At home I only have access to 4G but I have chosen to use a 5G Router. This is because the 5G router supports CAT20 4G and also supports band aggregation which means on good days I can get around 130Mbps download speeds and usually get around 90-100Mbps download speeds.

Of course, the cost of the 5G router is a lot more than the cheaper 4G routers. The reason many 4G routers are priced between £90 to £140 is because they have slower 4G modems inside. For example the TP-Link MR6400, TP-Link Archer MR200, D-Link DWR920, TP-Link MR400 and the D-Link DWR-921 routers all have a CAT4 LTE 4G modem inside. Whilst these low cost 4G routers will give a 4G connection, the speed is usually around 20-30Mpbs in my location. Even the Industrial 4G routers like the Proroute H685 and the Teltonika RUT950, RUT955, RUT240 and the newer variations RUT951, RUT956 and RUT241) have these slower CAT4 LTE 4G modems. There are variations on these consumer and industrial routers that have a CAT6 LTE 4G modem but these will only usually provide an uplift in download speed at my location to around 40Mbps and these are usually priced around £230 (Teltonika RUTX11).

I did consider higher speed CAT12 or CAT19 4G routers like the Huawei B535 and B818 which are very good routers and provide higher speeds of around 60Mbps at my location. These are competitively priced at £99 for the B535 (CAT 13) and £180.00 for the B818 (CAT19) so would be a good option. However I know that 3mobile will be upgrading my local tower to 5G in the next twelve months so I would have to buy a cheaper 4G router now and then buy a new 5G router once 5G is available. So for me it makes sense to buy a 5G router now and get it done in a single installation. Especially as I will be using an outdoor 5G antenna and the RAPID NR550 supports 4×4 MiMo 5G antenna for 4G and 5G connectivity so I can make use of the Panorama DWMM4-6-60-5SP 4×4 MiMo antenna.

So, now I have my router and antenna installed I get great connection to the EE network at 4G speeds and get super fast 4G and am looking forward to the tower upgrade to 5G.