4G Signal

I live in a rural location right on the edge but just outside 4G coverage (100 yds up my track, slightly uphill I can get it), and with very a poor broadband service
By climbing a ladder on my house, I can get a decent 4G signal.
I assume I could get 4G home broadband by installing an aerial on my roof attached to a 4G router, using one of the 4G providers.
My question is, is this correct, and what aerial/router would I need (The providers seem to just supply a normal 4G router without an aerial output)

It is hard to say definitively, as there are a lot of variables. However, I'd guess something like the Mikrotik SXT LTE6 router would probably do it - I use an earlier model and it has been very reliable. You can mount it outside on a wall or pole, and it is powered over ethernet, so is easy to install. They are directional so you need to point it in approximately the correct direction - you can see signal strength in the stats to help with that.
Then you need a SIM for whatever provider you can get coverage for - I think they all do unlimited SIM only deals these days. Probably best to try with a PAYG SIM first to check the performance before signing up for a 12 or 24 month deal.

In reply to a post by sheephouse:

Probably best to try with a PAYG SIM first to check the performance before signing up for a 12 or 24 month deal.

Note that EE has a 30 Mbps speed limit on PAYG, so if you always get 30Mbps you can't see how much higer it might go.

And the benefit over something like a Mikrotik SXT is that the antenna is built into it.

Adding external antennas to a router has limits, the longer the cables you need to get the antennas high enough, the more signal strength you lose. It doesn't take that long a distance before the losses in the cable exceed the gains from external antennas.

I'm not sure that EE has a 30Mbps speed limit on PAYG - I tried one before committing to my current contract and I got >80Mbps (off peak) just like the contract one I have now.

In reply to a post by sheephouse:

I'm not sure that EE has a 30Mbps speed limit on PAYG - I tried one before committing to my current contract and I got >80Mbps (off peak) just like the contract one I have now.

My test PAYG SIM had the limit in January, but its quite an old SIM. Good to know that EE have lifted the limit!

Similar story here for us, woeful adsl and patchy 4G around the house,

However My SXT mounted in the loft gets me this.....




Unless i was very close to a 4G tower Personally i'd steer away from internal routers with external antenna attached. There are other options than the Microtik, and varied price ranges depending on your budget / requirements

One thing to bear in mind is the Microtik doesn't give you multiple ethernet ports and Wifi so you'd need to think about what you require.

I went for a Ubiquiti Wifi Mesh AP that covers the whole house and almost all the surrounding gardens.

In all, from years of dire adsl ie 1Mb, this has been a fantastic decision.

Thanks very much everyone, all very useful info.
One further complication I've got is the house is a stone cottage with very thick walls, so wifi doesn't work very well inside. I hard wired Ethernet connections from the router to various rooms when we renovated the place, so that we can use laptops etc elsewhere. That's why my thinking is a router connected via cable to the top of the roof, which would be far easier than putting something in the loft. Cable length would probably be about 7 metres

With an external router powered by power over ethernet you're limited to a max cable length of 100m (and unlike an aerial lead there is no signal degradation), so there should be plenty of flexibility in positioning the router and routing the cable.
I can also recommend the Ubiquiti Unifi devices as mentioned above for WiFi - I have 4 that cover 2 acres, including my part stone-built house.

We are in a very similar situation, a rural bungalow, 2Mbit adsl and insufficient signal of any sort to make a reliable voice call in the house.

Nearly a year ago I used Teamviewer to remotely drive my phone and attached it to an 8m pole and found that at that height I had a usable signal on Three and EE.

I have ended up wit a very DIY/Homebrew solution but it has now been our only connection for over 9 months and works well.

This is my solution.

The box contains a POE to 5V converter, Raspberry Pi, E8372 USB/4G Modem, temp sensor and a speed controlled fan.

The 4G mast is at a distance of 7.5km, nearly line of sight, there is just a distant tree in the way, and depending on time of day and weather we get between 20 - 60Mbit. Usually between 25-35Mbit.

I use a SMARTY SIM so put up with CGNAT and Web proxy, but it only cost £18.75 per month.

So it is well worth perusing and as mentioned in other posts there are readily available combined aerial/routers, or homebrew solutions are possible.

I can also vouch for Ubiquiti WiFi, but is certainly is far from cheap.

Good Luck

That's impressive .

You should be selling your services! 😃

Thanks for your very interesting and helpful reply.

As you say, we're in a very similar situation, and from the roof of my house there's a line of sight to the 4G mast. I've had a signal of 30Mbit at the top of my roof on a ladder (and if I can convince my wife to cut back a largish holly I think it will be better)

My cottage is mainly 20 inch stone walls, so wifi doesn't work very well, and so I'm looking at an aerial on the roof connected to a router indoors then connected by a switch / ethernet cables around the hose (installed when we renovated), although I'll test whether wifi will work from the roof level by going up the ladder, using my phone as a hotspot and tethering to laptops etc.

The smarty sim looks good and as it's effectively just a one month commitment I'll order one. The one I've seen is £20 for unlimited data, and I assume that's the same as yours.

One minor question, what is the issue over " ..put up with CGNAT and Web proxy.."

In reply to a post by UncleD:

One minor question, what is the issue over " ..put up with CGNAT and Web proxy.."

Multiplayer gaming often hits problems with multiple levels of NAT (Network Address Translation) which is what your home router does. CGNAT is where this is ALSO happening in the network due to the lack of IPv4 addresses, so you get two levels of NAT.

Some networks also force all web connections through a proxy to reduce their costs, and this can interrupt some web based systems. It is generally only done by the lower price internet providers.

You should check which networks are on the mast, if you have Three, you might also have EE, as often they are co-located. The transmitter panels will be at different heights on the mast, so you might get a better EE service, avoiding the trees, but for more money!

Thanks for that. Smarty use Three, but I assume from what you're saying they may use EE as a proxy.

I've checked the internet speed with speedtest on my mobile for Three, EE and vodaphone using different sims, and the speeds are all same, so hopefully won't have a problem.

Out of interest, do you know how you can find out the location of local masts. Apparently Mastdata used to have that information but not any longer.

In reply to a post by UncleD:

Thanks for that. Smarty use Three, but I assume from what you're saying they may use EE as a proxy.

Nope, the two networks are separate, just if you needed to go to the attic for a signal from Three, you might get a signal in a room further down the house from EE.

If you want to avoid the web proxy, or CGNAT then you can get a SIM from Three.

I've checked the internet speed with speedtest on my mobile for Three, EE and vodaphone using different sims, and the speeds are all same, so hopefully won't have a problem.

The same? Depends on your phone, but it is likely you will get different speeds on different networks as they all have different allocations of frequencies. Also they will have different number of users in each area.

Out of interest, do you know how you can find out the location of local masts. Apparently Mastdata used to have that information but not any longer.

Mastdata has ancient info.

The O2 website shows their masts, which is often useful as they frequently share with Vodafone.

The cellmapper website (https://www.cellmapper.net/) is a crowd sourced, volunteer, site that might show your masts. If you have an Android phone if you install the app, you can drive around the location and upload your data and it will update the map.