Advice Needed 4g external antenna

[sonnetpete]

Quelle fromage

Indeed...though I suppose if you are supplied with a sim, they are bound to attach a number to it...but I found it misleading to say the least. Ah well, back to the camembert...

 

[4wd]

^^^ You chose a data-only plan, and 100% correctly ...got data-only :O)

 

[sonnetpete]

You chose a data-only plan, and 100% correctly ...got data-only :O)

So why am I supplied with a number??

 

[PaulR]

Flip, that's expensive to not include a phone line. If the socket is disabled then presumably it can be re-enabled. But at what cost even assuming they offer it? Does this mean that you no longer have a landline phone? Or was your area not completely dégrouped and you still had a twisted pair connection?

 

[4wd]

So why am I supplied with a number??

The sim in the router has \ needs a number to work, and that number uniquely identifies your plan \ billing \ contract vs the network provider.

I've got a data-only sim as a twin to my normal mobile sim. Even as tied to my mobile plan it got it's own number.
Without any number there would be no way of communication \ no activation \ no nothing.

Think of it this way: 0712345678 has sent a url request to youtube > 0712345678 has received 10Mb from youtube.

 

[sonnetpete]

Flip, that's expensive to not include a phone line. If the socket is disabled then presumably it can be re-enabled. But at what cost even assuming they offer it? Does this mean that you no longer have a landline phone? Or was your area not completely dégrouped and you still had a twisted pair connection?

It's a mobile number because the offer is 4G. We still have a landline (degrouped and voip but using the existing landline number through Orange) but will probably cancel the contract in due course. TBH, we rarely get genuine calls and it would be good to lose the spam calls. It's not much more expensive than our current broadband contract that gets us a max of 1.5Mbs. There's no real prospect of getting fibre for the next few years and the thought of increasing our speed to over 40Mbs was too much of a draw.

 

[4wd]

Flip, that's expensive to not include a phone line.

For monthly illimited 4g internet use, it's very decent imo. Am thinking their opinion of 'illimited' is around 1000 Gb, which should suffice :O)

But if one does not want or need illimited, the alternative is to get a normal mobile plan + added data-sim to put in a router (one would have to buy). As a reference, my 70 Gb F \ 30 Gb EU + call\sms costs 30 euros, am very happy (making good use of the 30 Gb while in Norway). 70 Gb fine for the moment, but if I were to start streaming a lot, Netflix etc, I'd very quickly sign up to their 4g box (if available in my area).

And btw, finally got around to ditching the fixed line some time ago, zero regret and a saving that pays half of the monthly mobile\internet bill.

 

[Lazarus]

F

And btw, finally got around to ditching the fixed line some time ago, zero regret and a saving that pays half of the monthly mobile\internet bill.

Wise fellow.

I ported my fixed line number to a VOIP host, which not only saved the monthly "rental" but gave me continuity and virtually free worldwide calls.

 

[4wd]

Getting offtopic here, but found this site listing UK mobile prices, so many good plans \ good prices available over there.

Unlimited data SIM deals - Cheapest plans from £4.00 - July 2026

Compare unlimited data SIM only deals on all UK networks, including Three, O2, Vodafone and EE. Never worry about data usage again.

www.4g.co.uk

Germany f.ex. looks way more expensive

Best German Internet Data Plans – SIM Card | My German Phone

We have collected the best German data plans for your smartphone (see table). Scroll down to see special data-only plans for tablets or portable wifi routers.

www.mygermanphone.de

 

[LeBelge]

It may well be an incompatibility issue but I'm a bit (completely) clueless as to the type of phone I could use in conjunction with the 4G box. Any ideas?

Do you know that ?

voip United Kingdom - Betamax Country Rates for Country United Kingdom ,Großbritannien,Reino Unido,Royaume-Uni,المملكة المتحدة,यूनाइटेड किंगडम,英国, ボイス オーバー ip - Betamax voip call and SMS Rates Comparison

Betamax Country Rates for Country United Kingdom ,Großbritannien,Reino Unido,Royaume-Uni,المملكة المتحدة,यूनाइटेड किंगडम,英国, ボイス オーバー ip - Betamax voip call and SMS Rates ComparisonCall Rates comparison for the selected Country.Betamax (Dellmont sarl) is a provider many voip products. And offer...

voip-comparison.com

I use 1 of these SIP servers for cheap VoIP calls to Europe with a Grandstream IP phone, connected to the router/ modem

 

[Channel Hopper]

Please tell me Sony didn't sell off that trademark ?

 

[sonnetpete]

Well, I've got the Poynting Omnidirectional antenna erected on the side of the porch, using an old 90 degree mast. There's a definite improvement over the internal antenna, though it hasn't gone up by a huge amount. Can't complain about the results though....

 

[rodscha]

if this can help here is a link to an updated 4g map of France
Carte de couverture du réseau 4G en France - data.gouv.fr

 

[4wd]

an updated 4g map of France

These maps are ok in and around cities + many roads, apart from that it's approximative guessing based on assumed behaviour of towers.
No factual measurements.

F.ex. at my place there should be no Bouygues 4g for 10's of km around, but it's good, and been like that for years, with empty maps.
Same map over many years shows an excellent Orange 3g, got sim and testing regularly, coverage useless in reality.

Signal levels tell only part of the story, one may see 2Mb\s with full level 4g, and 15Mb\s with low level 3g, operator network capacity as important as coverage levels. If not in some obvious spot, testing sims from all operators (well, apart from Free...) is the way to go.

 

[sonnetpete]

F.ex. at my place there should be no Bouygues 4g for 10's of km around, but it's good

Agreed, I think the map is a bit out of date. My place shows no 4G coverage, yet....

 

[BednaR]

Hello!

I just got myself a 4g signal booster and need some advice. It came with an external antenna and an internal repeater antenna.

Rightly or wrongly - I didnt use the internal antenna but instead I connected it straight into my 4g mobile sim router via SMA antenna port.

I usually get 10-20mb speed on the routers internal antennas, but only 3 bars signal. With that new antenna plugged in, I got 5 bars (full) but no internet...

My question is, can the booster be plugged directly into the sim router? If so - why did I lose the internet connection?

The only thing I can do is to play with the location/ direction of the external antenna but would that be it? Or am I missing a trick here?

Will play a bit longer tomorrow with the direction of the external antenna.

Thanks!

 

[Channel Hopper]

Did it come in a box with about 15m of ready made cable ?

 

[BednaR]

Did it come in a box with about 15m of ready made cable ?

Hi. Yes it did and about 3m cable for a "mushroom" repeater antenna. I plugged the external antenna to the powered booster, and then straight into the router, omitting the "mushroom" internal antenna. Bars are up to max now... but download is dead in the water.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Many of the older style transmitters will be active on only the 3G bands with some of them from the Far East only being compatible to the regional frequencies, which are not part of the UK spectrum

A picture of the antenna that was supplied with the kit should identify the rough span of the system you have bought.

 

[BednaR]

Many of the older style transmitters will be active on only the 3G bands with some of them from the Far East only being compatible to the regional frequencies, which are not part of the UK spectrum

A picture of the antenna that was supplied with the kit should identify the rough span of the system you have bought.

It should be ok as it was marked as a tri-band. I attached some photos. Antenna is nothing to write home about ...standard plastic encased one.

For the time being I'll keep on trying different locations with this one and maybe try to connect the antenna directly to the router omitting the booster box to compare the results... but I really dont understand why the little fins (internal antenna) can get internet in - but this one drops to almost non existing. Potentially it's actually 0 as the remaining internet might be coming in from the 2nd antenna port on the router?

I'm new to all this so I have more and more questions with every comparison test I run ‍