An interesting conclusion

I've got my home Broadband back. It was fixed on Friday 20th. I didn't know, but a BT engineer came to my home (on an unarranged visit) to look at the junction box where the cable that comes out of the ground is joined to the wire that continues along my outside wall and into the hall of my house, where I plug in my router. Jackie next door spotted him doing it, and got him to check her junction box as well. In both cases he found nothing wrong: so the fault must lie in the green cabinet up the road. Jackie said he was there for hours, but they got their Broadband back before the end of the afternoon.

I didn't know any of this until the next day. I got ready for bed with my Hub 5 router still flashing red - meaning 'no connection'. Then, on a hunch, I decided to check the run of the landline wire as far as the junction box, and then into the ground. 'Could it have been nibbled by a rodent?' I asked myself. So, in nightie and dressing gown, and clutching a small LED torch, I had a look. The landline wire seemed intact. But the junction box was askew. 'Odd that,' I said to myself. 'I can't remember bumping into it with a bin, or the mower. Let's rotate it back to how it was.'

Back indoors, the router light had turned blue! I was connected again! I'm assuming that while askew (courtesy of the engineer) something had been kinked or stretched inside the junction box, preventing a proper connection. Whatever. I wasn't going to open the box to see. I started up my laptop - yes, I was now getting BT Broadband full blast. I went to bed very relieved. It's not a good feeling, having a vital utility cut off!

So now I can enjoy unlimited Broadband.

And parallel to it, the 100GB per month of 4G Mobile Data just granted to me, at negligible extra cost, at least until July. What do I do about that?

I have fourteen days in which to cancel the upgrade to 100GB, and revert to 12GB. Most of that time is still available. But I won't cancel. That 100GB deal feels like an insurance policy against fresh trouble with the Broadband service, and it isn't costing me much. I think it would be wisest not to cancel.

I need to choose a new Mobile Internet deal for my phone by 9th July. I might as well stay with BT, in order to get the £5 a month discount they give for being also a BT Broadband customer, and my 18-month Broadband agreement doesn't expire until December. It may well be 'all change' for 2021, but meanwhile I will leave the Broadband service alone.

The question now is therefore this: do I continue with 100GB of 4G Mobile Data beyond 9th July? Or go for much less?

The answer, part 1
Does it actually work, getting my home Internet using 4G only? As I do in the caravan? Yes, it most certainly does.

For the ordinary things I do - maintaining the documents and spreadsheets kept in Dropbox, uploading photos to Flickr, blog posting, watching catch-up TV, and listening to catch-up radio - there is hardly any speed difference between 4G and Broadband. I feel the 4G method would choke on very high-demand usage, but it'll never get that from me: I don't stream films, nor play online games.

The only problem is that 4G is affected by atmospheric conditions, especially where the Mobile Data signal isn't strong. There might be some occasions when I wouldn't be able to get enough signal for it to work. But surely not many. It usually works in the farmer's fields I go to in the West Country. It ought to work most of the time in a fairly populous Sussex country village.

The answer, part 2
Most people subscribe to streaming services galore, people with families especially, and need a big data allowance each month - an unlimited allowance for preference. That's not exactly cheap with landline-based Broadband. But getting it via 4G is way too expensive for cost-conscious families. It costs because 4G bandwidth is limited - it's a scarce resource, and not for the mass-market. But for niche low-demand consumers like me (I have no streaming subscriptions), 4G is a viable solution. And it need not cost all that much.

As with Broadband, the more data you pay for, the better the value you get, but there is then the possibility of wasting money on having so much that you never use it all. Do I need 100GB every month, even if 4G must provide for all my data needs?

Well, to examine that point, here's my 4G data consumption from Saturday 14th March (when I lost my Broadband, and had to rely wholly on 4G) and Saturday 21st March (yesterday, when I got my Broadband back at bedtime):

Sat 14th March  0.12 GB (No Broadband; relying entirely on 4G)
Sun 15th            0.53 GB
Mon 16th           0.31 GB
Tues 17th           0.83 GB
Wed 18th           1.08 GB (Self-isolation began; now potentially even more reliant on the Internet)
Thurs 19th         0.22 GB
Fri 20th              3.21 GB (Some catch-up TV; and I uploaded 211 photos to Flickr)
Sat 21st              0.25 GB
TOTAL              6.55 GB

My daily usage varied a lot; but the average is 0.82 GB per day. It was entirely typical usage.

It would be safe to say that if I relied completely on 4G I would consume at least one gigabyte every day, which is 30GB each month. I could get away with that, if careful. But to have plenty in hand, and no fear of going over the limit, 40GB or 50GB would be optimum.

But of course, BT don't offer 4G in quantities best-sized for me! Presently they do 30GB (risky, if I don't watch my data consumption) or 100GB (safe, but really too much for my needs). On the other hand, the 100GB option doesn't cost an awful lot more.

The answer, part 3
At some point this year, by the autumn I hope, I will be off in the caravan again, and intend to binge on it. And while away, it has to be 4G only. I won't be using my home Broadband.

As in the past, the money spent on Broadband at home will be going to waste while I'm absent. Since I aim to spend 90 nights a year on the road - three months - that's a lot of money going down the drain. Whereas if I were all-4G, it wouldn't matter where I was; I'd be getting full value all year round. Hmm!

Conclusion
The cost angle in favour of going 4G-only is even more compelling than I thought. A definite plan is now taking shape. There's no point in jacking in my Broadband before December - BT will just clobber me with a cancellation charge. But I will stay with a high 4G Mobile Data allowance - less than 100GB if such a deal is around in late June or early July, but 100GB if there is no alternative. Then I can have a late-year caravanning orgy with plenty of 4G to call on.