I've gone from writing about SD-WAN to depending on it
- ID
- 12416
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 09 Aug 2026, 9:05 PM
- Fetched
- 09 Aug 2026, 9:39 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/08/09/ive-gone-from-writing-about-sd-wan-to-depending-on-it/5285130
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 09 Aug 2026, 9:39 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_startup_founders
What happened
The Register's Systems Editor Tobias Mann moved from Denver suburbs to the Colorado Rockies and found DSL (20 Mbps down / 1.5 Mbps up) unusable for remote work. He now bonds T-Mobile 5G home internet (near-gigabit down, 30-40 Mbps up) with Starlink (100-400 Mbps down, ~30 Mbps up) using SD-WAN, after experiencing a dozen connection drops in two months on either service alone during working hours.
Why it matters
If you're building or working from areas with unreliable single-link broadband — a real issue outside Klang Valley in Malaysia — bonding 5G home internet with Starlink or a second cellular link via SD-WAN is a proven pattern worth evaluating. The article's concrete drop-frequency data (12 outages in 2 months, lasting 1-5 minutes, mostly during work hours) gives you a realistic reliability baseline to plan around rather than trusting either provider's marketing.
Discussion angle
For Malaysian builders outside fiber-covered areas: is bonding a 5G home internet plan with a backup cellular or Starlink link via open-source SD-WAN (e.g., OpenWrt multipath, Speedify) a practical reliability play, and what does the cost vs. downtime tradeoff look like locally?