Ask HN: How to get fast cellular internet in rural areas
14 comments
When I moved to a house that is only served via LTE, I built a linux router based on the quite popular PC engines APU and put a miniPCIe LTE modem inside. It has been very reliable, allowing us to work from home without issues.
My main gripe with LTE/5G modems is that they are not made to be bought and used by consumers. These things are rather sold in bulk to car makers or laptop manufacturers. This means that modems usually come with limitations or artificial locks, for example requiring a support contract to get firmware updates.
There is also a bunch of different standards for how to get a data connection from the modem depending on the manufacturer but on Linux NetworkManager/ModemManager make this problem much smaller.
For the antenna, my understanding is that it is possible to either focus on a specific tower with a pair of high gain antennas oriented towards the tower, or use antennas that blasts in every direction like a phone.
At home I use the focused approach with 15 dBi indoor antennas and the four different metrics for signal quality reported by my modem are all excellent. The drawback of this approach is that in the rare cases when my tower is down, the antennas cannot fall back to a different tower.
My main gripe with LTE/5G modems is that they are not made to be bought and used by consumers. These things are rather sold in bulk to car makers or laptop manufacturers. This means that modems usually come with limitations or artificial locks, for example requiring a support contract to get firmware updates.
There is also a bunch of different standards for how to get a data connection from the modem depending on the manufacturer but on Linux NetworkManager/ModemManager make this problem much smaller.
For the antenna, my understanding is that it is possible to either focus on a specific tower with a pair of high gain antennas oriented towards the tower, or use antennas that blasts in every direction like a phone.
At home I use the focused approach with 15 dBi indoor antennas and the four different metrics for signal quality reported by my modem are all excellent. The drawback of this approach is that in the rare cases when my tower is down, the antennas cannot fall back to a different tower.
I've got a Peplink UBR LTE I like that I have in a remote location. Two different cell antenna pairs that can accept external antennas, 4 sim cards, Wifi, internal software that allows auto switchover if something goes down. Can take 12-24 DC so I can plug it into a car battery when the power is out. I use it in conjunction with a Starlink setup. I've got sim cards for both AT&T and Verizon, but in my area, the AT&T 20GB for $50/month works fine.
https://www.peplinkworks.com/UBR-LTE.asp
https://www.peplinkworks.com/UBR-LTE.asp
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LTE 5G HACKS facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/908597552628182
LTE FIX to get an idea for components and some links for information: https://ltefix.com/
I've had Starlink for over a year, but I maintain a solid 4G LTE backup connection that I fire up during primetime and on the weekends.
LTE FIX to get an idea for components and some links for information: https://ltefix.com/
I've had Starlink for over a year, but I maintain a solid 4G LTE backup connection that I fire up during primetime and on the weekends.
What is your opinion on Starlink compared to the LTE connection? I have pretty good LTE here - but I can also get Starlink. The difference is about $40 a month.
It depends on your tower. I'm "barely rural" I guess you would say. However my LTE tower had plenty of 4g bandwidth, and just got updated to 5g, where I get 5guc at my house. My phone can pull 500mbit from the tower now.
I haven't quite pulled the trigger on buying a 5g modem, but this blows Starlink away currently. I have v1 Starlink, the round dish, and the upgrade path to this these kind of speeds is $$$.
What's unknown to me is how aggressive the LTE carriers will be with throttling / keeping an eye with data caps.
I haven't quite pulled the trigger on buying a 5g modem, but this blows Starlink away currently. I have v1 Starlink, the round dish, and the upgrade path to this these kind of speeds is $$$.
What's unknown to me is how aggressive the LTE carriers will be with throttling / keeping an eye with data caps.
You might want to look for modems used for police cars and other vehicles. Cradlepoint also makes fixed devices.
They have external antenna mounts and can usually do 2-3 SIMs and often have a 100Mb or gig Ethernet port. They are more expensive than the typical mifi, but you may be able to find good surplus gear on eBay, especially as state/local governments start getting rid of equipment bought to stand up COVID facilities in the field.
They have external antenna mounts and can usually do 2-3 SIMs and often have a 100Mb or gig Ethernet port. They are more expensive than the typical mifi, but you may be able to find good surplus gear on eBay, especially as state/local governments start getting rid of equipment bought to stand up COVID facilities in the field.
Mikrotik has some hardware for this although I haven't tried it.
Teltonika RUT* series router + Poynting XPOL* series antenna.
I see they are partners, that looks like a good solution. I think the RUT* series routers are the solution I was looking for with a good antenna.
I use RUTX09 for 4G & 5G deployments and they are very stable.
I live in a place that barely have 3G and mostly not even that. The best strategy is to simply adjust to not having or using cellular.
When I need to make a cellular call, I simply have to get in my car and drive the 8 miles into the nearby village. There's a certain part of the village where you can get both cellular and data. The rest of the area only gives audio phone.
I live about 30 miles from our state capital and you only need to be about 2 miles outside of the city limits and there's zero cellular.
For personal security, that's why we own guns. For personal health, that's why we make friends with neighbors. This is simply how it is. The best strategy is to get used to it and stop whining about what cellular providers will NEVER provide.
When I need to make a cellular call, I simply have to get in my car and drive the 8 miles into the nearby village. There's a certain part of the village where you can get both cellular and data. The rest of the area only gives audio phone.
I live about 30 miles from our state capital and you only need to be about 2 miles outside of the city limits and there's zero cellular.
For personal security, that's why we own guns. For personal health, that's why we make friends with neighbors. This is simply how it is. The best strategy is to get used to it and stop whining about what cellular providers will NEVER provide.
I've got a gl.iNet GL-MiFi[1], which you can open the case for and attach your choice of antennas to the modem. The modem has two u.fl connectors for LTE, and one for GNSS; I got a 3rd party antenna that's no longer offered so I could use GNSS, and I got a little better LTE reception as well.
That particular model is discontinued, but the updated model GL-X750[2] probably works about the same, uses the same modem modules, and appears to have external LTE antennas. They've got WiFi, but I turn that off and use the wired Ethernet.
[1] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mifi/ [2] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-x750/
That particular model is discontinued, but the updated model GL-X750[2] probably works about the same, uses the same modem modules, and appears to have external LTE antennas. They've got WiFi, but I turn that off and use the wired Ethernet.
[1] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mifi/ [2] https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-x750/
I only had about one bar on the phone and I used one of these for a while before I found a WISP in the area. It worked pretty good, gave me about triple the bandwidth going from about 1.5-2 mbps to 6-7. I plugged it right into the verizon mifi puck and just bridged the wifi it outputs to connect it to my home network. Used a weBoost for inside the house to improve other phone signals and still have that setup, it kind of worked for the puck but the external mimo was a lot better.
https://www.waveform.com/products/mimo-log-periodic-hotspot-...
You can call them to get more details on the ideal setup for your towers/network.
https://www.waveform.com/products/mimo-log-periodic-hotspot-...
You can call them to get more details on the ideal setup for your towers/network.
I already own a mesh router (or bridge) network I like. Does anyone have good recommendations for a cellular modem + cellular antenna combination that can connect to a home network via ethernet?