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What is the best 4/5G router? [UK] [Vodafone or EE]

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beardofturtles

Occasional Visitor
New 4/5G sim card arriving so i can replace my horrible ADSL home network but I cant decide on the router. I need something as powerful as my old Asus DSL-AC88U in terms of features and wifi range but needs to take a sim card for 4/5G internet and have a high CAT value.

My provider deal comes with a Huawei CPE Pro however there isnt much info online about how good the actual wifi is. I'd be very keen to see how it compares to something like the AC88U or Nighthawk routers.

Are there any other routers out there that can take a sim card and have excellent wifi range? I'd very much like to have features like beamforming, Mimo, 4x4 antennas, QoS, Guest Networking etc which tend go along with high performance routers.

EDIT: I'd very interested to know if the AC88U could still be used as my main router and just use a cheaper 5G modem for the signal reciever? Best of all worlds, get to keep my AC88U which im really liking at the moment but get awesome 4/5G speeds and also dont need to reconfig my whole house again (wifi extenders, alexa, smart plugs)
 
I had the CPE pro for a few days before I sent it back (purchased separately for £300, not provided by ISP)

It gave great speeds on 4G (up to 100/30) so presumably would be fantastic for 5G whenever that launches, but 4G coverage with three is so flaky at the moment I just ended up giving up on the idea of using it as my main connection.

You should definitely be able to run it as a modem. Well... Kind of. It's not a true bridge mode.
In its settings it should have a DMZ mode option, so enable that and connect it to the WAN port on your router.
WAN settings on the router should be set to static IP and something like the below;

IP = 192.168.8.2 (think you need to provide this on the CPE too when you enable DMZ mode)
subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.8.1 (or whatever the default IP of the CPE is)
Then just disable stuff like wireless radio that you don't need on the CPE

I'd say just give it a go... There are probably much better 4G only modems out there which offer bridge mode, but this seems to be one of the few choices for 5G and I can't see why you'd want 4G when 5G is an option.
I never really tested wireless performance on its own, as it was AC instead of AX.
 
As dfunked mentioned, once 5G is the set-in-stone new standard, the old 4G routers are quite literally useless.

Right now i can see why you'd want one tho, as 5G still isnt functioning to its full potential due to it still being launched all over the globe.

It will be soon though, so when that time comes don't bother getting a router that uses 4G i'd say :)
 

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