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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.

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?

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 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 2.

Three

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

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 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 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.

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