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Dual sim 5g routers for home broadband.

Tony Gamble

ULTIMATE Member
Why do people buy this sort of router?


Meatball has already explained to me that they do not increase speed.

I am currently using a Huawei and getting perfectly acceptable speed from a nearby source and with my Smarty card. My Huawei was well below RRP as it came from someone using it for a year and then being offered fibre.

The dual sim device, and there seem to be quite a lot of similar alternatives, is about the same RRP as the routers folk use around here. Why don't more people around here buy them - or maybe they do?

Tony
 
Why do people buy this sort of router?


Meatball has already explained to me that they do not increase speed.

I am currently using a Huawei and getting perfectly acceptable speed from a nearby source and with my Smarty card. My Huawei was well below RRP as it came from someone using it for a year and then being offered fibre.

The dual sim device, and there seem to be quite a lot of similar alternatives, is about the same RRP as the routers folk use around here. Why don't more people around here buy them - or maybe they do?

Tony
People buy these kinds of router as a failover, say one mast is very fast but not very reliable, but the other is much slower and much more stable. This is kind of like what happens here. Three and EE are rather fast (three 5G 500mbps, EE 4G 140mbps) but the EE equipment seems to pack in in the heat. Vodafone and O2 hasn't gone down since that O2 crash in 2018 but provides much slower speeds (1mbit on O2, 10-15mbit on Vodafone). some people may need that constant reliability and failover but also the speed so having dual SIM brings you the best of both worlds
 
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Thanks P and B

So that's why people buy them. Why are there so few posts here from people with them?

Surely it is not price alone - or is it?

T
 
Thanks P and B

So that's why people buy them. Why are there so few posts here from people with them?

Surely it is not price alone - or is it?

T
think it may be a mix of price and it also being quite an intresting use case since most mobile masts are very rugged and rarely go offline. That mixed with not many people wanting to pay for 2 SIM cards per month on the basis that one mast might go off for a day in a year.
 
That was what I suspected.

Not so much the cost of the router but the cost of having a second sim card running all the time.
Ah but you don't need a second SIM running all of the time.

Let me give examples, Giffgaff allows you to top up every six months.

So your main SIM could be three, O2, Vodafone, EE.

Main SIM goes down, for whatever reason, you then buy a Giffgaff goody bag, £20 for 80gb or £35 for unlimited.

Script running on the router works out that the second SIM is working, switches connection and your back online.

Of course if you are going dual SIM then you may need to point at a different mast.
 
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"Ah but you don't need a second SIM running all of the time.

Let me give examples, Giffgaff allows you to top up every six months."

I'm looking at that option at the moment.

My Smarty £16 a month deal seems a good option for where I live. It would be re-assuring to have an option I could action instantly if the Smarty/Three feed failed.

Am I right in thinking that GiffGaff are the only folk offering a sim that you can leave in its envelope, and not pay any money, until the instant you want to use it?
 
"Ah but you don't need a second SIM running all of the time.

Let me give examples, Giffgaff allows you to top up every six months."

I'm looking at that option at the moment.

My Smarty £16 a month deal seems a good option for where I live. It would be re-assuring to have an option I could action instantly if the Smarty/Three feed failed.

Am I right in thinking that GiffGaff are the only folk offering a sim that you can leave in its envelope, and not pay any money, until the instant you want to use it?
I'm not aware of anyone else.
 
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Why do people buy this sort of router?


Meatball has already explained to me that they do not increase speed.

I am currently using a Huawei and getting perfectly acceptable speed from a nearby source and with my Smarty card. My Huawei was well below RRP as it came from someone using it for a year and then being offered fibre.

The dual sim device, and there seem to be quite a lot of similar alternatives, is about the same RRP as the routers folk use around here. Why don't more people around here buy them - or maybe they do?

Tony
Hi Tony, do you mind me asking what router you are using? I have the Netgear MR5200 and it doesnt work at all on 5g with SMARTY
 
One of these. Going for three hundred quid here.


I looked at the Netgear as I always tend to buy top of the range
(first) as I tend up there anyway and it ends up cheaper!!

Odd that it does not like Smarty and Smarty seems to be far and away the best deal around at the moment.

T
 
One of these. Going for three hundred quid here.


I looked at the Netgear as I always tend to buy top of the range
(first) as I tend up there anyway and it ends up cheaper!!

Odd that it does not like Smarty and Smarty seems to be far and away the best deal around at the moment.

T
I have that router Tony, not had any problems since I got it about 2 and a half years ago.

It's never been off at all since I bought it.

It cost me £269 way back then. (y)

Can't comment on 5G though, because I don't have any. ☹️
 
One of these. Going for three hundred quid here.


I looked at the Netgear as I always tend to buy top of the range
(first) as I tend up there anyway and it ends up cheaper!!

Odd that it does not like Smarty and Smarty seems to be far and away the best deal around at the moment.

T
Thanks, yeah its really strange with the MR5200.. I get full signal on my iphone 12 but no 5g at all on the Netgear
 
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Before I drop this thread does anyone have any experience that suggests routers like the

C365-5G-H900 Dual SIM 5G​

are any more sensitive than the more consumer looking Huawei.

They are not the prettiest devices and are probably best put out of view, especially with all those aerials. I just have the feeling that they look more 'professional'.
 
@Tony Gamble

I use:

This has the same modem as the ZTE mc801a and Zyxel NR7101.

It's also been taken apart over on confusedbird forums by Sean:


How invested do you want to be in 5G broadband?

Most high-end routers are using the Qualcomm X55 X60 and X62 at present.

Mediatek have brought in the M80 and this will change the market.

Huawei are developing with Unisoc and producing things like the ZLT X21/VN007+.

Your current issues are probably congestion at busy times in your area.

If you have 5G from two separate networks available, you could buy two ZLT X21 for less than any of the high end routers, put them in IP passthrough mode, connect them to a multi wan router and have a decent wireless mesh setup.
 
Thanks Meritez.

How invested? To be honest all I need is a good feed that runs streaming reliably. No games. No working from home. I download movies but am happy for that to happen overnight.

But I want something reliable so that our emails arrive and my wife can google without an IT tutor at her side. Plus the knowledge that when we get bored with normal tv we can turn to YouTube or BritBox for a bit of nostalgia and not have to reboot a router.

I was attracted to those twin sim routers more by the look than the spec. Though Blistering did trigger a 'want to buy' syndrom. As I said at the top I really don't want to pay for two cell services when one can do (Yorkshire meanie syndrome).

I don't feel the last para in your post is my scene. It would involve more kit to go wrong. My goal is a router I can put in a cupboard or behind a speaker and forget about. That Mikrotik is about £480 according to that link. If you think my problems (not that they have become a serious one) are more to do with congestion I feel my thread checking as to whether my Huawei is configured to its best is where I should focus.

As you say new chips are being introduced all the time. If you'd said, or if anyone else on this forum says, the Mikrotik is noticeably better at getting a signal than what I have then I'll move on. Otherwise I'll wait.

Tony
 
@Tony Gamble

Mikrotik has an issue at present, the Quectel modem they are using the RM502 has a new firmware release R13 that breaks 5G in the UK.

Zyxel has the same issue, they are both blaming Quectel who are blaming Qualcomm for changing the baseline.

Politics within politics and I just want a device that works.

Anyway, yes your Huawei band locking thread is probably your best bet, I have a Huawei b525 locked to band 20+32 for a family member who has a local 5G mast, it increased their speeds from 25 to 80, and it's only a lowly cat6 router.

I have offered to replace it with a 5G router but they've said no as it does what they need it to, YouTube etc.
 
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