LTE Router

[MaxiMax07]

Hi,

I would like to have your advice, should I get this router for an internet plan or is it a bad idea? I don't trust those mobile hubs.
http://www.tplink.ca/en/products/details/cat-4691_Archer-MR200.html#specifications
To my understanding it should be able to function with every 4G and LTE tower.

Should not work with 3G towers?
And work great on 2G.

What do you guys think?

Can buying an antenna help me get all the frequencies I need or it won't change anything?
If my localisation can help you, I'm at St-Michel-des-Saints, J0K3B0.

Thank you,

Max.

***Edited Labels***

[RogersMaude]

Good evening @MaxiMax07,

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forums!

I looked into the network coverage in your area.

If you enter your city or postal code at http://www.rogers.com/consumer/wireless/network-coverage,

you will see that St-Michel-des-Saints is part of our Extended Coverage.

If you wish to use Rogers as your main service provider for mobile internet, most of your usage would have to be made on our wireless network. I am therefore afraid that due to your location we might not have the ability to offer you this service.

Let us know if you have any other questions! 

RogersMaude

[MaxiMax07]

Hi,

I'm actualy using the forfait Partagez tout! there and it works great. It's only the mobile internet forfait that I can't use there?

Thank you,
Max

[RogersMaude]

Hello again @MaxiMax07,

Thank you for your prompt reply  

Is this your primary location, or is it a cottage or summer house you sometimes go to?

On your cellphone do you happen to see "Rogers-EXT" near the signal icon, at the top of your screen?

If you wish to go with the mobile Internet service, I might recommend that you stick with Rogers-certified devices.

We are currently offering the ZTE MF275R Rocket Hub. Click here for the specs and further information.

You might also be interested in other devices suck as the ZTE MF970 Rocket_TM Mobile Hotspot or the Huawei Rocket Stick.

Hope this helps!

RogersMaude

[MaxiMax07]

Yeah it's for a summer house.

Yep this is what happen near the signal icon.

I'm worried about thoses devices because I read a lot of complains about them online. Also, I don't need a small routeur powered by batterie. I would prefer a relaible routeur, powered throw the wall and with a great wifi coverage. I won't buy devices throw plans anyway because I'll use the device maybe 3 mounths/year.

After some research, I'm looking for maybe buying the B882-66 Huawei. It's seems to be a great routeur and should be fully compatible with Rogers and Bell.

[kco · Accepted solution]

MaxiMax07, connecting a non-Rogers hub can be a struggle.  I managed to connect a Huawei B890-66 with a hub plan and it worked well.  However, I ended up switching to a Rogers ZTE MF275R so I could get support.  This thread:

http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/NetworkCoverage/message-id/1822#...

...explains some of it.

The MF275R is continuosly powered by the wall outlet which also charges the built-in battery backup.  The battery backup works well.  It has successfully maintained service for a couple of power outages, the longer of which was 2 hours.  My Huawei B890-66 also worked well but I switched to an official Rogers hub because they were reluctant to help troubleshoot a problem connected through a non-Rogers hub.

From my experience I'd recommend you try to stay with the Rogers hub. I installed the Huawei when I first became a Rogers customer because the Huawei has external antenna connections whereas none of the Rogers hubs at the time offered that.  The MF275R does have external antenna connections.

You might want to try an MF275R, but must make sure you can return it if it does not work out.  I think that is standard Rogers policy but others can advise further.

If you find you can get a signal with the MF275R's rabbit ear antennas you can improve it if necessary with external antennas.  You need two antennas for LTE or just one for 3G.  This post and a couple more in the same thread have information for the antenna I added:

http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/MobileInternet/message-id/2970#M...

It also gives some more information on my Huawei B890-66 experience.

[MaxiMax07]

Hi,

Thank you for this complete answer! I also read your previous post. In that case, I'm going to buy the MF275R. I was afraid of the lack of reviews about it, and A LOT of bad on the old rogers hubs. The B890-66 was the only one I found that had good reviews and that could use an external antenna. However if I can use one with the MF275R, I'll get one and if I'm not happy with it, I'll ask for a refund. I just hope the wifi signal is also great.

I would like to know, I'm at 6 km from the tower, I get about 2/5 bar signal on my iPhone 5S (I got cement walls so it doesn't help with the signal) and I can get some drops sometimes. Do you think I should get an antenna? Or should I be okay? There are some trees in the way, but for half the part, it's a lake that separates us from the Bell tower. It's a 3G one I think because of its frequencies of 850 MHz and 1900 MHz.

I seem to be from 50/60 km from the closest Rogers tower. It's to far to get LTE I guess...

I'm afraid of being dropped by the tower when heavy loading to give priority to Bell’s users. Do you think it's a fair concern?

Also, I would like to know, can I use my own VoiP with this routeur? Or do I need to use one from Rogers.

[kco]

MaxiMax07, here is the fine print from Rogers coverage map:

========

The map is a general representation of wireless coverage where indicated. The areas shown are approximate. Actual coverage area may vary from map graphics. Reception may be affected by various factors, including system availability and capacity, customer's equipment, signal strength, topography and environmental conditions. Charges are based on the location of the site receiving and transmitting the signal, not the location of the subscriber. Extended Coverage is available to select Rogers postpaid wireless customers with a compatible device and with data roaming enabled (for access to data services). Extended Coverage provides LTE speeds in select areas. Intended for limited occasional use. Certain services/features are not available or may have limited functionality. See rogers.com/extendedFAQ for full details.

========

The last part says it is for "limited occasional use".  I don't know what that means but you may want to check before purchasing a Rogers hub.  Rogers does not appear to have coverage other than "extended use".  So your only option may be to go with Bell.  Bell does show having LTE service in the area.  Bell also uses a ZTE MF 275R hub but likely both Bell and Rogers hubs are locked to their networks.  That's unfortunate because Rogers hub plans are far superior to Bell's.

I don't have an IPhone, but a Samsung S3  does not connect at my place and a Samsung Note 3 gets 1 bar and will connect sometime.  The MF275 hub with rabbit ears connected at 2 to 3 bars and was reliable.  It just managed around 10 Mbps downloads but that doubled when I added the external antenna.  So it seems like it  was not getting the multipath capabilities with the rabbit ears but did so with the external antennas.  On the other hand, the Huawei B890-66 did manage to get about 20 Mbps with its internal antennas.  Being just 6 km from the tower you should not need an external antenna.  There is no hope of connecting to Rogers tower 50 km away.

The MF275's wifi is fine for my house and seems to work as well as the Huawei's wifi and my previous Netgear router.  My house is not demanding for wifi.  It is an open 2 storey with around 1200 sq ft. on the 1st floor and 600 on the 2nd floor. 

I have zero knowledge about VoIP.  Perhaps others can comment on that and also about whether or not it is feasible to connect using Rogers extended service.  You may have to go with Bell for this hub service if you expect to use much data.

[MaxiMax07]

Thank you for your insight! The MF275 seems to be great for my use.

I would like some feedbacks from the moderator or rogers employes about the extended area thing. The few time I called rogers, the people there couldn't give me a definite answer. I would prefer to stay with Rogers than to go with Bell, even tho they have the same plans.

Also if seomeone could give me some answers about the VoiP it would be great but it's not that important. I don't want to buy a modem locked to Rogers and to get monstruous fees because I'm on the "extended-area".

[kco]

Here is the first entry of some information found at:

http://www.rogers.com/extendedFAQ

==============================

Extended Coverage FAQs

Who is eligible for Extended Coverage?

Almost all of our plans qualify for Extended Coverage. You just need to be a postpaid wireless customer with a compatible device. It’s meant for customers who live within the Rogers network and happen to travel occasionally into Extended Coverage areas outside the Rogers network.

Wireless Home Phone, Wireless Business Phone, Rocket Hub, prepaid and zone-based or calling circle plans (e.g., My5/10 and MY1/2/5 enterprise business plans) are not eligible for Extended Coverage.

=======================

It looks like extended coverage is not available for a hub plan.  You may be stuck with Bell, and that's disappointing because Rogers hub plan is far better than Bell or Telus. 

I may be wrong on this. It would be good if someone from Rogers could help and suggest options.

EDIT: Adding a note because I am mistaken in my statement about the Bell vs Rogers flex hub plans for Quebec, but my statement is correct for my location in BC.  So I'll go off on a little off-topic rant....

=== start of RANT ===

The difference for Bell's rates from eastern Canada and Western Canada reflect obvious collusion and rate-fixing between Telus and Bell against Rogers. The Telus hub plans are even worse than Bell's.  Telus and Bell have a deal where they Bell uses Telus's towers in Western Canada and Telus uses Bell's towers in the east. Both companies own satellite TV services. I suspect part of the agreement is Bell will not offer a decent internet flex plan in Western Canada because it would eat into the satellite TV business.  I was a Bell cell internet customer before and switched to Rogers for that very reason.  That is, with Rogers' decent cell internet rate I can subscribe to Netflix as an alternative to Bell's ExpressVu. The Bell representative I spoke to when cancelling my cell hub internet service agreed with my reasoning.

So to get access to Telus's western towers, Bell likely had to agree to not offer decent cellular internet hub services which would eat into Telus's crummy satellite TV service.  That's good for Rogers in the West because Rogers offers the only decent cellular hub service for us.  In the East Bell owns the towers so they more or less match Rogers' offerings.

=== end of RANT  ====

As said before, it looks like you may be stuck with Bell for a decent hub rate plan in your area since Rogers does not have coverage.  At least you have that option in Quebec.

I'm just happy I was able to switch to Rogers for my cellular hub service.

[MaxiMax07]

Thank you for all those answers! I feel like you did all the research for me ^^. I feel bad.

Anyway I called Rogers and they told me that I might get some deconnection when heavy usage of the tower. So I bought it from them (I hate Bell) and if it doesn't work well enough, I'll unlock the MF275R and go for a Bell plan.

Thank you for all your help again!