How does your setup work? Are you running BGP directly over (what looks like a DSL) link, or are you VPNing to some place where you can peer with others via BGP?
Iām using a not really private virtual network. To put it in simple terms I shove one IP packet directly within another IP packet, routing it to one my routers thatās closest ping wise to my house.
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Is that not obvious? Uploading and downloading faster. Even if you donāt need it for remote work, I often max out my 100/30 wired connection and would definitely use faster speeds if they were available on my mobile.
Just because you wouldnāt use it doesnāt mean there arenāt dozens of valid use cases.
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True, but when it comes to mobile, the concept of data caps makes high bandwidth connections useless unless the cap can never be reached with reasonable usage (which is anything except running a torrent client maxing out the connection 24/7). At the moment the majority of data caps are nowhere near that and can easily be exceeded especially with remote working.
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Agreed. I struggled to think of any though 
If you donāt mind be asking, what do you do that maxes out your connection?
Those regularly maxing out their connections for long periods are typically working in industries that can afford to pay the data volume charges incurred.
Any time youāre uploading multiple streams of video is an obvious one, easily done even with basic video conferencing. As is remote working from the field and needing to work with cloud datasets or sharing large files with an office or even just field backup. A very basic drone or high speed camera can easily generate hundred of gigs in a few minutes and with time sensitive work that speed makes a huge difference.
But weāre talking about consumer plans here where most people wouldnāt be happy to spend more than ~50Ā£/month.
In the case of an unreasonable data cap where you can burn through it in a couple days of heavy usage (working remotely and downloading Docker containers, Linux ISOs, etc), 5G is absolutely useless and not a worthwhile upgrade. In the case of no cap but predatory overage fees youāll have the anxiety of a huge bill at the end of the month, preventing you from taking advantage of the connection too, so 5G offers very little improvement there as well.
Vodafone seem to be shifting to unlimited data with speed caps for some plans, thus heading in the right direction however expensive for low usage.
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Iām hopeful other carriers follow their lead. If so I expect the prices for the lower bandwidth tiers to decrease dramatically, making low usage cheap. A minimal plan for 1Mbps at a few quid a month would be ideal for low-usage situations.
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Due to the cost of running the account, I wonder if a minimum of around Ā£5 is more likely based on the low end cost of monthly subscriptions?
What cost though? Itās just a row in a database. There should be no cost associated with it if things are done properly and everything is self-service and doesnāt require calls to CS for trivial issues.
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Itās a fair point especially considering thereās no need for fixed infrastructure up to the property.
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To add some evidence to the fact that data caps are bullshit, Finland seems to have moved to bandwidth-tiered plans with unlimited data and the carriers are somehow still around and making decent profits. If these guys can do it, why canāt we?
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If Iām not mistaken, there are 2 types of 5G (which is very confusing).
Thereās FR2 (aka MMwave, > 24GHz band). This is the crazy fast type as shown above, but which basically requires line of sight to a mast and doesnāt seem that useful outside of a few niche situations.
Then thereās also FR1 (below 9GHz band), which doesnāt offer speeds much above 4G, but potentially offers better coverage.
Iām much more interested in the FR1 type, and while there probably isnāt good coverage in the UK at the moment, it would definitely be important to have this in the long term.
What sort of work is required for Zevvle to support this? Would that just be arranging a new contract with your supplier, or would it also involve technical work on your end?
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Given where we are right now thereās nothing for us to do ā things like 5G, Wi-Fi calling, or other telecoms infrastructure is in the hands of our supplier at the moment. It wonāt require a new contract or anything, but weāll have more news on this next year. 
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5G isā¦ interesting. O2, itās a real improvement. Vodafone, itās a minor improvement (mainly because their 4G is much faster than O2). And, in my testing, 3ās 5G is often far slower than their 4Gā¦ I donāt even know how. They have the spectrum assets to have excellent 5G, butā¦ itās 3. Enough said.
I have yet to see a significant latency improvement in testing 5G. Fundamentally, I find it amazing EE charges extra for 5G. For any individual customer, 5G doesnāt really offer anything. Instead, itās far more spectrum efficient. Remember, for O2 and EE theyāre running 40 MHz of unpaired (TDD) spectrum (50 MHz for Vodafone and 100 MHz for 3). This is far less spectrum than these networks have dedicated to 4G (especially Vodafone and EE, who have mountains of paired/FDD spectrum).
Part of the speeds is just lack of use so far, which may be EEās reason to charge extra - make it look super-fast by keeping users down, since they have plenty of spectrum for 4G.
But long term, the benefit isnāt for any individual customer - itās to let more people use the network without congestion and slow-downs.
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I was never convinced by the latency claims of 5G. LTE latency is already more than reasonable for a national wireless network and high latency is always caused by overloading and poor network management as opposed to an issue with the protocol itself. Iām also assuming the 5G towers still terminate the data sessions at a central point instead of at the tower itself and that would add a big chunk of latency too regardless of the radio protocol in use.
I find it amazing EE charges extra for 5G
How does that work? Do you get a separate data cap for 5G or do you just pay a flat fee for the privilege of being able to use your existing cap over 5G (basically double-dipping the customer)?
Part of the speeds is just lack of use so far, which may be EEās reason to charge extra - make it look super-fast by keeping users down, since they have plenty of spectrum for 4G.
Thatās not a bad thing per-se, thatās how things are supposed to work. If you need bigger electrical service (in terms of current capacity) you pay more and they install the required infrastructure, if you need faster home internet service you pay more and they install a leased line, etc.
The problem however is that as long as data caps are a thing it indeed doesnāt make sense to pay more for the āprivilegeā of burning through an artificial cap faster. But if they offered speed-based tiers (even at a large premium) Iād personally switch immediately.
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EE has different plans for 5G (to a lesser extent other networks do too, but less egregious as theyāre not more expensive for the same data, just some prepaid and stuff doesnāt have it - like VOXI plans donāt except on the high end, and Smarty plans donāt for 3. O2 prepaid doesnāt at all, AFAIK). Those plans cost a fair bit more for a given amount of data.
That said, theyāre better plans in other ways too (the cap is soft and just slows you down rather than overage charges or being cut off, they have international roaming, and the contracts are shorter - though still 18 months which is long for SIM only!). Oh, and the non-5G plans are also capped at 60 Mbps on 4G. Again, might make sense if it wasnāt for the fact thereās also a data cap.
Vodafone has gone the speed-based route, with unlimited plans but 2 Mbps, 10 Mbps and no speed limit. I have the no limit plan and itās really good.
Interesting move by BT who own EE to not allow 5G for new customers. (Zevvle use EE via an enabler).
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