If you are considering changing from a wired broadband (ADSL) to a 4G or 5G router to provide your home or office with high speed Internet then one of the most common issues is getting the best 4G or 5G network signal to your 4G or 5G router. Usually, the router would be installed indoors and in most cases the signal reception would be fine and provide reasonable download and upload speeds. However, the 5G networks use radio frequencies that are not good at penetrating walls so 5G signal strength is often much better outdoors. Many 5G router users, having already invested in their 5G router will need to install a 5G antenna outdoors and run the antenna cables to the router indoors. The recommended antenna cable length is around 5m due to signal loss along the length of the cable. This can be longer if there is an excellent outdoor signal, however some 5G routers have four external antenna connections so you would need to install a 4×4 MiMO outdoor antenna and run four antenna cables to the router and if you needed to extension the cable length using extension cables you would have the extra expense of four additional extension cables.
The alternative, if you have not already invested in your 5G router, is to install an outdoor 5G router which means that the router and SIM card with the antennas all in the same router housing are installed outdoors to receive the strongest 5G network signal. Typically these outdoor 5G routers are powered using POE (Power Over Ethernet) either with a POE Injector or by connecting to a POE switch. This means the cable used between the outdoor router and the inside location is Ethernet so can be up to 100m in length. This also means there is just a single cable between the outdoor 5G router and the indoor device.
The ZTE MC889 combined with the T3000 WiFi6 router is a great example of how this outdoor router solution can work because the router is mounted outdoors and works in combination with the indoor router that delivers high speed WiFi6 for all your wireless devices and also has Gigabit Ethernet Ports (one for the connection of the outdoor router) and three spare for connection to wired devices or to a network switch.
The MC889 Router has a single SIM slot and is a weatherproof box that receives it power from the supplied POE injector and using a standard network SIM card (EE, O2, Vodafone, 3Mobile etc) you can probably just insert the SIM and connect the POE Ethernet cable and it will automatically connect. If using a non standard SIM card eg. Fixed IP SIM card then you can log into the router web interface (192.168.254.1) and configure the APN settings manually. Sometimes an office or home user may want a Fixed, Public IP address to provide remote access to the router and connected devices using port forwarding in which case they will need a Fixed IP SIM card because standard SIM cards use CGNAT which means you cannot remotely access your router using a standard SIM Card.
The second Ethernet cable from the POE Injector plugs into the T3000 WiFi6 router and this is supplied with a standard mains power plug and this will enable you to connect all your WiFi enabled devices such as phones, tablets, TV’s and smart devices etc and also has some Gigabit Ethernet Ports so you can connected wired devices such as PC’s and CCTV NVR devices.
The ZTE MC889 is a great solution for home and office 5G Mobile Broadband.
You can see an example of how to configure some of the settings in the ZTE MC889 5G router below.