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  • Choice of 4G and 5G Home Broadband routers
  • Compare deals on all networks, including Three, Vodafone and EE
  • Share internet over WiFi with the whole household
  • Plug and play with no landline or engineer visit
  • Shorter 1-month contracts available
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FREE

Three 5G Broadband

Unlimited Data
£11.00 a month 24 month contract Three See Deal
6 months half price 5G
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FREE

Three 4G Broadband

Unlimited Data
£11.00 a month 24 month contract Three See Deal
6 months half price
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FREE

Three 5G Broadband

Unlimited Data
£25.00 a month 1 month contract Three See Deal
5G
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£99.00

4G Internet Router

Unlimited Data
£31.99 a month 24 month contract National Broadband See Deal
Great for rural areas
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£299.00

4G Internet Router

Unlimited Data
£31.99 a month 24 month contract National Broadband See Deal
Includes supply and fitting of external antenna
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£150.00

EE Smart 4G Hub

100GB Data
£35.00 a month 1 month contract EE See Deal
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FREE

EE Smart 4G Hub

100GB Data
£35.00 a month 18 month contract EE See Deal
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£99.00

4G Internet Router

Unlimited Data
£39.99 a month 12 month contract National Broadband See Deal
Great for rural areas
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£299.00

4G Internet Router

Unlimited Data
£39.99 a month 12 month contract National Broadband See Deal
Includes supply and fitting of external antenna
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FREE

Vodafone GigaCube

200GB Data
£40.00 a month 24 month contract Vodafone See Deal
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£50.00

Vodafone GigaCube

200GB Data
£40.00 a month 1 month contract Vodafone See Deal
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£175.00

Vodafone GigaCube

200GB Data
£40.00 a month 1 month contract Vodafone See Deal
5G
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Table of Contents

What is 4G and 5G home broadband?

4G and 5G home broadband is a home internet service that uses 4G or 5G rather than a fixed line (such as a phone line or fibre optic cable). A conventional broadband service is wired all the way to your router, whereas 4G and 5G home broadband is wireless in the same way as getting mobile data on your phone is wireless. Except rather than the data coming to your phone, it’s coming to a router that then sends it to your devices.

Advantages of 4G and 5G Home Broadband

No landline

No need to pay for a fixed line you don't use

No engineer visit

No need to wait for an engineer visit

Portable

Take it anywhere with a mains socket

Shorter contracts

12 and 1-month contracts, and even PAYG plans

Unlimited data plans

Never worry about running out of data again

Speeds up to 1Gbps+

Faster than standard fibre (often under 100Mbps)

The main difference between 4G home broadband and 5G home broadband is simply that 5G is far, far faster – if you have the coverage.

How does it work?

With 5G and 4G home broadband, your router connects to a 4G or 5G signal, much like a smartphone would. That means there are no cables required between the mobile mast (which sends out the signal) and your router (which receives it). In turn, that also means you don’t need a landline with 5G or 4G home broadband.

Once your router picks up a mobile signal it then blankets your home in it, so all of your devices can get online. So the only real difference from fibre broadband in terms of how it works, is the lack of cables between the router and the source of the signal (though in most cases you’ll still need the router to be plugged in for power).

That lack of cables can both save you money (since you won’t need a landline) and make setup simpler (since you won’t need an engineer). It also means there’s no requirement for your property to have fibre cables running to it, making 5G or 4G broadband a potentially good option for isolated and rural locations.

How does it differ to mobile broadband?

Home Broadband vs Mobile Broadband

Home broadband

Mobile broadband

Improved Wi-Fi Range

Less Wi-Fi range

Can connect more devices at once (up to 64)

Can connect less devices at once (usually up to 32)

Advanced network management features

Less advanced network management features

✔  Requires mains power

Battery powered

In terms of how they’re meant to be used, the difference is that 4G or 5G home broadband is meant to be set up permanently in a home or office, while 5G or 4G mobile broadband is a mobile Wi-Fi connection that you can enable when out and about.

In practice, the difference is not always clear-cut, but a 5G or 4G home broadband service will typically involve a router that you plug in at your home, just like with conventional broadband.

5G or 4G mobile broadband meanwhile will use devices that have batteries, so they can be used anywhere without plugging them in. Alternatively, some 5G and 4G mobile broadband devices are ‘dongles’ which are essentially USB sticks that you can plug into a single device to get it online.

A dongle would be useless for home broadband as you’d only be able to get one device online at once and only one with a USB port. Having a battery meanwhile wouldn’t serve much purpose since you don’t need your home broadband to be portable.

Often – although not always – you’ll find that 4G and 5G home broadband routers support more simultaneous connections than mobile broadband devices too. The latter often top out at 10 or 20, while home broadband ones can often reach up to 64 – enough for a house full of web-connected gizmos.

Finally, data limits on 5G and 4G home broadband plans and devices are often higher, since there’s an expectation that you’ll need more data for your home internet connection than for a mobile one.

All that said, technically you can use a 5G or 4G mobile broadband service for your home broadband connection, it’s just rarely ideal, for the reasons outlined above. As such, this article is focusing specifically on devices and services that are designed to offer home broadband.

How fast is 5G and 4G broadband?

4G home broadband offers average download speeds of 25Mbps according to Opensignal data, which is easily enough to stream 1080p content and just hits the recommended for 4K UHD (25Mbps).

5G home broadband is significantly faster, with Three for example claiming you’ll get average speeds of around 150Mbps, and in our own tests we averaged 419.6Mbps in our Three 5G Broadband review, while peak speeds could be around 1Gbps.

Traditional fibre broadband on the other hand offers average speeds of 63-67Mbps for Fibre to the Cabinet services according to Which, while some Fibre to the Home services offer speeds of over 1Gbps – though this isn’t available to most properties. 

So 4G home broadband is slightly slower than most fibre connections, but still decently fast, while 5G home broadband can compete with the very fastest fibre options.

What networks offer 4G and 5G home broadband?

4G and 5G home broadband is currently available on Three, Vodafone, EE, and National Broadband. A range of different devices are available on a number of different plans.

The other UK networks, including O2, don't currently offer either 4G or 5G home broadband.

EE

EE Home Broadband Routers

Product

4GEE Home Router 3

EE Smart 4G Hub

 

5GEE Router

EE Smart 5G Hub

Max download speeds TBC TBC
Max upload speeds TBC TBC
Maximum connected devices 64 64
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax
Maximum data standard 4G 5G
Ethernet ports 2 2
External antenna  TBC 4 x antenna ports

EE offer 4G home broadband on 18-month and 30-day contracts with up to unlimited data per month, while 5G home broadband is available just on 18-month plans, also with up to unlimited data.

At the time of writing EE offers two options, with the EE Smart 5G Hub being the flagship choice, as this supports speedy 5G. However, that doesn’t help if you don’t have 5G coverage in your home, in which case you might want to consider the EE Smart 4G Hub.

Three

Three Home Broadband Routers

 

Three 4G Home Broadband

Three 4G Hub

(or ZTE MF286D)

Three 5G Home Broadband

(or Zyxel NR5103E)

Max Download Speeds

Up to 600Mbps

Up to 4.7Gbps

Max Upload Speeds

Up to 150Mbps

Up to 2.5Gbps

Maximum Connected devices

64

64

Wi-Fi 

Dual Band 802.11ac

(2.4GHz and 5GHz)

Dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax (Wi-Fi 6) 4 x 4 MIMO

Ethernet Ports

4

2

External Antenna 

Yes x2 (sold separately)

Yes x4 (sold separately)

 

Three 4G Home

Broadband Review

Three 5G Home Broadband Review

Three currently offer the best value home broadband plans and they come with truly unlimited data with no speed restrictions.

At the time of writing there are two 4G routers available on Three – the Three 4G Home Broadband and the Three 4G Plus Home Broadband.

The Three 4G Home Broadband is a top 4G home broadband option, with support for up to 64 simultaneous connections (so you can get your whole house online), plus 4 Ethernet ports for wired connections, and high speeds (a theoretical max of 600Mbps, though real-world speeds are typically a lot lower but still high).

Three also offer 5G home broadband with the Three 5G Home Broadband, which brings breakneck speeds. However, you will need to check coverage first to make sure 5G is available in your area.

Vodafone

Vodafone Home Broadband Routers

 

Vodafone GigaCube

Vodafone 4G Gigacube

Vodafone GigaCube 5G

Vodafone 5G Gigacube

Max Download Speeds

Up to 1.6Gbps

Up to 3.8Gbps

Max Upload Speeds

Up to 50Mbps

Up to 280Mbps

Maximum Connected devices

64

64

Wi-Fi

Dual Band 802.11b/g/n/ac

(2.4GHz and 5GHz)

Dual-band 802.11a/b/n/ac/ax 4 x 4 MIMO

(2.4GHz and 5GHz)

Ethernet Ports

2

2

External Antenna

Yes x2 (sold separately)

No

 

Vodafone GigaCube review

Vodafone also offer 4G and 5G home broadband plans with no speed restrictions, but they are more expensive than Three. However, they do sell 1-month rolling plans offering lots of flexibility, but that does mean paying an upfront cost for the router itself.

For 4G, Vodafone offer the Vodafone GigaCube 4G, which supports speeds of up to 1.6Gbps (though that’s far more than 4G can manage outside a lab setting), can connect up to 64 devices at the same time over Wi-Fi, and has two Ethernet ports. Vodafone also sells a 5G version of the GigaCube, but this is a completely different device offering higher speeds of up to 2.8Gbps.

National Broadband

National Broadband Routers

 

4G WiFi Router

4G Internet Router

5G WiFi Router

5G WiFi Router

Max Download Speeds

Up to 300Mbps

Up to 1.65Gbps

Maximum Connected devices

64

64

Wi-Fi 

Dual Band (2.4GHz and 5GHz)

Dual-band 802.11ax/ac/a/n 4 x 4 MIMO

Ethernet Ports

4

2

External Antenna 

Yes (sold separately)

Yes (sold separately)

Power

Mains Power

Mains Power

 

 

National Broadband offer a 5G and 4G home broadband service using infrastructure put in place by the UK’s mobile networks. That means they will offer you coverage from whichever network is best in your area.

Their 4G WiFi Router (which supports speeds of up to 300Mbps and 64 connections at once) is available with unlimited data on 12-month, 18-month, or 24-month plans, and you can also get an external antenna to boost your signal if needed, making this great even in many rural locations. Average download speeds are advertised as being 25Mbps.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to get a 5G signal in your home, then the company also offers a 5G WiFi Router under similar terms and again with unlimited data.

Is 4G and 5G broadband a good replacement for fixed line broadband?

There are many advantages to 5G and 4G home broadband over fixed line broadband, along with a few potential downsides. Below we’ve highlighted all the pros and cons.

Pros

There are many potential benefits of using 4G or 5G for your home broadband rather than a fixed line connection.

For one thing, while you’re typically tied into a fixed line contract for twelve months or more, with 5G or 4G home broadband you can often get plans that are as short as 30 days.

So if you’re staying somewhere short term or even just want a temporary way to get online before your fixed line broadband is installed, 5G or 4G home broadband can be an ideal option. But there are longer term plans available too, which can save you money if you’re happy to commit.

4G and 5G home broadband is also typically plug and play, meaning it’s very quick and easy to get up and running, with no engineer visit required. As such, it’s also usually somewhat portable if you ever want to move it.

Being wireless, there’s also no need for a landline with 5G and 4G home broadband, which can make it cheaper than typical home broadband. And if you’re in an area where the broadband is slow then 4G home broadband has the potential to be faster – though that will depend on the strength and availability of 4G in the area.

With 5G home broadband you might experience higher speeds than even a decent fibre broadband connection.

Cons

While there are lots of upsides to 4G and 5G home broadband, there are also some downsides. Before you even consider it, you should check whether you have good 4G or 5G coverage from the relevant network in your area, because if you don’t then it might be slow or unreliable.

Even if you do have good coverage, if you’re looking at 4G then the speeds you get won’t match or even come close to the fastest fibre broadband speeds. So if these services are available to you and super high speeds matter then 4G home broadband might not be for you – though 5G home broadband could still be an option.

Plus, some 5G and 4G home broadband plans come with restrictive data limits (though there are also unlimited data options) and the router you get may be more restrictive in terms of simultaneous connections than some conventional routers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get 4G or 5G broadband if I have bad signal?

Yes, 5G and 4G home broadband can be a viable option even if you get little or no 4G or 5G signal on your phone. That’s because routers are typically better at picking up a mobile signal, and most can also have external antennas attached to them to massively boost the signal.

Doing that can turn a weak or flaky signal into a strong one, and some services such as National Broadband even specialise in bringing 4G internet to rural locations, many of which won’t have great 4G signal.

Is 4G or 5G broadband good for online gaming?

4G home broadband is perfectly suitable for online gaming and will deliver pings of around 40-50ms.

Those playing competitively and looking for the lowest possible pings should look at a fibre connection (20ms), as should those who will be downloading large files frequently, as download speeds will be slower on 4G home broadband. Alternatively, if you can get 5G home broadband then pings will be more competitive with fibre connections at around 30ms, and speeds will also be suitable for any use case, including large downloads.

Read more: 4G and 5G for gaming guide

Is 5G broadband available?

Yes, 5G home broadband is already available on Three, EE, Vodafone, and National Broadband. Coverage isn't as widespread as 4G at the moment, but in areas with coverage average download speeds tend to come in at around 150-200Mbps (though this varies based on network and location). That's far faster than 4G home broadband and is also able to compete with traditional fibre broadband.

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