30LTE vs 20+usb modem

[zegor_mjol]

@Don_Ferrario

I never considered the MAX series as its marketed as mobile, but no reason it couldn’t be used in a building. Are there any of the MAX series that would do all of:

Three simultaneous WANs. One ethernet and two LTE? This would be the same as I do all the time with Balance and three ethernet.

That would be the models listed on the multi-cellular sites:
HD2: https://www.peplink.com/products/max-cellular-router/multi-cellular/
HD2 IP67 (outdoor): https://www.peplink.com/products/max-cellular-router/outdoor/#hd2
Transit Duo: https://www.peplink.com/products/max-transit/

@Don_Ferrario

Can the two LTE be blended with Fusion, with suitable Fusion on the other end (the Balance 380 at our home office) then force all LTE traffic through the Fusion to yield greater internet bandwidth than one LTE alone?

The HD2s have SpeedFusion Bonding in place, the MAX Transit Duo offers Bonding as an add-on license. Using the router outbound rules you could force all traffic to go to the home office.

@Don_Ferrario

Reading the product description for some of the devices it appeared that there are two sim slots but only one modem so they are switch-over, not simultaneous. Maybe I misunderstood.

The models I mentioned above are all two-radio models (two simultaneous cellular WANs), each radio having two SIM card slots (for failover, if you want to work with two carriers, or if you want to shift from one line to another upon reaching your 15GB/month Verizon allocation) for a total of up to four SIM cards.

@Don_Ferrario

The location would be in the center of a building where there is a metal roof. Can you add an external LTE antenna (Verizon in US) to get better signal? If not I would have to extend the ethernet and mount the MAX on an outside wall. I see on the product pictures ports for wifi antennas but I don’t see anything for an external cellular antenna. Are there industry products for that?

Your interior location pretty much rules out the USB modem strategy - such modems have low-gain internal antennas, and the ones with external antenna options are for small TS9 connector antennas.

All the MAX (and B30LTE) products have external SMA or N connector coax antenna connectors. For each radio you want to have two anntenas (main and aux). With the exception of the HD2 IP67 they all come with stock low-gain antennas. You can replace them with antennas more suitable for your particular context, e.g. higher-gain omni antennas mounted directly on the router, or (in your case) mount two antennas for each radio on your roof, connected to the router using low-loss 50 Ohm coax. Alternatively, mount the HD2 IP67 on the roof with its four antennas, with two ethernet cables to your in-door switch (the HD2 IP67 is a POE device).

There is a nice thread on antennas and related topics: Max Transit Duo - the two modems report different connection qualities

However, I get the sense from your initial posting that you are price sensitive to some degree, so consider the following:

A single cellular router such as the B30LTE or MAX BR1 series or the MAX Transit (https://www.peplink.com/products/max-cellular-router/single-cellular/) is in line with what you were considering. Add the cost of antennas or amplifiers as needed.
You get the dual-SIM failover/allocation change, but not dual cellular WANs. Cost starting at about $300 in my experience. In all cases you get the PepVPN functionality (e.g., to the home office).

A dual cellular router such as the Max Transit Duo will provide dual simultaneous cellular WANs (and a wired WAN in addition) and local WiFi. It will provide WAN load balancing, but not WAN bonding. Cost significantly more than the single cellular routers.

For cellular WAN bonding you add a license to the MAX Transit Duo, or you go for an HD2. Cost significantly more than the routers without a SpeedFusion license.

For outdoor deployment you can consider the HD2 IP67. It includes SpeedFusion, and costs is a bit more than the indoor HD2 models.