The Huawei E5186 LTE-A discussion thread

Azimuth said:
Snap! :) Great to know and thanks for confirming VoIP *does* work.

Would you mind posting more on VoIP and LTE-A? The reason I ask is because TM LTE can suffer from terrible jitter at times and VoIP quality can nosedive. I documented my journey over a long period here. LTE-A should resolve this ... how has your experience been?
Click to expand...

Sure, I'm a bit of "wannabe techie" rather than a real techie so I may not be able to give you all the technical stats you looking for, but happy to run a few tests for you if you want, but from my experience so far, this is what I can tell you...

Once TM released this offer, I signed up for it immediately, and got rid of my ADSL. Signing up wasnt so easy, as the call centre knew nothing about the deal, and the Telkom store didnt know much about it either.
Once I did finally get signed up TM started billing me the old rate, ie R1499 rather than R699, and they still haven't corrected, so not very amused by that.

Generally I've been very happy with the performance of the product. I'm reaching download speeds of about 50Mbps with a latency of bout 45ms when tested to a local server. (I expected better latency than that on LTE-A).

VOIP works very well, and have tried a number of different codecs.

However for the last 2 weeks, LTE/LTE-A has suddenly "died" and become unasable so I've has to connect via 3G for the time being. I have logged a fault with TM, so well see what they say.
 
Psyndrome said:
Not sure if someone posted this before but my E5186 cannot read my 1TB hard drive USB Storage. I've tried 16GB flash disks which appear to work. Any suggestions? My NETGEAR Router which is a much older model can read my 1TB so can't understand why they did't allow support for that.
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I'd say that's more than likely an issue with insufficient power. I would guess that the E5186 can't supply enough current at 5V to spin up the (2.5" ?) hard disk. The flash drive powers up OK because its power requirement is much smaller.
Try connecting to the hard disk via a powered USB hub, or using a Y-cable to supply additional current at 5V from another source.
 
Mark051 said:
I'm using the router for VOIP, and so far works perfectly.
Quick question, How does one know if connected to LTE-A or LTE. On the router dashboard, it only tells you connected to 4G
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I'm speculating here, but there's a possibility that the E5186 might report wireless signal stats slightly differently when using LTE-A as opposed to plain LTE.
Have a look at the info that's presented when you display the wireless stats via the HiLink API as described in this post and the ones around it.
Areas to focus might be SINR (presence or absence) and RSRQ (around -6dB or around -3dB).

Of course, we need someone with an E5186 AND an LTE-A connection before we can fully test this hypothesis ! :D
 
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jcheek said:
I'm speculating here, but there's a possibility that the E5186 might report wireless signal stats slightly differently when using LTE-A as opposed to plain LTE.
Have a look at the info that's presented when you display the wireless stats via the HiLink API as described in this post and the ones around it.
Areas to focus might be SINR (presence or absence) and RSRQ (around -6dB or around -3dB).

Of course, we need someone with an E5186 AND an LTE-A connection before we can fully test this hypothesis ! :D
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This is all I get...

256 5747969 -4dB -88dBm -63dBm 28dB 7


Not really sure how to interpret it?
 
I have Question
How do iknow that im connected on lte advanced
The rauoter show me only 4G
 
Question guys...

I have seen that it's mentioned that if I don't have LTE-A in my area, I will be forced to use 3G and not LTE. I am now in the process of signing up a 24 month contract, 50GB + 50GB(nighttime) + E5186 Router and I asked this question to the agent helping me and he confirmed that I will still be able to use normal LTE if LTE-A is not in my area with this router. Is he incorrect with what he is telling me or will I be a able to use normal LTE even though I am on the LTE-A package?

Thanks
 
krouxsa said:
Question guys...

I have seen that it's mentioned that if I don't have LTE-A in my area, I will be forced to use 3G and not LTE. I am now in the process of signing up a 24 month contract, 50GB + 50GB(nighttime) + E5186 Router and I asked this question to the agent helping me and he confirmed that I will still be able to use normal LTE if LTE-A is not in my area with this router. Is he incorrect with what he is telling me or will I be a able to use normal LTE even though I am on the LTE-A package?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The E5186 does 3G, LTE and LTE-A. I use the E5186 on normal LTE since Highveld is claimed to have LTE-A but doesn't.
 
MtnUser said:
The E5186 does 3G, LTE and LTE-A. I use the E5186 on normal LTE since Highveld is claimed to have LTE-A but doesn't.
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Thanks MtnUser. However, you are on pre-paid and not a contract right? I will be signing a contract for 24 months and want to make sure before I do. Do you think it will matter?
 
krouxsa said:
Thanks MtnUser. However, you are on pre-paid and not a contract right? I will be signing a contract for 24 months and want to make sure before I do. Do you think it will matter?
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A friend of mine got the LTE-A 50GB contract with the E5186 and is a LTE only coverage area and he connects to LTE.
 
MtnUser said:
A friend of mine got the LTE-A 50GB contract with the E5186 and is a LTE only coverage area and he connects to LTE.
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Okay well that pretty much settles it then. Thanks for the help Mtn user. Much appreciated.
 
Interesting. Telkom would *not* sell me the LTE-A package unless I was in a LTE-A specified area.
 
Azimuth said:
Interesting. Telkom would *not* sell me the LTE-A package unless I was in a LTE-A specified area.
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This is the feedback that I received from the agent...

"In Telkom store and office training, they advised LTE-A cannot work on LTE. But it does not make sense for a hardware developer to produce a product not backward compatible.

All my 50GB/100GB clients are using the E5186 (LTE-A machine). None of them having problem in LTE coverage area (Pretoria and Centurion).

You have my words, and I am more expert then other Telkom Wireless technician."
 
H3X said:
Just a quick update wrt E5186 fall back in non-LTE-A areas...
Signed up to a SmartBroadband Wireless 50Gb LTE-A contract today (migrating from Internet 10 + 10 Promo purchased 2 years ago; at no stage have a ever been a Prepaid customer at Telkom). I am NOT in an area LTE-A coverage (LTE only) and can confirm that the router modem falls back to LTE.
Click to expand...

Thanks H3X - that's great feedback.
With so much confusion and contradiction in the current Telkom T's & C's and contract documentation, that's a really (really!) useful snippet of information to have. Thanks!
 
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Is it possible to set the E5186 to LTE mode only so that there is no auto 3G failover?
 
E5186 falls back to LTE in non-LTE-A areas on SmartBroadBand 50Gb LTE-A contract

Repost: original (04/09/2015) accidentally deleted

Just a quick update wrt E5186 fall back in non-LTE-A areas...
Signed up to a SmartBroadband Wireless 50Gb LTE-A contract today (migrating from Internet 10 + 10 Promo purchased 2 years ago; at no stage have I ever been a Prepaid customer at Telkom). I am NOT in an area with LTE-A coverage (LTE only) and can confirm that the router modem falls back to LTE (4G).
 
@Looney: Yes, it is possible to force 4G, although I suspect the router is clever enough to justify it's falling back to 3G if the 4G signal is too weak.
 
I can confirm, I got the E5186 router this weekend and not in an LTE-A area, but get LTE connection. Download speed : 61.71Mbps and upload 5.89Mbps on speedtest.net.
 
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