Satellite internet or a 4G antenna: which one suits you here

Let us start with what almost nobody says

WiFi Calling works over ANY internet connection. Over fibre, over satellite and over a 4G router. It is not an advantage of one technology over another. If someone tells you that with satellite you will not be able to call from home, they either do not know or they are selling you something else.

What changes between the two options is not what you can do. It is what it costs, what needs to be above your house, and what happens in the months when you are away.

What each one needs in order to work

A 4G antenna needs a mast belonging to your operator within reasonable reach, even if the signal arriving is weak. Our job is to find it, aim at it from the highest point of the house and bring that signal indoors. If there is genuinely nothing reaching your plot, an antenna does not invent coverage.

Satellite needs clear sky and nothing in the way: not a pine tree, not the neighbour's eaves, not the water tank. On an open rural plot that is easy. On a terraced house with a narrow yard there is sometimes nowhere to put it.

The money, which is where the real difference is

Satellite is equipment you buy plus a fee you pay every month, whether you are in the house or not. The antenna and router are a one-off installation, and after that you only pay for the data on the SIM you already have or on a cheap plan. Over one year they can look similar. Over three years they look nothing alike.

We do not print satellite prices here because they change, and an old figure on a web page is a false figure. Look them up the day you decide, and multiply by thirty six months before you compare.

When satellite is the better idea

When no operator's signal genuinely reaches the plot. When you need real bandwidth for work, several people at once, and the mobile coverage in the area is thin. And when the house is out in the countryside, far away, with open sky and nothing in the way. In those three cases we will tell you so, and we will not fit anything.

When you need neither

If the house already has fibre or ADSL and the only thing failing is the calls, you need neither satellite nor an antenna. You need WiFi Calling switched on in the phones of the house, and that is a setting, not building work. It is the first thing we look at, and when that is the answer we say so, even though it is the smallest job we do.

What neither of them promises you

Neither satellite nor a 4G antenna turns your house into a place where emergency calls are guaranteed. WiFi Calling depends on there being power, on there being internet, and on your operator. For emergency numbers, a phone with street coverage remains the safe option. We say this on every one of our pages and we are not going to stop saying it here.