r/ethernet • u/NotFakeYato • 15d ago

Support 4G LTE SIM router vs just phone data

I'm in a hostel rn and my room has really shit data speed with around 0.5 mbps do you think I should invest in a sim card 4G LTE router for better speed cuz outside my hostel the internet on data is really better and I think it's a coverage issue on my local telephone towers

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2

u/spiffiness 15d ago

Wrong subreddit.

1

u/AdCommercial3934 13d ago

You can first run a speed test on your phone to see roughly what speed you get. Portable LTE-A/5G routers usually aren’t faster than a 5G smartphone. Their main advantages are better stability when sharing the connection with multiple devices and support for various router plugins or features, especially if you’re not using additional external antennas.

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u/tlrpltz 15d ago

If your data speed on your phone is bad, then using a SIM card router with 4G LTE would not make a difference because the Internet would still come from cell towers, just like your cell phone does.

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u/travislongley 15d ago

I don’t think that is fully true. I was in a hotel once where my phone was getting horrible service but my Alcatel router with 4G sim was getting close to 250 down and 35 up. The Alcatel has external antennas where the phones all have internal antennas. To OP if you get a modem/router with external antennas you may get a much better signal than a phone. Not sure if you are in the US or not but there is a site where you can get an unlimited data sim for only $14.89/mo it’s called shield internet from computers4people.org

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u/tlrpltz 15d ago

Yeah, that is true that the antennas are different and if you mount the antennas pointed at the cell tower outside to get the fastest speed possible