Hi there, we recently took delivery of 5 X 5G enabled routers (310x 5G and several MBX with multiple 5G modems in each. I should start by saying I’ve lodged a support ticket about this but keen on the community input in the meantime. Essentially I can’t get any of these routers to reliably connect to 5G. 5G coverage is quite good where I live and my handset never has any problem connecting and remaining on 5G pretty much everywhere in my city. The only way I can get these routers to lock on is to basically sit under a cell and even then they dip in and out of connectivity. I’ve tested 3 different antenna brands and types. Poynting 2x2x2 directional, Panorama 4X4 Omnidirectional and 4 x 1 Taoglas omnidirectional antennas, all display the same symptoms so I’m confident its a modem issue.
I’ve also tried disabling all the LTE bands that are in the area hoping this would force the modems to 5G bands but that just sends the modems into a spin and usually results in me needing to reset the modems. Also when they do lock onto 5G they still report being connected to an LTE band, not a 5G band. Even when connected to LTE in (LTE-A) unlike the cat18 modems where you see the multiple concurrent band connections ie 3, 28,1 and 40, for example, the 5G modems only ever report being connected to one band even though they are displaying LTE-A connectivity. It’s also disappointing to see that that firmware version on these modems are labelled as beta which is not something I would expect for a commercially released product.
The carriers local to me are Telstra and Optus (Australia) The engineering data for the modems are as follows:
I have this issue with Balance 20x CAT18 module. My device is in an area where I have 4 bands ATT. The Balance 20x UI only shows a single band. When I pop the sim in to Max Transit CAT18 I can see any and all bands. I wish the Balance UI were consistent Max on this one aspect especially as understanding what bands are all connected is critical!
We have just received a 5G MBX and set it up for testing in Italy.
This is one of any tests we did with all delivering similar results;
Using the same type of SIM cards in the same location (under a cell tower), we got the following results (single modem in use, no SpeedFusion);
CAT12 MBX - 70Mbps
CAT20 MBX - 20Mbps
The CAT20 MBX will only connect on LTE while the CAT12 connects with LTE-A. We would expect the CAT20 router to provide better results than the CAT12. This is very disappointing when we are trying to demo the newer modems and they are nearly 4x slower than the older modems!
Please supply us with a firmware that addresses this issue urgently.
EDIT - 5G is not available at the current testing locations, later in the week we will be testing in a location with 5G available.
Router was very unstable in Italy. Modems where constantly resetting and sometimes got stuck on resetting. Router is now set up in France and seams more stable but we will continue testing
I don’t see the 5G network in Belgium (2.1GHz for now ) when I do a network scan. Is it the expected behavior? Which firmware should we use to see the 5G in scans and in the frequency list of band selection?
Afternoon All.
Received the new modems now (MAX-HD4-MBX-5GD)
When running both 8.1.0 and 8.1.1 we are unable to select which bands are connected to.
Also, when will the GUI be fixed to show LTE-A and 5G status rather than just LTE?
Anyone at Peplink want to let us know when these essential functions will be available as its pretty hard for us to properly test out this 5G equipment.
Essential functions required;
-Correct LTE / LTE-A / 5G
-Carrier Scan and lock to carrier
-Frequency/ Band selection
Currently demoing equipment to clients that is 5G but only shows LTE on the dashboard. Not a good look.
Engineering team is working on the bands selection & the network scanning feature for the 5G cellular module. This will definitely be improve for coming firmware.
The 5G icons showing is depending the tower returned info. Some telco may not return the expected value and the cause the icons showing LTE only. For some Cell tower that returning the expected value, the module do showing the 5G icons. Below are some tested 5G connection showing status.
