On the 18th August 2019, I purchased a Smarty unlimited sim monthly cost £18.75 a month.
I live in Northampton's NN1 postcode, so I have an abundance of 4g masts, and decent LTE-A speeds of around 40 MBps.
Now all I needed was a decent 4g router, reading several forums, thinkbroadband, hotukdeals, ispreview, the Huawei B525 seemed like the ideal choice.
Huawei B525 is a LTE CAT6 Wireless Router, which pushes and eliminates black spots giving you a smooth and quick Internet connection. The WiFi covers a huge distance, reaching through to each device in any room. Have high-speed Internet for family, friends and yourself all day long!
SPECS:
Download speed: 300Mbps
Upload speed: 50Mbps
Sim Card Size: MicroSim
Dimensions: 16.3 x 22.6 x 5.2 cm
Share: Connects up to 64 WiFi enabled devices.
Sounds ideal, but it's probably the main reason I'm going back to FTTC.
It will achieve 40 down and 40 up, but only if it's on LTE B3 1800mhz.
If it switches to LTE B1 2100mhz, speeds drop to 2mbps or worse.
What is going on, and for a device that supports LTE-A Carrier Aggregation at speeds up to 300Mbps, why is CA never enabled?
Reading up, to upgrade the firmware, I need to open the b525, boot it in emergency boot mode using testpoint, and this will allow me to select bands and give more options.
My FTTC connection ceases on the 30th August, the real testing begins.
My work VOIP phone works without issue.
Email not an issue.
Browsing the web not an issue
Streaming not an issue
Downloading anything takes days during peak hours...
The needed USB-A to USB-A cable arrives 9th September, maybe I should have sent the B525 back, but I have now taken out the warranty sticker screw and have the bare printed circuit board in front of me.
I use balong-flash, which is a beautiful piece of code on github written by rust3028 to flash the b525 from linux.
Success, I have not bricked it, I can now manually choose which bands to connect to, but Carrier Aggregation still does not work.
I read further, the Huawei B525 comes in two different models, B525s-23a for EMEA, and B525s-65a for the rest of the world which supports more bands.
Intrigued, I start reading into what bands they can aggregate:
I find the b525s-23a product specs here:
https://www.hetinternethuis.nl/productbestanden/HUAWEI-B525s-23a-datasheet.pdfB525s-23a supports:z LTE: B1/3/7/8/20/32/38
FDD: 2100 MHz/1800 MHz/2600 MHz/ 900 MHz/800 MHz/1500 MHz/
TDD: 2600 MHz
Intra-band contiguous: B3+B3, B7+B7, B38+B38
Inter-band: B3+B7, B3+B20, B7+B20, B7+B8, B3+B8, B1+B20, B1+B8,
B20+B32
So, CA (Carrier Aggregation) is supported on B3+B3, or B3+B7, B3+B20 B3+B8, B1+B20 and B1+B8.
I find the B525s-65a specs here:
https://www.4gltemall.com/downloads/dl/file/id/354/product/1019/huawei_b525s_65a_lte_modem_datasheet.pdfB525s-65a supports:l LTE: B1//B3//B7/B8/B28/B40/ 2CA(DL):
CA_1A-3A,CA_1A-28A,CA_1C,CA _3A-3A,CA_3A-7A,CA_3A-8A,CA_3A-28A,CA
A_3C,CA_4A-28A,CA_5A-7A,CA_5A-38A(SCC),CA_5A-40A(SCC),CA_7A-8A(SC
C),CA_7A-28A,CA_7C,,CA_40A-40A,CA_40C,
Well I can see why the 65a exists, more carrier aggregation bands, but as Smarty is Three UK MVNO, which bands do they support for Carrier Aggregation?
i find my answer here:
https://halberdbastion.com/intelligence/countries-nations/united-kingdom and here
https://halberdbastion.com/intelligence/mobile-networks/three-uk-3Carrier Aggregation
CA_1A-3A (B1+B3)So the Huawei B525s-23a that Amazon sell is not suitable for 3 UK
I have a lovely WiFi4/WiFi5 LTE router crippled by being on the 3 uk network which do not support the Carrier Aggregation required.
Options available:
Move to EE unlimited data or Vodafone unlimited data sims, twice the price.
Send the Huawei B525s-23a back to Amazon as unsuitable, but I have already opened it and voided the warranty sticker
Try another LTE Modem to prove it.
Get FTTC re-installed.
Simplest option is to try another LTE modem, so I place a couple of orders:
ZTE MF823 Cat4 USB Dongle £15, runs Linux OpenEmbedded, root is possible
ZTE Softbank 403zt Cat6 Usb Dongle £25
Mikrotik RBSXTLTE3-7 Cat3 modem £60 < absolute bargain
ZTE MF823 Cat4 arrived first, getting pretty much identical speeds as the b525, and does not support CA.
Mikrotik RBSXTLTE3-7 arrived next, pretty much brand new, excess stock from a Wireless ISP in Ireland.
The SXT is a CAT3 modem, it supports 100Mbps down and 50Mbps but only on Band 3 1800Mhz LTE and Band 7 2600Mhz LTE, but it contains a 9dbi antenna with 60 degrees alignment.
The SXT is pulling the same speeds as the B525, but also shows something else, it arrived on the 18th September.
The SXT is showing spikes of 14 - 16 Mbps, all the way down to 0.5Mbps on the download during the day, constant 20Mbps upload on speedtests, and only on B3 as it only supports B3 in my area
Basically I'm in a heavy usage area, at night the speed is fantastic, by day, the download is appalling, it looks like traffic flow is applied, but if I was uploading the internet I would be fine.
After 3 hours of reading the information from the SXT that the B525 does not show, I place an order with Vodafone, free install and 80/20 FTTC for the price of 40/10.
The CAT6 USB modem arrived this week, but I'm not testing any further.
While the 4g has performed admirably, and if you were someone who was only streaming video, reading emails and browsing the web, it would probably suit you.
It's just not for me.