5G Hub

[HarryJWilliams]

Hi I've just bought a boat to CC mostly around London. I wanted to buy a 5g hub (see attached image). Will this work on its own for use such as streaming or video calls?

 

Or do I need to purchase and fit an antenna?

 

Thanks!

[GUMPY]

12 minutes ago, HarryJWilliams said:

Or do I need to purchase and fit an antenna?

Depends entirely on the local signal strength.

At my marina no external antenna = no internet

At home no external antenna = 170Mbps 

And that's only 4g

 

[HarryJWilliams]

Thanks - that's useful. Sounds like I'll just get an antenna - are they easy to self install or do you need a techy?

[Rob-M]

I couldn't see in the spec what external connections that box has.  Generally an antenna is simply a case of plugging in a couple of connectors but that does presume the box has suitable ports.

[GUMPY]

21 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I couldn't see in the spec what external connections that box has.  Generally an antenna is simply a case of plugging in a couple of connectors but that does presume the box has suitable ports.

It has two TS9 connector that only work on 5g not 4g, as far as I an tell its a ZTE mc801a 5g hub

[Thames Bhaji]

I’ve just fitted a huawei b818 (4G, 2nd hand off ebay) and had 4 external antenna sockets added by these guys: https://router-mods.co.uk. I’m using 2 2x2 MIMO antenna and getting much better speeds than I did before. 
 

Will you have a good enough 5G signal on much of your travels? 

 

 

[Hudds Lad]

16 minutes ago, Thames Bhaji said:

I’ve just fitted a huawei b818 (4G, 2nd hand off ebay) and had 4 external antenna sockets added by these guys: https://router-mods.co.uk. I’m using 2 2x2 MIMO antenna and getting much better speeds than I did before. 
 

Will you have a good enough 5G signal on much of your travels? 

 

 

Interesting, a quick Google tells me you could have done the same yourself for a tenner or less, but without a fancy sticker  

But as long as you're happy and it's working i suppose it was worth it.

[Thames Bhaji]

9 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Interesting, a quick Google tells me you could have done the same yourself for a tenner or less, but without a fancy sticker  

But as long as you're happy and it's working i suppose it was worth it.

Don’t! I was very close to having a go myself, but from my googling I decided it might need a deeper understanding of things than I could be bothered with on this occasion. I hate having someone else do something I might be able to do myself normally! 

[IanD]

16 hours ago, Loddon said:

It has two TS9 connector that only work on 5g not 4g, as far as I an tell its a ZTE mc801a 5g hub

 

If that's the case an external antenna is not going to be useful for 5G with weak signals. In countries which have new 5G-only networks (SA=standalone) you only need the 5G antennas, but the UK has NSA (non-stand-alone) 5G which means you need a 4G connection to set up the call and communicate with the network, the 5G link then provides the higher-speed data access.

 

So in weak signal areas with no external 4G antennae it won't work any better than using the internal antennas. For this you need a router which has external antenna connections for both 4G and 5G, either on separate connectors or shared.

[GUMPY]

24 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

If that's the case an external antenna is not going to be useful for 5G with weak signals. In countries which have new 5G-only networks (SA=standalone) you only need the 5G antennas, but the UK has NSA (non-stand-alone) 5G which means you need a 4G connection to set up the call and communicate with the network, the 5G link then provides the higher-speed data access.

 

So in weak signal areas with no external 4G antennae it won't work any better than using the internal antennas. For this you need a router which has external antenna connections for both 4G and 5G, either on separate connectors or shared.

In which case I will stay with 4g and save myself some cash. I picked the spec re the antennas from a ZTE  suppliers website so assume it's true.

Why I would need more than 200Mbs I can't fathom as we have streamed up to four HD channels with no problems. 

[IanD]

5 hours ago, Thames Bhaji said:

I’ve just fitted a huawei b818 (4G, 2nd hand off ebay) and had 4 external antenna sockets added by these guys: https://router-mods.co.uk. I’m using 2 2x2 MIMO antenna and getting much better speeds than I did before. 
 

Will you have a good enough 5G signal on much of your travels? 

 

 

Do you mean much better speeds than an unmodified B818 with a single 2x2 MIMO antenna? Or better than some other setup (e.g. B818 internal antenna, or something else)?

[mrsmelly]

Which reminds me. My fone people have recently messaged me saying " Great news " 5G has now been added to your tariff, just make sure youve got your 5G ready device etc etc. Now precisely what does an extra G mean in the real World? Does it make me a coffee or cook me a full English? Does it provide endless massages from nubile young women or just what?? Just wonderin. I didnt realy notice when 3 became 4 so what amazing difference to my life will 5 make?

[GUMPY]

9 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I didnt realy notice when 3 became 4 so what amazing difference to my life will 5 make?

You will likely be dead before 5g reaches rural Wales. I am not expecting it to happen down here in my part of Devon in my lifetime. Especially since they have just upgraded my local 4g transmitter.

[Thames Bhaji]

50 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

Do you mean much better speeds than an unmodified B818 with a single 2x2 MIMO antenna? Or better than some other setup (e.g. B818 internal antenna, or something else)?

 

Both, as far as I can tell. I generally got no more than 5 - 10mbps with my Huawei E5186 with a 2x2 antenna. The B818 was giving me around 15, unmodified with a 2x2 external antenna. Now with 2 antenna I'm getting 20-30 on average. It varies tho - this is all based on averages of several speed tests, but could still be inaccurate. 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Which reminds me. My fone people have recently messaged me saying " Great news " 5G has now been added to your tariff, just make sure youve got your 5G ready device etc etc. Now precisely what does an extra G mean in the real World? Does it make me a coffee or cook me a full English? Does it provide endless massages from nubile young women or just what?? Just wonderin. I didnt realy notice when 3 became 4 so what amazing difference to my life will 5 make?

It's one G better. Of course you need it. Of course each extra G adds proportionally less. 2G was twice as good as 1G. 3 G was only half as good again as 2G. 4G was only a third as good again as 3G and 5G adds only an extra quarter to what you got with 4G.

[IanD]

59 minutes ago, Thames Bhaji said:

 

Both, as far as I can tell. I generally got no more than 5 - 10mbps with my Huawei E5186 with a 2x2 antenna. The B818 was giving me around 15, unmodified with a 2x2 external antenna. Now with 2 antenna I'm getting 20-30 on average. It varies tho - this is all based on averages of several speed tests, but could still be inaccurate. 

That's exactly the information I was looking for, whether 4x4 MIMO really did give any speed advantage over 2x2 MIMO even with 4G -- thank you 🙂

[Thames Bhaji]

21 minutes ago, IanD said:

That's exactly the information I was looking for, whether 4x4 MIMO really did give any speed advantage over 2x2 MIMO even with 4G -- thank you 🙂

Yes, I’ve been merrily plugging and un-plugging my 2 antenna in different combinations of the 4 sockets, and the 2nd pair always seems to improve the signal strength and download speed. 
 

TBH 30mbps is overkill, but if the 4x4 helps to scavenge enough data to keep various family members streaming (and not screaming) in low signal areas I’ll be happy. We will see soon when we’re on the move. 

[IanD]

51 minutes ago, Thames Bhaji said:

Yes, I’ve been merrily plugging and un-plugging my 2 antenna in different combinations of the 4 sockets, and the 2nd pair always seems to improve the signal strength and download speed. 
 

TBH 30mbps is overkill, but if the 4x4 helps to scavenge enough data to keep various family members streaming (and not screaming) in low signal areas I’ll be happy. We will see soon when we’re on the move. 

Again, good news -- not that 30Mbps is needed, but that 4x4 MIMO increases data rate by up to 2x. When you get a to low signal area and 2x2 drops to (for example) 5Mbps (unusable) but 4x4 can still get (for example) 10Mbps (usable), that's where the real advantage will be.

 

It also means that if you want to get the highest data rates, it's worth considering a 4x4 MIMO router+aerial setup (4G only) over 2x2, even though the cost is a bit higher. 5G is still very expensive and coverage is still poor, and probably zero in low signal areas...

[Ronaldo47]

There was a letter on the papers last week about a supermarket's problems with the use of 5G by customers attempting to pay using smartphones. The 5G service was so unreliable and slow that customers were advised to disable it on their phones, whereupon everything worked immediately using the older G service.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Ronaldo47
typos

[reg]

I have 5g and 4g, very rarely get a sustainable 5g connection throughout the system I will stick with 4g for now.

 

[IanD]

On 11/05/2022 at 20:21, Ronaldo47 said:

There was a letter on the papers last week about a supermarket's problems with the use of 5G by customers attempting to pay using smartphones. The 5G service was so unreliable and slow that customers were advised to disable it on their phones, whereupon everything worked immediately using the older G service.

That shouldn't happen, if the 5G signal is bad and 4G is better phones should use 4G instead. If the reports is reliable, this may have been a one-off problem with the 5G network configuration in that location which you'd expect would be fixed, otherwise there would be lots of reports about this kind of problem. 

2 hours ago, reg said:

I have 5g and 4g, very rarely get a sustainable 5g connection throughout the system I will stick with 4g for now.

 

Definitely not worth upgrading 4G to 5G right now because of cost and lack of coverage, but this will improve in the future. With a new installation where you're trying to get the best data rate (4x4 MIMO) a 5G setup (router + aerial) costs at least 50% more than 4G, this may make sense compared to installing 4G now and replacing it with 5G later.

[robtheplod]

I think 5G will initially only be in larger towns/cities for the foreseeable, so most won't benefit from it for quite a while. 3/4G best option when cruising for the time being...

[reg]

56 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

I think 5G will initially only be in larger towns/cities for the foreseeable, so most won't benefit from it for quite a while. 3/4G best option when cruising for the time being...

Just a point of interest the UK 3G shutdown has already started with At&T shutting down in Feb 2022. I understand that 3 mobile may go on until late 2024 although this needs to be verified.

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by reg

[Ronaldo47]

Vodafone recently messaged me that their 3G is closing some time in 2023. They told me that, while my phone uses 4G for data, it uses 3G for phone calls , but calls will continue to work on 2G.  Not that we use the mobile phone at home as the service indoors on any G for both EE and Vodafone is too unreliable. We would need to go in the middle of the road to get a reliable signal, hence our continuing use of our landline.  

[LadyG]

Just wondering where I can buy a magnetic outdoor omni antenna for my Huawei e5785

It's got twin ( two ) ts-9 sockets in the router.

I've tried eBay and Amazon.

Thanks