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First Post Pro Noob 5g router help

Thackers

Super Pro Member
Hi folks
my first post
Looking for some advice and apologies if this is Groundhog Day .

Im a virgin media user 500mb customer and I’ve had a couple of incidents where underground cable damage has been caused effecting BB in my village for up to 4 days.

im looking for a back up 5g router as the last outage effected my daughters ability to revise.
My EE signal is poor who is my current mobile provider so I’m looking for an unlocked 5 router which is decent value so I can utilise in emergencies and ideally take on holidays .

I appreciate I’m restricted by signal strength in my area so I intend to buy a SIM card from all providers to test, O2, smarty, 1p , vodaphone , Three etc to hopefully identify the best provider.

sorry for all the waffle but I don’t have the patience trying multiple routers and I happy to pay a little more based on you experts opinions.

thanks in advance.

thackers
 
Hi folks
my first post
Looking for some advice and apologies if this is Groundhog Day .

Im a virgin media user 500mb customer and I’ve had a couple of incidents where underground cable damage has been caused effecting BB in my village for up to 4 days.

im looking for a back up 5g router as the last outage effected my daughters ability to revise.
My EE signal is poor who is my current mobile provider so I’m looking for an unlocked 5 router which is decent value so I can utilise in emergencies and ideally take on holidays .

I appreciate I’m restricted by signal strength in my area so I intend to buy a SIM card from all providers to test, O2, smarty, 1p , vodaphone , Three etc to hopefully identify the best provider.

sorry for all the waffle but I don’t have the patience trying multiple routers and I happy to pay a little more based on you experts opinions.

thanks in advance.

thackers
Hi Thackers,

Welcome along to the ISPR forums. (y)

I think one of the quite popular 5G routers among our community is the Zyxel NR5103E.

It can be purchased from CEX for £130 which in my opinion is excellent value for what you get, it also features band locking which is a handy feature to have. It also features WiFi 6 too of course.

The router is 3 branded, but it's actually unlocked and can be used on all 4 networks.

You can read all about it in the above thread.

I have this router and it has worked great for me so far, no 5G for me unfortunately, but that's not the fault of the router.:rolleyes:

Hopefully some users of other 5G routers will chip in with their thoughts for you too.

Hope that helps a little. :)
 
Hi Thackers,

Welcome along to the ISPR forums. (y)

I think one of the quite popular 5G routers among our community is the Zyxel NR5103E.

It can be purchased from CEX for £130 which in my opinion is excellent value for what you get, it also features band locking which is a handy feature to have. It also features WiFi 6 too of course.

The router is 3 branded, but it's actually unlocked and can be used on all 4 networks.

You can read all about it in the above thread.

I have this router and it has worked great for me so far, no 5G for me unfortunately, but that's not the fault of the router.:rolleyes:

Hopefully some users of other 5G routers will chip in with their thoughts for you too.

Hope that helps a little. :)
You forgot to mention they're pretty big. so will likely need its own suitcase or seat on a plane to take on holiday :LOL:
 
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Welcome!

Either the aforementioned NR5103E or a Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2.
Both can be picked up in used good condition on eBay for about £190 or thereabouts.
 
Hi Thackers,

Welcome along to the ISPR forums. (y)

I think one of the quite popular 5G routers among our community is the Zyxel NR5103E.

It can be purchased from CEX for £130 which in my opinion is excellent value for what you get, it also features band locking which is a handy feature to have. It also features WiFi 6 too of course.

The router is 3 branded, but it's actually unlocked and can be used on all 4 networks.

You can read all about it in the above thread.

I have this router and it has worked great for me so far, no 5G for me unfortunately, but that's not the fault of the router.:rolleyes:

Hopefully some users of other 5G routers will chip in with their thoughts for you too.

Hope that helps a little. :)
Thanks for the reply.
Great info.

what sort of 4G /LTE speeds are you achieving ?
 
Welcome!

Either the aforementioned NR5103E or a Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2.
Both can be picked up in used good condition on eBay for about £190 or thereabouts.
Thanks for the info.
what sort of speeds have you achieved on the pro 2?
 
Thanks for the reply.
Great info.

what sort of 4G /LTE speeds are you achieving ?
Screenshot_20230826_060108_Speedtest.jpg

Unfortunately all the networks here are a bit pants, so the best I can manage is usually 30 megs on EE, get a little more at the moment though because it's early.

Three is currently 20 megs, Vodafone 25 megs and o2 is currently getting 40 megs.(Very unusual)

To think years ago my normal three 4G speeds were 130+ megs, it's just down to congestion I guess, desperately waiting for some 5G love from the networks here in the town.

I get by on my 30 megs though, my 4K Netflix and Disney+ stream just fine so musnt grumble too much.😊

I have the CPE Pro too but it's currently retired in the cupboard. 😁
 
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Unfortunately all the networks here are a bit pants, so the best I can manage is usually 30 megs on EE, get a little more at the moment though because it's early.

Three is currently 20 megs, Vodafone 25 megs and o2 is currently getting 40 megs.(Very unusual)

To think years ago my normal three 4G speeds were 130+ megs for years, it's just down to congestion I guess, desperately waiting for some 5G love from the networks here in the town.

I get by on my 30 megs though, my 4K Netflix and Disney+ stream just fine so musnt grumble too much.😊
I would be happy with those speeds .
I’ll try and find one of the 5g routers second hand you mentioned and have to buy multiple pay as you go SIM cards and put a few £ on each to test I suppose
 
I would be happy with those speeds .
I’ll try and find one of the 5g routers second hand you mentioned and have to buy multiple pay as you go SIM cards and put a few £ on each to test I suppose
Yes thats the best way to try all the networks out for sure, you can never rely on their coverage checkers too much. (y)

I'm sure you will be able to beat my speeds with ease, best of luck and let us know how you get on. :)
 
Yes thats the best way to try all the networks out for sure, you can never rely on their coverage checkers too much. (y)

I'm sure you will be able to beat my speeds with ease, best of luck and let us know how you get on. :)
Lol..I will.
Just noticed on Amazon various SIM cards from most networks
Will they need to be activated and subscribed to to test the signal?
 
Lol..I will.
Just noticed on Amazon various SIM cards from most networks
Will they need to be activated and subscribed to to test the signal?
Yes, if you have a Poundland near you, they usually stock all the piggybackers, would save you waiting.
 
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Found a seller on market place unless it’s sold 🙃
Brand New Nr5103e 5g Router Unlocked £100 O.N.O Takes Sim Card

Good price?
 
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Found a seller on market place unless it’s sold 🙃
Brand New Nr5103e 5g Router Unlocked £100 O.N.O Takes Sim Card

Good price?
Yes very good price. (y)
The router takes a micro SIM, not a nano like most do.
Not that you needed to know that though. :rolleyes: 😊
 
I appreciate I’m restricted by signal strength in my area so I intend to buy a SIM card from all providers to test, O2, smarty, 1p , vodaphone , Three etc to hopefully identify the best provider.
I am not 100% sure if you're aware so sorry if I am repeating stuff (I see @The Wee Bear did kind of mention it) 😄 There are 4 network operators in the UK, with virtual networks on top of those. You should try and get 4 SIMs that span each of the MNOs (here's a list) rather than random ones that all end up on Three for example.

A (good) external antenna can go a long way to improving signal too, but they can be costly.

Finally a question for someone more knowledgable than me. Is EE limited to 4G too on PAYG? Does this apply to MVNOs? This could affect testing (or I am talking nonsense)
 
Yes good point Msh, I forget that not everyone knows which piggybackers use which network.

As far as I know, EE still don't offer 5G for their PAYG customers, not sure about the other main networks though.

Most of the piggybackers dont seem to have this restriction, eg Smarty (Three), Lebara (Vodafone) etc all get 5G just fine.

You'd need to check some though just to make sure.
 
Thanks for the feedback.
Im lucky my wife has an EE 5g sim in her phone so that’s the one network I can try.
my kids have sky sims(O2) but I’m unsure if their SIM cards will be 5g ready.
SIM cards are roughly 4 years old but their phones are not 5g ready.
Maybe I can try their sim in my wife’s phone to test
 
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Yes very good price. (y)
The router takes a micro SIM, not a nano like most do.
Not that you needed to know that though. :rolleyes: 😊
Seller looks dodgey ..lol
will keep looking 😞

Any recommended sellers groups on here btw?
 
Seller looks dodgey ..lol
will keep looking 😞

Any recommended sellers groups on here btw?
20230228_100336.webp

Oh that's not good then Thackers.

Not really, most seem to get their 'Soap Dispensers' on ebay or CEX.

The good thing about CEX is they have a 2 year warranty with most of their routers.

The Zyxel must be doing well at CEX, it was only £130 a few days ago, now it's £140. :rolleyes: 😊

I got all 5 of mine on ebay and they've been fine, the 5th one is an EE badged NR5103 but it's not as feature rich as the three 'E' version, so I wouldn't go for the EE variant. (No band locking)

You can see he's been demoted to the lower shelf, for all the echo dots, echo flex's, smartplugs and security cameras only. 😁
 
Thanks for the feedback.
Im lucky my wife has an EE 5g sim in her phone so that’s the one network I can try.
my kids have sky sims(O2) but I’m unsure if their SIM cards will be 5g ready.
SIM cards are roughly 4 years old but their phones are not 5g ready.
Maybe I can try their sim in my wife’s phone to test
If you sign in to your Sky account you can activate 5G on an existing SIM. It suggests it can cause problems if you can't get 5G though - I would like to know why that is if anybody knows ?
 
If you sign in to your Sky account you can activate 5G on an existing SIM. It suggests it can cause problems if you can't get 5G though - I would like to know why that is if anybody knows ?
Yeah just seen this on mobile app.
I may aswell upgrade both if someone clarifys any performance issues when using 4G compatible phones
 
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