Cutting the Cord - a Freedom Mobile Home Internet question

[lamename]

Hi all, I’m finally ready to cut the cord and be done with the big ISPs taking $200+/month from me. I’ve got an idea of what I want to do and need, but I’d like to hear from you about better ways.

I was GOING TO ask about the hardware requirements to power a network using a cellular source, because we have Freedom Mobile’s 50Gbs of 5G for $50/mo plans and I thought it might be worth adding a new number just to run our home intenet off of. (currently, Freedom doesn’t have 5G service in PG, but they say it is coming within a year - bonus, until it does, we are paying 1/2 price: 100Gbs/mo for $56). I’ve got a spare iPhone or two kicking around the house.

HOWEVER, I see that Freedom is now offering Home Internet. It seems that this is simply reselling access via the Rogers network? If so, that is what I am running away from.

So, assuming that I don’t want to sign up for FRogersEEDOM H.I., I return to my original question.

Here is what I have for available hardware in my house:
Archer AX20 wifi6 router
2 TP-Link ac300 range extenders
an old Apple (white tower) router
an old Mac Mini running iOS 13(?)
an old Surface tablet running Windows 10
a decomissioned iPhone SE 2020
Apple TV gen 2
Apple TV gen 4
an old Chromecast
maybe an old Android phone

I want to be able to stream to 2 tvs (hooked up to the Apple TVS), two iPads, a Mac laptop, a printer and about a dozen IoT lights and sensors, doorcams etc.

Sally and I each have iPhones with 50Gb 5G plan, so they don’t need to be on the wifi network.

The Archer doesn’t have a SIM slot so does that mean I’ll need to buy a cellular modem? If so, recommendations? I’ve been looking at stuff on Amazon, but am not sure what I actually need. Can I keep and use any of the network hardware or am I better off starting from scratch?

Thanks in advance for the advice and suggestions. I’ve got until Oct. 23rd to get it sorted. That’s the end of the existing contract. Once the network is sorted out, I can deal with the subscriptions.

[MiG]

First, check to see just how much data you use in a month at home. I’m not you. I have 3 teens who are always online, and so am I. I used 18 TB in the last 30 days. 18,000 GB.

We spent 6 weeks in Portugal, and all of us had data on our phones. We STILL used more than 1.5 TB of data on our little portable hotspot.

So if you think you’re ok with just using 50GB on your home network in a month, then it might be a good way to go. But then you’re going to run into issues when you run out of data. And you’ll be “sharing” bandwidth with anyone else connected to your local 5G tower.

I would look into 5G routers, that you can put a SIM into. And if you’re feeding ethernet, be sure to find one that also has ethernet.

But I think a better way to go would be just to check to see how much data you really use on your home network (maybe in your router). And if it’s really less than 50GB a month, consider just getting slower and cheaper internet via cable. If you’re really using less than 50GB on your home network, then you really don’t need anything fast. I use 50GB in a couple of hours

Meanwhile, I’m paying $21/month for Public Mobile on my phone. Unlimited data (“throttles” after 50 GB, but I haven’t really noticed a speed difference). So Freedom seems like a good deal, but you can shop around and get cheaper.

If you really want to cut the cord, separate your stuff. I don’t have a landline or Cable TV – haven’t had either for 15 years. Since I left Rupert Don’t fall for “bundling” and “free phones” and stuff like that. Keep it all separate and you’ll be able to find stuff cheaper than the bundles.

[lamename]

Thanks for the advice Mig,

I logged into the Shaw/Rogers account and it said we accessed 198Gb of data last month. Gonna guess the majority of that was what we used to call “TV”, since neither of us game online or really use our account outside of the house via Rogers hotspots. Adding a separate line of 50Gbs as well as our current plans of 50Gbs each still doesn’t bring us close to our current usage, though.

I’ve thought for a while that it would be less expensive to unbundle and look at our subscription choices. I think I could get our subscriptions/channel choices for around $80/mo if I went independent. So that frees up $120/month to spend on internet access while still keeping under our current $200/MO bill.

QUESTION: How slow can I reasonably go with internet and still be able to have smooth streaming fr the devices I’ve listed above (realistically, only 2 devices at any time)? If I can downgrade from Gigabit internet service and maintain sufficient access, I would do it.

This is a good starting point for my conversation.

I always love bouncing ideas around with other people rather than just trying to puzzle it through in my own head. Thx

[herbie_popnecker]

Holy shit, I’m glad you weren’t on my network when I had an ISP…
and I simply can’t believe any cell based service could supply that usage cheaper than ‘regular’ ISPs and all your cellular gadgets connected to Wifi.
I’ve got so many friends who wasted years and money trying to save $10 with one service after another they still can’t rely on anything.
All kinds of sales for 75GB @ $50 month with the Big Guys, 120Mb+ unlimited net@< $100 month

[MiG]

@lamename

If I can downgrade from Gigabit internet service and maintain sufficient access, I would do it.

This is a good starting point for my conversation.

I think any streaming is fine with 10megabit or so. I tend to do Plex, and it rarely uses more than 1 or 2 megabit per stream.

Netflix says 5megabit per stream of 1080p, but it rarely goes over 1megabit, despite what they claim.

As a comparison, I’ve run high schools with 1000 students on 100megabit lines and it’s been fine. A 1 gigabit connection for home is overkill, especially considering none of your devices are connecting via wifi at 1 gigabit.

This is why they offer it way below what a “real” 1 gigabit connection would cost. If you’re using 200GB a month on a 1gigabit connection, you’re using …

200 GB = 1600 Gb = 1.6 seconds of a 1 Gbps connection. You’re using 2 seconds of your bandwidth over a month

or 0,0000008 % or so of your capacity. You’re costing them nothing, so any money they get from you is gravy They’re sharing you connection with hundreds or thousands of others.

I actually downgraded to a 500 Gb connection, because that was the smallest one I could get that would still have decent upload bandwidth. Which is way more important to me.

We used 18,000 GB over the last 30 days (not typical, it’s just a lot of cloud stuff syncing after a vacation). A typical month is probably more like 8 or 9 TB.

Anyway, 18,000 GB / 30 = 600 GB or 4800 Gbits per day. Less than 10% of the bandwidth of a 500Mb line per day.

So I’m still way over subscribed, but like I said, I want faster upload so I can host servers, and cloud stuff syncs quicker.

[MiG]

As a data point, I just looked at my traffic graph on my router. It was bored, not much happening.

So I did the following:

• started streaming YouTube video (4K)
• started watching a show on Plex (1080p)
• started a Netflix show (1080p)
• Dropped a 1 GB file into syncthing to sync with all my computers
• Dropped a 1 GB file into OneDrive to sync
• Same file onto my Mac Desktop (so it syncs with iCloud Drive)

All at the same time …

Here’s the traffic graph:

Most of the time, the connection is kind of idle. Even HTMF and a few other websites barely register on the graph.

[MiG]

Anyway, see that peak where the outbound bandwidth shoots up to 60Mbps? That’s the reason I still have the 500 plan. Anything smaller would limit upload bandwidth. And in my use case, I want to be able to drop a file on my desktop or whatever, and have it immediately available on all my computers (including at work or home).

It would work just fine with a slower upload. But it would take longer.