I’ve had a balance 30 for years until it stopped functioning, and this past summer had it replaced under warranty for a balance 20, which I only used for a month. I love the balance solutions, but the throughput is only 150Mbps, which worked great when I had two WiMax connections that were 20Mbps tops. But I stopped using the router because various ISPs started to offer fiber optic connections, and I was able to initially obtain a 300Mbps symmetric connection which has now been bumped up to 600Mbps.
Here is my question, is there any sort of upgrade planned for the Balance 20 to incorporate higher throughput speeds, or is my only option to upgrade to a Balance 305? The reason I say the 305 is because my ISP has already announced they will upgrade their service to more than 600Mbps by next summer, and boost the speed again around this time next year. If I purchase a One, it will be of no use to me by next summer. Even purchasing the 305, I may only get a year out of it, and that’s quite a big investment for me if there isn’t the possibility to upgrade the throughput as ISPs continue to update the speeds they offer (we already have an ISP that’s offering 1000Mbps in the area). I would also be all for some sort of upgrade service where you could trade in an existing router and pay a discounted fee to upgrade to one of the other other models, but my previous questions regarding this matter have never been answered. Just seems a shame that several models will reach their end of life within the next few years, without having a replacement in the wings that is affordable, and offers a solution that will work with what ISPs are rolling out worldwide without having to break the bank, or end up using a lesser product because a small business owner like myself can’t afford to purchase a router that costs a few thousand dollars/euros.
Hi vmr907,
Unfortunately the throughput is almost if not entirely tied to the device hardware so the current Peplink device you are using has a max router throughput limit of 150Mbps. With future hardware revisions and better technology becoming available as a standard this can increase for future models but as of right now the only way to get a total router throughput into gigabit speeds is with a 305 or above.
The problem with the Balance One is I’m already at 600Mbps, and my ISP has confirmed they will be offering 1000Mbps by next summer. So the Balance One wouldn’t work for me, unless it can be upgraded in the future.
The price point isn’t all that appealing either if it will only be used for 6 to 8 months. The unit is currently going for 500€, roughly $565, that’s a bit steep. If the throughput was 1000Mbps, or more at that price, or just the possibility of upgrading to that speed in the future, well then it might be something worth my wild. But given the unit’s currently specs, I’ll be dealing with the same exact situation in less than a year.
Thank you for your explanation, the reason I asked was because of the routers ability to open addition WAN ports, so long as you pay for the upgrade. I figured there would be no harm in asking in the event something similar could be done with the throughput. I’ll look into the 305, but I believe it is out of my price range.
Sadly, the Balance One was actually originally rated for 1000Mbps, but we found under certain conditions (Apple Mac devices, if I remember correctly) we had a rather steep falloff in throughput that we couldn’t compensate for.
( see Cannot Achieve Gigabit Throughput on WAN / Balance One - #27 by soylentgreen )
As a result, we downgraded the throughput specs for the Balance One series, as we couldn’t guarantee it under all reasonable deployments.
Next step up would be, as you’ve noticed, the 305, which should handle your expected service levels.