It is possible, however. If you’re not eligible for T-Mobile’s branded home internet service, you can get a Magenta plan with the Global Plus add-on and have truly unlimited “hotspot” data. These router-compatible data plans are not cheap, and sometimes carriers will only offer them as business plans.

Suitable routers will typically utilise 2×2 MIMO, which will mean that they feature two external antenna ports. You can either buy two separate antennas or a dual antenna system that will plug into both of these. IP65 means full protection against dust and other particulates, and protection against low-pressure jets (6.3 mm) of directed water from any angle. Under a low-temperature environment, HUAWEI 5G CPE Win will preheat when connected to the power supply. After heating up, it will start functioning normally. There are two basic types of external antenna: directional and omni-directional. The difference is pretty self-explanatory - a directional antenna will receive signals strongly (also known as higher gain) in a single direction (or in a narrow cone), while an omni-directional antenna will receive signals moderately well from many or all directions. As a general rule, the higher the gain, the more directional an antenna is.The Huawei 5G CPE Pro (above) was notable for being the 5G router that every UK 5G broadband supplier issued – but Three, Vodafone and EE have all now replaced this with alternative models. You can still get itfrom National Broadband though, which calls it the5G WiFi Router. Theoretical maximum speeds of up to 2.33Gbps are supported, but currently you can expect average speeds of around 150Mbps. This doesn’t support external antennas, but that’s typical with portable devices. Netgear Nighthawk M6 If you need consistent broadband, getting a 4G router is better than using your mobile hotspot. EE 4G routers give you a significantly better signal with a 30m WiFi range, and you can connect up to 32 devices at once – hotspot isn’t strong enough for this. How do you know if your router is 5G? The chart below serves to show you broadbandbuyer's take on what you can expect from WiFi 6 and its forerunners of WiFi 4 and 5. WiFi Standards and Features WiFi Standard benefits from lower latency than 4G, which should in time make for a fixed broadband-like responsive online experience. Based on the available data, you can currently expect a ping of around 20-35ms, which falls in between a decent home broadband connection (10–20ms) and a 4G broadband connection (around 35-50ms).

WiFi 4 (802.11n) routers are capable of delivering 300Mbps, though 150Mbps, 450Mbps, 600Mbps, 750Mbps and 900Mbps variations are available. WiFi 6E (802.11ax) is the newest generation of high-speed WiFi Router. WiFi 6E (IEEE 802.11ax) bring all the benefits of the WiFi6 routers with the addition of much needed extra capacity on the clean 6GHz spectrum, meaning WiFi 6E uses 3 frequencies, 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. This makes for less traffic congestion and greater bandwidth. routers work exactly like 4G routers: they use the mobile network to get you connected to the internet. The difference is that 5G routers can connect to the best available network (5G), switching between 4G and 5G to provide you with the optimal broadband speed. Is a 4G router better than hotspot? The next-generation mobile network known as 5G is not merely a super-fast way to get connected from your smartphone, it’s also being positioned as a viable means of connecting to the internet from your home. You need to choose either a directional or omni-directional antenna, look up which 5G frequencies are supported, and ensure your router also supports the antenna.Your choice of portable 5G routers is extremely limited at the time of writing. But there are a couple of interesting options if you want to be more flexible or mobile with your 5G broadband connectivity. 5GWiFi Just to give an example of CAT numbers in a rural context, I have a CAT18 router working right next to a CAT6 one, both with identical antennas. We’re quite far from the towers, so even though the CAT18 router is much more advanced than the CAT6 one, they both perform almost exactly the same because of how far we are from the towers. One of the most important features of cellular routers is the external antenna connectors. Many mobile hotspots don’t have any external antenna ports, and this is a big problem for people trying to get internet access at the last mile.