How to increase 4G LTE Home Broadband Router Speeds 

Great video! I have for few years on mobile broadband (home and camper) and did buy an external (square shaped) aerial! My modem is same as shown. You speed test suggestion was the eye opener!!! I discover that the antenna setting was in auto and frankly I never saw a difference with or without external aerial but when I tested forcing "inside" vs "external 1+2" I discovered that the external was just crap!!!..thanks for the tip!!!

Thanks a lot for this video. It was hard to find solid advice on 4g antennas. I went with exactly your setup, and my speed went from 10/0.5 down/up to 20/1

It's so nice to hear someone on RU-vid who doesn't say like after every few words. Is there a way to boost mobile phone signal?

You have the perfect voice for explaining. Even if i knew everything you explain in the video, i still wanted to see the full length of the video. thank you :)

I have had this same router Vodafone branded for 3 years. Your advice is spot on and I'm lucky enough to have an unlimited data connection. I now use mine in the car. When in the glove box, the Android radio drops out, but I have an external antenna (similar, MIMO though a bit smaller) and it works a treat. Never ever drops out, even in tunnels and mine was about a fiver from China. Yes, a slight gamble on quality and not suitable for outdoors, but it works for me and very well.

Hey mate! I have watched your videos a few times and also shared it to others because your guiding explanation was fantastic! All the way here from Sydney Oz. :)

Exactly the information I needed presented in an extremely clear and concise way. Thank you very much indeed!

Hi, I'm from PH. And I'm using this LTE, and this video is very informative.

Most precise video ever, thanks mate good job.

Did not know I needed to change the settings for aeriel. I was getting good download speeds, but more upload. Now both aeriels are set to external, I'm getting good up as well. So I thank you!

BEST VIDEO ON RU-vid!!! You sir are a DIAMOND 💎 👍

Crystal Clear Instructions, Thanks so much Vince!

Thanks for the tips Vince! I have just signed up for Three's home-fi option and I'm hoping to get much better speeds with 4G than with the usual broadband.

Vince, another very helpful and informative video. I followed your earlier guidance on how to get the best out of your landline broadband connection and almost doubled my speed to 7.5mbs down (still too slow but better than it was!). After a couple of years and lack of any improvement in the BT Openreach infrastructure and failure of the two local area wifi companies to provide me with a line of sight to their masts, I'm investigating 3G/4G router broadband. Two possible suppliers, both only providing 3G if I'm lucky but initial test with a little mifi unit are showing up to three times my current download speed. 4G router being delivered today for testing with an existing Three data sim. EE pay as you go sim also on its way as the EE coverage is supposed to be better. I'll see what the connection is like before looking at an external antenna, but I think I will have to go down that route. Thanks again for all your help.

Well thought out. Your tests used a good sample range (alhough running each test 10 times would give a better average). And explained without using too much jargon. Well done. Subbed.

Good video; to add a couple of tips: 1. Find out what access point names your cellular provider use. Sometimes when you're suffering from congestion, you can change the AP name and get massively higher speeds. 2. A good MESH WiFi system will almost always perform much better than powerline adapters and access points; the technology is developing much faster.

Thanks! I didn't know how to change to an external antenna until this video!!

There is a very good utility LTEWatch(H) for Hauwei LTE Routers which gives an excellent way of determining the best signal strength for a specific position and orientation. Although the spec for this antenna says it's omnidirectional, it does actually perform better with the front face pointed at the LTE mast. Using the self same setup B315/XPOL-2 60. 60Mbps D / 30Mbps U

It would be interesting to know what speeds you would have with the two smaller aerials fitted with the correct settings

Wow. When I clicked this video I did not expect something so informative! Left a like!

Superb and really clear - thank you for recording and uploading and sharing your expertise. Off to buy an external antenna now.

Its been a while since ive seen one of your videos and still enjoyed this one

Great video, I recently got 4g home broadband (with 3) and the signal is improved outside my house when I test on my phone (about 20mb download gain), will look into getting one of these antennas.

Thanks for the video which I used as a learning base to fit a Huawei B715s and an external antenna. I also noted a big rise in download speeds between speed runs one and two whenever I tested a new orientation. It left me wondering if these routers learn and adapt to their environment as the subsequent speed tests were all more stable at or around the second test result. Its important to know where your masts are to position the external antenna facing the right direction. The better face onto the mast the antenna was (although the max speeds didn't alter much) the more stable the d/l speed was in terms of delivering at or close to the max speeds. As a top tip, another thing I found was that the speed results of the router/antenna was very similar to those obtained on my Samsung S7 phone. So, at least in my case, you didn't need to roam a site with laptop, router and antenna to pin down the best location to position the antenna. The final speed results through the antenna were very close and actually a little below those obtained directly on the mobile phone.

2020 I am here and found this the most useful information I have received in the , thumbs up x10000000000

Thumbs up, subbed, absolutely bang on video. Exactly what I needed but you nailed the details too so I’m sure this will help a lot to educate the people...clearly got a back for it

Simply a brilliant video! So well explained! Keep up the good work!

Very handy; I've just ordered the antenna you put in your links. Fingers crossed!

Due to the high radio frequency used for LTE, there's a big signal loss on the antenna cable length. Try making your cable as shorter as possible and do the speed test once again. You really would be surprised.

Great video, well explained, demonstrated in a language all should understand. Thank you, extremely impressive.

Excellent well informed video mate. As folk have said, you have the voice well done. Just bought a huwawi 4g router. There’s too many people using the phone lines where I live. I get much better reliable broadband than through the cable and can take it where ever I go in my camper 👍😊

As normal, a great, clear and explanatory video.

Defo this is a big issue; worked on a UK wide deployment where we were installing new routers with 4G LTE backup routers (the locations of the router were often really poor for network signal, we carried O2 and Vodafone data sims too) though the comms room or cabinet was often in a poorly sited location, so the connection was very flakey, recommended this to the network bod as the support was very limited, the ones we were deploying all were fitted with the option to use an external antenna. Thanks Vice (if that's your proper name!) PowerLine adapters can also blow pretty hard / if in an unattended location too - so fire risk / as the plug is on (come across a few now so we've avoided them wherever possible).

Great info, thank you, just what I needed for the house we're moving to.

Just a note @ 13:20ish, Three does not cap me. I have all I can eat broadband including Netflix and other streaming media. I have been using it for working from home constrantly throughout 2020 and had about 2 short outages all year - not too bad. I'd also like to know the difference between the two antenna ports (#1 is the preference on the B535-232 for single antenna solutions, there is also a mixed mode - I may make some tests and report back). I have one of these hidden inside a commercial vehicle with external antennas in the centre of the roof for CCTV streaming so I know the external antennas work ok as the vehicle itself is a "Farriday cage" preventing normal router operation when the door is closed! Good you pointed out that you have to change the settings to enable the external antennas. Being a bloke I didn't read the router instructions at first so learned the hard way!

Nice video, very well explained, thanks.

Good solid info, thanks for sharing!

Very helpful video. Thanks Vince!

Exactly the info I was looking for. Thank you.

Great video mate I’m just planning to do an install for a customer using Draytek kit

Our local provider offers unlimited data for corporate customers. It's an enterprise offer only and this video is very helpful! I'll get a Huawei router too.

Some really good info and points that most people wouldn't think of or consider so great informative video. Nice one👍

Thank you Vince. Wonderful tutorial

Exactly the info I had been looking for. Thanks

Great video, really informative and gives me hope we might get better speeds now

I found putting antenna to external putting rabbits ears on then rapping tin foil around each rabbit ear antenna boosted my WiFi with out all the technical stuff and was very easy to do simple as always been my motto 😁

Excellent video. Very helpful

Where was this test carried out? I find that the speed varied quite wildly in different areas.

hey, nice video! So what plan do you currently have? what''s your data cap for 4G LTE? No problem with cellular carrier at all? very curious. thx

This video was very helpful, thanks for investing your time making this video

Very informative video. Just what I needed. Thank you. 🤓🙏

Excellent - very clear advice and results.

Also, do you know that this router has the radio band aggregation function? so you can manually set which bands will work best ...

Great video, helped me alot. Thanks!

Great video! Pack of more info. This is all i want to know. Thanks!!

Hey Vince! I was just going to add an external antenna for our neighbour as he isn't getting very good speeds and he's on the same 4g provider to me, so I suggested an external antenna as he's getting about 70% signal strength. I get pretty good speeds as we recently moved to a 4g router instead of the copper telephone line as because we are very rural we were getting awful speeds (4-5mb and .5mb upload) and it was taking me about 8 hours to upload a 20 minute youtube video! We now get around (80mb down, 23mb up on EE) but he's only getting around 12mb and 7mb up and he's only about 1/4 mile up the road. I was looking at reviews for antenna's and your video popped up! Great video as always mate👍

I have the same router but it was locked from telcos. There is no selection of antenna i thin telco wont allow this that why it was blocked. Is there anyway to select antenna or used external on it or software to able the antenna selection.

You have the perfect voice for explaining. Good Tips shared

Great Video! thanks from Colombia

Thanks all for you help.!!!

Informative, great vid :)

Good video. Thanks man!

Great video, very helpful, I see there is a Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 as well, is this a better antenna to use? I have the Huawei B311 router on the new three unlimited data so trying to work out how to get the best quality signal. Any help is appreciated.

Nice informative video mate!

Absolutely excellent video, you’ve saved my life. Thank you.

HUAWEI are definitely one of the best for mobile WiFi devices. I've had a few different models from them & they bang out a really good signal. Thanks Vince.

hi i have just purchased the tp link mr200 and want to install the external antenna i cant seem to find anywhere in the setting to turn the external antenna on or does the tp link just do this itself.

Thanks for this awesome info. I will try it. I have the same router. :)

Exactly what I was looking for😊 !!!...thank you

interesting tutorial dude .keep it up .thanks

You have the same modem as i did. May i know the antenna connectors? I want to find one of these.

Great video thank you mate!

perfect tip thanks its exactly what I was looking for, I have that router top man

quality as always vince

Excellent tutorial, everything's there, thanks.

What I would like to know is, did it have any impact on the ping time? Thx for a nice video

One thing to really consider is that antenna cable length has a huge effect on signal quality. Use as short a cable as possible. I would almost recommend getting a high quality outdoor unit with Power over Ethernet. Then its just one cable outside with power and ethernet.

Will antenna this boost a signal much in a fringe rural area? At the static caravan I get about a quarter to half bars signal on 3 on my mobile and about 1mbps to 10mbps download speed, I'm thinking this could really boost the signal quality as it will be outside.

Well detailed video! my antenna is arriving today! We cant get fibre at home and just moved over to Three Network broadband, this antenna should hopefully give it a well needed boost and its an unlimited data plan too lol! i’m also going to be using the suction cups permanently!! 🤣🤣😳

Amazing!! Lower ping, Faster speed, stable connection...

Would a signal booster/repeater in-between the external antenna and router help with increasing further??

Thanks so much for sharing the useful information.

Hello, about this Huawei router(b315s-22) is it possible to reduce the bandwidth of the wifi connection to reduce the consumption of gigabite? Thank you in advance.

Yes I liked the detail you showed..

tx for your help awsome video and verry well explained your the man dude

Is there a way to select a different exchange in the router settings if the closest one which is automatically selected is too overloaded with connections?

Very clear and infotmative

great video :-) ..what the make of your laptop you using in video ?

Excellent video. I'd be very interested to see a set up for a van please.

Nice video. Just a question. Can i get two of them and combine their speed into one network?

Luxury speeds! I live in a fairly modern house in a large town (Macclesfield) and the BT provided landline speeds had been so poor (I gave up BT in 2016) that I've been relying on 4G "air broadband" since. Today in 2020 I can get between 15 and 50 Mb/s via 4G on Three with the router in the highest part of my loft and a physical cable to a switch near my PC. When fibre came to town, OpenReach underestimated the demand so the waiting list was well over a year. Today the "average speed" fibre (whatever that really is - meaning is that at e.g. 4am) is 45Mb/s - pointless to take the risk and shameful this day and age to be in a built up area which such poor performance. Thanks for the vid.

If you have antennas on your 4g router. How do you aim them the best way? Both vertically?

I have the Huawei B311 2020 which only has one antenna port. Which external aerial would you recommend?

regarding the antenna location, you said best signal you got was just above the garage roof rather than a higher location, in the world of antennas that's counter-intuitive, the only reason I could think off of why that is could be because the garage roof acts as a parabolic antenna and bounces signal off of it and into the LTE antenna, by experimenting around with the antenna's location you guys must've found a sweet spot where plenty of bounced off signal from roof will hit the antenna, surely the roof doesn't have the shape of a parabolic antenna but still plenty of signal will bounce off and reach the LTE antenna so that will make a difference location-wise.

Thanks, very informative

I set up a couple of directional antennas got speed from 20-25 up to 80-85 mbits. Run for 3 or so years already. But you are better off getting a quality brand antenna with cleaner signal and quality low loss cables expecially if you can't put modem right next to the antenna. If you are on a very low budget you could try to make a cheap can-antenna, directional bi-quad antenna or experiment with other high gain designs.

Latency is important especially for voice. Tried to detect latency in the video shots of speedtest. Looks like it didn't improve at least over the 3 tests, Is this correct?

Can you share link where you bought your external anttena, would like to set up cause my area when it comes to internet, the signal was not strong enough to load 480p video..thanks mate....

4G LTE is usually in the 700MHZ band (US) for Verizon & AT&T. But you will have to check and confirm what frequencies and band your local country and carrier are actually using. Hardware store 75 ohm cables (typical RG59 ) are very poorly made for cost savings and very lossy compared to commercial grade brand name RG-6 or even (better) 50 ohm RG and LMR communications cables and connectors. At 700MHZ those losses can quickly add up with distance, much worse as PCS frequencies increase loss at 1700, 1900, and beyond 2,000MHZ. Especially if the connectors are not properly crimped. Try not to circularly loop any co-ax cable tightly, unless you know why you are doing so (as in using it as a decoupling choke). So use gentle bends, keep as short as possible and outdoors bend slightly as needed at building entrance to droop away water and snow melt. Omni directional base antennas are a last resort. You increase the chances for multi-path distortion of the bounced and reflected carrier and data. Real world gain is limited to 3 to 5 Dbi no matter what the package propaganda says. Much better to use a directional beam antenna aimed at the cell tower (or reflected bounced signal source depending on your location) if possible. Outdoor rated flat panels and yagi beams are ok, but best to use a parabolic dish or screen antenna pointed at the signal source. They reject side reflected signals and noise much better. Gains of 10 -17 Dbi are normal and not overstated if a good quality antenna is used. In radio-land each 3db gain is equal to doubling the signal. So 3 doubles no gain, 6 doubles 3, 9 doubles 6, and so on. (look for something like these in your frequency range - www.excel-wireless.com/700-mhz-grid-parabolic-antenna ). You can usually use the device log in administrator settings to read signal strength for aligning the antenna and confirming you did a good job on the co-ax. The lower the - number in Db or Dbm (usually displayed as -80 to -109) the better. Just move the antenna around for the lowest number (best signal) you can get. Now keep your 4G / LTE radio box as close to the antenna as possible to avoid co-ax cable loss and let the WiFi and/ or wired Ethernet to another WiFi access point far away do the work of getting to your phone or computer device.

Thqnks from the philippines 👍👍👍