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Huawei B818-263

That company is in US (so significant delivery and tax), but what's with the 20% if from Europe? I thought there would be no tariffs...
Certainly don't look like that's the case....Looks like your required to pay 20% Vat on top of what you purchase it for now. Only a few items appear exempt.
 
Ok - so there are 3 cell elements that each point in a different direction and bathe that area in signal goodness. The one that covers my house gives me the following info. What from this is useful to know?

Thanks - Matt

View attachment 690

There's nothing really new to mention.

The mast is a typical 'basic' three sector EE site. The three sectors have EE's primary 4G carrier - B3/1800Mhz (downlink/uplink/frequency band) - in which they have deployed 20Mhz. Identified as EARFCN 1617.

If EE had a second B3 carrier deployed then there would be (assuming a cellmapper user had mapped/detected it) there would be more Cells listed with the same frequency band.

If EE had other frequencies deployed (again, assuming a cellmapper user had detected them), there would be more cells listed but with different frequencies/bands/EARFCN - e.g. B1/B20.

Given what is deployed, the maximum theoretical capacity throughputs are 150Mbps down/50Mbps up (assuming 2x2 MIMO and 64QAM - which its likely to be, given the lack of deployed technology/spectrum).
That radio capacity is then shared for all the users connected to that particular cell (so you're unlikely to see those speeds yourself).
 
There's nothing really new to mention.

The mast is a typical 'basic' three sector EE site. The three sectors have EE's primary 4G carrier - B3/1800Mhz (downlink/uplink/frequency band) - in which they have deployed 20Mhz. Identified as EARFCN 1617.

If EE had a second B3 carrier deployed then there would be (assuming a cellmapper user had mapped/detected it) there would be more Cells listed with the same frequency band.

If EE had other frequencies deployed (again, assuming a cellmapper user had detected them), there would be more cells listed but with different frequencies/bands/EARFCN - e.g. B1/B20.

Given what is deployed, the maximum theoretical capacity throughputs are 150Mbps down/50Mbps up (assuming 2x2 MIMO and 64QAM - which its likely to be, given the lack of deployed technology/spectrum).
That radio capacity is then shared for all the users connected to that particular cell (so you're unlikely to see those speeds yourself).
So without significant investment on my part, such as purchasing the Huawei B818-263 and then also some sort of external aerial, I'm unlikely to see much return on investment over my existing B618s-22d?
 
I think you may not see an improvement regardless as that mast is not really "high performance", depends how many others are using it.
I may have asked before, but did you try the sim in your phone? It arguably has a high LTE cat modem inside if it's new-ish, what speeds are you getting? It's possible you'd be getting the same with the B818.
 
I think you may not see an improvement regardless as that mast is not really "high performance", depends how many others are using it.
I may have asked before, but did you try the sim in your phone? It arguably has a high LTE cat modem inside if it's new-ish, what speeds are you getting? It's possible you'd be getting the same with the B818.
On an iPhone X from a few years ago, I get typically the same speeds as the router. There's not a massive difference but I did wonder if that's because both devices are on EE?
 
Well, you are testing EE, so that's what matters.
Obviously, you shouldn't do the speed tests (phone vs router) at the exact same time, as you'll be sharing/splitting the available bandwidth, do the tests sequentially.
However, if you have not achieved better speeds with your phone.. it is not encouraging.
The Iphone X is CAT 12, if you have access to newer phones, it's worth a test before you spend on the B818.

The B818 is CAT 19, for reference. Higher cat doesn't always help, it's not a guaranteed boost in anything, "it takes two", ie the mast needs to be good, too. :)
 
So without significant investment on my part, such as purchasing the Huawei B818-263 and then also some sort of external aerial, I'm unlikely to see much return on investment over my existing B618s-22d?
In my opinion, there'd need to be significant investment by EE to upgrade the mast with multiple additional bands, for your investment of a B818 to be worth it - especially if your iPhone X doesn't give considerably better results than your router does at the moment (as Lucian just said).
 
In my opinion, there'd need to be significant investment by EE to upgrade the mast with multiple additional bands, for your investment of a B818 to be worth it - especially if your iPhone X doesn't give considerably better results than your router does at the moment (as Lucian just said).
Thanks, guys for the collective steer. I'll grab an iPhone 12 and give it a whirl and see if that makes much difference based on what can be pulled down the mast - then report back.
 
Installed one of these yesterday. Very impressed so far, looking at about a 30% increase over my B535 which I thought was a good router itself.

On Vodafone currently and lucky enough to be less than 1K from a mast with B1, 7 and 20.

Purchased the B535 after getting really good speeds on my Huawei mate 20 pro but never quite matched the speeds of the phone. Although my uploads speeds are always better on 4G routers over phones. Then I researched 4G a bit more and saw that my phone was CAT 21, B535 CAT 7 so always knew there was more gas in the tank. Purchased the B818 and now my router speeds are on par with the phone. Looking at 160-200Mb down and 40Mb up which I’m very pleased with and should tide me over until FTTP turns up in the next few years.

These routers are like rocking horse **** at the moment but found they pop up occasionally on efones.com now and again. Mine was £169 for a Class A Refurbished and seems fine. Its got Optus splashed all over the GUI so I assume it’s a return unit from the Aussie network.

After looking at the frequency bands it can use it looks like the lower end 5G is covered, that combined with the fact the next frequency auction is only selling off 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum. Does this mean that this router could potentially cover the first few years of 5G deployment in the UK? Obviously other countries are using higher frequencies already. Am I barking up the wrong tree with this theory?
 
After looking at the frequency bands it can use it looks like the lower end 5G is covered, that combined with the fact the next frequency auction is only selling off 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum. Does this mean that this router could potentially cover the first few years of 5G deployment in the UK? Obviously other countries are using higher frequencies already. Am I barking up the wrong tree with this theory?
Unfortunately no, it doesn't work like that.
Just because a device supports the frequency, doesn't mean it supports the technology (5G) - otherwise we'd all have 5G phones in our pockets right now.
You wouldn't expect an old TV, which analog channels 63+ used the 800mhz frequencies, to be able to connect to Band20 4G - while the TV could technically pick up a signal on the frequency, they just don't have the technology in them to decode the 4G data.
 
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Unfortunately no, it doesn't work like that.
Just because a device supports the frequency, doesn't mean it supports the technology (5G) - otherwise we'd all have 5G phones in our pockets right now.
You wouldn't expect an old TV, which channel 63+ used the 800mhz frequencies, to be able to connect to Band20 4G - while the TV could technically pick up a signal on the frequency, they just don't have the technology in them to decode the 4G data.
Ok thanks for the clarification, I didn’t think it would be that simple, but the B818 is sometimes referred to as a “5G ready” router. So, I had flash backs to the introduction of HD telly with 720p tellies being HD but not proper HD like a 1080p set. Was hoping it would be something similar with it maybe only working with lower bands. :)
 
5G ready refers to the Wifi on the B818, 5G is proudly enabled on my B715 homepage but it's just a Wifi is on indicator.
 
Where/who refers to it as "5G ready" - I've seen someone else mention that, but I've not seen it...
I got a B818 to try out and it actually had '5G Ready' on the box.
It didn't say if it was referring to cellular or wifi though.

I returned it after a day though, just wanted to try it out lol.
 
Yeah, it's infuriating all the nonsense in marketing.
When they refer to WiFi it should be 5GHz.
When to gsm networks, should be 5G.
They should be reported to ofcom for untruthful advertising, maybe they will change their tune.
 
Yeah, it's infuriating all the nonsense in marketing.
When they refer to WiFi it should be 5GHz.
When to gsm networks, should be 5G.
They should be reported to ofcom for untruthful advertising, maybe they will change their tune.
Yes it is very confusing Lucian, especially to the non expert Joe Bloggs, totally agree.
 
I can only seem to find this box with 5G Ready on, for the Vodafone Gigacube version of it?
Feels like that's probably Vodafone's marketing department getting ahead of the network team!

Gigacube-CAT19-back-ports.jpg
 
Reminds me of HD-Ready back in the early days of LCD's, when they just did 720p and were not capable of 1080p. Was a bad idea then, is still a bad idea (for routers) now.
 
Well, technically they were not wrong, HD is 720p, 1080 is FHD (Full HD).
 
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