How do I keep working when the broadband goes down?

Getting back online in five minutes using a phone, what to turn off before you do, and the preparation that makes an outage a nuisance rather than a lost day.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 20 min
Read: 3 min

Short answer

Turn your phone into a hotspot and connect one device to it. Before you do, turn off cloud sync, automatic updates and backups on that device, or they will empty your data allowance within the hour. Video calls with cameras off use a fraction of the data.

Almost everyone carries a working internet connection in their pocket. The reason an outage still costs a day is that nothing has been set up in advance, and the first attempt burns the month's data on a background backup nobody knew was running.

What is actually between you and the internet

Step by step

Confirm the broadband really is down before switching.Check the router's internet light and the provider's status page on mobile data. If it is a device problem rather than a line problem, tethering will not help.
Turn off the data-hungry things first.On the laptop or tablet you are about to tether: pause cloud sync, pause backups, and postpone system and app updates. This is the single most useful step and it takes a minute.
Start the hotspot on your phone.Every modern phone has a personal hotspot or mobile hotspot setting. Set a password on it, and prefer connecting by cable or Bluetooth if battery life matters more than speed.
Connect one device, not everything.Household devices will happily join and start syncing. Connect only what you need to work and leave everything else off the hotspot.
Keep the phone plugged in.Tethering drains a battery very quickly, and the phone will get warm. A charger and a spot near a window with good signal is the ideal arrangement.
Cut what video calls consume.Camera off is a very large saving; screen sharing is expensive. Dialling into a meeting by ordinary phone call uses no data at all.
Watch the data counter, not the clock.Most phones show data used since a reset. Reset it when you start tethering so you can see what the session is costing.
Prepare properly for next time.Make key documents available offline before you need them, know your data allowance, keep one long charging cable with the laptop bag, and check whether your mobile plan allows tethering at all.

Tips

Some cheaper mobile plans restrict or exclude tethering. Check yours before you rely on it.
A cheap data-only SIM in a spare phone or small router is a good insurance policy for anyone who works from home.
Public wifi in a library or cafe is a reasonable fallback — treat it as untrusted and stick to sites you sign in to over an encrypted connection.

Common mistakes

Tethering a laptop without pausing cloud sync — A photo library or a document folder that decides to resync can consume tens of gigabytes without any visible sign until the allowance is gone.
Leaving the hotspot running afterwards — Devices reconnect to it silently once the broadband returns, and keep using mobile data for days. Turn it off deliberately.

If it doesn't work

Hotspot appears but the laptop will not connect

Cause: Band mismatch or a stale saved network — Fix: Forget the hotspot on the laptop and rejoin. Some laptops only see the 2.4GHz hotspot band, which is usually a setting on the phone.

Data allowance disappeared in an hour

Cause: Background sync, backups or updates on the tethered device — Fix: Pause them, then set the connection as metered — both Windows and macOS have a setting that tells apps to hold back on a limited connection.

Phone gets very hot and the battery drops fast

Cause: Normal for sustained tethering, worse with weak signal — Fix: Keep it charging, move it somewhere with better signal, and take the case off. Weak signal makes the radio work much harder.

Questions people ask

How much data does a working day use?

Ordinary email, documents and browsing might use a gigabyte or two. Video calls with camera on can use around a gigabyte an hour each. Cloud backups and updates dwarf everything else, which is why pausing them matters most.

Is tethering secure enough for work?

Yes — it is your own mobile connection with a password, and generally safer than public wifi. Follow whatever your employer requires for remote access.