MoFi 4500 and AT&T

[jlucht01]

Hey Wireless Joint,

I'm a noobie to platform. I have been using a Cradle Point MBR1400 for about 5 years and its finally died. I did some youtubing and came across all the rave about the MoFi 4500 and the RV World, which is why I wanted it. I get the router, slap the antenna's on it, and do the 35 Ipad plan on it. Connects right up, cool.

Now the crap shoot. At home, I get 3 down and 3 up. My Note 10 gets 20 down 3 up. So I take it work. Cell phone hits 100, Mofi hits 7. I understand the MoFi comes with a Cat 6 Modem, but I didn't expect to act like a 19.99 dsl connection. I Paid 275 for the pre-configured MoFi and I am wondering if I should return it and build my own and spend the cash on an EM-20G or similar? Thoughts? Settings? Am I just n00b that should spend more time on the forum?

Thanks in advance!

[swwifty]

Are you connecting via wifi to the Mofi or ethernet? Try a direct ethernet connection if not, and run some speed tests.

[jlucht01]

I'll try that when I get home. My laptop doesn't have an Ethernet port on it so I'll need to use my USB adapter.

[BillA]

Hey Wireless Joint,

I'm a noobie to platform. I have been using a Cradle Point MBR1400 for about 5 years and its finally died. I did some youtubing and came across all the rave about the MoFi 4500 and the RV World, which is why I wanted it. I get the router, slap the antenna's on it, and do the 35 Ipad plan on it. Connects right up, cool.

Now the crap shoot. At home, I get 3 down and 3 up. My Note 10 gets 20 down 3 up. So I take it work. Cell phone hits 100, Mofi hits 7. I understand the MoFi comes with a Cat 6 Modem, but I didn't expect to act like a 19.99 dsl connection. I Paid 275 for the pre-configured MoFi and I am wondering if I should return it and build my own and spend the cash on an EM-20G or similar? Thoughts? Settings? Am I just n00b that should spend more time on the forum?

Thanks in advance!

Well, of course a Samsung Note 10 with it's CAT-20 modem can easily do 3xCA or even 4xCA (7xCA by specs but that also depends on the carrier) which makes a huge difference especially if you live in a fringe coverage area. No matter how good your antennas are, a 2xCA modem can only pull in so much data even with good signal. I would upgrade the modem to either a Sierra EM7511/7565 CAT-12, or Quectel EM-12 CAT-12, EM20 CAT-20, or the "Rolls-Royce" of modems the Telit LM960 CAT-18 covering virtually all worldwide bands. But then you're better off just buying a DIY router at The Wireless Haven along with a good modem, and would still cost you less than that MoFi thingy.

[jlucht01]

The Mofi was a knee jerk buy after watching some youtube videos about how RVer's love the thing. Apparently they all camp in the city and nobody discussed Cat 4 Vs Cat 6 Vs Cat 12 or what CA was. No one even brought up bands until I read about it on this forum. I feel this is what happens when channels get monetized, all the sudden, the facts don't matter. After some tweaking and playing with the different bands I was able to get 15 down 5 up late at night. The closest tower is 4+ miles away and I know all of my neighbors run AT&T because its the only thing that works. I may see about returning the mofi and investing in a unit from here and splurging on the modem. Thanks for the informational site everyone. Knowledge is power.

[gscheb]

Hello all,
One thing would like to add on this about Cat modems and their abilities. Is that you have to have the bands on the tower you are connecting too for the carrier aggregation to work. For example the T-Mobile tower that I connect too only has band 2 and band 12. So no matter what Cat modem I have can only carrier aggregate those two bands. Think the tower I am connected too might have band 71 for T-mobile but don't know of a modem that supports it.
Here is a video of some camping people that do good job explaining Cat modems. Now take there equipment advice with a grain of salt. Because they are moving from place to place not setting up a fixed location. Which is totally different than what we are doing in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxsEEDsgM3c

[BillA]

Hello all,
One thing would like to add on this about Cat modems and their abilities. Is that you have to have the bands on the tower you are connecting too for the carrier aggregation to work. For example the T-Mobile tower that I connect too only has band 2 and band 12. So no matter what Cat modem I have can only carrier aggregate those two bands. Think the tower I am connected too might have band 71 for T-mobile but don't know of a modem that supports it.
Here is a video of some camping people that do good job explaining Cat modems. Now take there equipment advice with a grain of salt. Because they are moving from place to place not setting up a fixed location. Which is totally different than what we are doing in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxsEEDsgM3c

Generally, the higher the CAT#, the more capable the modem is, both in speed and more bands. However, the elusive band 71 can only be found in very few modems at this time (Quectel EC25-AF CAT-4, Telit LE910C4-NF CAT-4, LM960 CAT-18), hope more to come soon without having to sell a kidney to be able to afford one.

[gscheb]

So would band 71 help much with speeds? Or is that low of a frequency not enough power to make much change?

[BillA]

So would band 71 help much with speeds? Or is that low of a frequency not enough power to make much change?

It could make a significant difference on TMO/SMO being a well penetrating low 600Mhz signal.
While it's a rather narrow bandwidth channel in some areas (5Mhz which can yield up to 25Mbps down), it can vary from 5 to 20Mhz in other areas (a general rule is Bandwidth * 5 = Mbps).

[gscheb]

Currently on T-mobile plan not simple one. Working on bands 12 and 2. Band 2 has 15 mhz and band 12 has 5 mhz.
So you are saying that take 20 mhz * 5 = 100 Mbps is the full potential of that tower then I can get?
Currently getting between 35 Mbps to 60 Mbps just depend on the moment, time of day and what ever.
Connection status is
Band 12 = -107
Band 2 = -112
RSRQ & SINR are in the good to excellent range

Ok So if I take my average of Mbps that would be 47.5 Mbps
47.5 Mbps / 20 mhz = 2.375 Mbps per each mhz
So If could get band 71 with an extra 5 mhz * 2.375 Mbps average = 11.875 Mbps extra potentially?
Does this look right to you?

[BillA]

Bandwidth * 5 = Mbps is a general rule for potential real world speeds under optimum conditions (good signal, low congestion). I reach that speed virtually every night after midnight till 6am, then it drops to about Bandwidth * 4 = Mbps during the day and sometimes even lower depending on conditions. Modem manufacturers advertise 600Mbps on a CAT-9 device, but in reality you can barely reach 200Mbps, due to conditions, and the carrier's CA settings.
So, the above is just my own formula based on my real world experiences, likewise you can come up with your own estimation in your area. Your band 71 estimate of 5 mhz * 2.375 Mbps average = 11.875 Mbps looks about right based on your conditions. You've noticed that band 2 on your tower provides 15Mhz, while the same band on my tower only provides 10Mhz bandwidth. As you can see even that parameter varies from tower to tower, and quite possibly could even vary dynamically on the same tower during the course of a day.
I've learned long ago that the only constant in mobile communications is "change" itself.

As you can see in the screenshots below, once in a while I can reach some pretty crazy speeds well over 100 to 300Mbps using my Samsung S7 CAT-9 phone tethered to the router as the modem, on SimpleMobile using Tmobile towers. By the way, the "Ping <1ms" on the second screenshot is inaccurate, it shows the same "1ms" on all tests (hope they will fix it), on average it's between 30-40ms.

Screenshot_20200102-060015.png

Screenshot_20200102-220547.png

[gscheb]

Nice.
Do you have a special router or do something certain to tether at those speeds?

[BillA]

Nice.
Do you have a special router or do something certain to tether at those speeds?

Nothing special, I'm only about a mile away from the Tmobile tower, it's in a line of sight on top of a 20 story building, I can literally see it through my window.
The phone is simply plugged into the usb port of a WG3526 router acting as a usb modem, so whatever speeds I get on the phone (as seen in the screen shots), it's also picked up by the router. Realistically the only reason I need the router, is for the TTL settings (well, it also makes a great router;). With my Samsung S9 CAT-18 phone I get over 300Mbps via 4xCA. One could use a cheap older phone, like a $100 Samsung S7 CAT-9 phone could give you around 100Mbps. It's often cheaper to tether even a newer second hand phone compared to high end modems. However, not having external antennas could be an issue in fringe coverage areas.

[robonova]

I just posted a similar question and didn't see this one. I saw the same results with the MOFI that I thought would be a better modem than the NIghthawk M1. The top speed I saw was 20 down if I was lucky where the M1 gets up to 70. What could I expect with a cat 12 modem?

[Didneywhorl]

Robonova, I responded on your post.

[Dr-BroadBand]

The MoFi is not a hotrod of the modems, but I have gotten 78Mbps DL / 31Mbps Up
(AT&T, Band-2, sitting in front of the tower). You just need to find the correct cell carrier, cell tower and band!

For me B71 is more about reach and being stable, the low 600HHz is better for traveling through trees and buildings.
Speeds on “my” T-Mobile tower, B71 is 10Mbps DL/ 10Mbps Up and for my location I was pleased .
Coming from HughesNet satellite that has sloooooow speeds and data caps.

Note the MoFi Sim-4 has Carrier Aggregation, but NO band-71
The MoFi Sim-7 has more bands with B71 being one of them. But NO Carrier Aggregation.

But as said in the above post to get real high speeds you will need a better modem with 2x2 or 4x4 carrier aggregation, and a good cell tower. Sure you can built your own unit that is faster but the MoFi is a good starting point for most
with limited skills and that do not like learning new things.

Happy hunting for bits, sounds like you have a need for speed. I see a modem hotrod in your future.