5G Routers For The Home

Buying a 5G Router for use in the home can seem like a really easy thing to do.  Just buy a 5G router from an online store, and insert the SIM.

However, in our experience, this is where the problems start, mainly in terms of expectations of download and upload speeds as well as the addition of external antennas and using the router for other applications such as port forwarding to CCTV.

We hope to address some of these issues in this article in order to provide you with the information you need prior to making a purchase to ensure a hassle free purchase and installation (well, with as few hassles as possible!).

We shall start with the choice of 5G router.

5G Routers

Many of the consumer routers such as the Huawei CPE PRO 5G, the TCL Linkhub and the D-Link DWR-978 can be great, low cost solutions to getting a router with a SIM slot that you can insert a 5G SIM card and get connected to the 5G network within a few minutes.  However, in the case that you need to add an external antenna to get the best 5G network signal you may struggle.  Some of these routers, like the CPEPRO3 do not have external antenna connectors, some routers such as the TCL Linkhub only have 2 external antenna connectors and these are the small, fiddly TS( connectors so in many cases you will need to purchase TS9 to SMA adapters in order to connect the majority of high gain, external 4G antennas.  The issue with just having 2 connectors is that in many cases 5G routers actually use 4 antennas, so you would potentially be losing half of your signal when using a 2×2 (2 wire) 5G antenna outdoors rather than having the benefit of using a high gain 4×4 MiMo 5G Antenna.

The way around this issue is to use an Industrial 5G Router, but generally these are more expensive, but do have the ability to connect 4 x 5G antennas using industry standard SMA screw type antenna connections.  This is where the new RAPID NR550 router comes in handy.  It is an industrial grade router, with 4×4 MiMO antenna connections but has the necessary specification to be used for home and office use as well as being used for M2M / IoT applications and it is priced to be able to offer a cost effective upgrade to the lower cost consumer routers with the advantage of being able to connect directly to 4×4 MiMo 5G Antennas. (this saving the cost of TS9 to SMA adapters as well as giving better performance when used with outdoor antennas)

5G Antennas