Advice on 4G router please

GDB2222

I want to replace the rather poor and expensive broadband service to my house with mobile broadband. I can get a mobile data sim for £3 a month whereas the broadband provider wants £32 a month. So, I’m happy to give mobile a try.

There’s a tower 1/2 mile away and despite the hill in between the signal is okayish. There’s no sign of 5G in the foreseeable future. We sometimes watch films on an iPad, but don’t expect super high resolution. Apart from that it’s just emails and browsing plus listening to music. We don’t play games online.

I’d be grateful for some help with choosing a 4G router please.

I think I need cat 6, rather than cat 4, which immediately puts the price up quite a bit.

I want one with aerials with sma connectors so that I can add an external aerial if I need to.

It needs to be mains powered.

I was thinking about a TP Link MR600. Is that a good choice at around £100? The MR500 seems slightly more expensive. I don’t have a fixed budget, but don’t really want to spend more than necessary.

Vitor

A £3 SIM strongly suggests heavy traffic management. Performance at peak times may be poor regardless of router.

On the specific device, the TP-Link Archer MR600 is a perfectly reasonable choice at around £100.

flaneurs_lobster

Are you able to interrogate the statistics on your existing broadband router to get an idea of your current data usage?

How much data is available for £3/month SIM?

What kind of mobile data speeds are you showing on your current device?

GDB2222

it’s a Three data sim from Scancom. £59 one off payment until December 2027. It provides 500GB a month but we don’t get close. In January we used 300 GB.

Frozen_up_north

I had a TP-Link MR500 router before upgrading to a 5G one (TP-Link NX200, replacement is the NX210). These routers work well enough.

OP, your £3 per month (on 3) SIM sounds fine. Watching videos, updating phones/PCs, etc can easily exceed 100 GB in a month.

We have had several EE SIMs from Scancom via Amazon. No problems at all, one needed help configuring the router and they responded very quickly by email.

These are “pay up front, throw away when they stop working”. They also offer cheaper 3 network SIMs, but only EE have 5G here. EE SIMs work out around £10.70 per month for unlimited and uncapped data,

QrizB

it’s a Three data sim from Scancom. £59 one off payment until December 2027. It provides 500GB a month but we don’t get close.

I know ScanCom have some good deals but are you sure about that one?

In their Amazon shop, 500Gb a month to November 2027 is £189:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F1417RWY

Frozen_up_north

That offer is at Scancom direct:

£58.99 inc vat, 500 GB/month, runs until December 2027
https://www.scancom.co.uk

BFBW

Covered earlier here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81716629

sheenas

in terms of a router I would look for one that supports an external aerial while no 5g, a stronger signal would do wonders for the data rate.

Cisco001

£100 budget should get used 5G router like Zyxel NR5103E

flashg67

I've had a Huawei B535 4g router for a few years and as they seem reliable, I can recommend this as an option. Plenty available used on ebay which is where mine came from. They take some playing around to get the best spot in the house to site them