Technical/Network differences between a 4GEE SIM and a normal EE SIM?

[taledega32]

I am going to be travelling around the UK a lot (renovation, checking elderly family member, work).

So I bought a high performance router; the ASUS 4G AC68U 

I don't mind carrying this around with me and I am skeptical about the EE 4GEE routers with latency for gaming - https://www.asus.com/Networking/4G-AC68U/

I am currently testing the router with my own EE SIM and I have noticed the LTE connection drops intermittently.

Is that because EE cannot allocate a persistent IP address for the router and refreshes it?

Is there a reason the 4GEE SIM is more expensive, does it have different networking settings? (static ip allocation)

I have had a look at either these two options:

* EE SIM with 200GB Data - 24mth - £20
* EE 4GEE SIM with 200GB Data - 18mth - £40






Interested to know the details, so I can understand if the router is the issue, or I should buy a 4GEE SIM?

[Chris_B]

@taledega32   Where are you seeing those tariffs?  

For a sim and only at 200Gb its £23 HERE and these are 60Mbps

for a 4GEE one I can find THIS and these are double speed so around 120Mbps  Not one of them is 200Gb

And you don’t get a a static IP address with a sim. 

[XRaySpeX]

All EE SIMs are 4G unless they are 5G. If they don't say '4G' they are probably 5G.

Where did you see those offers? They not in EE online Shop's Pay Monthly Phone SIMs

EE does not provide static public IPs but that's not the reason for discons.

[bristolian]

And I suspect that the "4GEE" that @taledega32 is mentioning might just be a marketing term more than anything...

[taledega32]

Here is the 4GEE plans

https://shop.ee.co.uk/dongles/pay-monthly-mobile-broadband/4gee-home-router-2/details#

What are these routers like, is there some sort of lock-in or performance boost because its an OEM router made for EE vs. another manufacturers router?

[taledega32]

Here is the 4GEE plans

https://shop.ee.co.uk/dongles/pay-monthly-mobile-broadband/4gee-home-router-2/details#

Any ideas why I get disconnected then, is EE kicking me off or is it a router configuration issue?

[XRaySpeX]

Yes, but they are not just SIMs. They come with the 4GEE Home Router offered on that page. Their price includes paying for the router. You can't buy them separately & put them in your own router.

In your OP you are not comparing like with like. 

• The £20 SIM is just a SIM.
• The £40 Router SIM is paying for the SIM + part of the price of the router.

[taledega32]

Surely I can just chuck the router and pop the 4GEE sim in?

Is there a lock-in built into the SIM and the Router's device ID/IMEI?

[Chris_B]

@taledega32   It’s just a supplied EE router with that’s tariff,  there is no gain over your own router.  Your just getting a larger tariff amount of data when you take out that tariff over the ones I linked too.    The ones I linked to where just for a sim your referencing a home router tariff.    You can put that sim in to any router not just the one given via that tariff. 

[XRaySpeX]

You can along with chucking £20 (£17?) pm away. You can then use that expensive SIM in any device you choose.