Lte router for office

marine1

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Sep 4, 2006
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49,491
Good morning guys and girls
I am looking for a decent not expensive LTE router for my office.
I assume it's quie simple, put in sim card and plug and play? Would be nice if it has some Lan ports too.
Something decent not too expensive please


Thanks
 

werny

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Nov 20, 2009
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1,490
Huawei B612 for sure, use it all over SA and it's super stable, not sure what your budget is but these types of routers aren't very cheap.
https://www.takealot.com/huawei-b612-4g-lte-cat6-router/PLID58852347

This ZTE is also a good choice, have set up a few of them as well, better web interface than the Huawei, both have similar pricing - https://www.takealot.com/zte-4g-wireless-router-mf286r-white/PLID70718603

Like you said, they are plug and play, there's just an initial setup you have to do once, connect to the WiFi network and go to the IP address in a browser (IP is printed somewhere on the router), then just follow the prompts.

They have 4 Ethernet ports as well, which can be increased by just adding a cheap 8-port switch.
 

Willie Trombone

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Jul 18, 2008
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60,038
Good morning guys and girls
I am looking for a decent not expensive LTE router for my office.
I assume it's quie simple, put in sim card and plug and play? Would be nice if it has some Lan ports too.
Something decent not too expensive please


Thanks
You should pick it based on your service provider. Firstly, some providers won't allow you to connect unrecognized models, secondly, not all modems support all bands - even the same major model number as in the case of the Huawei B618 - there is a 22 and a 65 with one being better for some proviers and the other for others.
@cavedog is the resident expert on the frequencies :)
 

Willie Trombone

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Jul 18, 2008
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Price is better.
But I have no idea which bands it supports or which service provider you are leaning towards.
OK, here, it supports:
4G: FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8/B20 (2100/1800/850/2600/900/800 MHz)
TDD-LTE: B38/B40/B41 (2600/2300/2500 MHz)

1800 is there, 2100 is there, 2300 is there, so it does a fairly good job. I don't think it would support band aggregation, but I have no idea, but the bottom line is it should support all the major players, so I say go for it. Don't expect more than 50Mbps. You may be pleasantly surprised though.

 

marine1

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Sep 4, 2006
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49,491
OK, here, it supports:
4G: FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8/B20 (2100/1800/850/2600/900/800 MHz)
TDD-LTE: B38/B40/B41 (2600/2300/2500 MHz)

1800 is there, 2100 is there, 2300 is there, so it does a fairly good job. I don't think it would support band aggregation, but I have no idea, but the bottom line is it should support all the major players, so I say go for it. Don't expect more than 50Mbps. You may be pleasantly surprised though.

Thanks so much.

I will probably be using a telkom or cell c sim
 

marine1

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Sep 4, 2006
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So the MR150 only supports single band wifi but the MR200 does dual. Hmmm ...decisions decisions
 

Willie Trombone

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Jul 18, 2008
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So the MR150 only supports single band wifi but the MR200 does dual. Hmmm ...decisions decisions
The single band could be a bottleneck. Depending on how many devices you have connected...
5Ghz will give better speeds to and from the router. I tend to put the phones on 2.4 and my PCs on 5.
Go with the MR-200. I see I posted the MR-100 hence the lower price.
 

Jake45

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2014
Messages
2,604
The Fixed LTE services from MTN are currently only available using the Huawei B525, B612, B618 and ZTE MF286 routers. Apparently they might be adding support for the B818. MTN is the market leader in SA in terms of reliable and affordable LTE packages. You can usually find cheap(<R1000) secondhand B612 devices in the Carbonite, MyBroadband, OLX, Gumtree Classifieds etc.
 
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