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Three Band 28 and Huawei B818-263

lusciouslukey

Regular Member
Hi,

I double posted in error and resulted in deletion of both. Anyway,

I have a Huawei B525-23 which is most beloved and has served me very well up until recently where the 2100 MHz re-farm touched on my area. I used to lock B3 and B20 on mast 9255 and that would aggregate when required but the majority of the time it was solely B3 and speeds over 50 Mbps. Then mast 5880 was created after the 3G site was overhauled and took over town! Well for me anyway. The new mast is B1, B3, B20 and B28 and with the deployed configuration the current B525 is only able to get B1. My phone aggregates B1 + B28 and when outside gets over 100Mbps. I can see B1, B3, B20 and B28 from my phone but of course the aging B525 cannot. I have a Poynting Omni antenna in the loft as I am not allowed to fix anything externally and have attached some of the current metrics from it.

After the re-farm 9255 was nobbled as no longer can aggregate and the B3 it serves is slower than B20! Incidentally while walking I managed over 100Mbps on band 20 but could not replicate the speed when I got home and locked B20 for a while. I am not locked to B1 from 5880 and really notice the dip in speed.

Does anyone have a B818-263 that is accessing B28 and utilising CA? What is the performance like? The B818-263 seems to have gone up in price again which is annoying seeing as that device is also getting pretty old now! I have found under £150 from EU inc VAT and the plug isn't an issue given it is powered by ac adapter.
b525-23.webp
LocalArea.webp
 
I have a B818-263. It is now superseded by ZTE MC801A 5G but I've kept it as a spare. The main bands that it aggregates to are 1+3 giving anything from 30mb/s to 140mb/s or even higher late at night. That tower can get very congested. A lower speed but more consistent tower can give me about 60-80mb/s while aggregating 20+32. I can just about pick up a tower from 7 miles away that broadcasts band 28. I can aggregate 28+32 from there but due to the distance I've only barely got 30mb/s, usually less than that. The latter two towers both have b3 and would most likely aggregate three bands but when selecting b3 the router jumps back to the stronger b3 signal and fails to lock onto b20 or B28 .
If you can put cellmapper on your phone and find out where it's locking onto to get those nice speeds you might be able to make a better judgement on what your best bet is. The cell locking ability of the ZTE device is a potential game changer.
 
Further. I've had a look at the towers you refer to. If your B525 is rerouting to the new tower it would appear that B28+b3+b1 might work with a suitable replacement for your B525. Although I have not been able to aggregate three bands with my B818 due to clashes it is supposed to be able to, but with b28 there were limitations. I'll do some more tests and report back.

Edit: as I thought B28 won't aggregate with B32. Unfortunately the other bands on that tower are too weak so I can't test it. There are charts around which list which bands can aggregate with which but I don't have them to hand.

Edit2: Have you attempted to band lock to b20+b3 or b20+b1 using LTE-H Monitor or LTE Inspecteur?

Edit 3: There seem to be quite good coverage for 5G outdoors from Three around there. Even in the blank areas you might be lucky with a 5G router with a following wind.
 
Last edited:
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Further. I've had a look at the towers you refer to. If your B525 is rerouting to the new tower it would appear that B28+b3+b1 might work with a suitable replacement for your B525. Although I have not been able to aggregate three bands with my B818 due to clashes it is supposed to be able to, but with b28 there were limitations. I'll do some more tests and report back.

Edit: as I thought B28 won't aggregate with B32. Unfortunately the other bands on that tower are too weak so I can't test it. There are charts around which list which bands can aggregate with which but I don't have them to hand.

Edit2: Have you attempted to band lock to b20+b3 or b20+b1 using LTE-H Monitor or LTE Inspecteur?
I have been using HuaCtrl for band locking which is how I was getting previous faster speeds but since the new site went live B3 is performing at sub 5Mbps. I have not got any screenshots of any use but will gather some. From memory the phone has been doing B1 + B20 or B28 but not all three. If I head north then I get B1 + B3 + B28 towards 5G enabled areas. I can't imagine 5G heading my way anytime soon given the rural location but I might luck out. I was hoping for band 32 as I know that can give a mega performance but it is what it is!
 
I can get b20+b32 here. Also B20+b32+b3 from the ZTE. It's ok-ish speedwise and very consistent, but not the best 4G combo around here which for me is B1+b3.

Ah, here we are. just found this:
 
I can get b20+b32 here. Also B20+b32+b3 from the ZTE. It's ok-ish speedwise and very consistent, but not the best 4G combo around here which for me is B1+b3.

Ah, here we are. just found this:
I did some screenshots, however, I am unable to reduce size to upload so will have another look tomorrow. The link is good! One of the screenshots shows my phone on B3 + B1 so with the aerial as well that is already installed I could in theory get some decent performance or at least do B1 + B28. It's all ££ though :( Looking at the ZTE is between £250 and £300 with the bonus that it would future proof 5G and the omni external is 5G ready as well. The 5G version was £70 refurb on amazon and at the time was cheaper than the older 4G version!
 
I can get b20+b32 here. Also B20+b32+b3 from the ZTE. It's ok-ish speedwise and very consistent, but not the best 4G combo around here which for me is B1+b3.

Ah, here we are. just found this:
I ended up ordering a B818 that arrived last week and was faulty out of the box so am sending back today and awaiting the replacement to find out how good it is!

There have been a lot of regional changes and I think I'm getting B32 soon as getting some readings for it. The bedroom is usually the worst place for signal but when I checked this morning the wifi on phone was toggled off and the automatic speed tests picked up B1 + B28 at 120mbps ish and B3 is back on the up for speed where I am so hopefully be in a better position than before!
 
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I ended up ordering a B818 that arrived last week and was faulty out of the box so am sending back today and awaiting the replacement to find out how good it is!

There have been a lot of regional changes and I think I'm getting B32 soon as getting some readings for it. The bedroom is usually the worst place for signal but when I checked this morning the wifi on phone was toggled off and the automatic speed tests picked up B1 + B28 at 120mbps ish and B3 is back on the up for speed where I am so hopefully be in a better position than before!
I couldn't get B28+B32 with the B818
 
I couldn't get B28+B32 with the B818
I am happy with the B1, B3 B28 combo that should in theory all work when a working unit arrives! I live near where they trialled L-Band and initially even in a over subscribed site and incredibly bust day you could get over 200Mbps down easily and that was just B20 and B32. And when I have encountered in the wild B32 has always been a spicy meatball to boost the speeds. I think there is work way off west to be completed and then I am hazarding a guess that B32 will be more accessible as they need to bridge some very speedy 5G between Oxford and Swindon but as mentioned before we are waaaaaay down the list for 5G but will benefit from the vastly improved 4G
 
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