Graph and PowerShell Blog

Despite living in a city, up until recently I only had the possibility to get broadband over cable (Virgin Media) or DSL. This meant I was I was paying €76 per month for a TV and Broadband package from Virgin Media. At one point in the past, it was up to €96 a month.

As I work from home a good internet connection was important, as well as good latency. DSL wasn't particularly fast or cheap and the phone line would need to be moved to make it useable, so I didn't go with that option.

To get the costs down I removed the TV package and instead used a mix of satellite (Freesat) and arial (Saorview), which brought the monthly cost down to €64 a month for broadband-only.

After a chance discussion with a colleague, I heard that Three Mobile had a 5G broadband package going for €39 a month. I was a little sceptical on wireless broadband but it turned out I wasn't that far from the nearest 5G mast.

I went for an 'expert' installation package so it would be mounted externally where I live. However, as a test, I plugged in the modem inside and found the speeds were as good as before, with download speeds of about 94Mbps, the same as with my previous broadband.

While 94Mbps is fine for me it was still a bit strange the speed came in the same as before, I eventually tracked this down to the cable used between the modem and my wireless router. I had used an old cable-based purely on the colour so it could be easily distinguished, but it was still a surprise to find a Cat5 cable.

When the installer arrived a few days later he checked for the local base station, I had assumed the closest was to the East but it turned out there was a new mast to the West only 140 meters away, though not quite line of sight. Rather than install the modem externally we instead moved it to a different part of the room.

↑ Ping time of 48ms and download speed over 350Mbps. Teams calls need a ping time of around 100ms or less and so far I've not had any audio quality issues.

The modem itself looks ok, has a much-needed feature of being able to turn off the activity lights, and is powered by POE. Possibly I could have just gone with the indoor self-install version, but I didn't know what type of connection I was going to get.

↑ Outdoor Modem - ZTE MC7010

Cost wise it makes a big difference, you get 3 months free and the price goes up by 3% every year, much less than Virgin Media do with their price increases. The saving for this year will be about €400 and about €300 in the following years.

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Changing Broadband Provider 08-Feb-24 Despite living in a city, up until recently I only had the possibility to get broadband over cable (Virgin Media) or DSL. This meant I was I was paying €76 per month for a TV and Broadband package from Virgin Media. At one point in the past, it was up to €96 a month. As I work from home a good internet connection was important, as well as good latency. DSL wasn't particularly fast or cheap and the phone line would need to be moved to make it useable, so I didn't go with that option. To get the costs down I removed the TV package and instead used a mix of satellite (Freesat) and arial (Saorview), which brought the monthly cost down to €64 a month for broadband-only. After a chance discussion with a colleague, I heard that Three Mobile had a 5G broadband package going for €39 a month. I was a little sceptical on wireless broadband but it turned out I wasn't that far from the nearest 5G mast. I went for an 'expert' installation package so it would be mounted externally where I live. However, as a test, I plugged in the modem inside and found the speeds were as good as before, with download speeds of about 94Mbps, the same as with my previous broadband. While 94Mbps is fine for me it was still a bit strange the speed came in the same as before, I eventually tracked this down to the cable used between the modem and my wireless router. I had used an old cable-based purely on the colour so it could be easily distinguished, but it was still a surprise to find a Cat5 cable. When the installer arrived a few days later he checked for the local base station, I had assumed the closest was to the East but it turned out there was a new mast to the West only 140 meters away, though not quite line of sight. Rather than install the modem externally we instead moved it to a different part of the room. ↑ Ping time of 48ms and download speed over 350Mbps. Teams calls need a ping time of around 100ms or less and so far I've not had any audio quality issues. The modem itself looks ok, has a much-needed feature of being able to turn off the activity lights, and is powered by POE. Possibly I could have just gone with the indoor self-install version, but I didn't know what type of connection I was going to get. ↑ Outdoor Modem - ZTE MC7010 Cost wise it makes a big difference, you get 3 months free and the price goes up by 3% every year, much less than Virgin Media do with their price increases. The saving for this year will be about €400 and about €300 in the following years.