5G without Gigacube

[CRTB]

Finally, 5G is available in my area through Vodafone so I'm keen to sign up as I have no fibre options here.

However looking at the Vodafone website, 5G with a Gigacube is £60/month for 24 months plus £50 up front, whereas a 5G SIM with unlimited data on a 12 month contract with unlimited data is £30/month, which over 2 years will be £770 cheaper, and with the benefit I'm only tied in for a year.

So I have some questions....

1) Can I just use one of these SIM cards in another router? Or is there some term and condition which says that's just not cricket and that I must pay for the £60/month package to use it like that?

2) If I can use a £30 SIM, is there any "fair use" policy on the Unlimited data? Will I see any other differences between that and the £60 plan?

3) Are there any 5G routers that people recommend which work well with Vodafone 5G? I see looking through the forum people are using non-Gigacube routers so I assume that some work better than others, is there consensus on a good one?

Thanks in advance.

[MarkD]

Good morning @CRTB, it's great to hear that 5G is now available in your area! 

1) We have a range of Data-only SIM Cards available on contract lengths of 30 days, 12 months or 24 months. If the device is unlocked and will support a Data-only SIM Card, the service should work. We also offer a 14 day cooling period on all of our plans. 

2) With have no usage limitations on our unlimited plans, however, we would recommend that you check the speed limitations before selecting a plan. 

3) If you're unsure about the GigaCube option, have you considered a Data Dongle or a MiFi device? You can find more details here. 

[CRTB]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for getting back to me., Good to know the 5G phone SIM will work without limits.

I have checked the speeds and see there's a difference between the different price points hence why I'm comparing Vs the £30 offering which has uncapped speed, but thanks for the reminder.

Regarding the data dongle and MiFi devices though, they seem 4G from the link plus I need the whole house connected and, being geeks, we have a LOT of devices - I think we need a dedicated router! I see mention of a Huawei one on here which is apparently identical to the Gigacube, will that work straight out the box? I can get that for ~£300 online which saves me ~£470 overall. Is that the only option or are other routers available too?

[CRTB]

Mark - Actually I've now bothered to walk to my PC instead of trying to do this on my phone and read your message properly.... Sorry! In 1), you say "We have a range of Data-only SIM Cards available". I've just been and checked there, and I see there's a £15/month plan for 6 months then £30 for the next 18, which is even better. Thanks. Adds an extra £90 of savings.

[blacktaffy2002]

be aware that the guaranteed minimum speed is only 3.8mbps on the unlimited max plans. Get i in writing what speed they are guaranteeing so that you can exit the contract when yu get poor service

[blacktaffy2002]

Avoid a gigacube at all cost,  useless box

[CRTB]

Thanks.

Why is it useless, and what do you recommend instead?

[blacktaffy2002]

After extensive problems on july 9th with download speeds  I. spent days researching possible problem resolution. Consensus is that gigacube cannot stopp itself trying to use 5g when it is not available. Extensive ongoing chats with VF support has not evolved problem, they will only look at faults in the last 24 hours and state that guaranteed minimum download speed off my mast is 3.8 although i am on unlimited speed contract.

Recommendation is TP LInk MR600, 

[blacktaffy2002]