4G LTE (A) speeds

[radiomean-uk]

Hi,  I am in Cambridge area and experimenting with download speeds.

I get 95 meg down/45 meg up, which is near the theoretical speeds (100/50) of the modem - I am using a Cat 3 modem.

I would like to know if I use a Cat6 modem (300/50) will I achieve higher speeds, or is the EE network limited?

Cheers...

[radiomean-uk]

Replying to myself, I am on a smart plan and therefore think I have uncapped speeds...

But I am essentially asking what the EE 4G, 4G (advanced) and 5G network is capable of.

Cheers again.

[Peter_C]

Hi @radiomean-uk,

EE LTE Carrier aggregation can readily deliver over 800mbps from a flagship site in appropriate conditions. 

There are too many variables to confidently predict a possible throughput were you to upgrade to CAT 6 though I would say that CAT 6 is very limited compared to fairly standard modern smartphones. 

[radiomean-uk]

Hi Peter,

Many thanks for that answer. I am using Sierra Wireless LTE modems, sometimes in Cisco routers. 300 Megs would be more than enough for me...

I would be very interested to know how you generated that page full of all that fascinating information!

Cheers, Bill

[EssexBoyEE]

If your going to invest in a newer 4G / LTE Router I would suggest the minimum spec you should be looking at is CAT12 and ideally Cat16 or above for today's use, another area to consider as well as CA is MiMo, most decent LTE Routers these days will support 2x2 MiMo, were as going Cat16 or above should support 4x4 Mimo this will also improve speed over 2x2 MiMo Routers, one thing to consider here though is if you plan to use External Antennas on your Setup, even the most modern 4 or 4/5G Routers will only support 2 External Aerials so your be limited to 2x2 MiMo over the Routers Internal 4x4 arrangement, so your then need to decide between Signal Strength over possible receivable Speed and these two don't always go hand in hand.

If your not too worried about 5G, a good 4G LTE Router to consider is the 

Netgear Nighthawk M1 or M2 ( Cat16 & 18) as both of these are 64/256QAM and support 4x4 Internal MiMo, But be carefull when buying as these Routers are very Firmware Specific for different Global Regions.

I've played around with these Nighthawk LTE Routers and have achieved around 430Mbs DL and 150Mbs UL within the right 4G+ EE  Coverage Area and Masts but as @Peter_C mentioned it's very difficult to try and predict potential speed in any given Coverage Area. 

Another option is to go down the 5G Ready type Routers like the 5G CPE Range as pretty much all of these will be 4G Cat18+ with 4x4 Internal MiMo.

[mikeliuk]

There's been some excellent input on this thread already so I will just add a few minor observations.

The OpenSignal app is typically a very good resource for estimating the performance that might be expected for particular service providers and generation of technology.

Surprisingly, it shows me that for around the centre of Cambridge, the 4G performance has an average of below 40 Mbps down which suggests your observed performance is already high compared to the average so reducing the probability of a big bump in performance.

In my area, OpenSignal suggests a 4G average of 60 Mbps down, and I measure peaks of about 50 Mbps down and 68 Mbps up using a Netgear M1 (MR1100).

Only tiny pockets of OpenSignal 5G measurements show in Cambridge so you may want to double check availability if 5G is important to you. (For comparison, the 5G average download statistic is ~140 Mbps down in my area.)

If you additionally have house, wired internet, you may wish to look into multi-WAN routers to load balance across different access methods and increase your bandwidth that way. DrayTek LTE routers are good for this and have additional functionality compared to other devices. Recently I've started considering the Zyxel NR5101 instead of the Netgear M5 (MR5200) for 5G access.

A quick check of cellmapper.net suggests there's a reliance on Band 3 in Cambridge (seems pretty normal for rural areas when browsing around my area in which Bands 7 and 20 pop up just a little bit more) but this may not be a huge issue as towers have significant range as long as you don't end up camped on a bad tower.

[radiomean-uk]

Hi Mike,

I'm just playing really... I used to run a (small) Wireless ISP so I'm reasonably familiar with the technology. I have FTTC at home, which (using Cisco gear) runs at 75 down/ 18.5 up, which is around the max for this technology.

I am swapping various Sierra Wireless MC-series modems (from eBay!) into different Cisco cellular routers or EHWIC cards - some work but some don't! I was really wanting to establish if it was worth my effort using a Cat 6 modem as opposed to a Cat 3 modem (300/50 vs 100/50 speeds) - and the consensus seems to be that it is, as the EE 4G (plus) network will potentially give me speeds well in excess of Cat 6.

Interestingly, I have noticed that I am just within the 5G coverage area that has recently appeared on the EE coverage map, but I don't feel like spending on 5G modems/routers just yet. 4G + obviously has the capability to get to 1Gig so we will see what happens!

Cheers all!