Sponsored Links

Looking for some 4g home broadband advice please

plaguz

Casual Member
Hello all,

New member here, I just wanted to get some honest advice on what would be the best option for me for download speeds.

Current ISP Three
2 year contract ends in March 2020
Unlimited data offer
router model huawei B311-C957
router stock settings

Overall thoughts,
Early on in contract I was getting up to 65 mbps, after a year or so download speed was getting progressively worse. Sometimes now down to 5 mbps depending on time of day.


My questions are:

I live pretty close to the mast which resides at CR3 5NA

they have EE, Vodafone, three and 02 I believe at the same site.


Out of the 4 ISP providers which could offer me faster download speeds?

Do any of the masts here have LTE-A

Which newer modern Huawei 4g router would be best to use to get the best speed available?

Which external antenna could I use if needed to increase speeds/signal further?

cell mapper data

EE - ENB -ID 4827 cell 1
VODA - ENB-ID 7942 cell 10
THREE - ENB-ID 4827 cell 1

I do not mind staying with three if they are still the fastest but would rather not due to the download speed decrements over time.

I think vodafone may have the fastest download for me as they now have 4g/5g support on that mast they use DSS or something they said?

any help would be very much appreciated

thank you
 
It does seem like VF has 5G there, now all you need is a 5G router or get one of theirs on a contract. 5G router prices have increased a lot this year, alas.

EE don't have 5G there, but usually their service is great, no doubt you'll get good speeds with a good 4G router (Huawei B818).

Of the 2 VF is more friendly in terms of FUP, limitations etc, it would be my first choice given the circumstances.
 
It does seem like VF has 5G there, now all you need is a 5G router or get one of theirs on a contract. 5G router prices have increased a lot this year, alas.

EE don't have 5G there, but usually their service is great, no doubt you'll get good speeds with a good 4G router (Huawei B818).

Of the 2 VF is more friendly in terms of FUP, limitations etc, it would be my first choice given the circumstances.
Thank you for your response
This is what vodaphone said to me when I asked them about the 5g at the mast in cr3 5na

Thanks for getting back to me here! As we use 2100, this means we can adapt or overlap any existing 4G sites to implement 5G in more areas. As you're looking to use one of our GigaCube devices, after taking a look at the specifications in more detail this doesn't look to be compatible with the current 5G frequency in the area: https://t.co/Qe9cELyHwv
Rest assured we're working to add more frequencies in the future across the UK to allow for 5G connections on a wide range of products! You can monitor any planned upgrades or improvements on our network status checker here: https://t.co/eR9T5O4w0R
At the moment, a GigaCube in the area should get a reliable 4G connection. You do have the option to test out the 5G capabilities in your area with our 14 day returns policy - this means you can test us out and see whether the GigaCube is for you 😊
If you have any further questions, please let me know and I'll be happy to help!
 
Sponsored Links
How can the cpe pro be not supported on the 2100 frequency when its what they sell for the gigacube model? have they messed up the response?
 
The gigacube doesn't support the n1 5G frequency (2100mhz) that Vodafone are using for DSS. It does support their 3500mhz 5G frequency band n78.

DSS, in my opinion, is really marketing getting ahead of the network team - marketing want to brag about having large 5G coverage, and their users seeing the 5G icon on their phones, but the network team can't/haven't deployed NSA/SA 5G yet.

DSS really should be seen as somewhat of a stop-gap that makes 5G less efficient - reported to be at least 30% reduction in capacity vs if the same bandwidth was deployed as NSA/SA - while at the same time removing capacity from the 4G layer too - making 4G only users worse off too.
 
It does seem like this approach is half-cocked and it might be a while until proper 5G.

Then what I would do is get the B818 (£180 on Amazon) and try it with payg from both EE and VF, see which gives better performance and take a decision based on that.
 
It does seem like this approach is half-cocked and it might be a while until proper 5G.

Then what I would do is get the B818 (£180 on Amazon) and try it with payg from both EE and VF, see which gives better performance and take a decision based on that.
my girlfriend has a plusnet sim that uses the ee network would that be ok ?
 
Sponsored Links
Don't get me wrong, it is 'proper' 5G, and it's very clever that the hardware vendors can do such dynamic scaling of spectrum allocations the 4G/5G technologies to deliver 5G to more areas more quickly using existing owned spectrum. It's good for the transition period we are in where there's a small but growing base of 5G devices, but long term NSA/SA is the way I feel 5G should be deployed.
 
The gigacube doesn't support the n1 5G frequency (2100mhz) that Vodafone are using for DSS. It does support their 3500mhz 5G frequency band n78.

DSS, in my opinion, is really marketing getting ahead of the network team - marketing want to brag about having large 5G coverage, and their users seeing the 5G icon on their phones, but the network team can't/haven't deployed NSA/SA 5G yet.

DSS really should be seen as somewhat of a stop-gap that makes 5G less efficient - reported to be at least 30% reduction in capacity vs if the same bandwidth was deployed as NSA/SA - while at the same time removing capacity from the 4G layer too - making 4G only users worse off too.
are there no routers that support the 2100 mhz ? why do they offer the gigacube to me then if the giga cube dont support the frequency? would you say just getting the 5g giga cube be good for download speed or the b818 with ee/voda sim?
 
are there no routers that support the 2100 mhz ? why do they offer the gigacube to me then if the giga cube dont support the frequency? would you say just getting the 5g giga cube be good for download speed or the b818 with ee/voda sim?
Hi plaguz,

The Huawei CPE Pro 2 has a stack load of supported 5G bands, but its biggest drawback is that it has no support for using external antennas should that be of interest to you.

CPE Pro V CPE Pro 2

Hope the comparison above is of some interest to you.

I have the CPE Pro 2 and it's certainly very capable at pulling in a good signal with it's internal antennas.

I've had 5 Huawei routers, and it provides the best signal I've had yet. :giggle:
 
Sponsored Links
Imagine selling a 5G router and then using a frequency that it doesn't support. Gotta laugh really..
 
The gigacube does support the 2100mhz frequency, but not when using 5G - only on 4G. It was in development/released way before Vodafone started enabling DSS, so it's not surprising, and Huawei would have known that targeting n78 would be a safe bet for not only the UK providers but most countries using sub6 5G too.
 
It does seem like this approach is half-cocked and it might be a while until proper 5G.

Then what I would do is get the B818 (£180 on Amazon) and try it with payg from both EE and VF, see which gives better performance and take a decision based on that.
Just an update on what I did Lucian,

I bought the B818 and it has been great so far it has nearly 3x the speed with the orignal Three network SIM card that I had in the old router. The signal is better in the b818 can get up to 90 score on it inside the Hauwei life App.

Would be nice if the b818 had wifi 6e and not wifi 5 though. But thank you for recommending this model to me.

At the moment I have a pay as you go voxi sim card in it and so far its pretty good the download and upload in the day varies but can reach up to 60mb download and 20+ upload. Very late in morning it can go close to 100mb download. I think vodaphone in the area is close to EE speeds I am still not sure which sim I will go with. I will need to keep track on the voxi sim as sometimes during the normal day time EE is faster then vodaphone and at peak times it would be better to go with which is faster at those times rather then late at night.

I also tried the voxi 5g sim in my girlfriends 5g iphone and it said 5g signal on her phone but it wouldnt load a page up on the internet or speed test work on it. I had to change the settings in her iphone to 4g data and then it worked fine. Crafty how voda say 5g in the area but the 5g data didnt work, I am glad I didnt buy the 5g giga cube as that would have been a waste.

When 5g comes into the area properly I will look into it again.
 
@plaguz keep in mind the EE unlimited data is actually limited to 600GB/m. Might be a problem if you're a very heavy data user.
Also note their business unlimited data sim are actually both cheaper and higher data limit (1tb).
 
@plaguz keep in mind the EE unlimited data is actually limited to 600GB/m. Might be a problem if you're a very heavy data user.
Also note their business unlimited data sim are actually both cheaper and higher data limit (1tb).
I often find that buisness Sims are cheaper. This goes for a lot of networks. I got a 2GB SIM on "Buisness" for £3 a month for my Grandma who doesn't really use her data that much and was paying EE for a MiFi which she didn't need, 10GB of data she didn't use and an iPhone 8 which was far to over speced for what she does. EE like to rip off the elderly :)
 
Last edited:
Sponsored Links
From where and which network? Just curious because I have a similar thing for mine but I always end up having to chop and change because they're always introductory offers
Where do you think ;). When they rang me I told them I was a self run company and it was called *insert your name here* limited. Lol they accepted it but I still had to pay VAT which makes it £3
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules