Question as per the title - does anyone have any experience?
The prices have decreased: 15 CHF / month for Sunrise Black Friday “WE Connect WIFI” sim card for use in 4G / 5G routers. Speed up to 2 Gbit/s download and network coverage where I live is rated “4g + super fast mobile internet”
Best alternative 35 CHF / month max speed 160 Mbps on copper DSL
I am hesitant to change as I need it for home office - it would also be used for TV streaming
I’ve been on cablecom and kept this for ‘reliability’ 600Mbps. I guess I could use 5G and save money, but I’ve been reluctant to do so as I wanted 2 different connections for redundancy.
In practice, there have been several outages on cablecom whereas the mobile telephone has had no problems.
I’m wondering whether to scrap the hardline as all in costs probably close to 100 a month when connection fees are included (we don’t use landline phone nor have a TV).
I did get an extra data SIM with sunrise. It seems they discourage use in WiFi Routers:
Excessive use of mobile network services can impair network performance, which has a direct effect on other mobile network participant’s user experience. In order to pre-vent this situation, Sunrise will temporarily deprioritize data traffic of customers who reach a certain limit value. This generally only becomes noticeable when carrying out more data-intensive activities and only on antenna cells that are temporarily overload-ed.
Recommended devicesThis data subscription is only suited for tablets or laptops. This subscription is not recommended for other device types such as smartphones, trackers, watches, Wi-Fi routers, etc.
According to the online sales person I messaged, “WE Connect WIFI” 15 CHF (usual price 60CHF /month) is the only SIM that can be used in a 4G/5G router.
Other mobile data products should not. For example “WE connect Surf” is intended for laptops and tablets. I believe they can detect router like usage and slow it down
I have tested this and during the day it’s fine with 50-200mbit on 4G but after 18:00 you’re lucky if you got more than 10mbit. This was with Lebara (Sunrise network).
Cable/fibre is still the way to go unless you really wanted to save but then you could just use your mobile hotspot…
Working totally fine for me. Using the Galaxus 2nd SimCard.
Around 20-30 mpbs minimum, enough to run Netflix UltraHD. For a family of four maybe not enough. Maybe once a month I have a slower connection that I need to manage a bit, which is acceptable for me.
For the ultramustachian : use a old phone in hotspot mode as a router instead of buying a 4g router.
Or use a router and slave a phone to it for the internet connection (USB ethernet adapter on the phone) - this way you can get the latest wifi spec.
Do you know if that is a sim card intended for 4G 5G routers or just one intended for use for a laptop / tablet ?
Few years back I relied on a 4G modem for 2-3 computers. It worked, but had its issues with far more downtime due to network overload at some times (1900-2100 typically), higher latency which should be far better now with 5G and weather affecting signal quality (fog, rain etc).
It can work if you have few consumers and dont mind the occasional downtime. Your backup connection through hotspot will have same issues as your primary, in case of problems. Do extensive location testing as it can have massive difference.
Cable wins always, even if more expensive. Big benefit if not geo-locked to particular city or location - you can take it with you.
Didn’t know there could be a difference. We use it in a 4G modem.
Disclaimer : we might change however, because in our 4 party building, we might get a common copper line, which would be again cheaper.
Thanks. May I ask was that using a SIM sold for purposes of 4G / 5G router ?
Per comment of PhilMongoose networks can detect when a SIM is being used in a router and might throttle usage - however now Sunrise are selling SIM cards intended for the purpose
I tried for two months using the extra sim card with the Qoqa/Sunrise offer on a 4G router but soon I was restricted by the data limit, here stated by Sunrise as ‘‘fair usage policy’’:
I reached the first deprioritization and wasn’t able to watch Youtube in better quality than 240p
It was like using an airplane wifi (checking mail and slowly browsing)
How do you guys handle this limit ?
Galaxus does not have that fairplay policy (At least in the contract I signed).
Was a modem+SIM package at that time, with (own) router behind and bridge mode. In the end, as Locess notes below, what hits is (‘fair’)usage throthling if the provider has such limitation.
Sunrise online sales just advised me not to use the WE connect WIFI mobile data package for home office.
So that is pretty clear feedback. It looks like I stay with copper wire.
I will experiment with the Quickline black friday free sim offer in our 2nd home with set ups like have been suggested
I personally chose Yallo GoMax 5G two years ago, it’s CHF 19 per month and works fine (you need a router though).
However if we connect two laptops with VPNs + Netflix the connection can be at times unstable. Not often, but it happens.
I went with the unbeatable Quickline Mobile Data 2-year plan.
They have the option of ordering an Extra SIM for CHF 5 per month, which would be pretty attractive for home Wifi/internet:
But they also state:
“Wichtiger Hinweis: Es ist nicht gestattet, die Quickline Extra SIM in einem Router, Gateway oder WiFi-Hotspot zu verwenden. (Important note: It is not permitted to use the Quickline Extra SIM in a router, gateway or WiFi hotspot.)”
Technically you could just put the SIM in a phone and then share that connection into a router which would meet the legal terms defined (since the SIM is not in a router…).
But I suspect they will catch you on high data usage.
@trotro Curious to know if you tried and how it worked as I was planning to do the same thing. I currently have a Sunrise extra SIM as part of my subscription with them which works fine for a one person household with no gaming and limited streaming. I am migrating to the Quickline Black Friday offer in a few weeks when my Sunrise contract expires.
In case it helps, I’ve been trying the Quickline SIM as a hotspot from a phone in our holiday home (recap: Quickline uses Sunrise network)
We have consistently been able to watch movies on Disney or Amazon in highest quality on the living room TV without any issue at all
It gets stuck with live sports on Sky.ch. I had issues with Sky even on wired connection so I suspect their buffering algorithm is less advanced. Secondly the issue has resolved when I switch hotpot to my main phone and Swisscom. The Swisscom signal is stronger there. I’m not clear yet if the constraint is the network, it could also be intentional throttling.