5G Router recommendation

[SBucks]

Hi all,

Anyone advise me on what 5G router to purchase?
I currently have an Eir Huawei B628-265 4G router with a Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002.

I am currently out of contract with Eir and was thinking of upgrading to a 5G CPE Pro 5. 
Does this router come with external antenna ports?
if so, I would need to upgrade my external antenna to a  5G-XPOL-A0002.

[selfbuilder]

Hi,

Has anyone any experience of the ZTE MC801A and Huawei CPE Pro 2? Would you recommend one over the other? Thanks

[Seán]

Something to be ware of with Eir 5G - A lot of Eir 5G masts use DSS on band 3 to provide 5G coverage which is where the masts shares the band 3 bandwidth between 4G and 5G. Unless Eir has changed something recently, they do not appear to support 4G carrier aggregation with a 5G DSS connection, which means if your router gets a 5G connection on band 3, it may get less than half the speed of a 4G connection, i.e. with 5G DSS, it typically connects 4G band 20 or 28 with 5G on band 3 without aggregating any other 4G bands. This can make a 4G connection substantially faster as the devices connecting in 5G mode are not using any bandwidth on band 1 that a 4G-only connection would connect to or aggregate.

I strongly recommend first testing Eir 5G with the SIM in a 5G phone first and run speed tests both inside and outside. Retest with the phone's network mode limited to 4G to see how the speeds compare. If the speeds are similar or worse with 5G enabled, this is a good indication that the mast is operating with 5G DSS. With an Android phone, try installing / running the App NetMonster to see if it reports the 5G band.

As for the ZTE MC801A vs Huawei CPE Pro 2, I would choose the ZTE for its antenna ports which the Huawei CPE Pro 2, Pro 3 and 5 lack. The antenna ports only work with the 3.6GHz 5G band and require a 3.6GHz capable antenna (such as the XPOL-2-5G). It is not worth upgrading for 5G DSS on Eir, especially as some 5G routers make it difficult to disable 5G such as requiring JavaScript hacks.

[selfbuilder]

Thanks Sean for your reply. If you ignore the external antenna ports differences would you still go for the ZTE over the Huawei. I’m looking for the best 5G using just the router internal antenna’s. I appreciate your time in answering my questions.

Thanks again.

[Seán]

If I had to depend on internal antennas only (e.g. room or office with no outside wall), I'd probably go with the Huawei as it seems better supported by third party configuration Apps, e.g. LTEHMonitor and the android paid app huaCtrl Pro. Going by this long thread on ISP Review of the ZTE M801A, there some mentioning having 5G stability issues with the ZTE.

If my own router died completely such as from a thunderstorm, I would personally go with another MikroTik Chateau 5G and does not depend on third party Apps (that could break with a firmware update) to perform band and cell locking.

[little-endian]

When it comes to configuration options, especially on the LAN side, it is the Mikrotik "bar none" of course.

However, I am not sure whether the Chateau 5G (AX) supports the 2CA for 5G such as n78+n28, which for instance is what a ZTE MC888 does with its Snapdragon SDX62 chipset. If external antennas aren't a requirement, that one might also be a model to consider as an alternative to the ZTE MC801 (pro: 2CA for 5G and even faster Wifi6 including 160 MHz bandwidth, contra: allegedly fewer supported 5G bands, no external antenna connectors).

[staticmind]

However, I am not sure whether the Chateau 5G (AX) supports the 2CA for 5G such as n78+n28, which for instance is what a ZTE MC888 does with its Snapdragon SDX62 chipset.

Hi - do you have any further information on the CA support for 5G on the Chateau, even for other bands? The only thing I have found is this https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=177992 , but it only discusses 4G, not 5G. I would be interested in it supporting n78+n28 as well. In your opinion, is the 5G ax a relatively safe buy, regardless?

[little-endian]

I wish, but unfortunately, the source material regarding the supported band combinations also for the Chateau 5G remains vague at best. Maybe you have success by contacting the Mikrotik support which at least is a lot better than ZTE's, Huawei's or Xiaomi's (being virtually non-existent).

At least when I had the Chateau 5G, it definitely didn't use n28+n78, but n78 only. However, I am not entirely sure whether O2 Germany already had enabled n28+n78 at that time as I only witnessed it with the MC888 at a later point in time. Hence, I would have to reorder it to double-check.

I wouldn't get my hopes up though, as cacombos.com at least doesn't state n28+n78 to have been observed. However, the site itself also explains that it might not be entirely accurate so again, one would have to test it. The negative evidence is supported by the MC801A though, using the same chipset as the Chateau 5G (SDX55) and that doesn't seem to support n28+n78 either.

Besides that, meanwhile a few bugs have been fixed with the Mikrotik Chateau 5G (LAN throughput, cellular reconnect, IPv6 prefix updates) and considering its solid OS and also the extremely extensive settings, it is difficult not to recommend it. On the pity side however, one must also take note of the fact that - especially for the given price tag - hardware-wise it is already outdated (SDX55 chipset, Wifi6 with 80 MHz only) compared to cheaper competitors.

[staticmind]

I wish, but unfortunately, the source material regarding the supported band combinations also for the Chateau 5G remains vague at best. Maybe you have success by contacting the Mikrotik support which at least is a lot better than ZTE's, Huawei's or Xiaomi's (being virtually non-existent).

At least when I had the Chateau 5G, it definitely didn't use n28+n78, but n78 only. However, I am not entirely sure whether O2 Germany already had enabled n28+n78 at that time as I only witnessed it with the MC888 at a later point in time. Hence, I would have to reorder it to double-check.

I wouldn't get my hopes up though, as cacombos.com at least doesn't state n28+n78 to have been observed. However, the site itself also explains that it might not be entirely accurate so again, one would have to test it. The negative evidence is supported by the MC801A though, using the same chipset as the Chateau 5G (SDX55) and that doesn't seem to support n28+n78 either.

Besides that, meanwhile a few bugs have been fixed with the Mikrotik Chateau 5G (LAN throughput, cellular reconnect, IPv6 prefix updates) and considering its solid OS and also the extremely extensive settings, it is difficult not to recommend it. On the pity side however, one must also take note of the fact that - especially for the given price tag - hardware-wise it is already outdated (SDX55 chipset, Wifi6 with 80 MHz only) compared to cheaper competitors.

Many thanks - especially for the cacombos link.
I just don't understand that when the Wifi 6 refresh was implemented mid 2022, why did they not also go for the Quectel RM520 (SD X65) that has been available since 2021. This is quite strange. I like the flexibility of Mikrotik - including containers/apps and especially that it is made in Europe, and would also pay extra for that. The Chateau 5G was released Jul/Aug 2021, the ax exactly a year later. Maybe a new Chateau 5G will be released soon