Cutting the TV cord has become a popular way to liberate yourself from ever-higher pay-TV bills. If you want to do the same for your wired broadband, though, that cord can seem more like a chain.

But that hasn’t stopped a surprisingly large number of Americans from relying only on mobile broadband. That has led many telecom lobbyists to urge the government to consider wireless broadband as competition for the wired sort—in other words, a reason to let up on regulation.

And while wireless download speeds have caught up to, and sometimes surpassed, those of many ground-bound services, it remains too soon to consider it a drop-in replacement. Wireless plans sold as “unlimited” still cap how much bandwidth you can share via a phone’s mobile-hotspot option. And leaning on that feature will both smash through those limits, and burn through your phone’s battery.

The frustrating part of this is that wired broadband can inflict its own issues. Phone-based digital-subscriber-line (DSL) connections are usually too slow, while faster cable internet subscriptions often come priced to punish those who don’t also take a pay-TV bundle. And if you must choose between wired and wireless internet service, the kind you can take with you has to take precedence—do you really want to have your phone just make calls when you’re away from home?

The optimistic part of this: The next generation of wireless broadband shouldn’t impose the same limits. And some of you may not have to wait long for 5G to reach your home.