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Forum Discussion

electroMechanic's avatar
Aug 01, 2018

LB2120 cellular band/ frequency selection

I bought one of your LTE LB2120-100UKS Modems, so that I could place it in the best location on our property for 4G LTE Cellular signal reception, whilst considering buying a separate router with a powerful built in Wi-Fi access point, which I could place in the centre of the property, so the Wi-Fi signal would permeate through an optimum volume of the building.

The Network selection and Data connection options are far too limited to provide any real use from the device. We require the ability to manually select not only the type of Cellular Base Station (3G/4G), but also the particular band/ frequency of the required base station. This is mandatory for our particular application, as in our location we get very poor, unacceptable download speeds when connected to base stations operating on LTE band 20, while we receive an adequate, acceptable download speed when connected to a base station which uses LTE band 3.

See following link for a close approximation of what we require.

 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Mobile-Routers-Hotspots-Modems/Nighthawk-M1-selection-of-LTE-Frequency-Band/m-p/1547202/highlight/true#M5510

5 Replies

  • In fact a better implementation of the required function would also allow for any/ all individual band/ bands to be enabled or disabled, so that automatic selection could occur between the enabled bands, see following picture.

     

  • 2.5 Mbps download, 17.6 Mbps upload on band 20.

    39.7 Mbps download, 11.9 Mbps upload on band 3.

    Download speed is generally more important than upload for most conventional applications.

    • electroMechanic's avatar
      electroMechanic
      Star

      Just to add a little context, while the device was connected using band 20, the signal strength indicator was showing 4/5, whereas while connected using band 3, the signal strength was showing 2/5.

      So the connection using band 3 was actually yielding a substantially superior download speed despite the fact that signal strength was apparently half that of the connection using band 20.