I had to spend 2 weeks without fixed internet, I found myself on 4G for 4 months. What do I realize that it’s not so horrible…
After my move, setbacks with Orange prevented me from being connected to fiber for 4 full months. Enough to make me discover life in 4G, check Omar’s experience in 2017 (30 days with 40 GB of 4G for the only connection) and realize that the problems encountered were not necessarily those I had thought of. .
A 4G key instead of fiber
To allow me to wait more easily during the 3 weeks that were initially supposed to separate me from my connection, Orange provided me with a 4G key as well as a SIM card with 200 GB of data. I pass you the convolutions in store to explain to me that Sosh (on my phone) and Orange (for my fiber) are not the same entities… but that they can credit me the 200 GB directly on my phone if I prefer.
This 4G key — which still uses a micro-SIM format to give you an idea of its age — finally served me for 4 months with numerous reloads of data at 200GB and by itself I was amazed at how effective it is for light use. Whether it was working, video conferencing or watching Netflix, I never felt any real speed limitation or anything else, except that I had to regularly keep an eye on my consumption and ask for a top-up when I reached the limit.
An eye on the counter
This limit has also shown itself to be a brake on my use on many occasions. Play online? Rather avoid. Try cloud gaming? Not even in dreams. Download games from Xbox Game Pass? Only if they are not very heavy. I also had the unpleasant surprise to find that my entire Adobe suite (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.) had been updated in the background, causing me to exceed my limit and forcing me to switch to connection sharing from my phone for a day, while my 200 GB are recharged.
After four months, I even restricted my use of Netflix so as not to have to contact Orange too often. A blessing in disguise, I was able to lower my pile of books to read…
My biggest concern ended up being the lack of a router. An old 4G key is enough to share the connection with a computer and a connected television, but when it comes to managing a home network, that’s another story. Even a Philips Hue bridge must connect to Ethernet, a port that does not exist on the old dongle Alcatel lent by my future ex-ISP. All my bulbs therefore kept the last configuration given before my move, fortunately I had anticipated the blow.
In conclusion, if your 4G network is of good quality as it is at Orange in the Paris region, using it as your main connection is quite possible, but requires subscribing to an unlimited plan if possible. In addition, if you have a large local network to manage, a 4G or even 5G router could become essential. Suffice to say that it can replace ADSL, but if you have access to fiber the question does not even arise.
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