How to harness 4G for home use?

[stepham10]

Hi

I am wondering what would be the best way to use my home desktop computer to access 4G?

I live in rural Aberdeenshire and my 11km long exchange only line is looking like it will never be upgraded to fibre. At the moment 3 of the 4 ISP's only have GPRS coverage which is not good but alas, there is light at the end of the tunnel. a CTIL mast has just been approved on a nearby hilltop, approx 5 miles away (straight line distance probably less than this). Hopefully the mast is going to be tall enough to clear the surrounding trees which would give my house a clear line of sight.

Now I had thought that I could use a dongle & just leave it on a windowsill at the front of the house which would hopefully provide 4G to all my devices inside the house. However I was wondering if there are any external areials that could be used to bring the signal inside, or any other type of setup that I could consider. Or is a simple dongle the best option?

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

The possible issue with a dongle is that a computer which uses rich internet pages could soon eat up your data allowance. 

[stepham10]

Yes I agree, I think it could be quite expensive. But unfortunately beggars cannot be choosers, it's the one and only option I have for half decent internet access so I guess I will have to pay a higher price. We don't play games or stream movies so hopefully data useage can be kept down to a reasonable figure. 

[BandOfBrothers]

What speeds do isp providers supply ?

What about Vodafone Connect Broadband as an option. 

[catean]

Probably the best solutions is to have a chat with Vodafone and ask for a special 4G package and a 4G wifi router. I've hard they have some home broadband packages on request which include 50-100gb of 4G data plus speed limitation after you consume the included data.

[stepham10]

At very best I get 1.7 down, 0.3 up. But its usually around half of that. 

[Peter985]

Have you looked at the National Satellite Broadband Scheme? Its part of BDuk you can read about it on digital Scotland it may hel, given you upload speed. 

[BandOfBrothers]

Ouch.

Speeds are a little weak.

After all the talk from the government and the likes of Bt improving the service in rural areas it's about time they acted.