4G (5G?) router with Power over ethernet for rural location

J_B

On-the-coast said:

So... if ukwispa org can't tell you whether they might be able to provide a service, how do people go about finding who might be able to beam in some long distance wifi?  word of mouth... or is the very nature of these things such that they're set up ad-hoc by a group of like minded people?  Curious... maybe I'll have to email that organisation.

We live in Shropshire and there was a 'project' called 'keep Shropshire connected' which was recommended to me by the Open Reach engineer

HaroldWhistler

On-the-coast said:

Looking for advice for my parents. As I might be doing a "christmas installation" if i can find the right kit.

Situation...

• 1Mbit (average) broadband supplied via BT (about 11KM from local exchange)
• Very poor (if any) mobile signal in the house (next to a river). Not enough houses nearby to be on any list for bringing in fibre cheaply.  Mum often goes into garden to get a signal.
• Not willing to pay for starlink (that was my first recommendation), but might be persauded to go up to £20/month for a data SIM (lower more likely to be acceptable)
  
• I'm happy to pay for and install something (£100-200 total)

I've been thinking about installing a 4G/5G router. I've looked carefully at the coverage maps, and analysed the property myself a few months ago, wandering round the house and garden with my Vodafone service. They use BT - which according to the maps is the 3rd or 4th worse service in their area (becuase it saved them a few quid on their rubbish broadband supply a few years ago!)
my results on Vodafone reveal that i get an intermittent 3G signal in the lower part of the house which improves as i go to the second story. I get a pretty solid 4G signal outside in the higher parts of the garden (around 10mbit if i hold my phone above head-high)

So what i think would work hardware-wise is:

• 3G/4G/5G mobile router.  i don't care about its wifi capability as it would probably be installed at the top of the attic, or maybe even attached to one of the chimneys (the one without the TV Antenna).
• I would want the router to be powered over ethernet (for simplicity...) and to allow the main wifi broadcast to be from within the house... maybe on a mesh service as it's got walls over 45cm thick in places. 
• i don't want a mobile microcell/type amplifier (for various reasons... including licensing and legality)
• total cost (including internal wifi broadcaster, which would also power the external router over ethernet) £100-£200, excluding data SIM.

I've been searching, but my search is full of microcell stuff on one hand, fancy wifi routers on the other (having wifi is a bonus, I'm not hostile to it, i just don't want to rely on it, and i don't want to pay for a really good one if it's going to be installed somewhere we don't benefit from it), with a smattering of "junk/magic boosters" thrown in for good measure!

I'm sure that what I'm looking for must be a reasonably common usecase in the few parts of the country that are digital not-spots... but maybe I'm wrong.
Please advise, and maybe link to a few specific equipments...but remember it needs to be "cheap", as starlink would be the most convenient option.  Thanks for your help.

Also is there any broadband provider who would effectively do what I'm looking for "for free" if they were on their service? (from what I've seen so far, the ones that make this offer rely on you having a good mobile service as a backup to the wired service, that's not the case here)

I'm not sure if this will be helpful, but maybe worth considering given you mentioned a Vodafone signal.

Vodafone offer a device called a mobile broadband Router called "Gigacube". On their website, there is a 4G version of it for £50 a month on a rolling 30 day contract for 300GB Data and £50 for the device itself. From what I can see on a Review for it, it has two sockets for potential additional Antenna and Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back. I don't have experience with it, but if it uses a Vodafone SIM card, you could potentially just change to an Unlimited Data SIM from Lebara (who use a Vodafone signal) to get the monthly cost down too. 

Potentially (if there is a strong enough 4G signal) you could place the Gigacube in the attic if that is where the Vodafone signal is strongest and run an Ethernet cable down to your own Mesh setup in the main house. However, I don't think it is powered over Ethernet. 

Essex_man

Living only about 10 miles outside the M25, we are also blessed with sub-standard ADSL2 broadband (and no realistic chance of FTTP). So, I took the plunge and moved to 4G broadband about a year ago.  Absolutely no regrets.  Here are my findings:

1) get a decent router, I got hold of a ZTE MF286D, these are Three branded but not locked to their network.  Look on eBay, I spent £50 when I bought the first one, got another one for £26 recently.  No need to splash out a lot of money.  I also have a Gigacube B818-263, but I am not impressed, the ZTE performs better.  Also, I don't know if they are locked to Voda (I got mine from Germany, so I would not know as all routers must be sold unlocked in Germany). 

2) PoE is best done with the adaptors you can get on eBay, I did exactly the same to get power to the router in the attic.

3) I am using the ZTE in bridge mode, so it only connects to the mobile network but does nothing else.  WiFi and other routing is done by the ADSL router I already got. Mine is a Fritzbox 7590, but you can use pretty much any router which has a WAN interface, keeps the cabling at a minimum and you can have your WiFi base in the house rather than somewhere outside.  Th only disadvantage of a MF286D over the Huawei B818-263 is that for the MF286D you will need two ethernet cables to the device in order to access the web interface.  On the Huawei, you only need one.  You can get a 50m long Cat6 Ethernet cable on ebay for about £9, so not a big deal.

The crucial question is which network to choose.

4) You can get a first idea on cellmapper.net to see where base stations are located.  The data on cellmapper is crowdsourced and not always reliable, there are some base station shown in green, these have been verified by users, for the other ones the location has been "estimated".  If in doubt, have a look around the area.

5) Get a free app like Cellmapper, Netmonitor, Netmonster, Network Cell Info Lite or Tower Collector for your smartphone.  These allow taking signal measurements so you get a better idea which network is best than just one-four bars on a display.  Walk around the house/outbuildings etc. to look for suitable spots to eventually place the router.  You will obviously have a SIM card for at least one network in your phone already, get some free or low cost SIMs for the other three networks (MVNO SIMS show you exactly the same as the "real" operator) and repeat.  You don't need credit on the SIM to do the measurements.

6) Besides looking at the signal from the networks, make a note of the frequency bands used by the network (you can double check on cellmapper as well).  In rural areas, 800MHz is often used because it travels further than e.g. 1800MHz, but on the lower frequency bands, there is less bandwidth available, so the maximum download speed will be lower as well.

7) When it comes to choosing a network, cost is obviously another factor.  No need to buy a "data only" or "broadband" subscription, these normally turn out to be much more expensive than "phone" SIMs and there is nothing stopping you from using a "phone" SIM in a router (check whether the provider allows "tethering" otherwise you may be in breach of contract).  Best to get a PAYG or one month contract for a reasonable price and test the system thoroughly before signing up for 12 months.

8) And look carefully whether you need "unlimited" data, I got 100GB per month and during the last year never got anywhere near that.

Finally, if you have more detailed questions, have a look at the forum on Ispreview.

Hope that helps

leilabd

I am in a similar situation, though with a reasonable signal from Three and EE. For the past six years, I have been using a Netgear LB2120 4G LTE modem/router for my internet connection. It doesn't have WiFi but I don't care since I use it in bridge mode connected to my existing router's WAN port. The modem is no longer current but you can find them on eBay from time to time and there are reviews on Amazon from when they stocked it. It isn't PoE. I get download speeds of up to 50Mbs (less in the evenings but enough to watch streamed TV) and similar (or better) upload speeds. It has the possibility to have an external antenna but I've not tried that, I just have it hanging in an upstairs bedroom window. I have had a contract with Three for an unlimited mins/texts/data SIM which cost about £17/month but when the contract came up for renewal recently I replaced it with a Three Unlimited Data SIM from Scancom for £150 which will last until December 2025 (Black Friday deal, they aren't usually quite that cheap).

I have a long, thin house with very thick stone walls so I have a mesh WiFi system with 4 access points in a daisy chain on the first floor of the house. This works very well and gives a good signal to the ground floor through not very thick floors/ceilings. The WiFi is a BT Whole Home Mesh system which I've had for more than five years and has been fine. It's no longer current but again may be available second hand.