mobile WIFI -EE

  • 18 January 2023
  • 8 replies
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Does anyone know if my Sonos products. IE playbar play ones and sub will work on a mobile wifi instead of getting broadband. I’m looking at the pay as you go EE  wifi things. Moving house soon and don’t want to be tied in a contract. Your feedback will be much appreciated. Steve


8 replies

Sort of, but it’s messy.

You cannot directly connect SONOS to a broadband network, however, you could connect a travel router using a tethering arrangement with a phone. The travel router will provide the local network that SONOS requires. Your SONOS system and the controllers will use the local travel router.

As long as you have sufficient bandwidth, there should be no difference between WiFi from broadband and WiFi from 4/5G.  They both look the same to Sonos. 

Sort of, but it’s messy.

You cannot directly connect SONOS to a broadband network, however, you could connect a travel router using a tethering arrangement with a phone. The travel router will provide the local network that SONOS requires. Your SONOS system and the controllers will use the local travel router.

 

Wouldn’t the EE hotspot work as a router?

Whatever you chose, pay attention to the contract.  A lot of these mobile WiFi deals state they are unlimited data usage, but hide the fact that the bandwidth is throttled after X GB is used each month.

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I have been using 3’s 5g broadband for over a year now with no problems, however my main sonos speaker (Arc) is hardwired to the router and most of my speakers are on sonosnet.

I have 2 roams and 2 moves as well and they connect to my wireless mesh with no issues 

I am using eero pro 6 as my wifi as i had eero when I was on virgin media as their wireless sucked 

When I switched I just plugged in the eero pro into the new router after turning off wireless on the 5g router and everything carried on working 

Before that I was using a 4g router which worked just as well with lower speeds I have unlimited data and use around 2tb a month can recommend it on my experience but not used EE so unsure on them 

But the tech works well IMHO 👍

OK, I’m in the US and have no experience with EE. I did a little research.

Here’s a handy link that leads to lots of answers. Pay attention to the limits of each device and data plan. I think that your best approach would be an EE router. I don’t think that a phone based hotspot would be a great idea because the phone hot spot supports a more limited number of clients and a phone is not designed to be an efficient router. Plus, SONOS requires an always available network. If a phone is the router and the phone leaves the building, the SONOS system is stranded.

If you frequently listen to online content, you could exhaust your data plan. If you are listening to local music playing from a phone/pad/computer/NAS drive, there is no need to be online, but you do need a  functional local network for SONOS. 

I quite successfully use this MiFi Wifi-6 device with the EE 4G/5G network when travelling around the UK ‘glamping’ with Roams/Moves:

 

It works fine, even when the mobile signal is ‘reasonable’ and also whilst streaming ‘standard’ movies on a FireTV stick, linked to a TV,  too. So home use with a decent signal should be fine.

Although such devices are not ‘officially’ supported by Sonos they can and do work in most cases.

I easily use approx. 10gb download per day and that’s mostly evening-use only, without even trying, it includes iPhone and iPad (x2) daily usage aswell.

I assume this is using a proper 4G/5G router?  If so then it should work fine. If it is just a “mifi” device watch out for a low limit on the number of devices that can connect.

I suggest you apply online or by telephone, not in-store.  That way you will have the protection of the Distance Selling Regulations, and so you will have 14 days to return it if it doesn’t work sufficiently well

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