Reccomendations for MiFi (1 Viewer)

Jul 26, 2015
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Off to France soon and want to sort out MiFi before setting off.
Someone said to just get a hotspot from O2 as after 15th June all providers will be more or less the same......I am not convinced.
 
Oct 14, 2007
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Most on here seem to think Three is the best option, I bought a 2nd hand O2 Mifi got it unlocked for free by O2 and bought a Three 12g data sim from My memory for £23 which lasts for a year.
 
Dec 11, 2011
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I bought an unlocked Huawei mifi on eBay and put a "3" PAYG data SIM in it - works a treat!
The mifi I bought has external aerial connections but I haven't needed one yet so will keep that option in reserve.

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glenn2926

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Sep 11, 2012
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Just use the hot spot function on your phone. I do on mine. I get the same data over ther as here.
 

DBK

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A good MiFi allows you to use an external aerial. Where I am at the moment in France the signal isn't very strong but with the external aerial it is much better. A MiFi also allows you to use a local sim for a faster connection.
The other advantage is unless you have a contract with a good data allowance, not all do, you may not have enough data to last you a month and will then have to pay for extra data. On Three this is £10 a Gb, which is a lot more than you would pay with a pre-paid data sim.
Mine's a Huawei 5577 but I'm not sure there is a huge difference between them providing you get one with twin antenna connections for a MiMo aerial. :)
 
Dec 11, 2011
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@DBK - how much do I need to spend to get a reasonable aerial? Are the ones on ebay for £10 worth buying?

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Oct 14, 2007
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A good explanation for a MiMo antenna is and a good one is expensive, you can pick up cheap ones from Fleabay for about £10 but the jury is out on those if they do any good or not.
 
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DBK

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@DBK - how much do I need to spend to get a reasonable aerial? Are the ones on ebay for £10 worth buying?
If you have a MiFi with a single aerial socket a cheap aerial which sticks to the roof with a magnet will help in my experience - I've had a couple.
The MiMo aerials seem to have gone up in price a lot since I spent £35 on mine. I don't have any experience of any cheap MiMo aerials so I won't write them off. Give one a try, the test is what effect it has on signal strength I think.
 
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@DBK - how much do I need to spend to get a reasonable aerial? Are the ones on ebay for £10 worth buying?

I bought one on ebay for a fiver, it works!
I am in France at the moment in a poor signal area on all networks, with aerial full 5 bars, without 1 or 2 at best, this with a Huawei 5577 4G mifi with 2ports.

The aerial does not make much difference on my other 3G mifi with only one aerial port but then neither does the much more expensive window mounted one that I bought a few years ago and never had any success with at all. To be fair I have not done comparative tests with that aerial in the 4G mifi in a weak signal area.

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Jan 2, 2015
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I bought one of these off Ebay from the same seller....



It has two antenna ports, the same micro USB power connector as my phone for charging, is 4g and unlocked. We use it at home as our broadband and then simply take it to the MH when we go away.

As its unlocked you can use whatever sim provider you want without having to change the sim in your phone.
We used to use the Three 12 & 24 gb payg sims but found it worked out cheaper on a 12 month contract with Three where we get 20gb for £15 per month but still carry a spare payg sim when in Europe in case we get disconnected after 2 months.
You have to remember to use Data sims in the mifi
 
Sep 16, 2010
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Huwieie 5535 unlocked Mifi with a "Three" 24Gb Sim bought last year, on info from Mel (Minxy) 12 Gb per year for the 2 years of the Sim.
1Gb per month does us for Email and a bit of surfing etc.
Sorted.
Mitch.

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Oct 14, 2007
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MiMo only works or 4g or to give it it's proper name LTE if your Mifi only has one antenna port it can't use the MiMo technology.
 
Aug 7, 2015
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I bought one of these off Ebay from the same seller....



It has two antenna ports, the same micro USB power connector as my phone for charging, is 4g and unlocked. We use it at home as our broadband and then simply take it to the MH when we go away.

Just bought this as well.
 
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2657

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MiMo only works or 4g or to give it it's proper name LTE if your Mifi only has one antenna port it can't use the MiMo technology.

If that is true then why does this firm

https://www.motorhomewifi.com/product/4g-mimo-window-mount-antenna/

say this (from the above link)

"The meaning of MIMO is multiple input and multiple output; this overall improves communication performance. This antenna is ideally for 4G MiFi devices which have two external antenna connector points such as the 4G Huawei E5577. However, it will work with 3G devices which have one external TS9 connector point. In turn, this will improve your signal strength by approximately 5 times as much as what your MiFi can do with it’s built in antenna."

I have one of these and a cheap, £5, one off ebay and so far can find no discernible difference, except the cheap one has much longer leads and so can be placed in a more convenient position.

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DBK

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Mimo certainly works on 3G. There is 3G, 4G and then 4G/LTE, all can use Mimo technology.
No 5G yet in the UK I think.
 

SuperMike

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Mimo certainly works on 3G. There is 3G, 4G and then 4G/LTE, all can use Mimo technology.
No 5G yet in the UK I think.

There's no 4G either. 4G/LTE is around the 3.5G ishhhhhhhhhh approx. And, the government let them get away with calling it 4G. :mad:

Southampton Uni. had just started on the development of 5G, four years ago, when I was there and it's not out anywhere yet. :)
 
Oct 14, 2007
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I stand corrected on MiMo working on 3G but everything I read says MiMo needs more than one receiving antenna to work or have I got that wrong also. The more you read the more confusing it becomes and whats more I never realised how complicated Aerials/Antennas can be.

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Sep 23, 2013
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MiMo only works or 4g or to give it it's proper name LTE if your Mifi only has one antenna port it can't use the MiMo technology.

If that is true then why does this firm

https://www.motorhomewifi.com/product/4g-mimo-window-mount-antenna/

say this (from the above link)

"The meaning of MIMO is multiple input and multiple output; this overall improves communication performance. This antenna is ideally for 4G MiFi devices which have two external antenna connector points such as the 4G Huawei E5577. However, it will work with 3G devices which have one external TS9 connector point. In turn, this will improve your signal strength by approximately 5 times as much as what your MiFi can do with it’s built in antenna."
The way I read that, what MotorhomeWiFi are saying is that you will get an improvement in performance on 3G just because it's an external antenna & a better one than the one inside the device. However, the twin antennae only really come into their own when used to pick up a 4G signal.
 
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The way I read that, what MotorhomeWiFi are saying is that you will get an improvement in performance on 3G just because it's an external antenna & a better one than the one inside the device. However, the twin antennae only really come into their own when used to pick up a 4G signal.

Yes I understand that but the implication is that on 3G with one port the signal will be 5 times stronger, I never found anything like that, if any!

The £5 one that I am using at the moment does make a difference on 3G and a larger improvement on 4G.

I have 2 different mifi's one 3G & one 4G both connected to the same network, Orange Fance.
 
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2657

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Oops:D



if you type 4g booster or something similar on ebay, lots come up

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Aug 7, 2015
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Thanks. Had typed in 4G antenna and so many came up and at such a variance in price that I thought it easier to ask.
Thanks again and I will be ordering one

Cheers

Seesaw
 

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