Associate
Hi all,
First and foremost, apologies for the wall of text. I know very little when it comes to networks, routers and how to set them up 'properly' but I'm hoping to learn so that I can understand this topic a bit better while looking for advice about something that's been confusing me.
To give you a bit of background, I live in a rented apartment where free internet is included, but is limited to approx 8mbps per client that connects to it. Fortunately, there is an option to get gigabit internet with a private provider. Unfortunately, I cannot choose the provider, and the only provider my landlord would allow charges £50 p/m for FTTP (which isn't bad, but means I would have to be in a contract for 12 months - during which I will more than likely move out in favour of owning my own home).
Regardless, I literally live less than 200m (175m approx, according to google maps) from a tower which contains masts for various carriers. Having just ran a google speedtest on my iPhone XS Max, I roughly get 125-130 mbps down on 4G (5G isn't available on my device, nor does my dated SIM support it), my SIM is with BT. I definitely know 5G is widely available in my area as well, as friends/ family have used it in the past while visiting.
Having seen these insane speeds via 4G and loathing the free internet I get, I thought of getting a SIM-only deal and investing in a 4G router. The router I bought was an ASUS 4G-AC68U (which I believed to be a decent router with 4G capabilities at the time of purchase. Thought I'd need a decent router if I move into my own place some time in the near future) and the SIM I purchased was a bog standard 4G SIM from SMARTY (£20 p/m for unlimited data, monthly rolling contract, cancel any time).
After setting up the router with the most basic/ default settings, I noticed that the speeds with the exact same SIM as in my iPhone (I took it out of my phone and placed it in the router to check), using the exact same speed checker from Google, were roughly 33mbps - which is a damn sight lower than what I originally had with my phone. Same applies to the SMARTY SIM I purchased. The speeds are definitely not as fast as my BT SIM but they are indeed faster via my iPhone.
Cell tower -> Router -> My Phone
was slower than
Cell tower -> My Phone
which is understandable I guess, but why is is so much slower?
I checked online and it mentioned something about the QoS settings on my router, as I also have one other device that's connected (a robot vacuum), but I wouldn't have thought it would use up so much bandwidth? Nevertheless, I enabled QoS on my router (as it appeared to be disabled in the settings) and set it to auto prioritise, with a preset for media streaming (which is what I do the most). This doesn't seem to have made any difference, both via my BT and SMARTY SIMs; speed tests returning ~33mbps. Content like YouTube doesn't appear to be loading any faster, no sign of the 130mbps I was getting via my iPhone directly from the tower.
How can I get the most of the speed that my iPhones reports using 4G, via my router?
Is there perhaps another router that I should invest in? I don't mind shilling out on a decent router if that's what it takes. Perhaps even a 5G one? ASUS (from what I've seen, correct me if I'm wrong) doesn't have a 5G router yet. I was even considering changing my SMARTY SIM to EE, or a 5G BT one (although I'm not sure if either provide unlimited data).
Perhaps there is some sort of QoS built in that throttles my bandwidth? I tried all of the different presets and it doesn't seem like there's much of a difference between them.
Is there any way to see what speeds my router gets before it allocates bandwidth out to all the connected parties?
Are there any alternative ways to get super fast speeds out of 4G/5G networks?
First and foremost, apologies for the wall of text. I know very little when it comes to networks, routers and how to set them up 'properly' but I'm hoping to learn so that I can understand this topic a bit better while looking for advice about something that's been confusing me.
To give you a bit of background, I live in a rented apartment where free internet is included, but is limited to approx 8mbps per client that connects to it. Fortunately, there is an option to get gigabit internet with a private provider. Unfortunately, I cannot choose the provider, and the only provider my landlord would allow charges £50 p/m for FTTP (which isn't bad, but means I would have to be in a contract for 12 months - during which I will more than likely move out in favour of owning my own home).
Regardless, I literally live less than 200m (175m approx, according to google maps) from a tower which contains masts for various carriers. Having just ran a google speedtest on my iPhone XS Max, I roughly get 125-130 mbps down on 4G (5G isn't available on my device, nor does my dated SIM support it), my SIM is with BT. I definitely know 5G is widely available in my area as well, as friends/ family have used it in the past while visiting.
Having seen these insane speeds via 4G and loathing the free internet I get, I thought of getting a SIM-only deal and investing in a 4G router. The router I bought was an ASUS 4G-AC68U (which I believed to be a decent router with 4G capabilities at the time of purchase. Thought I'd need a decent router if I move into my own place some time in the near future) and the SIM I purchased was a bog standard 4G SIM from SMARTY (£20 p/m for unlimited data, monthly rolling contract, cancel any time).
After setting up the router with the most basic/ default settings, I noticed that the speeds with the exact same SIM as in my iPhone (I took it out of my phone and placed it in the router to check), using the exact same speed checker from Google, were roughly 33mbps - which is a damn sight lower than what I originally had with my phone. Same applies to the SMARTY SIM I purchased. The speeds are definitely not as fast as my BT SIM but they are indeed faster via my iPhone.
Cell tower -> Router -> My Phone
was slower than
Cell tower -> My Phone
which is understandable I guess, but why is is so much slower?
I checked online and it mentioned something about the QoS settings on my router, as I also have one other device that's connected (a robot vacuum), but I wouldn't have thought it would use up so much bandwidth? Nevertheless, I enabled QoS on my router (as it appeared to be disabled in the settings) and set it to auto prioritise, with a preset for media streaming (which is what I do the most). This doesn't seem to have made any difference, both via my BT and SMARTY SIMs; speed tests returning ~33mbps. Content like YouTube doesn't appear to be loading any faster, no sign of the 130mbps I was getting via my iPhone directly from the tower.
How can I get the most of the speed that my iPhones reports using 4G, via my router?
Is there perhaps another router that I should invest in? I don't mind shilling out on a decent router if that's what it takes. Perhaps even a 5G one? ASUS (from what I've seen, correct me if I'm wrong) doesn't have a 5G router yet. I was even considering changing my SMARTY SIM to EE, or a 5G BT one (although I'm not sure if either provide unlimited data).
Perhaps there is some sort of QoS built in that throttles my bandwidth? I tried all of the different presets and it doesn't seem like there's much of a difference between them.
Is there any way to see what speeds my router gets before it allocates bandwidth out to all the connected parties?
Are there any alternative ways to get super fast speeds out of 4G/5G networks?
Last edited:
