External combined 4G router / aerial questions

Please help!

Am in rural Berkshire.

Having problem getting Gigaclear fibre installed (they say they no longer have a dig permit to get the fibre from the pot in the main road (public land) across the 2.5 meter distance to my property line).

Want to look at 4G broadband as alternative.

No signal in the house but good signal in driveway which is around 25 meters (through an under-drive conduit) from the Ethernet switch in the living room.

So am thinking about mounting an external combined antenna-4G router device (supplied with Power over Ethernet) on the fence (or even the BT pole which is on my land) near the opening of the conduit and running the Ethernet cable through the conduit into the house.

Questions:

1 Any potential pitfalls which I need to be aware of?

2 Any recommendations for the external combined antenna-4G router (was wondering about the Zyxel LTE7460-M608 but it is a bit pricey). Would also like a recommendation for an installer in the Reading area (someone who can mount the antenna facing the right direction etc).

3 Finally, where do I look for the best value SIM contract? Will need as large a data allowance as possible (working from home).

All help appreciated!

Thanks - Simon

It is a pity that the Gigaclear pot is not on your land. If it is a normal Gigaclear pot designed to take a cable with a connector are you not able to make your own arrangements?

Who owns the 2.5m of land... is that also public, is the pot in the wrong place?

And have you tried Superfast Berks? The map on their website seems to show plans for individual properties, what does it say about yours? If it implies your property is live or planned I'd contact them as they've presumably paid to have your property connected.

As another idea if that still draws a blank, do you have a neighbour who could help you (if they can get connected) with either a cabled or wireless solution?

If there was real fibre only 2.5m away I'd be doing everything I could get to a connection to that.

A 5GHz point-to-point link with a friendly neighbour who has gigabit fibre would likely be better than 4G. There would be contractual and other issues to deal with though.

I'm on 4G now and it's 'OK' but speed vary a lot, network connections time out or don't connect at all.
Gaming and voice/video is doable though.
Download allowance is small, especially if you want to stream TV/films.
Can be expensive although I see on ThinkBroadband that EE have improved their packages somewhat.
I'm on rolling-month 30GB from EE for £30 per month.

If you go the 4G route, instead of having one really expensive 4G & wireless router, how about getting a dedicated external 4G device like the MikroTik "SXT LTE Kit" that can be powered over Ethernet? That would free you up to have a different device better suited to provide wireless around your home, instead of trying to find a does-everything 4G & wireless router.

MikroTik "SXT LTE Kit" seems to be about £114 from LinITX and I'm sure there are other brand equivalents to be had. (Don't get the "SXT LTE" as the modem only supports a couple of 4G frequencies so wouldn't be any good for O2, for example).

You might want to install one of those "show nearby phone masts" apps - or look into their corresponding websites to see what your nearby carriers provide. No point buying the kit if your only nearby mast barely provides 3G!

Edited by deleted (Sat 22-Sep-18 14:11:37)

How far are you from Reading?
Can you look into connecting the relish network in Reading....or Swindon.
I was connnected to a Relish mast that is 4 miles as the crow flies from my home and my signal strength if i recall correctly was -70dB. I think you can keep a signal up to about -105db. ( i may be wrong). I am now pointing at a different antenna that is about 300-400 metres as the crow flies and i am getting -60dB. So -10db difference for 3.5 miles.


General Information
State : Connected
Network Operator : 23451
Technology : LTE
Connection Time : 2 Days 7 Hours 27 Minutes 8 Seconds

LTE Information
State: Attached
DL Frequency: 3615000 kHz UL Frequency: 3615000 kHz
Bandwidth: 20000 kHz RSRP0: -60 dBm
RSRP1: -61 dBm RSRQ: -9 dB
CINR0: 25 dB CINR1: 25 dB
SINR0: 25 dB SINR1: 25 dB
TX Power: -23 dBm PCI: 47
Cell ID: 3 eNodeB ID: 352016

In reply to a post by moly99:

3 Finally, where do I look for the best value SIM contract? Will need as large a data allowance as possible (working from home).

The first issue is simply which Mobile 4G Networks can you reliably get at the Point that you want to locate your Device??

Most Rural Locations consider themselves lucky if they can get access to ONE Network Provider at 4G, so your choice of SIM Provider may be based on that criteria!