Three mobile broadband antenna

[Ian Andrews]

Hi my first post on this forum after some advice please.

I live in rural area but are struggle for decent broad band speed like we all are. I have recently tried a 4GEE Home router, which worked well but with the usage on iPlayer etc the data soon went.

So I was looking to use Three as they have a better package but the signal is poor downstairs, upstairs is ok. After a little research I have seen others use a Mikrotik SXT LTE. Would this be the best option or a router with an external antenna.
I have looked at other antenna or options but not sure which would be the best fit without spending loads of money.

Any guidance most welcome.
Thanks Ian

 

[kommando828]

I have a Mikrotek LHG LTE which is the more directional version of the SXT LTE, it works well but the setup was not easy and I consider myself techy, I have a Draytek dual WAN router with load balancing and the LHG is pointing at a Voda mast and a B525 with directional parabolic antenna is pointing at a Three mast. I get much better speeds from the B525, partly as the Voda mast is Band 20 only, Three is Band 20 and band 3, partly as the LHG (and SXT) is only CAT4 and the B525 is CAT6 so if the mast supports it then it can use carrier aggregation.

With hindsight I would go with 2 B525's but it really depends on the mast and how it has been configured by the operator. In the future Three will be adding band 32 to masts giving the potential for triple CA which needs a CAT 9 router such as the B715, which I plan to get once the local mast has band 32.

To test the Three mast for free sign up for their free 200mb a month sim and test in first a phone and then your preferred router.

Three Data Reward SIM - How to get 200MB free data every month

Get 200MB free data with a Data Reward SIM. No need to top-up and you can use your data abroad at no extra cost.

3g.co.uk

 

[Captain_Cretin]

I have a Mikrotek LHG LTE which is the more directional version of the SXT LTE, it works well but the setup was not easy and I consider myself techy, I have a Draytek dual WAN router with load balancing and the LHG is pointing at a Voda mast and a B525 with directional parabolic antenna is pointing at a Three mast. I get much better speeds from the B525, partly as the Voda mast is Band 20 only, Three is Band 20 and band 3, partly as the LHG (and SXT) is only CAT4 and the B525 is CAT6 so if the mast supports it then it can use carrier aggregation.

With hindsight I would go with 2 B525's but it really depends on the mast and how it has been configured by the operator. In the future Three will be adding band 32 to masts giving the potential for triple CA which needs a CAT 9 router such as the B715, which I plan to get once the local mast has band 32.

To test the Three mast for free sign up for their free 200mb a month sim and test in first a phone and then your preferred router.

Three Data Reward SIM - How to get 200MB free data every month

Get 200MB free data with a Data Reward SIM. No need to top-up and you can use your data abroad at no extra cost.

3g.co.uk

Free data is great, but I almost fainted when I saw what they wanted to for more data. has that price list been updated since 2005?

 

[kommando828]

For testing of frequencies and signal strengths 200mb is ample, once you know you can have a stable setup then you go unlimited contract. Cheaper than paying for a PAYG sim.

 

[Mark8253]

If you get a stronger signal with EE, the best option might be to put an EE unlimited data phone SIM (£34 pm) into a decent router such as the Archer MR600 or Huawei B525. If money is tight, a cheaper sub-£100 router would do for most purposes.

 

[TimWJ]

The might consider an unlimited SMARTY SIM, on offer at the moment for £18.75 per month, with no contract. They are owned by Three. The only disadvantage is that they use CGNAT, which Three do not. I have been using them for a couple of months.

 

[Storyline]

If you get a stronger signal with EE, the best option might be to put an EE unlimited data phone SIM (£34 pm) into a decent router such as the Archer MR600 or Huawei B525. If money is tight, a cheaper sub-£100 router would do for most purposes.

FAO Ian, if you can get Three after a test then a cheap pro tem solution is to get a Huawei Mifi type device and try that. It is probably not a long term solution as I think it is not designed to be permanently powered. However if you upgrade to a normal router you can use the Mifi device as a portable Internet solution when travelling or on holiday. I did exactly this by getting a Huawei E5785 with a small Netgear antenna which gave faster speeds than most of the conventional LTE routers I tested. I have just come back from holiday and I put our unlimited Three Sim that we use at home in it. It gave really fast speeds in areas that were marginal using our phones (in low population areas in Scotland) and of course we are paying for the data anyway. It did mean though that our NAS was offline and usually I like it on when we away so we have access to all our music & video etc.