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eSIM Supporting 4G/5G Routers

Mark.J

Administrator
Staff member
ISPreview Team
I might be going mad, but I can't for the life of me seem to find any Mobile 4G/5G Routers (MiFi) that support eSIM, except for the odd industrial option or one by an unfamiliar brand that I don't trust. Any suggestions? As I want one for travel, but it must be able to handle eSIMs.
 
I don't believe there is such a thing yet. The closest you'll get is broadcasting a WiFi hotspot from your phone with an eSIM inside, or connecting an eSIM phone to a router if both phone and router support USB Data tethering like that.
 
I might be going mad, but I can't for the life of me seem to find any Mobile 4G/5G Routers (MiFi) that support eSIM, except for the odd industrial option or one by an unfamiliar brand that I don't trust. Any suggestions? As I want one for travel, but it must be able to handle eSIMs.
Get a "blank" SIM and write the esim on it (via app), then insert into the router. This is the way.

 
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To add to the above that often regular smartphones make the best travel routers.
I used my old Xiaomi with an esim.net esim (300GB, gave me also 5G in Madrid) just fine with one of these special "blank" sim cards. If you get a Pixel then you do not need anything else as it supports esim natively, but I prefer the Xiaomi as it has IR and FM radio, too.

Shared wifi and even ethernet (via usb-c adapter) with many people, worked great and helped us get out of some dodgy wifi at an event.
 
Starting to think I might just take one of my old rugged Android Smartphones and leave it as a personal hotspot (can't use my own, for various reasons), as they normally have a pretty good antenna for outdoors.
 
Starting to think I might just take one of my old rugged Android Smartphones and leave it as a personal hotspot (can't use my own, for various reasons), as they normally have a pretty good antenna for outdoors.
Just make sure it's new enough to aggregate 4G and/or 5G, so you get decent speeds.

I left mine with the hotspot on all day with a few people using it, battery lasted the day without problems, bandwidth also was never a problem, they have great 5G where I was.
 
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I might be going mad, but I can't for the life of me seem to find any Mobile 4G/5G Routers (MiFi) that support eSIM, except for the odd industrial option or one by an unfamiliar brand that I don't trust. Any suggestions? As I want one for travel, but it must be able to handle eSIMs.


Any of GL-iNet routers that are cat6 and have the Quectel EP06 E installed support esim.

In fact there's esim firmware for most of their mobile routers:
 


Any of GL-iNet routers that are cat6 and have the Quectel EP06 E installed support esim.

In fact there's esim firmware for most of their mobile routers:
Looks good, but the product page gives me the impression that they only work with their own specifically supported eSIM service?
 
I know I still live in the dark ages but whether tethered phone, MIFI or router I'd rather stick with physical SIMs when I can't get any signal off any network and trying to get on-line. Particularly in remote spots trying to pay the parking.
 
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You are right @Mark.J - A mobile that supports ESIM would be better :)
Tethering off that would be so much easier.
 
I can vouch for 5ber. They were so good that I had to buy another one - to fill up both slots lol.

Speaking of the phone route, I have a Moto g84 5G and got really lucky with the features. Although it doesn't support eSIM, it does allow band locking on both 4G + 5G through the *#*#4636#*#* diagnostics menu. I even managed to force SA only with Vodafone through that menu. Overall, it's great for cellmapping/testing with the Snapdragon modem and the extra options exposed by Motorola.

I would still recommend the NR5103E + 5ber for best results. A proper router can pick up 5G in surprising places. You can go from having sub-1Mbps 4G on your phone to 300Mbps on n78 5G with the router. Both in the exact same place and conditions.
 
I can vouch for 5ber. They were so good that I had to buy another one - to fill up both slots lol.

Speaking of the phone route, I have a Moto g84 5G and got really lucky with the features. Although it doesn't support eSIM, it does allow band locking on both 4G + 5G through the *#*#4636#*#* diagnostics menu. I even managed to force SA only with Vodafone through that menu. Overall, it's great for cellmapping/testing with the Snapdragon modem and the extra options exposed by Motorola.

I would still recommend the NR5103E + 5ber for best results. A proper router can pick up 5G in surprising places. You can go from having sub-1Mbps 4G on your phone to 300Mbps on n78 5G with the router. Both in the exact same place and conditions.
Band locking, are you sure? Do you not mean RAT locking?
 
Band locking, are you sure? Do you not mean RAT locking?
I'm sure it's band locking because of the way it acts different to the standard technology locking menu that nearly all devices have. Although, you would have to clarify the difference for me to understand further.

1000003318.webp


It also has a sub menu for enabling/disabling LTE bands. You can lock to 5G SA, 5G NSA, 5G auto (as well as control bands each tech can access). It also has controls to enable/disable LTE altogether. If LTE is disabled, NSA won't work obviously but SA will.
 
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