There is one giant elephant in the room with regards to mobile broadband replacing your fixed line connection. Even if we do get to the stage where 4G is affordable, ubiquitous and unlimited, replacing a home broadband connection with a dongle won’t be practical in many instances – we’re talking shared households here.
Can you imagine how annoying it would be to get home from work with a view towards catching up with the latest season of Breaking Bad on Netflix, only to discover your flatmate/sister/significant other has disappeared to the pub with the device?
This problem could be circumvented if users procured their own individual units which, when added together and priced against the cost of a single fixed-line cable connection, probably won’t make sound financial sense for many people.
For now, 4G is still an emerging technology in most countries, and while it’s certainly fast enough, it’s still not nearly ubiquitous enough or restriction-free to be a viable alternative for most would-be cord-cutters. The average UK broadband user cuts through around 25GB of data a month at home, so 4G has a long way to go yet.
But it could be a different story two years from now, if ‘unlimited’ becomes a key part of every 4G mobile broadband plan, and prices come down just a little.