Unlike portable hotspots, mains powered mobile broadband devices do not have a battery. This means during a power cut, the Internet goes down. While this is not an issue for most people in strong signal areas who can tether their phone's data, those in rural areas are effectively cut off untli the power comes back on.
All the major Huawei routers run on 12V with a standard DC jack that has a positive '+' tip. Power banks have a 5v output, which is too low. As surprising as it may sound, most 12V broadband routers will operate fine on 5V. Huawei routers will power up on 5V, but generally get stuck on a page saying the phone is off hook, even when nothing is plugged in its telephone jack.
To power a Huawei router from a power bank, it needs a 12V step-up converter. These leads have a USB plug on one end and a DC 5.5mm x 2.1mm jack on the other and are available for around €1.50 to €5 on eBay, Amazon and AliExpress.
For this to work, the power bank needs to provide at least 2.1A, which many of the larger ones do. The step-up converter leads only provide around 700-800mA at 12V, however, this is usually sufficient as long as there are no USB devices plugged into the router. Once the router fully boots, its power consumption drops to around 300-400mA. This in turn draws about 1A from the power bank.
With a fully charged power bank, the runtime is roughly the power bank's mAh capacity divided by 2000. For example, a 10,000mAh power bank will power the router for at least 5 hours. With a good qualtiy power bank, this may go further such as 7-8 hours. For powering additional equipment such as a VoIP adapter, I recommend running it off a separate power bank and also check the voltage they require. Some equipment may not work, such as most Panasonic Dect phones, which use a proprietary 5.5v power supply.
For those that regularly get power outages, I suggest getting a dedicated 12V UPS power supply for the router. This will keep the router powered from the moment the power cut starts and will automatically recharge once the power is restored.
All the major Huawei routers run on 12V with a standard DC jack that has a positive '+' tip. Power banks have a 5v output, which is too low. As surprising as it may sound, most 12V broadband routers will operate fine on 5V. Huawei routers will power up on 5V, but generally get stuck on a page saying the phone is off hook, even when nothing is plugged in its telephone jack.
To power a Huawei router from a power bank, it needs a 12V step-up converter. These leads have a USB plug on one end and a DC 5.5mm x 2.1mm jack on the other and are available for around €1.50 to €5 on eBay, Amazon and AliExpress.
For this to work, the power bank needs to provide at least 2.1A, which many of the larger ones do. The step-up converter leads only provide around 700-800mA at 12V, however, this is usually sufficient as long as there are no USB devices plugged into the router. Once the router fully boots, its power consumption drops to around 300-400mA. This in turn draws about 1A from the power bank.
With a fully charged power bank, the runtime is roughly the power bank's mAh capacity divided by 2000. For example, a 10,000mAh power bank will power the router for at least 5 hours. With a good qualtiy power bank, this may go further such as 7-8 hours. For powering additional equipment such as a VoIP adapter, I recommend running it off a separate power bank and also check the voltage they require. Some equipment may not work, such as most Panasonic Dect phones, which use a proprietary 5.5v power supply.
For those that regularly get power outages, I suggest getting a dedicated 12V UPS power supply for the router. This will keep the router powered from the moment the power cut starts and will automatically recharge once the power is restored.