Can I use 4g for my restaurant reservation software?

1 min read

Is 4g a viable alternative to broadband for restaurants using simpleERB for restaurant reservations?
It is a common situation now for people to find that the 4g data speeds are better than the landline broadband speeds available to them.
4g routers are now commonly available.
We often get asked: is it ok to use 4g for simpleERB? Will it cost me a lot?
The short answer is yes, it is perfectly feasible to use 4g and no, it won’t cost you a lot.
4g data costs (as of early 2018 in the UK) about 50p to £1 for 1gb (gigabyte) and a busy restaurant doing 15,000 covers per year is unlikely to use more than 2gb per month of data communicating with simpleERB, maybe only half that. So allow 50p to £2 per month in total.
If you use more than one device you will use more but two devices won’t use twice the data.
With a typical data speed of 20 mbps (megabits per second) download and 10mbps upload, the relatively small simpleERB page sizes (one sixth to one quarter of a Mb) will load quickly.
You can try it out by using the personal hotspot on your mobile phone before you invest in a 4g router.
Always make sure to check which networks are offering the best speeds locally. As the networks upgrade their services, the “right choice” can change overnight!