's looking at. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp. Looks like maybe 25 Mbps, so passable but probably not for lots of video streaming. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/FAQs

Other cellular providers might have something similar. Verizon appears to have something, but speeds are even worse at 5-12 Mbps. https://www.verizonwireless.com/home-services/home-services/#lpTabsWrapper

BUMP

Anyone using 5G wireless for home WIFI? I'm thinking about signing up for TMobile.

I had it, and the service was great - T-mobile coverage is excellent in my hood.

BUT.... the device did not play well with my corporate VPN so I wound up ditching it. That was a mess, and T-mo wound up sending me to collections because they never did whatever they needed to do in their system to note that I was no longer a user (even though they disabled my auto-pay). That was a suck to deal with.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

AFAIK Verizon 5G is only 25mbps whereas my Xfinity is 100mbps.

The question I have is 25mbps enough with three people in the house and me working from home?

 

[Keerock]

AFAIK Verizon 5G is only 25mbps whereas my Xfinity is 100mbps.

The question I have is 25mbps enough with three people in the house and me working from home?

No. And I'd argue that 100mbps isn't either

 

[Andy Dufresne]

AFAIK Verizon 5G is only 25mbps whereas my Xfinity is 100mbps.

The question I have is 25mbps enough with three people in the house and me working from home?

No. And I'd argue that 100mbps isn't either

Gonna have to apply for government assistance if I upgrade the speed. Talk about a monopoly.

 

[Hawks64]

AFAIK Verizon 5G is only 25mbps whereas my Xfinity is 100mbps.

The question I have is 25mbps enough with three people in the house and me working from home?

No. And I'd argue that 100mbps isn't either

Gonna have to apply for government assistance if I upgrade the speed. Talk about a monopoly.

We have no real choice where I am at, burbs of Chicago. Comcast and at&t. at&t can't deliver more than 50Mbps to my house so that leaves Comcast. No fiber option. 5G isn't a real option IMO.

 

[urbanhack]

Your cell service provider wont allow you to use your cell phone as a hotpsot to power a whole home. Even if you have "unlimited data" most plans will still throttle you at a certain point.

This is a good point. Looks like Tmobile has a home internet service that might work in the area he's looking at. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp. Looks like maybe 25 Mbps, so passable but probably not for lots of video streaming. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/FAQs

Other cellular providers might have something similar. Verizon appears to have something, but speeds are even worse at 5-12 Mbps. https://www.verizonwireless.com/home-services/home-services/#lpTabsWrapper

BUMP

Anyone using 5G wireless for home WIFI? I'm thinking about signing up for TMobile.

I had it, and the service was great - T-mobile coverage is excellent in my hood.

BUT.... the device did not play well with my corporate VPN so I wound up ditching it. That was a mess, and T-mo wound up sending me to collections because they never did whatever they needed to do in their system to note that I was no longer a user (even though they disabled my auto-pay). That was a suck to deal with.

Good to know. I use VPN for work, so will probably pass.

 

[Jaysus]

Your cell service provider wont allow you to use your cell phone as a hotpsot to power a whole home. Even if you have "unlimited data" most plans will still throttle you at a certain point.

This is a good point. Looks like Tmobile has a home internet service that might work in the area he's looking at. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp. Looks like maybe 25 Mbps, so passable but probably not for lots of video streaming. https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/FAQs

Other cellular providers might have something similar. Verizon appears to have something, but speeds are even worse at 5-12 Mbps. https://www.verizonwireless.com/home-services/home-services/#lpTabsWrapper

BUMP

Anyone using 5G wireless for home WIFI? I'm thinking about signing up for TMobile.

I had it, and the service was great - T-mobile coverage is excellent in my hood.

BUT.... the device did not play well with my corporate VPN so I wound up ditching it. That was a mess, and T-mo wound up sending me to collections because they never did whatever they needed to do in their system to note that I was no longer a user (even though they disabled my auto-pay). That was a suck to deal with.

Good to know. I use VPN for work, so will probably pass.

I had come across that concern prior to testing it out; it was not across the board with all corporate VPNs though... mine just did not play nice at the time. (I have moved on to a new company and have considered giving it a shot again, but have not pulled the trigger as I am still bitter over that collections thing).

The nice thing was that T-Mobile initially gave me a free month to test it out, so I was not without internet access while testing... it just would not have been a long term solution for me without being creative.