topic Re: 4g LTE Bands in Archived Posts

4g LTE Bands

nibzy — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 12:33:13 GMT

Hello all,

So i have my unlimited data sim in a 4g TP LINK MR600 router and im ive noticed i can change the bands from 1,3,7,20,38. (there are more available but i dont think they work with ee). I live in birmingham near city centre so does have anyone have any suggestions on what 2 bands i should choose?

Also ive noticed i only get 2 upload only while i get 50-90 download which i believe could be the router but im not sure.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Re: 4g LTE Bands

bristolian — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 12:42:55 GMT

Hi @nibzy and welcome to the community

I'm not familiar with the specific router software, but ideally you should leave all bands enabled and not specify.

EE have 4G on Bands 1 (2100Mhz), Band 3 (1800Mhz), Band 7 (2600Mhz) & Band 20 (800Mhz). Carrier-aggregation, combining multiple bands to improve performance, is widely used.

Band 20 (800Mhz) is primarily a coverage-expansion layer with minimal capacity.

Re: 4g LTE Bands

BrendonH — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 12:43:25 GMT

The upload speed seems right. As you tend to only get 10% of the download speed as your upload speed.

The bands why don't give give them a go to see which one is best for you.

Not all will be the best for everyone.

Is there not an option to choose auto connect to the best band?

Re: 4g LTE Bands

nibzy — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 12:45:36 GMT

No there is not. However if I disable band selection, it connects to 3 and 7.

Re: 4g LTE Bands

bristolian — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 12:59:31 GMT

@nibzy wrote:

No there is not. However if I disable band selection, it connects to 3 and 7.

In which case I would recommend band selection is left disabled and the software will choose the best performing bands wherever you are.

The speeds you're getting are broadly in line with what I'd expect for an urban area, caveated by it being dependent how much bandwidth/capacity is available within those bands . Are these constant/consistent regardless of time/day?

Re: 4g LTE Bands

nibzy — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 13:17:18 GMT

Yes, they are pretty much around the same constant speed

Re: 4g LTE Bands

bristolian — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 13:23:08 GMT

By means of background info, Bands 3 & 7 are the 2 primary "capacity" bands where the majority of spectrum is available.

Band 1 was historically used for 3G services but has been substantially re-farmed to 4G now.