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How is 5G signal measured?

sof006

Regular Member
So I have recently aquired a 5G router made by TCL - https://www.clove.co.uk/products/tcl-linkhub-5g-hh500e

But I am having a hard time understanding how the signal is measured? EE in my area states "outdoor" only however I have no issues in getting 5G indoors. With a poor/moderate signal strength.

I don't see anything only that might how the 5G signal is measured as I am noticing that not everything is exactly the same?


Currently the light on the front for 5G is red which from what I have gathered is a poor signal, on occasion it will turn amber. If I am using 4G only the 4G indicator is blue like the rest of the lights on the front, so I would guess that the 5G light would be blue if it had a strong signal.

What I am confused about is the light will seemingly randomly swap between red and amber without any changes to the signal strength in the diagnostics screen of the router.
 

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That screenshot is most likely the measurements from the 4G connection. They're good/great metrics and they have a cell ID (there wouldn't likely be one reported for the 5G connection)
 
That screenshot is most likely the measurements from the 4G connection. They're good/great metrics and they have a cell ID (there wouldn't likely be one reported for the 5G connection)
I see, interesting. So for the 5G signal my only way of judging the signal is by looking at the LED indicator on the front of the router lol.

Its currently displaying an amber LED.

This is the speed im getting - https://www.speedtest.net/result/12129560439.png
 
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If there is nothing else in the UI that shows signal metrics (I'm certainly not familiar with their UI or where such things might be) then it sounds like that might be the only way.
The other potential thing could be that 5G isn't connected at all, which is why you don't see any metrics in the UI, but without knowing what the colours of light mean it's hard to tell. Do you have a 5G phone that you could try the SIM in to see what that connects to?
 
If there is nothing else in the UI that shows signal metrics (I'm certainly not familiar with their UI or where such things might be) then it sounds like that might be the only way.
The other potential thing could be that 5G isn't connected at all, which is why you don't see any metrics in the UI, but without knowing what the colours of light mean it's hard to tell. Do you have a 5G phone that you could try the SIM in to see what that connects to?
Its certainly using 5G. Main screen states 5G, if I disconnect all devices and leave it for 5 minutes it automatically drops to 4G (must be power saving feature) and if I connect a device and start playing someting high bandwidth like YouTube it immediately swaps back to 5G.

Also got the 5G signal indicator in the top right, but I believe the signal bars are lying about the 5G signal. Also on 4G in this area on EE I can only hit around 100Mbs during midnight. On 5G just now I hit around 300Mbs.
 

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Ok, then it clearly is! Your OP didn't reveal that detail so I was speculating based on what you had said (unfortunately I'm not a mind reader!)
 
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