3G/4G Routers - do they offer better speeds than mobile hotspot?
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I have been using my mobile phone as a hotspot for my daily internet (primarily work) needs. Being a rural area, the connection speed hovers between 2-15 Mbps with both Airtel and Jio, sometimes even lesser at peak hours. The bandwidth suffices for most needs except meetings at times due to speed fluctuations. Hence, I am considering buying a 3G/4G router. The big question I have is, do devices like TP-Link TL-MR6400, TENDA 4G03 offer better and more consistent speeds compared to mobile phones? This alone could make my purchase worthwhile. Does anyone have first-hand experience here?
Long ago, I was using Huawei device from Airtel which used to be good but now it's battery has conked off and I am not keen on buying another due to such battery issues. Surprisingly JioFi is out of stock everywhere.
If you are thinking about why I am not considering fiber broadband - my option is limited to BSNL Bharat Fiber and as our region is prone to thunderstorms for a good part of the year, I am not keen to invest in that. Several people who fail to disconnect appliances during thunderstorms lose them due to power surges. Cost is a factor too.
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I tried this approach – had first unlocked the device and was using it with a custom ROM and later another ROM that supported without battery. However, with Jio SIM, speeds were lower than phones. Disappointed, I left it there. Maybe I should check once again!
TP LINK MR600 + external LPDA antenna + Vi 699 entertainment plus 🔥🔥🔥
any 4g router which also has a usb port to share hard disk?
RT-AC68U and few others from Asus.
Nighthawk R6700, R7800, R 7500 and others from Netgear
and
many othees have copycat versions.
Others like Tenda, TP Link, LB Link.
Example: TP Link has Archer C7 AC1750, AC750.
Stuff like BL- CPE450H might be basic and cheap.
https://www.linksys.com/us/wireless-routers/traditional-routers/linksys-max-stream-ac1750-wifi-5-router/p/p-ea7200 is another slightly over rated option.
buy huawei wingle , in this u can lock the band which gives more speed, best price is at flipkart, best dongle in market
Depends on the type of router also. Normal 4G portable routers would not give more speed. However, if you are using desktop 4G router with carrier aggregation, you can get better speeds than mobiles.
TP-Link MR600 with Jio SIM has given me 50-70 mbps speeds where mobile was giving 30-40 mbps.
After much research on the TP-Link routers, I concluded the same and placed an order for MR600 sometime back. Your answer confirms my understanding. Thank you very much.
The Jio SIM I plan to insert in it is around 5 years old. Do you think a new SIM would make a difference i.e., should I get a SIM replacement?
Previously i used Airtel 4g router got good speeds later tweaked n used with different sims
yes they offer good speed. from last 4 years i am was using hotspot device for internet ( used many devices from airtel, voda unlocked) but recently i purchased TP LINK MR200 Router and this is giving 1.5x speed comparison to hotspot.
Network coverage also Increased. For Hotspot i am getting good signal at rooftop only but with Router i am getting same signal inside my home. If you want carrier aggregation then go or MR600 else MR200 is also good.
bro... instead go for braodband that will give you much more speed and also is much cheaper than mobile plans..
wasting thousands on 4g routers and then getting normal speed or low speed compare to mobile hotspot... also as you all know mobile sim internet speed is not constant all the time in the evening it is worst in night it is good..
so, best choice is go for broadband if avialabe in your area because in just 3000-3500 you will get 6 months of net
The router MR600 arrived today and it is living up to its expectations. When the phone gives 3-4 Mbps, the router is able to give 9-10 Mbps and I have seen a proportionate difference with higher speeds. Shows me Jio 4G+ availability and carrier aggregation actually seem to be working. However, SMS functionality does not seem to be working even after changing the message centre number. Does it work for you, @panchabhut;
Update: SMS is not supported in this model as it’s a non-VoLTE router.
How much did you paid for Mr600?
On Airtel, i usually get 3-7 Mbps download/ 1 Mbps upload speed using mobile hotspot. It works okay for me for most of the cases but due to signal drops, sometimes, people on other side of my Zoom call are not able to hear me which is very embarrassing and frustrating. I am using Motorola Edge 20 Fusion which has carrier aggregation. Will this MR600 help increase my data speed or will it be same as mobile hotspot? Does it provide better data signal consistency without drops/fluctuations?
The aerial distance from cell tower is only about 700-800 meters but the data speeds are so so low. So, exploring for options to increase data speeds.
Please do reply
IMO, MR600 should help you. I had not tweaked the settings in MR600 until recently but suddenly the network quality started dropping during peak times, and that too during MS Teams meetings. Initially, I was on Jio but recently started using an Airtel SIM.
Coming to tweaks, I tried multiple band combos - Band 1, 3, 8 and 40 - alone and various combos. Ultimately have settled down on Band 40 as that gives me consistent speeds of over 15 Mbps, with peak speeds up to 30 Mbps which suffices my requirements. The signal strength is usually 50% at home even after keeping the router outdoors. Without setting changes, I suffered with less than 5 Mbps speeds dropping to sub 1 Mbps speeds causing connection drops.
Airtel CA is not very reliable. I have Huawei P20 lite with 2CA. Airtel gives about -10 mbps download speeds but the upload speeds are around 1-2 mbps only. May not be effective for zoom calls.
Thanks both of you.
I did an experiment after I posted this query. I went near to the tower(both Airtel & Jio towers are adjacent to each other) and observed that the max speed of Jio near the tower was 80Mbps download/3.7 Mbps upload but max speed of Airtel was only 15Mbps(both upload and download). So, that means that the Airtel signal decay over distance is quite less compared to Jio
In general, the Jio internet speed is quite slower than Airtel at my home. I used NetMonster app and found that while Airtel uses Carrier aggregation, Jio only uses one band at a time(barring two times in last one hour it used more than one band). On one other app Network Cell Info, it shows that my both Airtel and Jio uses B3. Do you have any idea if the MR600 is capable of discovering those other bands too?
Please do note that it's not a problem where there is less speed indoors. Even the outdoors of my house have same speed. I guess its because of poor range of the tower itself
@gischethans In the original post, you have mentioned that you used to get a speed of 2-15 Mbps earlier using hotspot? Has MR600 improved your user experience? Do you still face drops after tweaking the settings? I am asking all these questions mainly due to the expensive pricing of the product. Not sure if it will be worth the money.
By default, even MR600 used to lock to Band 3 in my case but I moved the router outdoors (car parking) and locked it to Band 40 which improved the experience significantly despite 50% signal strength. It is usually 75% for Band 3.
I understand your scepticism due to the cost - I had got the device for around 7k post discounts. A few weeks before, I saw it for 6k. It goes up to 9k at times.
In my case, for Jio, MR600 locks to 3+40 or 5+40. On rare occasion it locked to 3+5. Speeds were better than using with jiofi. For Airtel, it normally locks only to 40, no CA.
I have been using MR600 with Jio sim since last few days. I tried all possible combos but the CA feature did not work as I had expected. In fact, locking the bands to use a single band yielded more results than aggregating bands. Airtel did not yield more than 10Mbps in any band combos.
However, the good thing is that I am still getting much better speeds than mobile. I am constantly getting 10-15Mbps speeds when using Band 5 on Jio. Best part is that the upload speed is also good(even more than download speed most of the times). I have not been interrupted during Zoom calls even once in past four days
Did you try placing the router in different locations, like closer to a window? Depending on your house, you may be able to place it outdoors. I am suggesting outdoor (like a balcony/open car shed) since bands like 40 don't penetrate walls in case of weak signals.
I have not tried it outdoors. I don't have a spot to place it outdoors. But I did place it on window pane and the speeds are same. Will have to try outdoors too just for testing purposes.
Where do I have the option to set the B40 + B40 ( or any combos of same bands)? I don't see the option in my Advanced>Internet settings page
I only see options to merge different bands.
I need your help here guys.
I didn't use my router for two months. Now when I am trying to use it, the internet is not available. Only the power and wifi buttons are on. Any idea what could be wrong?
Can you share the screenshot of Internet settings option for JIO sim including Authentication type. I think I am doing something wrong
It worked now when I inserted airtel sim, removed it and then inserted JIO sim. Thanks anyways folks
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yes they offer better speeds.
you can configure your airtel hotspot to work without battery. i have it & battery was dead within 2 years now working perfectly without battery but not using it switched to fiber recently.
but best advice for u to change the rom of airtel device first and then configure it to work without battery. search for youtube tutorials of the same.