Joyce from Brisbane wants to know if she should be considering 4G options rather than signing onto the NBN.
Q. Dear Drew,
I live in the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea, less than 10km from the city. I have been told I may gain a faster and more reliable service than the NBN by considering 4G wifi options. Is this true and, if so, which carrier offers the best service?
Joyce
A. Hi Joyce,
Thanks for your email.
Living within 10km of the city is of great advantage when it comes to the systems in place for the NBN and you shouldn’t have any trouble getting connected to the NBN and receiving a strong connection. As you have mentioned, there have been reports of disappointments along the way with NBN, and that reaching a high level, consistent connection at times can be a hit and miss.
In 2017, Telstra launched a new 4G network on the world’s first commercial Gigabit LTE network with theoretical speeds of 10 times that of the National Broadband Network. The reality of such a 4G network depends entirely on how close your local broadcasting tower is to your home location.
The issue with using the 4G network as your main modem is the price of data in comparison to NBN. Currently, Telstra is charging $70 per month for 100GB on the NBN in comparison to $70 for 20GB on the mobile network with the Nightgear Nighthawk M1 modem.
If you require consistency in your connection and you aren’t using an over-abundance of data, then you should consider the wifi network. If you are in need of both data and speed, then the NBN may be your key.
I hope this helps!
Kind regards,
Drew
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