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Best 5G/4G router for roaming-across-UK data -- NR5103E, NR550, something else?

IJD

Super Pro Member
I'm still trying to figure out what is actually needed to get the best data rates in a mobile application -- which in my case will be a narrowboat -- as opposed to headline "highest data rate" in towns and cities...

I'm not concerned about Gbps peak data rate bragging rights, my FTTC broadband at home is a solid 75/20Mbps and this is never an issue for anything I need. What I am concerned about is getting usable data rates over the largest possible area when moving around, so I can WFH and stream TV instead of using an aerial.

This could be over either 4G or 5G, and it looks as if a modem/router/external antenna which can do 4x4 MIMO on all the UK bands used by different carriers will give the highest data rates -- from another post where I asked this question, this probably means bands 1/3/7/8/20/28/32/40 for 4G and 1/3/7/8/28/78 for 5G.

Dual-SIM would be nice so I can have a backup network (e.g. three main, EE secondary) in signal blackspots without SIM swapping, as would a USB port to allow file sharing (e.g. music library to Sonos) without needing a NAS server.

The NR5103E covers all the bands and has 4 (fragile!) antenna connectors, but it seems (not certain...) that these are 2x2 MIMO 5G and 2x2 MIMO 4G, so I suspect that even if it's very good in high-signal 5G areas it won't be so good out in the sticks. It's out there in volume so should be well-supported/updated, is cheap from three, has USB (but can this share files?), but is single-SIM (boo).

The Proroute NR550 covers all the bands and is 4x4 MIMO (with SMA connectors) on both 5G and 4G, is dual-SIM (hooray!) but doesn't have USB (boo). It uses the Fibocom FG150-AE modem which seems respectable (BCOM SDX55) even if the peak data rates are lower than the NR5103E. I suspect this will give higher data rates in non-urban areas than the NR5103E because of the better antenna configuration, so I'm leaning towards it.

In either case external antenna would be a 4x4 MIMO intended for vehicle roof mounting, to avoid problems with ground plane/reflections with a pole mounting antenna -- probably the Panorama Sharkfin 4x4 MIMO which is the highest gain omni I can find.

Are my assumptions right or wrong, and does anyone have any other suggestions?
 
I do think that if you're moving around then your expenditure should be put towards funding multiple providers rather than trying to choose a device that is the most capable - if there is no signal on a given provider (or sub-1Mbps throughput due to congestion), that all-singing-all-dancing device isn't going to fix things - you'd need to be using a provider who does have coverage/capacity.
 
I do think that if you're moving around then your expenditure should be put towards funding multiple providers rather than trying to choose a device that is the most capable - if there is no signal on a given provider (or sub-1Mbps throughput due to congestion), that all-singing-all-dancing device isn't going to fix things - you'd need to be using a provider who does have coverage/capacity.
That's precisely why I want a dual-SIM router with failover/switching... ;-)
 
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