Recommendations for 5G router with voLTE

Hi. It’s time I replaced my rather old 4G home broadband backup router with something a bit more up to date…

Although there’s no 5G coverage at home yet, I also use the router when travelling, so 5G capability would be useful. Current router has an analogue phone port which I do use to take advantage of the included voice minutes when I’m using a phone SIM.

I’d like to avoid the likes of Huawei and ZTE (and other manufacturers with Chinese origin firmware) Trying not to be too paranoid but I do occasionally need to work on commercially sensitive projects and I’d rather not take the risk.

In summary, the buying criteria are.

- Supports 5G
- Analogue phone port which supports voLTE
- Non Chinese origin generic firmware, not carrier specific, with regular updates as necessary
- At least one wired ethernet port
- As plug and play as possible

Any suggestions? I can’t find anything at the moment!

I don’t think you’ll find anything. Not really a demand: except for those products with network operator firmware that I don’t think any support a fixed line telephone port.

If your mobile phone supports using voLTE then setting it to use that it will pick up your "new" router's broadband connection. Or at least should. Mine shows that is what it is using when I visit friends and relatives where my phone has been logged into their wifi.

Edit: I'm not sure your analogue phone would work anyway as surely it would need the broadband supplier to be supplying VOIP on the broadband connection. I don't think you can access the phone minutes of the router's phone SIM in the way you suggest.

Edited by pluralist (Sun 09-Apr-23 16:25:03)

In reply to a post by pluralist:

If your mobile phone supports using voLTE then setting it to use that it will pick up your "new" router's broadband connection. Or at least should. Mine shows that is what it is using when I visit friends and relatives where my phone has been logged into their wifi.

Edit: I'm not sure your analogue phone would work anyway as surely it would need the broadband supplier to be supplying VOIP on the broadband connection. I don't think you can access the phone minutes of the router's phone SIM in the way you suggest.

Do you mean "WiFi Calling" rather than "VoLTE" - they are quite different things?

In reply to a post by pluralist:

If your mobile phone supports using voLTE then setting it to use that it will pick up your "new" router's broadband connection. Or at least should. Mine shows that is what it is using when I visit friends and relatives where my phone has been logged into their wifi.

Sorry Bob, you've mixed Voice over 4G (VoLTE) with Voice over WiFi. Today there are small operators whom have started to offer Voice over WiFi but not yet Voice over 4G, and on some it depends on the handset.

None of the discussion around handsets (iPhone or Android) impacts what is available on a LTE or NR broadband router device. Quite a very different range of technology with entirely different firmware, none use the Android frameworks for example.

Edit: I'm not sure your analogue phone would work anyway as surely it would need the broadband supplier to be supplying VOIP on the broadband connection. I don't think you can access the phone minutes of the router's phone SIM in the way you suggest.

And given the right hardware that would be entirely dependent upon the SIM. There are some 4G (LTE) fixed routers that pretend to be phones with an RJ11 connector on the back that allow you to make phone calls over legacy circuit switched (2G/3G) or packet switched (4G/VoLTE) connections. Internally they convert the analogue handset to digital, and pass that over the SIP connection to the VoLTE service provider. (VoLTE is actually standard VoIP protocols over a controlled network, not the open internet. Same technology to the 'digital voice' service some internet providers are now supplying).

These devices are very rare, and very likely made by Huawei or ZTE and unlikely to support 5G (NR) at the present time, given the limited demand for such products.

The super expensive Netgear M1 range of portable 4G/5G hotspots can be run as a home router, but don't have any voice support. This is a niche market, and fixed line handset voice support is unlikely to be included.

Best to give up the idea, get an Analogue Telephone Adaptor and use some of the data capacity with a separate VoIP supplier. Or just use a mobile phone as a mobile phone.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 09-Apr-23 16:56:24)

Wifi calling is set to "on" in my mobile.

At the premises I mentioned my Three phone and broadband signal is very weak, usually failing to register at all. Because of this my phone has login details for the relevant wifis already remembered.

As well as the usual wifi signal strength indicator, VoLTE appears next to it. If required I am able to phone out via that with no problem. If i turn off wifi calling that indicator disappears and it is rare that I can do anything at all with my phone at these locations.

How I previously described it may be technically incorrect, but it's what I see on the phone when calling via those routers.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

How I previously described it may be technically incorrect, but it's what I see on the phone when calling via those routers.

What you see is a decision some Android manufacturers chose to do, combined with choices your mobile network operator makes (based on the SIM). What you see on a Three SIM is likely to be different for someone on a GiffGaff SIM, and different on an O2 SIM, or a VOXI SIM. Even more confusing if you look at the smaller MVNO like RWE, 1pMobile or others.

The icons also behave differently depending on make, and sometimes software version and patch version. (!!). The "VoLTE" flag shows at all times, even if WiFi calling is in use on my OnePlus, and its pretty pointless to tell people this, but I see a friends (old) Samsung shows the icon only when on mobile connection and it vanishes when on WiFi.

Apple decided this was pointless, as was showing the sub-types of 3G and 4G (3G/H/H+) or (4G/4G+ etc) and so the icons are much simpler on iOS.

Almost no phones provide controls over VoLTE, as switching it off would just result in the phone being returned ("This one doesn't work"). End users CAN control WiFi calling, option in all menus.

I think showing the VoLTE icon just shows Android was designed by computer engineers, not for the masses, causing queries and confusion like this thread.

Very sad in a consumer product. Not something the 1970s Japanese engineers behind the likes of Sony, Panasonic and others that made electronics mass-market would have done.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 09-Apr-23 17:29:34)

In reply to a post by pluralist:

Wifi calling is set to "on" in my mobile.

And is completely irrelevant to VoLTE, which is normally described as "4G Calling" by mobile networks.

There were phones available that have WiFi calling that can't do VoLTE (hopefully very few on sale since 2020).

I can't argue against you any more than I can against pheasant, as both of you are streets ahead of me wrt to the technology.

However I have just described to pheasant what happens, and what shows on my phone (Android OnePlus 8 Pro) at the time. The most frequent site it does so has TalkTalk FTTC with a bog standard TT router.

Note also that the OP is talking about his existing and future mobile broadband routers. I very much doubt if using a phone SIM in that (as I do in mine) gives access to the mobile call minutes of that SIM via his analogue socket in the router.

That is to some extent far more important than a discussion of my setup. If he isn't getting to use the mobile minutes of the in-router SIM he can forget that idea and also leave his analogue handset at home.

Maybe it would help if we knew the OP's current router and mobile broadband supplier .

Just thinking .... In normal use my phone display varies between 4G, 4G+ and 5G, plus of course lower ones at times. These appear above the right-angle triangle of signal strength bars.

It only ever shows VoLTE at the visited sites, and that is to the left of that triangle. IIRC it replaces the mobile phone signal strength vertical arc. What to make of that I'll leave to the two of you, but not only can I make calls but texts also work.

Clearly my connection to the router is wifi. I've never questioned or doubted that. But what is going in and on the other side of the router?

In reply to a post by jchamier:

The "VoLTE" flag shows at all times, even if WiFi calling is in use on my OnePlus.

I bet it vanishes if you turn off wifi calling, as opposed to using it.

It doesn't even appear here at any time.