Replacement router to work with Poynting Directional antenna

[Lialwarrior]

Hi All,

I'm using Three's €29.99 monthly 4G broadband plan at home, and I'm not tied to a contract anymore. Apparently, they're rolling out Fiber internet in my area in about 6 months. So, I'm not really keen on getting into any new 12/24-month contracts.

I've got a couple of questions and I'd really appreciate your thoughts:

1.) I need to switch out my old Huawei B525s-23a 4G/LTE router. I've got a 5G-XPOL-A0002-10m Poynting Directional antenna for GSM/3G/4G/5G. If I get my hands on an unlocked Huawei B818-263 4G/LTE Router secondhand, do you think my external antenna would work with it? I guess I'd also need 2 x TS9 Male to SMA Female Adapter Cables.

2.) Do you have any suggestions for other routers that could work with my antenna? Or maybe just better options out there?

Thanks!

[Seán]

You can use your existing Poynting antenna with the Huawei B818-263. This model has two TS9 ports so you will need a pair of TS9 to SMA pigtails to attach the leads, something like this. Take care when attaching the leads as the TS9 ports are delicate and I've heard of users damaging the ports such as if the router accidentally gets knocked down. I would also avoid using any direct SMA to TS9 adapters that don't have the short piece of coax as these can put excessive pressure on the TS9 ports.

For that 6 month short term, it may be worth looking at a few cheaper options such as a used Huawei B628 series on CeX which is around €95 for an unlocked router or €85 for a Three locked router. These are 3CA capable, so should perform better than the B525 particularly if get both 4G bands 1 and 3 and it also supports band 28 which the B525 does not. While the B818 supports 5CA, it's unlikely you will get even 4CA unless Three has started operating band 7 in you area.

The main routers to avoid are those with a Cat rating below 12 (e.g. most TP-Link models and older Huawei B5xx and B3xx series) and 5G routers as most 5G routers either lack antenna ports or only support the 3.6GHz 5G band.

[Lialwarrior]

Sean, thank you for the advice, it is appreciated.

[aleesi]

Hi All,

I'm using Three's €29.99 monthly 4G broadband plan at home, and I'm not tied to a contract anymore. Apparently, they're rolling out Fiber internet in my area in about 6 months. So, I'm not really keen on getting into any new 12/24-month contracts.

I've got a couple of questions and I'd really appreciate your thoughts:

1.) I need to switch out my old Huawei B525s-23a 4G/LTE router. I've got a 5G-XPOL-A0002-10m Poynting Directional antenna for GSM/3G/4G/5G. If I get my hands on an unlocked Huawei B818-263 4G/LTE Router secondhand, do you think my external antenna would work with it? I guess I'd also need 2 x TS9 Male to SMA Female Adapter Cables.

2.) Do you have any suggestions for other routers that could work with my antenna? Or maybe just better options out there?

Thanks!

I got just a couple of days ago a BB sim with three (29.99 deal) as far as I know (at least what I signed with them) there is no long term contract (30 Day Contract). Worth to check as you could just carry on and them stop the DD.

[Lialwarrior]

I got just a couple of days ago a BB sim with three (29.99 deal) as far as I know (at least what I signed with them) there is no long term contract (30 Day Contract). Worth to check as you could just carry on and them stop the DD.

Thanks for the info @aleesi. I have left the existing DD/contract rollover, I will cancel when I need to as no I am longer in contract. As an aside, I picked up a second hand B818 router last night and now waiting on the pigtails to arrive from Amazon so hopefully will be up and running with new setup soon.