My 3G/4G testing...

I've been playing with some mobile networks on my Mikrotik LTE router as currently that's the only way I can get internet access. I have a Three "200MB free per month" SIM card which I normally keep in my iPhone. This charges 1p/MB after the free 200MB is used up, but the bundles are quite expensive. The other one is a Giffgaff SIM which charges a whopping 10p/MB, but has cheap bundles.

With both of them in the Mikrotik router, the 4G performance is terrible. I can get quite high instantaneous speeds (20Mbps+), which is good for bulk upload/download of stuff like video or software updates but is useless for VoIP (it results in long periods of silence) and a lot of connections like IRC will timeout regularly.

I have mostly been using the giffgaff SIM in 3G mode, as although the speed is much slower (<5Mbps), there is much less jitter and packet loss, so it works more or less OK for VoIP, and IRC and internet radio don't fail as often). It does still have issues though as sometimes IRC will timeout and webpages will only half load.

Here is the CQM graph for the giffgaff SIM showing the difference between 3G and 4G: http://stevecoates.net/stuff/networking/giffgaff-3g-...

Here is the CQM graph for the Three SIM on 4G: http://stevecoates.net/stuff/networking/three-4g-cqm...

I'm interested to know why these are so bad. Is it more likely to be a poor signal? Or is it more likely to be network congestion? I am in a suburb and we are quite well served by mobile networks.

I'm hoping to get an EE and a Vodafone SIM in the near future to try those out and see if they are any better.

What LTE category is your MicroTik device? Modern phones are Cat 16 or higher, but many LTE modems are legacy Cat 4.

Cat 4 makes one connection at a time, on one freq band. Cat 6 can aggregate two together, and higher categories can use more at once. My local EE mast has 4 transmissions and bonding all together on my 4 year old OnePlus Nord lets me reach speeds of 200 Mbps.

Use something like cellmapper.net to locate your nearest mast on any of the 4 physical UK networks, EE, Vodafone, Three or O2 and identify what freqency bands are transmitted, and how many.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 12-May-23 10:21:01)

Its a Mikrotik R11e-LTE which is Cat 4.

https://mikrotik.com/product/r11e_lte

TBH, the speed isn't too much of a concern. I'm happy with slower speeds, I just prefer reliability, so things don't conk out half way through. The problem with having mobile data at ridiculously high speeds is that it is expensive, and you can easily run up a huge bill in moments!

I've just had a look at Cellmapper and have forced the Mikrotik onto some other cells by manually selecting a band.

In reply to a post by steve30:

TBH, the speed isn't too much of a concern. I'm happy with slower speeds, I just prefer reliability, so things don't conk out half way through. The problem with having mobile data at ridiculously high speeds is that it is expensive, and you can easily run up a huge bill in moments!

Unless you're on Smarty with an unlimited SIM or similar.

Don't confuse multi-band with high speeds. You need multi-band aggregation for capacity. Think M25's 4 lanes at peak time, everyone doing 50 MPH but tens of thousands of cars per hour instead of hundreds. In networking "capacity" is where you see lower latency and/or jitter for VoIP calls.

These embedded systems are unfortunately quite old in design. Cat 4 is about 10 years old, in computer and telecommunications terms that is an eternity.

I've just had a look at Cellmapper and have forced the Mikrotik onto some other cells by manually selecting a band.

You can swap between the bands for your network, but you will always be hunting. I think it was Microtik that had a newer Cat 6 module, which would be a big improvement, worth talking to them see what the options are.

A cheap entry level Android phone with 4G (LTE) is Cat 18 for example...
https://www.oneplus.com/uk/nord-specs

Unless you need water proof external, it may be worth investigating an internal (in window) receiver of a higher Category (or even 5G).

Unless basic connectivity is all you need.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 12-May-23 19:17:40)

Try vodafone 4G (lebara) but it cost £25 per month for unlimited data with no contract (but lucky me they give me free 1 month to try it out)

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/16839307541...

Thanks for the information. My knowledge of cellular technology is a bit non-existent .

Mikrotik do indeed have a Cat 6 card which I could upgrade to, but its not worth spending the money on at the moment. They also do some other LTE and 5G stuff which seems to have a higher rating but you have to buy the entire router, rather than just the card. Again, something to bare in mind for the future, but its more than I can afford at the moment.

In reply to a post by steve30:

Thanks for the information. My knowledge of cellular technology is a bit non-existent .

At one point I had about 8 different "MiFi" boxes, from 3G, through Cat 3/ Cat4, Cat 6, upwards! The latest are now outside my price range sadly. (Netgear M1/M1000 type thing on Amazon).

Mikrotik do indeed have a Cat 6 card which I could upgrade to, but its not worth spending the money on at the moment. They also do some other LTE and 5G stuff which seems to have a higher rating but you have to buy the entire router, rather than just the card. Again, something to bare in mind for the future, but its more than I can afford at the moment.

Good luck on what you decide.

In reply to a post by steve30:

Thanks for the information. My knowledge of cellular technology is a bit non-existent .

Mikrotik do indeed have a Cat 6 card which I could upgrade to, but its not worth spending the money on at the moment. They also do some other LTE and 5G stuff which seems to have a higher rating but you have to buy the entire router, rather than just the card. Again, something to bare in mind for the future, but its more than I can afford at the moment.

Fair point but uswitch have 3 months of £9.98 to have Lebara unlimited data with 60% off to try it out. Like you say it your decision and your personal choice. Good luck whatever u do next.

And what antenna(s) do you have ?

Due to Virgin's unreliability as of late I've recently invested in setting up a 5G backup solution. Definitely pricey, but if it's your only way of getting a broadband connection, I highly recommend it if you're in an area with good signal.
Direct from 3 with unlimited usage, it's £20 pm on a 24m contract (more on a shorter contract).

But what I did was purchase the router (Zyxel NR5103E) off eBay for ~£150. You get a good futureproofed LTE Cat 22 Modem + WiFi 6 router, with the ability for it to do IP passthrough to your existing router if you wish. Make sure you get a 3 branded model, not a more locked down EE branded model. The internal antenna on this are great, and I'd only invest in an external one if you're unable to locate the router somewhere inside that can get decent signal. Placement is extremely important when it comes to 3G/4G/5G, and it makes a massive difference on speed and reliability.
Placed on an upstairs window sill facing the direction of the mast I've seen speeds in excess of 700down/70up (albeit during peak that's more like 350down/50up)
SMARTY sims are cheap enough with good data bundles, but you will be subject to CGNAT. If you use a 3 sim directly, using the 3internet APN you get issued a publicly addressable IP address.

Other networks work on the router, after you manually alter the APN details.
I purchased a 3 sim from a business reseller for 1TB of data pm til late 2025 and it worked out at under £3pm, but I had to pay the full sum upfront.

Has already come in very handy during a few outages with Virgin, as well as a new upload capacity issue I'm occasionally seeing.
Ping cannot compare to fixed line broadband (see BQMs in signature), but is more than adequate and reliable, and I didn't have any problems on teams or with my VPN dropping for work during peak times. Genuinely considering not renewing my Virgin contract when it comes to an end in August and just relying on the 5G, whilst I wait for Community Fibre to roll out over my area over the next year or two.

I tested O2 (awful) and Vodafone (adequate) and speeds were nowhere near to 3 where I'm located, unfortunately didn't have an EE sim to test, but given they share the 3 mast I connect to, I'd expect similar or better based on past experience.
3G networks are beginning to be retired across the country so I'd keep that in mind if 3G is what is currently giving you an adequate experience, soon(ish) 4G/5G will be your only options!

Edited by Jonny4911 (Tue 16-May-23 13:05:53)