Last month, we posted a blog titled “Six Is Better Than Five.” That blog took a look at the benefits of upgrading your network to WiFi6: “We don’t think anyone, circumstances permitting, would turn down better network performance. Faster speeds, less bandwidth congestion and longer battery life for connected devices are among the upgrades that come with WiFi 6.”

However, we’ve said many times in the past that the “latest and greatest” is not always available and other solutions have to be implemented. 

The title of this blog refers to 5G cellular service. We first wrote about using 5G cellular service as an Internet provider in a blog titled “Air Supply”  where we wrote: “For our client, we determined that their best choice for a fast, reliable Internet connection was, wait for it, a 5G cellular service. Our first concern was bandwidth and, of course, latency.” We were also concerned about the data limits that often accompany most cellular services.

The “latest and greatest” simply wasn’t available at our client’s location. After running T-Mobile’s cellular service through a series of tests, we found “latency to be around 35ms with 160Mbps download and 10Mbps upload. Very good numbers, especially when you consider the signal is coming from a cell tower about a half mile away.” The service also included unlimited data at a reasonable price.

A Managed Service Provider who we have been working with recently found one of his clients in a similar situation. A need for reliable Internet service with no viable provider in the rural area where they are located.

Having gone through the process ourselves, it was a no brainer that we recommend he look into what cellular services were available in that area. The MSP also went with T-Mobile and reported that his client is very satisfied with both the service and the price.

Another of the MSP’s clients was looking for a cost effective, reliable service to use as a backup – or failover* – in the event that their primary Internet connection went down. The MSP again recommended T-Mobile cellular. Again, the client was satisfied with the results.

*If you’re interested, we go into more detail regarding failover and load balancing protocols in a blog titled “Balancing Act.” 

We are strong proponents of using the most effective and productive network equipment available. We are also very aware that doing so is not always feasible. That’s why we also research and test alternative options in order to provide the best possible solution based on the circumstances.