Investigation

There is a strong case for delivering broadband to the home wirelessly, rather than down wires. Getting broadband the 'ordinary way', down traditional phone lines requires subscribers to pay for phone line rental, on top of the broadband fee, even though many people just use mobiles for their phone calls. BT keeps increasing line rental and at the time of writing it is now approaching £20 a month.

Getting broadband down ordinary copper phone lines relies on 'digital subscriber line' (DSL) and speeds vary with distance from the exchange. Old lines made of aluminium rather than copper are virtually no use for broadband. Fibre into the home is needed for higher speed, but it is only available in selected areas. And it has to be laid underground. Virgin offers a coaxial cable alternative but only in selected urban areas, and it is more expensive.

Delivering broadband into the home by 5G completely bypasses the need for phone lines or cable or fibre. Relish, which is owned by Three UK, already delivers fixed wireless broadband to the home wirelessly using 4G at £20 a month (with a free wireless router) and this is for all-you-can-eat data. In my experience it generally works well and with 5G it will work far better.

All the phone companies are already promising 5G into the home so I expect there to be a price war. Personally, I can't wait for the chance to ditch my phone line and go 5G.