Choosing a 4G LTE Router for VI

[RohanAK]

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you in good health.

To be short about this, I'm looking for a 4G LTE modem/router to have installed at my home so that I can have it act as the gateway to the VI LTE network.
I recently had my home (Karnataka) surveyed by the company's signal testing team who claimed that the place my home is in has excellent coverage area, and had shared the detailed they collected to me too (it was two snap shots where one is the signal strength and other related data while the other is just an Ookla speedtest readings). The information provided seemed promising (of about 30mbps which I reckon I can improve to 50 mbps if I do the placing of the router well inside my home.

I tried finding for suitable routers but I'm concerned of LTE band support since I've read a few posts here that warn about VI using non-common bands(?) which aren't usually found in all phones, and I'm concerned that this might also be the case with 4G LTE routers as well.

To anyone asking why I didn't go for a wired connection. My home's quite far from any worthwhile wired broadband local/large ISP in my locale, and they decided not to lay cables seeing that it isn't cost effective to have them installed and my neighbours are rather content with using wireless mobile internet.

Also, to add any information which might interest anyone. I've been wanting to have a stable broadband installation done as I am interested in building a home network, and it is easier if the home network has a gateway to the external network as well instead of having two separate networks with one being only for the local devices and another just for me to use the Internet with.

TLDR; looking for a 4G LTE modem/router that can handle stable connections to VI's LTE network that is in Karnataka.

 

[RohanAK]

Back here again to wrap things up after a seemingly 2 month silence on this thread.

If you want the TL;DR version: I found a newly established wired broadband that agreed to provide a fiber connection over to me home, so that comes to an unsurprising halt to the search for a LTE router with CA support.

The long version:
After the initial host of posts that transpired in this thread, I decided to go just randomly searching through the list of vendors that just exist on this planet. That means going through this Wikipedia list. The search was long and arduous, given that most vendors don't seem interested in manufacturing of LTE/Sim support for router devices (but made easy by the simple fact that most vendors in India don't intend to sell to customers either, more info on this coming up). Nevertheless, I hopped along hoping for a breakthrough. Though the requirements very probably too much of an expectation to begin with.

The requirements:

• Must be capable of having at least one GE port on them for downlink services: Wanted this because if I planned to have additional devices through LAN connections, I wouldn't have to worry of probable traffic chokes at the uplink side (though, expecting anything more than 100mbps by wireless LTE might have been asking for too much already)
• Must be capable of Carrier Aggregation: Wanted to ensure the best speeds possible on these devices so I wouldn't have band choke happening on services that communicate between my network and the ISP infra.
• Must have a TEL/FXS port: This probably is an unexpected requirement, but makes sense when one goes through the legal documents that Vi has given with service limitations on the plans they offer. In the section that delves into the terms and conditions for the ₹699 plan, the company specifies that if a subscribed user is seen to use above 150GB while having not crossed calls of above 50 minutes in time, then that connection is deemed to be in use for commercial reasons (for reasons I have no idea over; perhaps Vi assumes companies do not need to call at all). Given that there's a 50min requirement, a telephone port through which I can make calls to people and cover up that base need would help.

A list of viable choices and why I chose them:

• D-Link: They had, in India, two routers that were available for sale. The DWR-920V and the DWR-921. Both routers do not support CA, but the 920V has two GE ports along with a TEL port. With that in mind, I had one possible choice should I decide that CA is not that big of a deal.
• TP-Link: Only one product manufactured here has a TEL port, TL-MR6500v. Sadly, the device does not have GE ports, and by the looks of the datasheet available on website, does not support carrier aggregation either. The rest of the devices may have GE ports, but just do not have either CA or a TEL port.
• Mikrotik: Looking through their website that lists onsale hardware equipment was not uplifting. In hopes to assure myself, I tried emailing to a few distributors that had their name listed in the website's "Buy" section. Preference for email was given to those in or close to Karnataka. In the two weeks since emailing, no response. Had to give up.
• Ubiquity: They didn't seem to have any LTE-based devices on their website, if they did I reckon the prices might be too high (then again, the same would be true for those listed above)
• ZyXEL: These guys had devices that seemed to show the most promise. They had two products on the website, LTE3316-M604 and LTE5366-M608. Both of these had 4 GE ports, had a TEL port, and also supported CA. These devices were exactly what I was searching for, and the finding them had me ecstatic at last. A work that took nearly two weeks of consistent searching yielded tangible results. Emailing them about tech specs as well as procurement procedures were also a joy to go through. Disappointingly though, Zyxel only sells these to ISPs, those such as Airtel from what I can remember, and worse off these devices are not imported within the country. Zyxel primarily sells their devices to ISPs, or sell LTE routers only for WISPs.

(I'm only providing links here, so to the people from the future scourging these forums to get dead-end links, I apologize)

All in all, the options that were left with me were either TP-Link, D-Link, or aggressive emailing to Mikrotik distributors in India. Silver lining struck when I during my casual excursions in and about the neighboring towns to my village landed me with finding a newly established wired broadband franchisee (for Den/Jio). I haven't much a clue about their services as a company, but the weight of having to choose between what could be subpar service due to poor device models led me to ask them about their services nevertheless. With a combination of TV and internet, I took it to be a better option than risking an investment with LTE devices and Vi's 150GB commercial limit.

As of now, I'm writing this conclusion to the thread from the franchisee's services, and up to now have found no issues such as intermittent connections or lack of response to installation. There were delays with installing their cables over to my home, (a good three weeks since I first met them, but given they were expanding from having been just recently established I find it an OK compromise against buying LTE devices). They provide 100mbps speeds as advertised, but I've asked them to increase to 150mbps (and I'm looking at jumping instead right to 200mbps) as I have multiple devices at home (excluding my family who have on their own a total of 4 devices).

A few additional things I want to say:
To anyone who may have been interested in reading on this and finding out about the LTE/wireless scenario for home network hobbyists, here's what you have to consider. Had Vi not specified about the 50 minutes phone requirements, there might have been a larger pool of options to go from. Telephone ports wouldn't have been a necessity by then, and TP-Link seems to offer a good number of LTE routers that have a generous number of GE ports. Excepting TP-Link, the LTE router landscape in India is glum as of December 2021, and I don't expect it to improve as wired broadband services increase albeit at snail's or even turtle's pace.

To the ones reading this from the perspective of being prospective LTE router enthusiasts, I offer a rather depressing outlook. There really is only one company in India that seems to be offering anything worthwhile in this space.