MIFI for the Beginner

March Hare

March Hare

Joined
Jul 14, 2019
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Hymer MLT 570
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Our 1st Motorhome
Hi,

We’ve been reading a number of very useful threads on here ref setting up mobile broadband for the Motorhome, and are about to invest in a MIFI - a Huawei E5785-4G to be precise.

Our question though is with regards to the Data SIM for use in the MIFI unit - it will be for Europe wide coverage.

We have seen the VOXI Data SIM advertised, and just wondered if anyone had any experience of these data SIMS and plans - the info online isn’t that clear whether it will work OK with the MIFI?

Thanks in advance! ?
 
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Adrian Mudle said:
Not quite sure what "4G signal 'repeaters' aren't really practical in a vehicle setting" means, in the good old days, we always had mobile car kits with external aerials, and without fail resulted in improvements of the signal on the phone handset, as you are basically sitting inside a tin can, much like a motorhome.
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I had the same system car kit in my first job as a sales rep, early systems did have a powered booster but the aerial went straight into the radio brick in the boot or latterly into a cellphone in a cradle either with a MCX/JX (similar to a MiFi) connection rather than a car-wide broadcast unit.

Adrian Mudle said:
I've seen a few of these devices advertised, and I guess not many have the reputation of Motorhome Wifi does, however I have seen sub £300 devices advertised (not on ebay) with "CE & RoHS ISO Certified" only problem I see is that these days anyone sticks these labels on products with no backup.

What I would like to see is a company I can trust market these devices, not influenced by any interests in alternative solutions, really don't want a third mobile contract.
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The costings for type approval and certification means that these devices are unlikely to be cheap, I'm sure you will have wish soon enough. We would sell them but the cost of data or sharing a plan between multiple SIM's I can't make them stack up.
 
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Adrian Mudle said:
The regulation I've seen on repeaters for 4G does not state they exclude 4G but must include 3G and 2G "Indoor repeaters that claim to be 4G and/or LTE only (or 800 MHz only) are also unlikely to meet our requirements. Legal indoor repeaters must boost a 2G or 3G signal at all times." taken from Ofgem site, so not sure if I've understood this out of contex
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I missed this in my reply, but you cannot repeat a 4G signal when a 2G and 3G is not also externally present due to Ofcom licence exemption rules, it is not permitted to relay 4G only signal.
 
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Addie said:
I missed this in my reply, but you cannot repeat a 4G signal when a 2G and 3G is not also externally present due to Ofcom licence exemption rules, it is not permitted to relay 4G only signal.
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That's not how I read the Ofgem rules, where does it state this?
 
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Adrian Mudle said:
That's not how I read the Ofgem rules, where does it state this?
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It's how I read them, but the English language version is lifted straight from Cel-Fi's website which is one of the few manufacturers of type-approved product - hence why it is unable to buy online in order to set expectations: <Broken link removed>

"For customers in Hebrides, Scottish Isles, Highlands and other remote areas in the UK: Due to Ofcom licence exemption rules, it is not permitted to relay 4G only signal. Please check on your service provider's coverage map, entering your postcode, to make sure you have Outdoor 3G Coverage in your area before purchasing. "

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Addie said:
It's how I read them, but the English language version is lifted straight from Cel-Fi's website which is one of the few manufacturers of type-approved product - hence why it is unable to buy online in order to set expectations: <Broken link removed>

"For customers in Hebrides, Scottish Isles, Highlands and other remote areas in the UK: Due to Ofcom licence exemption rules, it is not permitted to relay 4G only signal. Please check on your service provider's coverage map, entering your postcode, to make sure you have Outdoor 3G Coverage in your area before purchasing. "
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Well that's strange, specifically mentioning the highlands, but the way I read that, it's not possible to relay 4G only but if you are relaying 4G, 3G, and 2G then it's not excluded but as you say just could be the way I interpret the english language. Also Cel-Fi could be trying to justify a more expensive product, as when I looked at the Ofgem documents they imply that it's up to the supplier to verify the product does not interfere with the original signal, but did not mention anything about products requiring approval from any body, which could be that I missed something, as I would admit I would find it odd that any product in the radio telecoms market does not need approval from some government approved body.
 
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Dear All,

Just a quick update to my original post to thank everyone for all the replies and advice.

We've gone with the Voxy data plan (£30 for "unlimited" - although from Addie's reply that looks like it will be capped at 25GB). For the Mifi we bought a Huawei E5785-4G.

We got it all set up at home and so far it's all working well since our arrival in France yesterday.

We are not going to be using it much for streaming just for web browsing, so fingers crossed it will continue to serve it's well!

Thanks again for everyone's input and advice! ?
 
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