I am in a "rural" Ohio area and have been searching for unlimited high speed internet for quite some time. I found this site Overview: AT&T Unlimited Data 3rd Party Rental & Lease Plans (Cellular Data Plans) - Mobile Internet Resource Center that lists a bunch of options so I decided to try the cheapest called Travel Data at $49 per month. I bought a used Netgear Nighthawk router on ebay for $140 and SIM card kit from CVS for $10. I first signed up for a one day trial with Travel Data. It was fast (relatively), in the 15 - 20 Mbps range and occasionally even higher including once or twice above 50 Mbps.
Last evening, I signed up for a month of service for $49 + $18 signup fee. After the router rebooted, it was MUCH slower (8 -12 Mbps?) so I started looking at settings in the router. I found the "Current Radio Band" was "WCDMA" (I think) and realized during the trial period it was LTE B12. I went into the router "Cellular" settings and changed "Band Region" to "LTE All". I think the modem then rebooted. After that, the "Current Radio Band" is now "LTE B12" and my speed is back to where is was during the trial period, generally 15 to 25 Mbps!!
I think I also noted that the signal strength was around -80 db when it was on WCDMA and only -90 db when it is on LTE B12. I just ordered a Netgear 6000450 MIMO Antenna to see if i can increase the signal strength and thus the speed.
Here is my question: Did I force the router to connect to a different tower that is a weaker signal but faster? Or what happened?
Last evening, I signed up for a month of service for $49 + $18 signup fee. After the router rebooted, it was MUCH slower (8 -12 Mbps?) so I started looking at settings in the router. I found the "Current Radio Band" was "WCDMA" (I think) and realized during the trial period it was LTE B12. I went into the router "Cellular" settings and changed "Band Region" to "LTE All". I think the modem then rebooted. After that, the "Current Radio Band" is now "LTE B12" and my speed is back to where is was during the trial period, generally 15 to 25 Mbps!!
I think I also noted that the signal strength was around -80 db when it was on WCDMA and only -90 db when it is on LTE B12. I just ordered a Netgear 6000450 MIMO Antenna to see if i can increase the signal strength and thus the speed.
Here is my question: Did I force the router to connect to a different tower that is a weaker signal but faster? Or what happened?
