Internet and mobile phones

[Electric_Andy]

Hi all,

I've just forked out for line rental and internet at my new home, £26/month. I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 which is 2 years old now, and the battery efficiency is 50% of what it was when new. That contract is £13/month.

I've just seen a deal for the new Galaxy S9 with 100GB of data for £49/month.

My question is, does anyone use their mobile data from their phone as a mobile hotspot to run their house? It's only me living there and most usage is internet browsing, music streaming and occasional tv/movie streaming. My 4g signal is satisfactory but not excellent.

I'm thinking that for a bit more money I could be able to ditch the broadband plus would have a brand new phone, essentially for free?

Edit: Just read and the hotspot allowance is only 30GB. Perhaps not such a good idea

 

[Racing roadkill]

Hi all,

I've just forked out for line rental and internet at my new home, £26/month. I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 which is 2 years old now, and the battery efficiency is 50% of what it was when new. That contract is £13/month.

I've just seen a deal for the new Galaxy S9 with 100GB of data for £49/month.

My question is, does anyone use their mobile data from their phone as a mobile hotspot to run their house? It's only me living there and most usage is internet browsing, music streaming and occasional tv/movie streaming. My 4g signal is satisfactory but not excellent.

I'm thinking that for a bit more money I could be able to ditch the broadband plus would have a brand new phone, essentially for free?

I actually do what you’ve suggested there. I don’t watch a lot of telly, so the streaming services are of no concern to me. I’ve just got myself a swanky new IPhone X, and a sim only deal from EE, with loads of data, for not much money really. When I’m on my travels, nearly everywhere I go has free WiFi, which is nice. My phone is my phone / computer / internet thing, so I’ve found I can live without a land line, or broadband at home.

 

[stephec]

Check your contract as one I looked at a while back didn't include tethering as part of your allowance, it was charged as an extra.

 

[Cycleops]

You say your home internet package is new so you won't be able to cancel for some time.
I'd ditch your mobile phone deal, buy a PAYG sim or convert yours and get a tablet or iPad for the house.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Check your contract as one I looked at a while back didn't include tethering as part of your allowance, it was charged as an extra.

This one has 100GB of data, but limited to 30GB of mobile hotspot. I don't think I'd exceed that but if I did it would probably get expensive

 

[Electric_Andy]

You say your home internet package is new so you won't be able to cancel for some time.
I'd ditch your mobile phone deal, buy a PAYG sim or convert yours and get a tablet or iPad for the house.

I haven't had it installed yet so can cancel within 14 days if I want to. I'm already on a SIM only deal so I own the phone, but I would find PAYG more of a hassle and probably more expensive?

 

[marinyork]

Curious about this. My S7's battery was not doing great but since the recent android upgrade (which we got late) the battery drainage has been better. It is mostly browsing that kills it, for video it doesn't drain too quickly.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Curious about this. My S7's battery was not doing great but since the recent android upgrade (which we got late) the battery drainage has been better. It is mostly browsing that kills it, for video it doesn't drain too quickly.

I use mine quite a lot, but this morning it was fully charged and after half an hour of youtube and some browsing it had dropped to 60%. not a huge deal but it's noticeable.

 

[stephec]

This one has 100GB of data, but limited to 30GB of mobile hotspot. I don't think I'd exceed that but if I did it would probably get expensive

That's a fair old amount.

My first every home broadband package only had a 40GB allowance, but that was in the good old days.

 

[oldfatfool]

I use mine when we are up in the dales to stream films and the like to the tv. I like you am limited to 30gb tethered. It lasts me approx 12 to 14 days before i get close to the limit. Certainly use much more at home on the fixed line. No noticable differance between phone and fibre though for streaming.

 

[marinyork]

I use mine quite a lot, but this morning it was fully charged and after half an hour of youtube and some browsing it had dropped to 60%. not a huge deal but it's noticeable.

I use my s7 a huge amount. Mine doesn't drain that fast. I was asking as I thought mine was bad and thinking of visiting the Samsung shop and paying the reported 70 quid to get the battery replaced.

 

[User10119]

Slight aside - I'd recommend Quidco for getting a good deal on broadband (and if you aren't already quidco-ing an existing member can generate a referral link that usually gives a tenner bonus for you to split, currently 20 quid). I got a deal for BT that gave me an £80 cashback and £150 BT reward card, on a 12 months contract with the line rental paid upfront for a discount. It worked out at something ridiculous like a fiver a month for unlimited broadband and weekend calls once you worked it all out.

A year later, when it would have started costing me £lots/month, I shopped around again. Plusnet were offering cashback so I went with them, but the website fubared and I couldn't get the account done online so had to ring them - they then matched directly what the quidco deal would have worked out to, by discounting and giving me a cashback payment. I could also use a referral link to get a discount for a friend who already uses them (and who used my referral link a couple of years back when she moved to them, getting me a quid a month discount for that year).

I have two youtube addicted children so only shop for unlimited and aim for a broadband/landline effective cost of £15 a month or less.

Which reminds me, I need to sort out my mobile contract... Oh - also, lots of the phone companies will do tie-in deals giving you v cheap sim only deals for a mobile if you have your landline with them. I haven't bitten yet, because I think the theroy is that once you have landline, broadband and a couple of separate mobiles with one company it becomes much more hassle to swap providers. So once they've got you they can ramp the prices up a lot before you are incentivised to move.

 

[smutchin]

This one has 100GB of data, but limited to 30GB of mobile hotspot. I don't think I'd exceed that but if I did it would probably get expensive

Whether 30GB is enough depends what you're using it for.

I would find it very easy to exceed that limit, but that's because I work from home and often have to share very large files on Google Drive. If you use streaming services like Netflix a lot, it would fairly quickly eat up 30GB.

My home internet connection is so slow that I do occasionally use my phone's much faster 4G connection for sharing work files, but I try to save that for when I've got a deadline imminent because although there's no cap on the amount of data, the connection speed is heavily throttled after you've used 9GB and I can easily exceed that very quickly.

 

[Electric_Andy]

thanks all. I think I'll see how it goes and how much I use the internet. I'm with Utility Warehouse for internet, gas and electricity and they state there is no contract, but I'd assume this is just for gas and electric. perhaps the broadband has a years' contract so I can always think again at the time.

£70 for a replacement S7 battery? Sounds ok, I think I'll stick it out until mine becomes unusable. I don't need a better phone, and as some f you said, nothing is for free, I'd be paying for it somewhere down the line.