4x4 Mimo LTE on ATT rural tower
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4x4 Mimo LTE on ATT rural tower
Hi. I’m in a rural area using an AT&T tower with a panel antenna and Sierra EM7565 (Cat12 2x2 MIMO) card. We’re about 4 miles from the tower with some trees in the way. We often get quite solid speeds 50 down/10 up but signal strength seems to go in and out. I’m wondering whether a 4x4 Mimo card with a second antenna might help and saw the Quectel EM160. Is there a way of knowing if the tower supports 4x4. (Or does the tower even need to explicitly support it or is it just the router side that needs to?) I know the tower has B2, B12, and B66 bands and I sometimes see multiple CAs on one band. (I.e. B2 + B66 + B66 tends to be the fastest I’ve seen). The tower doesn’t yet have any 5G bands. Since this is our main internet, I’m willing to buy an extra 2x2 antenna and a new card, but wanted to ask first since if the tower can’t take advantage of them that would be a waste. Thanks!
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Dr-BroadBand
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Re: 4x4 Mimo LTE on ATT rural tower
If it was me, I would be happy with the 50Mbs/10 and save up for a 5G setup.
Can you share more information about your signal strength.
Would be better to have two setups, so there is a backup.
Would also look into a router that has advanced redundancy with
"Dual WAN with Failover"
See link as an example
https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi- ... ts/udm-pro
Can you share more information about your signal strength.
Would be better to have two setups, so there is a backup.
Would also look into a router that has advanced redundancy with
"Dual WAN with Failover"
See link as an example
https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi- ... ts/udm-pro
Re: 4x4 Mimo LTE on ATT rural tower
You have a pretty decent modem there with the EM7565. I too have one operating on ATT. First thing is ATT likes to drop CA after a bit of 'idle' time which could be part of the issue. If you reset the modem/connection to the tower it usually comes back. IMO, I would work on improving your signal if at all possible as I think that is where you would likely see the most improvement at this point with ATT. From what i've experienced, the areas with ATT 5G are pretty much a joke at this point anyway. At only 5Mhz of 5G band the speeds will more than likely be slower than their 4G offerings. Also, 4x4 MIMO would only be available at a certain signal threshold so you would have to work on your signal anyways. That said I'm assuming your signal strength is suboptimal since you are at ~4 miles and through trees. Might post additional statistics about your signal strength and SINR readings and can go from there?
