Prices continue to rise for billpayers across the UK and despite the rate of inflation falling to 10.1%, food, water, petrol and a wave of household bills continue to soar.
Nowadays our phones can do almost anything, so when it comes to streaming series at home, using the internet, playing music and even working we don't just have to rely on broadband packages. As prices increase, I decided to swap broadband for a phone hotspot to see if it would be just as reliable, and it turns out there's a huge saving in it too.
This April, broadband services including the likes of Now TV, Sky and BT raised their rates by 14%, leaving many customers paying an extra £5 a month - or £60 a year. As we reported on the steps customers could do amid the price hikes, one reader shared a money-saving tip that we just had to try for ourselves.
READ MORE: Sky, Virgin Media and BT broadband prices soar - what to do if you can't pay
Explaining in a comment on the MEN, he said: “If you're in a 5G area with an unlimited data deal I don't see why you need a broadband deal. You can tether your laptop and TV to your phone. That's what I do."
It certainly may be an option for customers coming to the end of their current broadband deal, or those who don't have one, raising the point of whether it is an 'essential home service' or if could you still get by on a mobile plan you already have.
To see if this strategy could work for me at home I decided to put it to the test, turning off my wifi during three working-from-home days. It may have been slightly ‘glitchy’ at times but it could save me more than £400 if I kept it up for a whole year.
Obviously, any customer would save money if they decided to pay for a broadband contract; the whole idea of my review is to see if it's possible to only rely on your phone and get the same results.
Swapping to my phone would save me £400 plus a year
I have to start off by saying that I wouldn't be able to fully implement this plan as I am still mid-contract with my provider, however once ended in a few months' time I won't be going back to broadband. And here's why.
As a household, we spend £40.50 a month for Virgin broadband, which is pretty pricey but as both my boyfriend and I work from home it gives us the speeds and quantity we need. Our previous £25 a month package didn't live up to my gamer boyfriend's expectations, hence the added expense - although for what we paid I thought it was pretty good.
On top of this, I also have an unlimited 5G SIM-only plan that costs me £16 a month with Smarty, which I use with a Samsung S22 phone. The only reason I mention the handset is that it has 5G connectivity, unlike older smartphone models. This is worth noting as older phones limited to 3G connectivity may not perform as well on hotspots (tethering).
Both bills combined come to a huge total of £678 a year, with broadband costing £486 of that amount. When adding up both of the total costs it's occurred to me just how much we are 'overpaying' and there's definitely a saving to be had.
When broken down into spending per day (three eight-hour work shifts) I spend £1.85 a day on broadband compared to the 52p a day I spend a day using my phone.
Connecting all devices to my phone for its 'hotspot'
There have been countless times I've been out with friends and been asked to share my hotspot for 'two minutes'. It's something I've grown to love most about having an unlimited phone plan.
For three work shifts, I tethered the data from my phone to my work laptop instead of using our home wifi, knowing that it wouldn't cost me anything extra.
A mobile hotspot works by creating a wireless connection for other users (using the mobile data from the 'hotspot' handset). Nearby devices can connect to the internet through the handset's data.
You can also set a password on it too, in order to restrict how much other people use it. To set up my work laptop to my phone data I went into the settings on my Samsung S22 into 'Connections' and then found 'Mobile Hotspot'. After this my phone popped up as a wifi option on my laptop, and in five minutes I was connected.
Apart from the initial setup I didn't notice any difference in speed when at work; I still managed to connect to all apps as easily as I normally do. Over the three working days, I only had one issue with my camera freezing when on a video call, but this happened at times when using home wifi too.
Is it worth it?
Initially, I thought there were going to be loads of teasing issues, like unresponsive browsers, but it worked really smoothly. In fact, I don't know why I've never thought of this before.
Obviously, I knew I would save a lot of money by not continuing my broadband deal once the contract to an end but I wanted to see if it would still be possible to access the internet. Not only could I save £486 but the speeds are just good so it's a money-saving 'hack' without any compromise on quality.
It's definitely something I'd recommend trying out at home to see if it could work for you and your household, whether it's using your phone to stream Netflix to TV (works really well with a Chromecast), school or uni work or for a desktop at home.
Best 5G SIM-only contracts
If you're looking to make the change from home wifi to a fast speed 5G mobile hotspot, these are the best deals we've spotted on 5G SIM-only unlimited data deals.
Providers including £16 a month, LycaMobile, O2 and Lebara offer affordable monthly prices on SIM-only deals. One of the cheapest is SMARTY at ASDA Mobile, closely followed by ThreeMobile at £19 a month.
ASDA Mobile also offer an unlimited deal from £22 with included EU roaming data and rises up to £24 a month depending on the add-ons.
A list of deals can be compared online at Uswitch, here.
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