[Solved] Replacing the router for LTE band aggregation - is it worth it?

Hello all,
I am thinking of replacing my router to improve the stability of Skype voice or video connections while using a VPN. The maximum speed achieved is not important, it is rather about increasing the minimum speed and the quality of the connection.
Does it make sense to buy any of the Huawei B525 or higher routers, e.g. B725 or similar from another company? Maybe mounting the antennas 2-3m higher on an additional mast? Currently, they are installed approx. 8 m above the ground, at the height of the chimney? Adding 2 more antennas (4x MIMO in total) - I just haven't found a router that would handle 4 external antennas?

My location: 51.960167, 19.684261. 2x external directional antenna on the roof aimed at BTS Głowno Brzozowa 2 (about 1 km, forest).
Current speeds in Play (min-max): DL 20-40 Mbps UL 5-8 Ping 60-25ms. I tested T-mobile, speeds 2-3 times lower, so it falls out.
Ping to the router

You have a weak and problematic set, such solutions are no longer used today. You are using Play, so it is logical to replace your hardware with LTE band aggregation. You haven't written anything about your antennas. BTS on Brzozowa street has 4 LTE bands and aggregation (in October I was in the forest next to opieńki). You live in Zabrzeźno, you have about a kilometer to it, but through the forest. On LTE2600, weak RSRP, so without an external antenna, it will not be possible. As for the equipment, there are two options, B715 with aggregation 3 CC CA LTE2600 + 2100 + 1800 and antenna Dual LTE1800-2600MHz https://www.cybertech.com.pl/p173,antena-dualna-lte-a-4g-17dbi -mimo-1800-2600mhz.html and then you have aggregation of 3 high LTE bands, then you use on DL a total of 40-45MHz band (20 + 10/15 + 10) in MIMO2x2 and DL up to 300 / 337Mb / s. The second option is to use an external WF830 access point with 2 CC CA, i.e. an LTE-A modem integrated with an antenna with a gain of 7-9dBi. It is offered on loan by Play. As for MIMO4x4, the technology must also be on the BTS, so far we do not know if it works on Brzozowa Street. It requires a very good signal, as you write no routers with 4 antenna connectors. The mobile Netgear M1 has MIMO4x4, QAM256 but it works in MIMO4x4 on internal antennas and in your conditions it has no chance. You will use it and external antennas. At most, the aggregation of 4 CC CA in MIMO2x2, as Play will introduce on Brzozowa Street, because it aggregates 3 bands from 4 on it, and QAM258 modulation on DL and QAM64 on UL probably already works. 33% speed over QAM64 / QAM16 respectively on DL / UL). Summing up, it is advisable to upgrade to Play for you, it is worth doing tests on a specific equipment. It all depends on your budget and your requirements. I use Play myself, BTS on Strykowska 271 in Łódź (the one at 60 krańcówka). on equipment with LTE2600 + 1800 + 800 aggregation with MIMO2x2 I get so much https://www.speedtest.net/result/8093070836 on WF830 in LTE2600 + 2100 aggregation works like this https://www.speedtest.net/result/8080256628, i.e. generally it's OK. This BTS is a marketing 5G ready, full grazing. So with MIMO4x4, QAM256, so far with 3 CC CA but soon probably 4 CC CA. I'm trying to get the equipment with the possibility of using this BTS to the maximum. So far, the choice is very limited. I'm waiting for the WF860 from ZTE.

Thank you very much for your reply. The external antenna is All-Ant H4G Mimo 1.8 / 2.1 Ghz 2x15dBi.
As for the budget, I would like to close the modernization in PLN 1000, including part of the subscription fee in the fixed-term contract intended for the repayment of the equipment. Currently, I have Play prepaid PLN 45 / month. 100GB, so if, for example, ZTE630 offer for 80 / month. I count that PLN 35 / month. the price of the equipment * 24 months = PLN 840, so let's say that it will fit in the budget only there would have to be a visible improvement. Currently in Play they propose the B525 and ZTE630. B715 are not offered. Which is better to take for tests?
I am also considering the option of waiting for the appearance of a router that allows the connection of 4 external antennas and aggregation of 4 bands. ZTE860 has this option? I know that I will not necessarily be able to use it on Brzozowa Street, but I hope that they will turn it on one day. Then, in addition to the router, I would have to add an antenna for 2600?
As for the expectations - I need the Internet mainly to work on Skype and unfortunately in parallel with the VPN, hence the quality of the connection must be the best possible. I'm not sure, but I think it's about the lowest possible ping and high upload speed. The download is probably irrelevant because even in the current solution, even 20Mbps, it seems to be sufficient.
PS there are not only fungus in the area

This is not an antenna, but a suppressor, so it's no wonder that the signal parameters, despite 800m from BTS Play, are weak, if you want to use the high bands LTE2600, LTE2100 and LTE1800, you need to replace it. As for the costs, now on PInK for PLN 45 / month and the unlimited service you have 100GB and then a 2Mb / s funnel, but in this tariff the funnel is not obligatory and you can have more than 100GB with maximum speed. At Sikorskiego 59c they should still have the last B715, and if not, there is no shortage of them in Łódź. Subscription PLN 70 with 200GB and B715 for PLN 249. This is the only sensible choice. The WF830 is on loan and a 300GB subscription for PLN 80, but the equipment remains the property of Play. You can also use PInK for 45 PLN and buy B715 yourself for about 500 PLN. You can take the WF830 for 30 days for testing and return it when you check it. you do not need an external antenna for it, because it is an external CPE LTE access point and an external antenna. It is integrated with the 2 CC CA modem and then the twisted-pair cable goes to the internal router. The WF860 is his advocate and he has a $ CC CA, MIMO4x4 and QAM256 modem integrated with an external MIMO4x4 antenna so you don't need an external antenna either. You have something to think about. As for the budget, the 200Gb subscription with B715 is more expensive by PLN 25 = 24, i.e. PLN 600, and the initial fee is PLN 249 for B715, totaling PLN 850. in addition, a decent dual LTE1800-2600MHz antenna instead of these fi50 pipes from All-ant pretending to be antennas. that is 1050 zlotys in total. The option with staying on the Pink and buying B715 for about PLN 500-550 + antenna for PLN 200 will cost PLN 700-750. Priceless no deal. If there is not enough on PInK, I will give you a method of NbL on InK50 for 8 PLN / month for downloading files. you can download at will in the hours 0-9, I use it myself and 2 TB per month also happens, 4K movies weigh theirs. Opieńek was a multitude. I go to Głowno because I have a friend.

I have 1200m in a straight line to the BTS and there is no visibility, trees and other buildings on the way are higher than the antenna level. First obstacles 50m. from the antenna (sewer ), but I assume that it is to be replaced. I ordered the WF830, will test it and let you know what the results are next week. Thank you for valuable information,

I did a few more tests on BTS today at 19-20, I assume this is the peak load on the network. I did all the tests on Samsung J3, RFBench and Speedtest.

Brzozowa 2
Play 2600 - ping 26-16, DL 16-35, UL 18-30
T-mobile 1800 - ping 32-25, DL 5-15, UL 14-20

Sikorskiego 5B
Play 2600 - ping 25-15, DL 109-140, UL 42-46 - interesting, right?
T-mobile - ping 26-19, DL 7-11, UL 5-17

Chopin 3/5, Play 2600 - ping 23-26, DL 37-52, UL 26-41

From me, the external antenna and the speedtest stationary set on Brzozowa 2, 2600 - ping 60-80, DL 20-30, UL 3-6. Until 15-16 ping and UL was 2 times better. From the ground level phone outside the building very poorly. 200m further from the street leading in a straight line to Brzozowa the results are slightly better than from the roof for me.

By the way, I noticed that sometimes the modem switches to lower frequencies (2100, 1800), the DL decreases, but the UL clearly improves.

Today MF830 came from Play and I did the first tests of the new set, the old E3372 modem and the All-Ant antenna, and the old E3372 modem plugged into a laptop on the roof. The signal with the modem plugged directly into the laptop is stronger than the external antenna - so, as my colleague Matek451 All-Ant wrote, it is a suppressor!
Speedtest, however, favored the external antenna (especially UL). The first value is the modem on the roof at the antenna location, the second value is the external antenna. Average values from about 5 minutes. Frequency 2100.
RSRP -94 / -102
RSSI -72 / -79
RSRQ -4 / -7
SINR 8/12
Speed test
Ping 24/24
DL 17/21
UL 9/15

There is a slightly better signal on the MF830 than on the old set, but the parameters are comparable to those measured with a cell on the roof. I was surprised to find that the book-sized antenna picks up the signal like a cell phone. The download speed on the MF830 40-60 Mbps is twice as high as on the old set. Sending 15-20 Mbps, so maybe a bit faster. Ping similar. Initially, the router automatically jumped on the bands, but the change of 1800/2100/2600 bands did not noticeably affect the speed test result.
The set from Play has no simlock, so I also checked T-mobile - very poorly on the same BTS, band 1800.
I will test the new set a few more days. After the first day, my conclusion is that it is not profitable for me to change the equipment, because the upload and ping have not improved, and I do not need a better download so much to pay almost a thousand zlotys and be bound by a contract for two years. Maybe at this time Play will enable band aggregation on the upload and there will be routers that will handle it through external antennas, without rework.
For now, the greatest benefit was learning how to force the old 2100 bandwidth on the old modem, where the upload works satisfactorily (15Mbps). By default, the modem chose 2600, which I have a faster download but a weak upload.

A prerequisite for a high UL on the MF830 is the use of LTE2600 as baseband, but unfortunately it cannot be manually forced. On the machine, it connects securely with LTE2100? LTE1800 as baseband and UL up to 20Mb / s. in the case of E3372, you can force the LTE2600 band, but the UL depends on the signal parameters on it. Probably on these all-ant there is a low RSRP and a weak UL UL. Improving the signal parameters at 2600MHz with a decent directional antenna for this high-gain band allows you to get UL above 20NB / s, even close to 50Mb / s. / For me, LTE2600 with optimal signal with a 3 CC CA and QAM64 modem on UL I reach over 60Mb / s https://www.speedtest.net/pl/result/8122753974 On WF830 a bit lower, around 50Mb / s.

At the beginning, the MF830 changed the band every now and then, which gave me the opportunity to test the speed of different bands, but the differences between them were small. Max DL 60 Mb / s UL 20 Mb / s. The 2600 may actually be a little bit faster. After a while, it entered 2100 as baseband. In LTE settings, it shows RSRP parameters for 2600 in the range -95-98, and for 2100 -90-100. SINR similarly for both bands 16-18.
E3372 + All-Ant RSRP few minute averages: 1800 -88 / 2100 -101 / 2600 -100. DL most often the fastest at 2600, then a little weaker 2100, then a little weaker 1800. UL preferably 2100, 1800 slightly less, and 2600 very weak (3-6 Mbps).
Is it for E3372 and possibly replacing it with newer equipment that supports MIMO4x4, take https://www.cybertech.com.pl/p173,antena-dualna-lte-a-4g-17dbi-mimo-1800-2600mhz.html or better something another?

BananaBlox wrote:

I am thinking of replacing my router to improve the stability of Skype voice or video connections while using a VPN. The maximum speed achieved is not important, it is rather about increasing the minimum speed and the quality of the connection.
Does it make sense to buy any of the Huawei B525 or higher routers, e.g. B725 or similar from another company?

@ matek451 I have a request - instead of creating more elaborations with proudly used abbreviations CC CA, QAM, etc., could you directly answer the question I quoted above?

Or differently: Does aggregation make sense if we want to improve the quality / stability of the connection, ping, upload?

Aggregation does not affect the stability of the connection, it does not miraculously improve signal parameters. Doesn't improve ping. In the current state, Polish operators do not use LTE-A on UL. The All-ant antenna in the comparative test at 2100MHz with the modem itself next to it, the signal is 8dBi worse. Standard 10m H155 cables used with it are a loss of about 5 dBi at 2100MHz, even after adding the cable loss, the antenna will have a 3dBm worse RSRP than the E3372 itself, i.e. it is an attenuator. In the case of UL, which is the largest on LTE2600MHz, with QAM16 modulation up to 50Mb / s, if you care about it, you should improve the signal parameters at just 2600MHz. As of today, in Play, the largest possible UL on LTE2600, about 65Mb / s, can be obtained using QAM64 modulation. I am getting this much on hardware with QAM64 on UL at RSRP 82-85dBm at 2600MHz.

BananaBlox wrote:

After the first day, my conclusion is that it is not profitable for me to change the equipment, because the upload and ping have not improved, and I do not need a better download so much to pay almost a thousand zlotys and be bound by a contract for two years. Maybe at this time Play will enable band aggregation on the upload and there will be routers that will handle it through external antennas, without rework.
For now, the greatest benefit was learning how to force the old 2100 bandwidth on the old modem, where the upload works satisfactorily (15Mbps). By default, the modem chose 2600, which I have a faster download but a weak upload.

The conclusion is very correct, in your case the weak link is the above-mentioned router that supports the modem and the lack of a suitable external antenna (the router can be replaced for approx. 50 zeta for Nexx WT3020-Allegro, for this you connect an efficient power supply / charger from the phone / tablet 5V / 2A and a set that cannot be slaughtered). Modem-routers with LTE-A are indicated for use in several cases: 1-where there are problems with an overloaded network, and aggregation is available, 2-we have an appropriate offer that will allow us to use the network with a very large amount of data (in practice T-Mobile offer - home internet, Play offer with a 1TB package for 200 zeta a month, Orange for companies 999GB offer for about 60 zeta a month and for "night Marks" with an additional package - unlimited nights), 3-when we have to buy anyway some equipment from the operator, we take modem-routers with LTE-A.

It's not worth it, I don't change anything.