Swisscom Blue Internet S with 5G Booster or Wingo Internet Light with limited speed?

    • I’m moving. At the new place of residence, the building is connected to the world via a Swisscom copper (overhead) cable.

    According to the checker on the Swisscom website, a maximum speed of 85 Mbit/s download and 38 Mbit/s upload should be possible. With the 5G Booster, a download speed of over 600 MBit/s and upload speeds of over 80 MBit/s would be possible (best values ​​here too, of course). But since I would choose Blue Internet S, I would simply have the subscribed 100 Mbit/s.

    According to Swisscom, the speed there could also be lower than the checker states, download perhaps between 60 and 70 MBit/s. Unfortunately, you can’t measure anything because there is currently no active line in the house.

    Today I’m also working with a 100 Mbit/s product (100 down and 40 up) and that’s enough for a 1-person household and that will also be the case in the new location.

    In addition to home office, the Anschluss is also used for TV streaming (of course not both at the same time).

    Wingo currently has a promo, the Internet Light subscription with also 100 MBit/s would be 30 francs per month cheaper than the Blue Internet S from Swisscom. That amounts to at least CHF 300 per year.

    The one-off costs are roughly similar for both offers, with Swisscom you would have to pay 149 for the booster, activation and internet box are free if you order online.

    With Wingo activation costs 99.-

    • With the Swisscom Blue solution I would have the subscribed speed of 100 Mbit/s in the download
    • With Wingo the speed would be limited because there is no booster, but the subscription is 30.- cheaper (= -CHF 300.- / year)

    I still have a relatively new Fritz!Box 7590 AX, which I’m actually very happy with and which is currently doing its job reliably at my old place of residence.

    According to various research and FAQs on the website, Wingo can also use its own suitable router, so I could connect my FritzBox instead of the Wingo box and therefore continue to use it. Because selling it as used on an auction platform won’t bring in much.

    With Blue Internet with Booster, I would have to use the Internetbox 3 from Swisscom, as the bonding with the 5G Booster will only work via this router; the FritzBox is not suitable for this. So I would be stuck with almost new hardware, which also cost something.

    Question: If you were me, would you accept a speed loss of perhaps 30-35 MBit/s in the download for a saving of CHF 300 per year?

    I’m really not sure what to do. Actually, initially I had in mind the solution with the more expensive internet and the booster, then I would have exactly the same speed at the new location as at the old location.

    On the other hand, problems with Apple services and the booster have already been reported in this forum and I have all Apple devices with the exception of the business notebook. But these problems should be history with the new booster platform / new backend. And if not? Then I would only have higher costs +300 per year and would still have to exclude the Apple devices from the booster, so I would only have one device that used additional power and no more speed on the Apple devices than with the Wingo solution. That would be rather frustrating.

    At Wingo I would attach my Fritz!Box 7590 AX and the matching mesh repeater Fritz Repeater 6000, which I also bought, would fit perfectly.

    I’m just a bit torn and unsure about the speed.

    With Wingo I would have a minimum contract period of 12 months. So if the performance was below expectations, I would have to wait a whole year before I could switch to Swisscom with a booster solution.

    With Swisscom the minimum contract period would be 24 months, but that wouldn’t matter, if it works then I’ll leave it as it is. Fiber optics won’t be an issue anyway, probably not for the next 10 years, as the copper cables to the house are still overhead lines.

    What would you do if you were me?

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      @MagicMax

      Yes, is that a thing of the past at the link below?

      In any case, if I were you, I would check at the new location whether the actual value is around 100 Mbit/s and if you only have the “S” subscription, forget about the 5G booster.

      [https://community.swisscom.ch/t5/Router-Hardware/Internetbox-3-Internetbooster-5G-Apple-Services/m-p/814935#M47934] (https://community.swisscom.ch/t5/Router-Hardware/Internetbox-3-Internetbooster-5G-Apple-Services/m-p/814935#M47934)

      Show original language (German)

      Installationen, Netzwerk, Internet, Computertechnik, OS Windows, Apple und Linux.

      MagicMax I would try Wingo

      The information from the checker assumes that there will be some loss due to the house installation. If you replace the coarse fuses on the overhead line and connect the IB as directly after the UP as possible, I think you can get pretty close to 100 Mbit/s

      What is also worth considering: using a Wingo Swiss 5G subscription (28 Fr. per month) + a 2nd SIM (5 Fr. per month). With Wingo the use of a mobile phone subscription in a 5G router is explicitly permitted, provided it is a 2nd SIM ([https://www.wingo.ch/de/legal-information](https://www.wingo.ch/ de/legal-information))

      The disadvantage of this solution is that you have no external IPv4 and no IPv6. The one-off costs are also significantly higher because you still have to buy a 5G router

      However, the monthly costs are even slightly lower than with the normal 100 Mbit/s Wingo subscription and in theory the speed is significantly better (since you could get over 500 Mbit/s extra with the booster, I assume that the 5G antenna is in close by and the cell is not extremely busy). However, with a cell phone subscription you obviously don’t have a dedicated slot on the cell like with a booster, so your speed can fluctuate significantly depending on how busy the cell is

      Screenshot 2024-03-29 at 11.04.20.png

      Show original language (German)

        @NilsL

        These fuses are somehow lightning protection or not? I have to find out whether I can get a newer connection box from a Swisscom partner electrician. The line is also connected to the lightning rod, which is probably really a serious matter, not that the house suddenly burns down because lightning strikes the Swisscom Internet cable between the mast and the house…

        I have already considered a purely mobile solution. Swisscom installed a new mobile phone antenna nearby (approx. 600 - 650m away) last year, and reception has of course improved noticeably since then.

        I already have a Wingo mobile subscription that supports 5G. I am very surprised that the Fair Use Policy then allows the MultiDevice Option (i.e. Second SIM) to be used in routers.

        When streaming TV, very large amounts of data quickly accumulate and for this very reason I have certain reservations about a mobile solution, which I would then use as a stationary solution. I previously assumed that something like this would fall under misuse/misuse (= excessive amount of stationary data). It’s a mobile phone subscription.

        The costs would of course be massively lower, I could add the SecondSIM to my existing subscription for €5 per month and then just buy a smart 5G router.

        I still like a public IPv4 address; I access services in my network from time to time when I’m on the move. This is of course problem-free with the Fritz!Box thanks to a dynDNS with a dynamic, public IPv4 address. That’s why I tend to avoid the mobile solution. At best, the second SIM would be worth considering as a backup, an additional CHF 5 per month probably won’t ruin me either…

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        @MagicMax It’s relatively easy with the rough fuse, you can easily replace the old glass fuses with a new one, otherwise you would have to look for the material

        It is important that the fuse is grounded with a suitable earth conductor which goes directly to the fuse box and is not simply picked up at the nearest socket (seen it all before)

        With the newer coarse fuses, grounding is done via the DIN rail, so you need a short piece of DIN rail to secure it and a part to connect an earth cable to the DIN rail

        I should actually have a Sonepar watch list on my PC, otherwise I would have to take a quick look when I’m back in front of the PC. Then you can order it through your trusted electrician or I think you can get most of it as a private person through Elektro- Zollinger or something like that

        I don’t know any more about the Wingo Fair Use Policy than on the page I linked. I think my record was to put a little over 100 GB through a Wingo SIM in one month and there were no problems whatsoever

        An external IPv4 is something practical but it also works well without it thanks to services like Tailscale. What I also did to get a second IPv4 address was set up a VPS on Oracle Cloud (it used to be completely free, I have no idea if it still is) and connected my MikroTik router there via OpenVPN. It was only for a temporary project (matura work) and is no longer in operation. However, it worked absolutely error-free for about half a year

        If you already have a Wingo subscription; Try it, either just use the cell phone hotspot or alternatively if you have an old 5G cell phone lying around, just use it as a hotspot with a 2nd SIM.

        My grandparents also have a Wingo 2nd SIM running in a Huawei 5G router in their holiday home that is not connected to a Swisscom line and it works great, over 300 Mbit/s download at pretty much any time of the day. Also used a lot for TV streaming (via the laptop with the Blue TV login from your Swisscom Anschluss at home). However, since they are only there a few days a month, they don’t really use much data

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        @NilsL @MagicMax here is a Betrag on how to update the rough backup:

        [https://community.swisscom.ch/t5/Heimvernetzung-WLAN/Freileitung-Blitzschutz/td-p/735102](https://community.swisscom.ch/t5/Heimvernetzung-WLAN/Freileitung-Blitzschutz/td- p/735102)

        The 3M fuses

        (Red blocks (connection module 3M Scotchlok MX 2000 E-NR: 973802199 )) have a VDR (varistor) inside which becomes conductive to earth from >100VDC.

        With the old coarse fuse, the fuse coil is a problem with HF (high frequency->XDSL signal) (capacitance / inductance / contact resistance). Can lead to problems (line disturbances / reduced speed on the line)

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        5 days later

        Thanks everyone for the useful information.

        I’m going to bring the installation up to speed, i.e. replace the fuse elements and connect the lightning protection grounding directly to the DIN rail.

        To be on the safe side, I will now move the subscription from another provider to my new place of residence. The advantage is that I no longer have to run into a minimum contract period. If the speed is not satisfactory, I will be out of the contract within 60 days and get a Blue Internet with 5G Booster.

        If I had signed a new Wingo contract, I would have been stuck in the contract for 12 months and would have had to worry about it for a year if the service was unsatisfactory before I could switch to Swisscom with Booster.

        I wasn’t 100% sure whether this other provider would also work there or whether only Swisscom products could be ordered on this Anschluss. But it seems to work.

        Let’s wait and see.

        The MX 2000 module can be ordered by private customers from Mouser Electronics. Other electrical wholesalers have a hard time and consistently only deliver to corporate customers and not private customers (in the past, if you came in with the ELDAS number, you could still pick up stuff at the EM counter and pay in cash, but I think that’s the case today too Story.

        Show original language (German)

        My Eltern probably have a similar constellation as you describe - overhead lines etc, VDSL2, Wingo as Internet providers. The speed is +/- 65Mbit down and 20Mbit UP. That’s not exactly great, but it’s enough and the latency is ok. I have a Site2Site VPN and will be notified in the event of an outage. The line is very stable, I had 2 short failures in 10 months, but only because the router restarted. The IB2 does a very good job.

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        6 days later

        The new security module has been ordered and will be installed soon (ha, fortunately there is still some time).

        Yesterday I connected a router to the Anschluss, which is still protected by the old glass fuses, and checked to see if anything happened. The provider wanted a connection number because he couldn’t find Anschluss using the previous resident’s name.

        The Fritz!Box was actually able to establish a DSL connection!

        The speed is specified as 88.5 MBit/s download and 41.4 MBit/s upload.

        As soon as the security element has been changed, I connect the router again.

        It doesn’t look that bad, but there isn’t a “spicy” subscription on it either. I was actually surprised that a connection could be established before a subscription was even ordered at this address.

        fb1.png

        fb2.png

        No matter what you enter in the browser, you end up on a kind of activation page where you can also see the connection identification number.

        The question also arises as to whether this somewhat exotic overhead line connection could even be served by another provider. The way I interpret the matter is that Swisscom leases home access lines to third-party providers (Broadband Connectivity Service BBCS). This probably means that the third-party provider must have its infrastructure up to the local headquarters and from then on it uses the Swisscom infrastructure. But since the line runs along the street in a larger town, I think that the network is accessed by different providers. In any case, availability was confirmed. Let’s see. Otherwise Wingo would certainly have to work, which is supposed to be Swisscom from a network perspective. In terms of speed, I don’t think I need a booster at the moment.

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        @MagicMax That looks pretty good

        In principle, all providers can “rent” from Swisscom throughout Switzerland, I know without their own equipment in the headquarters or something (correct me if I’m wrong)

        Show original language (German)

        @NilsL, @MagicMax The provider must of course have its equipment installed at the headquarters, otherwise the whole thing won’t work, which is why some ISPs are only available in certain regions.

        The ISP also pays rent for its installed equipment at the headquarters.

        BBCS rents the lines and services (e.g. IP-TV to the ISP) from the headquarters to the customer UP or GS for overhead lines.

        That’s why Swisscom is also responsible (headquarters->UP) if the third-party ISP reports a problem.

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        @MagicMax with an MCAN -> UP/GS connection, the terminals are connected hardware-wise, which is why you always have a signal/connection on some of the UP’s terminals (depending on the configuration).

        With the activation page you activate the service you have ordered from your ISP.

        The connection identification number is used to determine whether the services/ISP have also been activated on the correct flush-mounted terminal (Anschluss).

        If this is not the case (without jumper action) you can solve this via the back office (BBCS/Swisscom), it will take a maximum of 15 minutes until the new Anschluss is switched.

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