Is 5G mobile broadband an option for me?
There’s a common assumption among consumers that 5G will be a complementary service to gigabit-speed home broadband services.
But what if it could be a replacement?
After all, the fifth generation of mobile cellular connectivity is also capable of delivering gigabit speeds, sufficient for any modern internet-based activities.
It also eliminates many of the challenges posed by ground-based infrastructure, such as a lack of Fibre to the Premises cabling.
However, there are several issues currently preventing 5G mobile broadband from being the only form of online connectivity we need…
Very fast, very dangerous?
Conspiracy theories would have you believe 5G is damaging our immune systems, while conflating Huawei’s 5G infrastructure with the emergence of Covid-19 in China.
This has led to sabotage against telecommunications infrastructure, with masts being set on fire, vandalised and defaced with graffiti.
Over and above regular verbal abuse and intimidation, one broadband engineer has been stabbed by someone objecting to 5G, while another contracted Covid-19 after being spat on.
Sadly, these unfounded conspiracy theories ignore the reality that the UK’s 4G network lacks the capacity to provide the connectivity people need – and increasingly demand – nowadays.
By contrast, the 5G network is capable of supporting more devices than are ever likely to connect to it.
This makes it ideal for mobile broadband, with a compact home hub receiving data wirelessly before distributing it around the home to devices which aren’t already 5G-enabled.
There are no wires or connections, no sockets or extenders, and the broadband hub is fully portable.
That’s a particular benefit if you’re a regular traveller, or planning to move house in the next year.
Achievable speeds across the UK’s 5G network have reached 138Mbps, which is far below 5G’s theoretical maximum but still far superior to 11Mbps ADSL phone-line connections.
So is 5G mobile broadband a viable option in lieu of telephone-based services?
The simple answer is no – at least, not at the moment.
Ready…steady…
The 5G network launched in the UK at the end of May last year, and it’s still in a relatively formative stage of development.
Although Ofcom will eventually permit the use of swathes of available bandwidth, most operators are presently limited to the 3.4GHz radio spectrum band.
This effectively throttles achievable speeds.
Many fixed-line broadband services currently offer comparable real-world speeds, while the vast majority of fibre cable connections will be considerably faster.
More significantly, the national rollout of 5G was patchy even before the coronavirus lockdown stopped infrastructure work in its tracks.
The network operators aren’t keen to demonstrate how patchy. For instance, O2’s coverage checker map doesn’t differentiate between 3G, 4G or 5G signals.
You won’t get indoor 5G coverage in Edinburgh from Vodafone unless you live in a few select urban districts, while Three currently has no 5G coverage anywhere in East Anglia.
A 5G mobile broadband hub is therefore only an option for a small percentage of the population at present.
It’s also expensive.
A 5G hub from EE costs £100 up front and will require a further £1,200 during a two-year contract, as of mid-June.
On a rolling 30-day contract, Vodafone’s 5G-compatible GigaCube will set you back £325 outright, plus £50 for each month of data-unlimited use.
That’s a high price to pay, even though the GigaCube can connect 64 devices at once.
Unless you really need ultrafast broadband without cabling in a 5G-enabled area, our advice would be to wait until prices drop and connection speeds increase before taking the plunge.