Best 4g setup?

I’ve been running a B525 router with A VM unlimited sim for about 4 years but since their switch to Vodafone I’ve had to cancel, not without suffering their appalling customer care.
Wondering if I should persevere with the B525 or use an ASUS router and link an android with usb? Anyone got any idea which would be best? I’m quite rural and signal not great and variable

Does that mean you also have landline broadband using the ASUS?

What other mobile provider are you thinking of? That could influence the answer .

No, I gave up my landline 4 years ago as I couldn’t cope with the stream of Openreach engineers failing to fix it 😀
I’ve tried O2 but they are too slow, so just waiting for EE sim to arrive as I know that will work from previous VM experience

In reply to a post by Carvup:

I’m quite rural and signal not great and variable

If you punch your postcode into Cellmapper, and then select a network and tell us one of the eNB numbers, others can have a look around your area without knowing your postcode.

I’d need to register to use that. I’m more concerned to get the right hardware setup. I’ve already tested the various networks 🙂

You don’t need to register to use the website.

If your Android phone is relatively new it will probably have better antennae than the B525. So get a stronger signal. I ran that way for a while, but had to give up that method when I got cloud-linked security cameras. Clearly when I went out with my phone, there was no cloud link.

I would also expect a native EE sim to perform better than a Vodafone or EE-based one from VM, in terms of busy times of day throughput.

Luckily for me, the Three signal here is fine for my needs. (See my sig). To go with EE at the time I did this, over two years ago, would have been far too expensive.

Edit: I'm assuming it's not the Utility Warehouse EE offer.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 17-Feb-21 23:24:33)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I would also expect a native EE sim to perform better than a Vodafone or EE-based one from VM, in terms of busy times of day throughput.

This is load dependent, less likely in a rural area - unless the chosen network hasn't deployed enough capacity.

Thanks all.
Yes I have a fairly new Samsung bought expressly for this so I’ll probably usb it to my Asus router. The B525 has served me well over the last 4 years.
I’ll report back as to wether it’s an improvement on the old EE based VM sim. 👍

In reply to a post by Carvup:

I’ll report back as to wether it’s an improvement on the old EE based VM sim.

It all depends what your local mast is transmitting, and then how many users there are. e.g. EE might have deployed only 20 MHz of spectrum on band 3, but they could have deployed 2 lots of 20 MHz on band 3, and 5 MHz on band 20, and 10 MHz on band 7. The older devices can use any of these but only one at a time. The newer devices can link (aggregate) them together for more consistent service.

On cellmapper the 3 nearest masts are- Id 7601, 8120 and 10724. I’d 2588 is sat out in the estuary but we have clear line of sight to that

In reply to a post by Carvup:

On cellmapper the 3 nearest masts are- Id 7601, 8120 and 10724. I’d 2588 is sat out in the estuary but we have clear line of sight to that

From these Vodafone eNB numbers, I see you are in the west coast of Scotland?

I'm pretty sure there isn't a mast in the sea, and given these masts have red icons they are automatically computed, rather than green icons which are positioned by people. They are calculated by people running the Cellmapper app on an Android phone. The auto compute can be accurate if enough data is captured, but can be way out (e.g. the ones in the sea !).

Clicking through all 4 physical operators (EE, Vodafone, Three and O2) there is not much data for your area sadly.

EE are only transmitting 4G on Band 3 (1800 MHz). Vodafone are using both Band 1 (2100 MHz) and Band 20 (800 MHz). Three and O2 have no local data.

I suspect you won't see much difference in speed from your B525 modem or using a modern phone connected to a router such as an ASUS. Not much capacity has been deployed, and typically that will be down to the population numbers in the area.

The detected Vodafone and EE masts are in quite different locations, so quite an impact of Virgin Media's change of host network.

Edited by jchamier (Thu 18-Feb-21 11:15:52)

Ok, so new EE sim arrived. Speed from 12 to 50 depending on time of day. Using a usb tether to old Asus router and a Galaxy s10
Perfect for us
New Asus 86U arriving tomorrow as it has usb3 not 2 like the old 56U

In reply to a post by Carvup:

Ok, so new EE sim arrived. Speed from 12 to 50 depending on time of day. Using a usb tether to old Asus router and a Galaxy s10
Perfect for us
New Asus 86U arriving tomorrow as it has usb3 not 2 like the old 56U

Sounds good

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Edit: I'm assuming it's not the Utility Warehouse EE offer.

Is the UW offer any different from a normal EE sim? It seems quite good value for money.

It depends on what the contract/capacity/throughput between EE and UW is. Just like all virtual providers. Think O2/GiffGaff, Three/Smarty.

I think the OP now has native EE.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 19-Feb-21 10:46:23)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It depends on what the contract/capacity/throughput between EE and UW is. Just like all virtual providers. Think O2/GiffGaff, Three/Smarty.

I think the OP now has native EE.

The GiffGaff and Smarty products are labelled Giffgaff, not O2, Smarty, not Three.
The UW product is specifically called an EE sim, not a UW sim, so I would have expected it to be an EE sim, but I have no actual experience.
If it is the full EE product and 5G capable, it is very tempting.