I was curious to know if the Peplink was putting the Balance 20X on end of life? A vendor mentioned this to me and I hadn’t seen this yet or found any information that confirms this.
Hello @bryanalbrecht,
Peplink does not have EoL (End-of-Life) products. Instead, Peplink assigns older models to be “Legacy Products” as Peplink continues to support those older models.
The Peplink Balance 20x is not EoL; it is now a MoQ (Minimum Order Quantity) of 500 units. The only reason we’d be buying (500 units) of the Peplink Balance 20X is if the customer needs them for the LoRaWAN module or the DSL module.
Globally partners are now changing over to the new Peplink B One 5G.
Note that we have access to some limited stock of the Peplink Balance 20x here in Australia; once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Happy to Help,
Marcus 
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It does seem that the B-One 5G is the intended replacement for the B20x. I’ve done some math and in the US it doesn’t look like such a great deal. The 5 year cost for the B-One 5G is over $1000 whereas for the B20x, it was a little over $650. So they raised the price by 50% while also removing features. I’m sure the 5G modem beats the pants off of the Cat 7 (and especially the Cat 4) modem in the B20x but that advantage varies, depending upon which towers and networks are available. I suppose that when compared to other models in the Peplink line-up, the B-One looks like a good deal. But I think it might be a sideways step at best for many use cases. Especially for organizations doing large deployments for IOT etc where GPS is important and absolute cellular throughput is not. A 50% increase can be a deal breaker. But I could be wrong. I’m often baffled with how humans spend money.
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I agree with this, I didn’t really need a 5G modem, since the areas I am deploying don’t have 5G yet. I also really enjoyed the options with the Mini Flex modules that could be added to the 20X.
So you’ve installed Mini Flex modules? I’m curious which features/capabilities were compelling for you in the 20x. I’ve considered it for mobile internet kits but our business hasn’t developed much in that direction. Most of my Peplink devices are at permanent locations.
I’m still excited about the B One line. I appreciate that it’s a new product since I’m not inclined to buy new ‘old tech’ and the B20x was getting a bit long. In my case, I’m mostly frustrated that the primecare is double what it is for the B20x even though they both have just one modem. And really, the whole “subscription with a hefty down payment” pricing model that they have ruffles me.
It is also not lost on me that “enterprise” applications (where it appears many Peplink devices and services are used) will often pay orders of magnitude more for internet and these “hardware” costs are just drops in the bucket. I’m baffled by some of that as well, but all the kind folks employed in the industry of keeping everyone connected have to collect a paycheck from somewhere.