Hello everyone,
I am looking for a cheap 5G-capable phone that can be used as a home internet connection. I don't mind the specifications as long as it connects to 5G.
Price is a concern, so I am looking for relatively cheap options. If you know of any deals or have links to share, please do so.
Thank you.
Phone hotspots will often be less reliable than the most basic router, especially if you are going to have multiple devices connected/moving heavy amounts of data.
5g is also largely pointless unless your local 4g network is heavily congested and/or you have LOS to the tower.
I recommend you get a 4g/5g router off facebook marketplace. Huawei b818-263 is the most popular, cat 16 4g so the uplink is fast, wifi tech is a bit dated though. The wifi cube 3 also works. There are also a few tp-link varieties out there too.
Agree with your comment but this particular one is surely not a 5G sim router,
they mislead consumers by " 5G " referring to 5Ghz wifi band, instead of 5th generation of celluar network technology.
also that being said I dont even see 5Ghz wifi on it, so its just gonna give one a 4G sim signal if inserting 5G sim
>
"Protocol standard: IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Working frequency band: 2.4GHZ 📶
Interface type: DC power interface * 1, RESET button * 1, WAN network interface * 1, LAN network interface 10/100Mbps adaptive * 2
Frequency band:
FDD Band: B1/3/5/7/8/20/28AB
TDD Band: B38/40/41
3G Band: B1/5/8"
4g LTE would be more than enough for 90% of use cases. A mobile hot spotting would struggle to outdo a 4G LTE standalone router. 100-150Mbps is about on par with NBN.
I was just looking at it on Aliexpress for less - US$39.57 + GST delivered (EU plug) But no AU plug, need an adapter.
That's very misleading but agree 4G has been fine for me watching TV.
This 4G model is even cheaper & has sold more - US$23.35 + GST delivered.
I think OP specificially said he wanted a 5G modem
I recommend OP look at nokia fastmile used on marketplace/ebay have heard them pretty cheap in other states
Despite having B28 it's still only an LTE CAT4 router so the speed is going to be slower than most other routers. TP-Link for example sell CAT6 routers for a higher price obviously.
I've used the older CAT4 routers before and they've always been slow af with poor coverage. After all they don't always reach the theoretical maximum listed below.
| LTE Category | Max DL (Mbit/s) | Max UL (Mbit/s) | MIMO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 5 | NO, Only RX Diversity |
| 4 | 150 | 50 | 2x2 |
| 6 | 300 | 50 | 2x2 or 4x4 |
| 9 | 450 | 50 | 2 or 4 |
| 12 | 600 | 100 | 2 or 4 |
How many devices are you using? My understanding is you will use this phone as a gateway and a router as well?