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Router for a newbie

defizr

Casual Member
I'm thinking of buying an LTE router just to fiddle about with and because my Virgin Media contract is up soon...

I recently signed up to an ID Mobile/Motorola Edge 40 contract which is giving me 300MB/s downloads so Three/MVNO is an obvious SIM candidate.

I've looked on Ebay and both Sercomm LTE2122GR and ZTE MF286D seem to be available at reasonable prices for tinkering.

Anybody have any suggestions as to which might be more suitable?
 
I recently signed up to an ID Mobile/Motorola Edge 40 contract which is giving me 300MB/s downloads so Three/MVNO is an obvious SIM candidate.

I'm not sure if you can get anything near those speeds on Three's 4G. Something to keep in mind if you decide to get a router without 5G support.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. At the moment my Virgin broadband is ~250Mb/s which is more than enough so anything around 100Mb/s or above would be good enough.
 
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I'm not sure if you can get anything near those speeds on Three's 4G. Something to keep in mind if you decide to get a router without 5G support.
What he said, @defizr
Three's 4G usually sucks quite bad and you will not get anywhere near those 5G speeds.
Go for a 5G device. They have monthly rolling contracts, inclusive of a router, for you to tinker about for a while, see if you like it.
Or invest in a Zyxel NR5103E or Huawei CPE Pro2 second hand and use a Smarty sim instead.
 
I had an MF286D from Three then bought a LTE2122GR from eternalcommunications on eBay. The LTE did better upload Carrier Aggregation and the MF had marginally better WiFi coverage. My daughter has been very chuffed with the MF for the last four months and gets an excellent Three signal at her house.

I'd go for the LTE - say that scores 100, then the MF scores 80 IMHO. Either would be good.

As for Three's speed *** at my address ***, over nearly two years I get a max of about 160Mbps on Three but 230Mbps on LycaMobile though Lyca has dropped recently (160). I totally* agree around 100Mbps is good enough. We are two adults but look after a 4yo grandson streaming YT and sometimes my son is also here YFH. Three's performance has been stellar.

* so why did I spaff £120 on an NR5103E? Because borrowing by son's to test EE 5G I discovered Three were keeping 5G secret. Three is much faster on 5G (b1, b3, n78, n78) compared to EE (b1,b3,n28)
 
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Slight change of direction. From reading this forum there's a great deal that I don't know about mobile telecomms that I'd like to learn. Forgetting for the moment my need for a connection and bearing in mind that they're both cheap on Ebay which of the two routers I've mentioned would be the better teaching aid? Which has the more informative GUI? Which is better from the fiddling about point of view?

BTW I missed a £90 NR5103E on Ebay this morning :(
 
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With the SercommLTE2122GR which I also got from eternalcommunications on ebay I was getting 20Mbps down and 2Mbps up from 3 at my house, And over 100Mbps down and 10Mbps up with EE also on the SercommLTE2122GR but only after unlocking the hidden APN settings thanks to a member on this forum sharing how to EASILY unlocking the router

Speeds from providers will vary WILDLY depending on where you live, it's always best to test who gives you the best speeds at your house and go with who is best for you.
And make sure when you get a 1month test sim that you don't get one that's speed capped like Vodafone 10Mbps or EE's 100Mbps etc

This is the forum thread here on how to unlock the sercomm router
 
Eternal seem to have run out of Sercomms but there are a couple available from private sellers which I'm keeping an eye on otherwise I might get the ZTE which is still available at eternal.
 
Eternal seem to have run out of Sercomms but there are a couple available from private sellers which I'm keeping an eye on otherwise I might get the ZTE which is still available at eternal.
I'm pretty sure the ZTE doesn't have a 4x4mimo modem in it, I believe it has 3 antennas, The Sercomm at least has 4 antennas for sure, which means there is a chance that if any of the 4 providers 02 EE Vodafone 3 offer a 4x4 connection in your area youd have higher speed potentional.

Something to note, In my area with EE the main band I connect to that gets me the 100+Mbps down on average is only a 2x2 connection and my upload of 10Mbps average is a 1x1 connection.

So if the ZTE is unlocked I'd very likely get the same speeds regardless with ether router.
 
I'm pretty sure the ZTE doesn't have a 4x4mimo modem in it, I believe it has 3 antennas, The Sercomm at least has 4 antennas for sure, which means there is a chance that if any of the 4 providers 02 EE Vodafone 3 offer a 4x4 connection in your area youd have higher speed potentional.

Something to note, In my area with EE the main band I connect to that gets me the 100+Mbps down on average is only a 2x2 connection and my upload of 10Mbps average is a 1x1 connection.

So if the ZTE is unlocked I'd very likely get the same speeds regardless with ether router.

Five antenna
 
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ZTE MF286.webp

Hmm I wonder what the other 2 are for, Routermods only expose 3 of them for SMA connectors which I why I thought it only had 3.
 
Looking at the PCB image it seems every antenna cable has another empty pigtail connector (can't remember what the port is called) on it which is also odd.
Wonder if its just a manufactor test port?
 
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Round circular caps have two more SMA connections hidden underneath, Routermods never replace existing external SMA connections
Routermods did make the sma connectors on the sercomm lte2122gr redundent when they modded mine for me. They did say not to use them after the mod was done.
Same with the ts9 connectors on the zte mc801a I had as well.

Maybe it depends on the router they mod 🤷‍♂️
 
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If you're considering an LTE router, take a look at options like the Sercomm LTE2122GR or ZTE MF286D. Just remember, Three's 4G speeds might not be as fast as 5G.
 
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I've taken the plunge and bought a NR5103E from Ebay.
Anyone recommend any particular Three/MVNO SIM deal that's current.
Shan't be using it as main broadband at the moment - just fiddling.
 
I've taken the plunge and bought a NR5103E from Ebay.
Anyone recommend any particular Three/MVNO SIM deal that's current.
Shan't be using it as main broadband at the moment - just fiddling.
1000062754.jpg

Depending on how much you want to fiddle, Smarty has a good range of prices I think defizr. :)
 
Cheers. Snagged the 40GB for £5.25 plan.
Yeah that's a great deal for sure defizr. (y)
Hope you get on well with your soap dispenser when it arrives.😊
 
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