Need wifi router for airtel 4G dongle

blr_p said:
An interesting point, ipads don't have voice either but still work with sims for data. So the no voice argument for lack of sims argument does not fly with me.

That airtel is doing this means the dongle is a waste and is only good for airtels network. If they are going to lock it like this i'd expect the price to be a lot lower 50% of an open dongle. Its a multi-mode dongle which means it automatically switches between 2/3 or 4G. But no sim is a downer. Prevents the user from choosing his own open dongle and pairing it with a router of his choice.
Click to expand...
First of all considering this is India and the current telecom mahabharat in the nation their rates are very reasonable. The idea of not selling the SIM alone is that since now they provide only data service they want to earn more profits by selling the devices rather than just selling the SIM. Would you pay them 1000 bucks only for the SIM??? If they had sold only the SIM the market would have flooded with chinese 4g dongles and they would not benefit much from it. They would then have to depend on customer staying with them for a longer time. When they sell the device the customer automatically gets tied up in a relatively longer duration commitment than else wise....
And go ask Airtel for a SIM for your IPAD see what they can answer.... Honestly I have not tried that. Again TBH I quite agree with their current strategy about selling 4G connections with locked devices and not sell only SIMS.
Things will be better and open when slowly they will start expanding their 4G services to many other cities and might start Voice + Data also.

(Off topic): AFAIK the Airtel guy who gave me this info said that there is some stupid TRAI and Govt laws ambiguity due to which they cant start Voice call service on 4G yet and it will be worked out soon. But again nothing official on it.

Also in the 20odd min I spent in their booth trying the device I found atleast 4-5 foreigners who were ready to pay 4K per month for even 10GB of data. And additional charges per GB. The only reason being they wanted good speeds when they work from their hotel/apartments. So there is certainly a consumer group for 4G even now.
 
Who is offering 4G in India ? Airtel only. That is the first problem.
Where is it available ? only in 4 cities. That is the second problem.
How good is the coverage ? only if you're near a tower. That is the third problem.

Once India settles on what bands we are going to permit for 4G the picture will drastically improve. Just like it did with 3G. Airtel is selling a over one year old Huawei mobile with 4G, no other reputable mobile manufacturer is introducing 4G capable sets because there is still ambiguity over what bands India will settle on for 4G. 2300 Mhz unfortunately isn't the most popular of 4G bands in the world, only China & South Africa have it in addition to others which we yet lack.

That Airtel has to lock the customer in despite being the only operator in the market implies more a profit motive. Why do they need lock anybody in at all. If the service they provide is good enough the recurring renewals should be all they need to sustain themselves. I'm against these anti-competitive practices which are solely a product of a lack of competition.

I would say hold off from 4G until others enter the game.
 
Review of airtels 4g courtesy of IBF

mentions a sim card that works with either the dongle or the router they sell.

i don't know how we got talking about no sim card. See this

Ok, I just for an update from the Airtel guy that sold me this connection, you can buy a separate 4g SIM only for Rs.50
Click to expand...
dated Dec 15 2012.

Sankar must have a Rs.50 sim card too that he inserts into the huawei router.

For the more daring amongst you. All you need to find is a huawei E392 unlocked dongle which is a 4G dongle that must support 2300Mhz, stick it in the tp-link mr3020 and install rooter on it.

This should be possible for under 5k with nothing locked, the huawei will work with other GSM networks should you need to. The mr3020 will go through one wall, more than that will require your existing wifi router to be set up as an AP with a wired connection to the mr3020. Don't want wires then your existing router will have to work as a repetaer of the mr3020.
 
Last edited:
Airtel supplied a Sim card which was activated later. I am using it on the Router. The same Sim card can also be used in the Dongle.
 
Last edited:
I bought an Airtel 4G connection, just the SIM, last week and it cost me nothing. Airtel is freely distributing 4G SIM cards to customers.
Can somebody tell me which device would be better - the 4G dongle or the wifi router? I am keen to buy the Huawei model but Airtel has stopped supplying it since the past one year in BLR.
If I have to buy the dongle, then what are my options to use it with a wifi router from 3rd party?
 
Gaurav Singla said:
If I have to buy the dongle, then what are my options to use it with a wifi router from 3rd party?
Click to expand...
Need to get confirmation from somebody that ALREADY has the 4G dongle as to what make & model# it is. Whether its the E392 or not. If it is then see my earlier post about using this alternative fw called rooter with a tp-link 3020

Presently other tp-link or asus 3G routers do not support E392 4 g usb modem (dongle). The picture might change after a few months when more drivers appear for these 3g routers
 
Gaurav Singla said:
I bought an Airtel 4G connection, just the SIM, last week and it cost me nothing. Airtel is freely distributing 4G SIM cards to customers.
Can somebody tell me which device would be better - the 4G dongle or the wifi router? I am keen to buy the Huawei model but Airtel has stopped supplying it since the past one year in BLR.
If I have to buy the dongle, then what are my options to use it with a wifi router from 3rd party?
Click to expand...

Dongle is only a Modem whereas the Router is a Modem cum Router. Router is the only choice if you want to connect a PC, laptop and other devices like Kindle. But if you are going to use it only on the Laptop a Dongle is sufficient.

There are a number of people selling Airtel 4G Dongles and Airtel 4G Routers on OLX and quickr. Ask the seller to bring it over. Test it and pay.

Buy one and use it. That is what I have done successfully. See my thread.

http://www.techenclave.com/community/threads/airtel-4g-lte.150870/
 
Last edited:
I have posted the details of the router and an image in the other thread. It is quite good in that it does its job of receiving Airtel 4G signal and routing it to my PC, Laptop and Kindles.
 
You did not understand my question and the thread you linked to does not answer my previous query. So let's try this again.

Which wifi router did you have previously ?

Second, how does this huawei you recently acquired compare to it.

See, i have no idea how good this router is in terms of range. There are no benchmarks for it anywhere because its not a well known router.

Now tell me how many walls can its signal penetrate through.
How thick are those walls.
What is the max distance you can get a signal from the router.

Give some idea as to its performance. if you have an asus N13, it would be ideal as we would get a better idea as to whether huawei is better, same or much worse.

Do you understand what i'm asking for here ?
 
I understand. But your questions have no relevance. The O.P was about a Router for Airtel 4G. I have answered the question raised in the O. P in my posts and given my experience.
 
You have given us a cosmetic description about your router. It gives no BLOODY idea about its performance at all. Why should anyone buy this router for its asking price.
 
Last edited:
blr_p said:
that does not tell you anything. You need to know WHO makes that dongle and the model# then see if routers will support it. At this point i'm thinking nobody supports it.

You will probably have to a wait a few months for that info to come out to have compatibility given that 4G is still pilot in very few cities in India.

Installing dongles on routers is not the same as on a PC where you can install any drivers. For routers those drivers need to be provided in the firmware by somebody else. The user CANNOT install dongle drivers on routers by point & click.
Click to expand...

I have a Airtel 4G dongle

ZTE CORPORATIONS
Model Number: MF825A

Could you let me know what I need to do so that I can get wifi at home.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top