[thruflo22]

I moved recently from the UK, where my home and office both had fiber, to live in a tiny picturesque village in the Istrian hills in Croatia.

Initially, my 4g router was getting a signal strength of -110 to -120db, corresponding to two bars and zoom video not working. Spent €90 on an outdoor aerial. Plugged it into the router. Signal now averages -85, four to five bars on the router, zero issues with video calls.

My point being: there’s more than one way to skin a cat and you can often improve your mobile signal if you want to.

[zegerius]

Exactly! I purchased a 4G router[1] with an external antenna to ensure a sufficiently good connection for four people on a small Croatian island. After three months, I am positive that most people would be perfectly fine (or even better off) with just a 4G antenna on their roof. Our speeds were around 50-120/10-20Mbps with a 60-100ms latency to Zoom's closest server, depending on the weather.

1. Teltonika RUTX11: https://teltonika-networks.com/product/rutx11/

[EricE]

One problem - there is only so much bandwidth available in a certain portion of radio spectrum. If everyone started doing what you are doing then “most people” would be seeing pretty bad performance.

Wired is always better; especially in higher density environments. If you are in a rural or low density area then this is obviously less of an issue - but everyone moving to wireless would be an utter disaster where most people live.

[devxpy]

I dont get why these 4g routers are so expensive. I can get a phone with snapdragon processor, lte chip, display, battery and everything for around 1/2 the price of a decent 4g router, its insane. Market theory sucks for the consumer.

[cpgxiii]

Part of it is certainly an issue of volume, but in the consumer space low-cost (or "free" subsidized-by-plan) 3G/LTE mobile hotspots have long been available. Those models are basically the modems and radios of a mid- to high-end smartphone in a cheap plastic enclosure with a battery.

If you want metal enclosures (i.e. actual thermal design for prolonged operation), multiple ethernet ports, better routing support, no limits on number of connected devices, wide input voltages, automotive-grade components, etc, that's a much smaller market.

[jjeaff]

Are any carriers still subsidizing phones? I have only seen buy one get one free with a new line. ATT just has a payment plan but you still pay full price.

[devxpy]

I don't get how this works. Isn't someone down the line earning more profits than they would be in the smartphone industry?

Like Obviously, the sheer resources required to create a router are minuscule compared to a phone, so then who exactly will be pocketing these extra resources that I'm paying for, and why?

[leokennis]

Probably lack of volume and competition?

[sails]

Would appreciate a link to your researched aerial and router. I'm sitting in the country with my phone in a metal kitchen bowl (DIY aerial) for maximum signal, and think I could benefit from some technology!

[zegerius]

Take a look at the Teltonika RUTX11[1] with a MIMO LTE antenna from Poynting[2]. Not cheap, but certainly got good results with it. I used Cellmapper[3] to check where the closest tower was.

I have heard that the Huawei ones that accept external antennas are also decent, be it with a much smaller featureset.

[1] https://teltonika-networks.com/product/rutx11/ [2] https://poynting.tech/antenna-category/antennas/urban-rural-... [3] https://www.cellmapper.net/map

[devxpy]

These are really expensive in India, any suggestions for us plebs?

[TaylorAlexander]

I am having good luck with a ZTE MF279 on our farm in California.

[thruflo]

An omni-directional "Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001": https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00C1DGFPS

They make lots of different types: https://poynting.tech/antenna-category/antennas/

[Hamuko]

How are you running the outdoor cable to the router? I find the hardest part of this setup actually getting the cable from outside the house to inside the house.

[wffurr]

It's similar to installing an outdoor power outlet: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-add-an-outdoor...

[meigwilym]

My TV aerial is in the attic space, and it works very well (although I do have a line of sight to the transmitter). The cable runs down the wall.

I wonder if a 4G aerial would work as well in this kind of environment? The roof is wooden rafters with a slate covering.

[thruflo]

Yup, definitely a head scratcher! So far I've been able to thread through an open window but when the weather turns I'll need to drill a hole somewhere at some point :)