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Outdoor CPEs

TTJJ

ULTIMATE Member
I'm considering buying a 4G Outdoor CPE for my grandparents to improve their internet speed. Old house, speed is much better outside. Not a fan of antennas.

Wondering if anyone has any recommendations for outdoor CPEs? Huawei's 5G CPE WIN looks pretty good but it's fairly expensive.
 
Well.. the only ones in a lower budget are the Mikrotik. How do you feel about using them?

Ps: loft not an option?
 
Hey, check this out. It's usually used in Europe, didn't think I'd find B2368 in UK.
Band coverage doesn't seem as good as say B818, but looks good, make sure to read the description.

 
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Just wondering, 5G is great and all, but my grandparents basically use the interwebs for ordering a bit of shopping and sending the odd whatsapp message. Might a cheaper solution like a B818-263 be better for them ?

I don't know the circumstances of course. I know an 80 year old guy in the Netherlands who streams 4K TV episodes and does his own youtube videos (about sailing) and it's useful for him.

Just wondering it the 5G might be a bit overkill for some. My mother, bless her, is happy with her 10mbit TalkTalk and has been with em since like forever.
 
Have a ZTE MC7010 outdoor unit imported from HK and can’t really recommend it. At least not the HK/Asian version which you will find in the popular online shops. Before buying have found reviews that the EU/PL version supports band locking features which influenced my decision. Surprise surprise, the HK/Asian version doesn’t have this feat in the menu and also doesn’t allow you to upload any other firmware, only OTA check (which is broken). Thought that it may had been a decent/cheaper alternative to the Huawei CPE WIN (especially having a Snapdragon X50 modem) but reality is it’s not. It’s dropping 5G regularly to 3G/4G a few times a day despite decent and consistent SINR (15dB on EE, 30dB on O2) or completely dropping the connection (especially if you select modem mode as 5G NSA only), which is causing headaches with video conferencing. This is probably because of my current location where I am in the middle of several masts. Anyway, there is no option to log/view logs in the menu to check. Looking at other feedback on the forum, Huawei CPE WIN seems to be the only sensible option re ODU’s.
 
Have a ZTE MC7010 outdoor unit imported from HK and can’t really recommend it. At least not the HK/Asian version which you will find in the popular online shops. Before buying have found reviews that the EU/PL version supports band locking features which influenced my decision. Surprise surprise, the HK/Asian version doesn’t have this feat in the menu and also doesn’t allow you to upload any other firmware, only OTA check (which is broken). Thought that it may had been a decent/cheaper alternative to the Huawei CPE WIN (especially having a Snapdragon X50 modem) but reality is it’s not. It’s dropping 5G regularly to 3G/4G a few times a day despite decent and consistent SINR (15dB on EE, 30dB on O2) or completely dropping the connection (especially if you select modem mode as 5G NSA only), which is causing headaches with video conferencing. This is probably because of my current location where I am in the middle of several masts. Anyway, there is no option to log/view logs in the menu to check. Looking at other feedback on the forum, Huawei CPE WIN seems to be the only sensible option re ODU’s.
I'm having Sam issue thinking of Buying the Hauwai one does this support the band locking ?
 
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I'm having Sam issue
To follow up, I've managed to flash PLY_PL_MC7010V1.0.0B04 firmware onto my HK/CN unit. Turns out my suspicion about the HK/CN firmware being faulty/limited was correct as the band locking features magically appeared after the operation and are working well, i.e. can lock to band 7 which would never kick in when using the BD_CNMC7010V1.0.2B02 the device was shipped with.

if you are tech savvy and ready to risk bricking the kit, you can give it a go. Otherwise the HK/CN iteration will remain very underwhelming.
 

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Well done. Are you happy with the performance of the ZTE MC7010 sofar, after firmware change?
 
Hi @grabaar , any chance you can point us to where you found the PLY_PL_MC7010V1.0.0B04 firmware? I have seen a few download sites supposedly have it - but they look dodgy, and so not sure if i want to pay for access to be scammed.
 
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@Lucian I am yet to test 5G as EE have changed something locally a couple of months ago and 5G has not been kicking in on neither the original nor the new firmware. 4G performance seems to be so much better now with peak 85DL/25UL. 4G+/CA, which did not appear to work with B3 on the original firmware, is now active all the time on both B3 and B7. Most importantly, the device doesn’t randomly drop connections as it used to do. This allows me to have zoom/teams calls for many hours without disruptions which was the most important goal.

@trouble123 if you google “mc7010 firmware” long enough you will find the site with all necessary files. However, I would still not recommend this operation as it’s not straightforward and the risks might outweigh the reward. Also I can now confirm that the band selection menu appears to be slightly broken. If you tick several bands after being locked to one frequency, the device strangely drops both mobile & LAN connectivity and becomes unresponsive/impossible to control remotely. As turning power off&on doesn’t help, you have to unscrew the panel and keep the reset button pressed when inserting the PoE cable to get it talking again. Strangely it doesn’t do a full reset as it remembers all the settings and exact multiple bands selected before the crash. Could be a deal breaker if you would like to constantly juggle bands and have the device installed in a remote place.
 
Last edited:
To follow up, I've managed to flash PLY_PL_MC7010V1.0.0B04 firmware onto my HK/CN unit. Turns out my suspicion about the HK/CN firmware being faulty/limited was correct as the band locking features magically appeared after the operation and are working well, i.e. can lock to band 7 which would never kick in when using the BD_CNMC7010V1.0.2B02 the device was shipped with.

if you are tech savvy and ready to risk bricking the kit, you can give it a go. Otherwise the HK/CN iteration will remain very underwhelming.
Hi,

After uploading the Play Firmware , is the router supporting all the bands supported which were earlier not supported by HK/Chinese version ? are all these LTE and 5G bands supported now?

4G : FDD:B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/25/26/28/29/30/32/66/71. TDD:B34/38/39/40/41/42/43
5G : n1/3/7/8/20/28/38/41/77/78/79

Are you able to lock all the above bands.


Lastly, can you please let me know from where did you get the firmware , I want it . It would be of great help to all.

~Rak
 
@rak093 I Googled what @grabaar suggested - but i didnt have any luck. Many of the sites are fake and dont load or just try and install a chrome extension that tries to trick you into beleving you have a virus.
 
To follow up, I've managed to flash PLY_PL_MC7010V1.0.0B04 firmware onto my HK/CN unit. Turns out my suspicion about the HK/CN firmware being faulty/limited was correct as the band locking features magically appeared after the operation and are working well, i.e. can lock to band 7 which would never kick in when using the BD_CNMC7010V1.0.2B02 the device was shipped with.

if you are tech savvy and ready to risk bricking the kit, you can give it a go. Otherwise the HK/CN iteration will remain very underwhelming.
@grabbar,

Hi,

After uploading the Play Firmware , is the router supporting all the bands supported which were earlier not supported by HK/Chinese version ? are all these LTE and 5G bands supported now?

4G : FDD:B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/25/26/28/29/30/32/66/71. TDD:B34/38/39/40/41/42/43
5G : n1/3/7/8/20/28/38/41/77/78/79

Are you able to lock all the above bands.

ZTE MC7010 5G ODU-IDU – ZTE Device Poland

Lastly, can you please let me know from where did you get the firmware , I want it . It would be of great help to all.

~Rak
 
@rak093 you can select 4G bands 1/3/7/8/20/38 and 5G bands 1/3/7/38/41/78 as per screenshot previously issued. Presume this is what is enabled/supported by this particular firmware.

@trouble123 to manage your expectations, if you are after files from an official ZTE channel with a polished iTunes style installer and detailed guidance then you are in for a bit of a letdown. Take note that there isn't even a menu option in the MC7010 web interface to upload firmware files. Using a Firefox browser equipped with an Adblock and OverlayRemoverAuto you may be able to find something on of one the sites from your search results.
 
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@rak093 you can select 4G bands 1/3/7/8/20/38 and 5G bands 1/3/7/38/41/78 as per screenshot previously issued. Presume this is what is enabled/supported by this particular firmware.

@trouble123 to manage your expectations, if you are after files from an official ZTE channel with a polished iTunes style installer and detailed guidance then you are in for a bit of a letdown. Take note that there isn't even a menu option in the MC7010 web interface to upload firmware files. Using a Firefox browser equipped with an Adblock and OverlayRemoverAuto you may be able to find something on of one the sites from your search results.
Thanks. I got the firmware by just adding overlay remove auto to firefox.

I see there are other firmware from Telia and Elisa Finland. I believe they would enable all bands.
 
@rak093 you can select 4G bands 1/3/7/8/20/38 and 5G bands 1/3/7/38/41/78 as per screenshot previously issued. Presume this is what is enabled/supported by this particular firmware.

@trouble123 to manage your expectations, if you are after files from an official ZTE channel with a polished iTunes style installer and detailed guidance then you are in for a bit of a letdown. Take note that there isn't even a menu option in the MC7010 web interface to upload firmware files. Using a Firefox browser equipped with an Adblock and OverlayRemoverAuto you may be able to find something on of one the sites from your search results.
Hi Again,

Play firmware supports only these bands as per their after sales service manual.
 
Nice one and glad you managed to find it :) I wouldn’t be 100% sure about the latter statement as per the Elisa Quick Start Guide:


Page 22 references the following re LTE bands being in operation, although with a caveat that “Frequency bands supported by the product vary by model.”

FDD LTE BAND 1/3/7: 22.5dBm
FDD LTE BAND 8/20/28: 23dBm
TDD LTE BAND 38: 22.5dBm

If you go for the Telia or Elisa firmware let us know if the band selection feat is there and what is available or if there are any other interesting options.

Would be interesting to see what the Finnish firmware for MC7010 has to offer as, according to a review of MC801A (which is pretty identical hardware wise), there used to be an EN-DC Band Lock setting on the Elisa firmware as per attached screenshot which is quite interesting.
 

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@grabaar I am more interested in LTE band 40 as I am located in India . But the Chinese firmware doesn't have band lock option. Though it does supports all LTE band. I believe someday we will have a global firmware to have all bands of 4G and 5G. Below is a screenshot from Elisa website


It supports mmWave as well
 
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