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5G Router - relocated to the UK - renting in a new built house - no internet

GoldenAxe

Casual Member
Hello, we recently moved to the UK and are renting a newly built house in London.

We are both in tech, work mostly from home, and used to have a full fibre 1 gigabit connection. To our amazement, there is no fibre provider near us, and when I checked "standard" broadband, I discovered we can obtain "UltraFast" rates of 15Mbps; I was convinced it was a joke because I hadn't seen a VDSL connection in several years.

But it appears that the joke is on us, and we have to find an alternative. I discovered this site (hopefully the data here is valid) bidb.uk, which claims that we can get 5G through Vodafone, however after reading several posts here, I'm still unsure which 5G mobile router we should get for maximum speed and stability.

I have seen the following routers searching Google and this forum:
Zyxel NR5103 5G NR Indoor Router
MC888 Ultra
Hivarr Xion Home Hypersonic 5G UltraMesh WiFi6 Router

* We are not yet in the house, but when I looked about, I noticed a 5G signal with Lebara on an iPhone 12 Pro Max inside the house in certain parts, although at low rates.

In general, because we work a lot from home, I don't mind paying more for something that is future-proof, has a good built-in antenna, and can accommodate an additional antenna if necessary.

I already have two ZenWiFi Pro XT12 mesh nodes, thus an ideal device would be one that simply handles connecting to the cellular 5G signal and has a 2.5 Gigabit ethernet connection to the ZenWiFi network.

Thanks.
 
Hello, we recently moved to the UK and are renting a newly built house in London.

We are both in tech, work mostly from home, and used to have a full fibre 1 gigabit connection. To our amazement, there is no fibre provider near us, and when I checked "standard" broadband, I discovered we can obtain "UltraFast" rates of 15Mbps; I was convinced it was a joke because I hadn't seen a VDSL connection in several years.

But it appears that the joke is on us, and we have to find an alternative. I discovered this site (hopefully the data here is valid) bidb.uk, which claims that we can get 5G through Vodafone, however after reading several posts here, I'm still unsure which 5G mobile router we should get for maximum speed and stability.

I have seen the following routers searching Google and this forum:
Zyxel NR5103 5G NR Indoor Router
MC888 Ultra
Hivarr Xion Home Hypersonic 5G UltraMesh WiFi6 Router

* We are not yet in the house, but when I looked about, I noticed a 5G signal with Lebara on an iPhone 12 Pro Max inside the house in certain parts, although at low rates.

In general, because we work a lot from home, I don't mind paying more for something that is future-proof, has a good built-in antenna, and can accommodate an additional antenna if necessary.

I already have two ZenWiFi Pro XT12 mesh nodes, thus an ideal device would be one that simply handles connecting to the cellular 5G signal and has a 2.5 Gigabit ethernet connection to the ZenWiFi network.

Thanks.
If you send me a message with your postcode I could take a look at what's available nearby.
 
@GoldenAxe Vodafone's 5G can often be more marketing than capacity, so if I were you I'd spend some time testing all the major operators, even though some may only have 4G in your area, EE can be particularly good - get a 1pmobile one month payg sim to test EE.

Worth having a look at Three as well (test with Smarty) as they are usually the cheapest.

Test in your smartphone - if it's a recent one - this would give you a good idea on speeds and which rooms are best for signal.

I terms of indoor routers, get the NR5103E - that's the Three branded version and is less locked down than EE's NR5103. This is a good, trusted seller of these.

The Huawei CPE Pro2 is also very good, albeit a little bit old by now, but good hardware overall.
 
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@GoldenAxe

I'm mildly puzzled that a "newly built house in London" doesn't have fibre available as for the last few years new properties have tended to have a fibre provision as built.

You may well be disappointed with the actual speeds achieved in London and I strongly recommend testing a SIM on each of the 4 "physical" networks.

At a guess and without trying the location EE would be my best bet for network performance.
 
@GoldenAxe

I'm mildly puzzled that a "newly built house in London" doesn't have fibre available as for the last few years new properties have tended to have a fibre provision as built.

You may well be disappointed with the actual speeds achieved in London and I strongly recommend testing a SIM on each of the 4 "physical" networks.

At a guess and without trying the location EE would be my best bet for network performance.
Good point made there on the new build, might be worth contacting Openreach or looking at providers like OFNL and Community Fibre to see if they've made an exclusive deal to provide services (in the latter case, getting in touch with the developer might be ideal option)
 
Good point made there on the new build, might be worth contacting Openreach or looking at providers like OFNL and Community Fibre to see if they've made an exclusive deal to provide services (in the latter case, getting in touch with the developer might be ideal option)
It’s not a building, it’s a single house, and form my understanding it’s not worth any fiber company to make an exclusive deal in this case unfortunately.

Due note that I have sent emails to many fiber companies and got “not planned at the moment” response including from Openreach.

I have seen Network Plus doing some construction work at the street, but couldn’t get a response if this is related to full fiber work or not.
 
If in london - Check G.Networks or Community Fibre for coverage.
 
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@GoldenAxe

I'm mildly puzzled that a "newly built house in London" doesn't have fibre available as for the last few years new properties have tended to have a fibre provision as built.

You may well be disappointed with the actual speeds achieved in London and I strongly recommend testing a SIM on each of the 4 "physical" networks.

At a guess and without trying the location EE would be my best bet for network performance.
Using the CodeLook site I get the following results:

Distance: 292m
20CN: ADSL
21CN WBC: ADSL2+
Openreach Fiber: FTTC Available from 23rd November 2011
Broadband Speed: 100% area NGA, 100% area up to 30MB
Cabinet: P10 100% area
 
Whats the post code - Im sure we can find you something?
 
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for modems, my favourite is still the Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2. You can get them at CeX or eBay for £150 used but good condition. As for mobile networks, whatever you do try the network with a PAYG SIM first. At least you'll have a reasonable idea of if it works well enough for you.

Is Voda the only network available for you then? btw bidb is good and is run by a forum member here @Msh
 
for modems, my favourite is still the Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2. You can get them at CeX or eBay for £150 used but good condition. As for mobile networks, whatever you do try the network with a PAYG SIM first. At least you'll have a reasonable idea of if it works well enough for you.

Is Voda the only network available for you then? btw bidb is good and is run by a forum member here @Msh
GoldenAxe did mention bidb in the first post, however it would have been easy to miss it

Likely it's not just voda however voda is probably the only 5G accessible network at that location based off of what was said.
 
Also @GoldenAxe mobile networks can vary in what they're able to do, I know @Bubblesthefish6 has a spec sheet somewhere which mentions things. It may help trying to figure out for which has the best options for you as well, and to determine the best value (when taking performance into account)

As others have mentioned already, I'd recommend testing the 4 MNO's first and see what works best for you as well before sticking to one. A good reminder is that you can return within 14 days (2 weeks) if it isn't satisfactory.
 
Also @GoldenAxe mobile networks can vary in what they're able to do, I know @Bubblesthefish6 has a spec sheet somewhere which mentions things. It may help trying to figure out for which has the best options for you as well, and to determine the best value (when taking performance into account)

As others have mentioned already, I'd recommend testing the 4 MNO's first and see what works best for you as well before sticking to one. A good reminder is that you can return within 14 days (2 weeks) if it isn't satisfactory.
In my bio and in the thread pinned at the top of noble broadband
 
@GoldenAxe

I'll guess that a one off house build (sometimes in a garden or other small plot of land) by some means avoided the "new properties should have fibre".

It's worth looking for signs of Openreach install in the surrounding areas so you can judge low long it will be before fibre arrives.

Have a look at this and a play with "Any FTTP provider"

 
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In my bio and in the thread pinned at the top of noble broadband
Would also add that there's a ton of useful threads linked here, from discussion about certain operators to 3G switchoff to routers and devices etc

Worth taking a look if you need to browse around, I use it personally all the time lol

 
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