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3G experiment

.. and now we have O2 4G. I saw it on my phone very briefly and was able to get a speed test before it flicked back to GPRS.

Very weak signal. 23 down 1 up. Yes, only 1 up, and it struggled to get to that. Though that was only one speed test - that's as long as the phone held the signal for. Was probably borderline when it got to the upstream test.

We're in between two transmitters, the GPRS one and what used to be a 3G - now 4G - one. The GPRS one is the stronger signal and the one the phone will latch to 95% of the time.
 
Fairly sure it was/is this one

http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-antenna-lpda-0092.html

That worked with the E367 dongle. You can't plug it into the E3256 one as it doesn't have an antenna flap/socket. It's also pointing at the Three cell next to the phone exchange on the far embankment of the dual carriageway - you can actually see that from the roof of this house - so it isn't used now.

When it was used, this significantly improved signal strength and the greatest differences were the upstream and most especially the latency.

I would have it turned around to point at the EE one except for the fact that 4G needs two antennae not one to work optimally, and the dongle returns decent enough speeds all by itself though I'd be intrigued to see what is possible, seeing something like 50 Meg downstream (well, one can hope/imagine/dream), twice what it is capable of now, would be incredible for round here.

I have it shared round the house using Windows ICS and a reconfigured router at the moment. I did and do plan to buy a 4G router and get the two external antennae but it hasn't been enough of a priority thus far.

Hi I noticed you said about using 2 antennae for optimum performance. If I was using a directional antenna to receive from a 4G mast, would I need 2 of these antennae both pointing at the mast? Sorry to jump in on this thread too.
 
Hi I noticed you said about using 2 antennae for optimum performance. If I was using a directional antenna to receive from a 4G mast, would I need 2 of these antennae both pointing at the mast? Sorry to jump in on this thread too.

Yes. 4G is designed to work with two antennae. However you can buy an antenna which appears to be single but actually has two outputs. I forget the term now but it's basically 'two in one'.

Thus the B593 has a pair of internal antenna and a pair of antenna inputs.

Ironically we're still using our old antenna (single) plugged into one of the ports, and we still see over 25 Meg both ways, usually nearer 50 Meg upstream. I must I don't really know "how" this is working and it might be that we'd see much better performance with dual antennae. It might just be that we're quite close to the cell with near line of sight.
 
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