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4G mobile broadband versus PCCW fixed line DSL?

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  1. #81

    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    9

    Hey guys, Wanted to share my experience with all of this.
    I just moved to a village house in S Lantau.
    PCCW here is as bad as it gets. Its the only only option besides going mobile. No way was I going through that process.

    So after a bunch of research(some here) and trial and error, I got a nice setup with 10mbps plus down and up, some days I see as much as 30.
    So the three things you must have IMO are:

    -- Smartone plan 6GB plus the extra for unlimited data (mostly) as mentioned before in this thread. Cost is almost 500hkd a month. I'm trying to find a neighbor who will go half with me if I share my connection. Pretty sure I will succeed at this as the #1 complaint I hear out here is PCCW.

    --A good 4G router designed to recieve the frequencies of the provider (smartone is 1800 and 2600Mhz)
    I ended up going with a B539-22 Huawei I bought off taobao. It is what the professionals recommended. I ended up paying around 100USD for it. You could probably find it somewhere in mongkok or SSP, but I didn't want the goose chase or marked up HK prices.

    --Last is most important. A good antenna tuned for the frequencies smartone uses. I tried three different ones wasting money. All crap made in China. Finally for the last one, I bit the bullet and got the Poynting A-XPOL-006-10m antenna. It was about 135USD shipped from SZ (they have supplier there but it is made in europe). This is what I needed! I have 4 bars of signal and great solid internet now. PM me if you need the contact for this antenna. You pretty much have to just contact them directly and find the nearest supplier for shipment. Also, I wouldn't buy the antenna until you have tried the built in antennas on the router. They were surprisingly pretty good.

    bdw and dossier like this.

  2. #82

    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1,675

    CSL 4g in south Lantau speeds are phenomenal - about 70mbps down and 20 Mbps up

    I am blown away by this. If only they had an unlimited data plan for home mobile broadband usage


  3. #83

    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1,675
    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    @dossier - you could try DX.Com. I've bought a fair bit of "junk" from there and its all been ok to play around with and some of it has even survived. I think the prices are similar to what you can get on Ap Liu Street but a little bit more expensive than TaoBao.

    LTE Antenna - Free Shipping - DX
    I ended up using gearbest.com which worked ok although seemed a bit of a random internet shop

  4. #84

    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    9

    So it seems Smartone is up to some typical Hong Kong shenanigans. My 4G router stopped working with a no signal indication about 4 days ago. After checking a few things, I noticed an SMS message logged that says I need to put my sim card in a smartphone within 24 hours to avoid service disruption. Well that is a problem, I did not purchase this with that intention, in fact I remember clearly getting an "OK LAAA" from the salesman when I signed up, to use this in my 4G router, not a cellphone. So after calling customer service they confirmed that my plan doesnt say anything about a 4G router, only a phone, and I cannot use this with anything other than a phone. Ohh and also, they cant change the plan, and even if they did change it to another plan that is for the 4G router, no more unlimited data option. The only option they left me was to create a hotspot with my phone, but that is not a solid setup and I knew that wasn't the path to take here.

    What they are not saying but what I think is happening is, all these unlimited plans are being used for home internet and putting strain on the network, so they have resorted to blacklisting IMEIs that are not smartphones on the network. I wouldn't be surprised to see the unlimited data option going away soon for everything including smartphones.

    So if you are like me, and using smartone as a home network using a router/dongle/modem setup, be ready for this blacklisting of non smartphone IMEIs. There IS a fix, but its highly technical and I dont want to share it publicly here. PM me if you need to get your non-smartphone device up and running again. I will try to help but it requires tools that most people wouldn't have.


  5. #85

    The smartone person has mention that I cannot use a 4g router. Has anyone found a solution or alternative to this plan?


  6. #86

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Yuen Long
    Posts
    1,563
    Quote Originally Posted by SeptimusPrime:
    The smartone person has mention that I cannot use a 4g router. Has anyone found a solution or alternative to this plan?
    Talk to CSL about their unlimited data sim only.

  7. #87

    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    9

    Yes I have. It requires some pretty serious modification to the router to give it a smartphone IMEI. You will need a 1.8V serial cable and a soldering iron to get a terminal on the flash chip. From there you will have to send a series of commands including a data unlock request (passcode) to reprogram the IMEI permanently on the router so it appears as a smartphone on the smartone network. PM me if you decide to go this route for more information. Some routers have a built SSH software so if your lucky and have one of those it negates the soldering work but the key to change IMEI in most huawei routers is the data unlock AT command (even though the router is unlocked ) prior to the IMEI change AT command.

    orel100x likes this.

  8. #88

    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    香港
    Posts
    1,162
    Quote Originally Posted by jb_bak:
    Yes I have. It requires some pretty serious modification to the router to give it a smartphone IMEI. You will need a 1.8V serial cable and a soldering iron to get a terminal on the flash chip. From there you will have to send a series of commands including a data unlock request (passcode) to reprogram the IMEI permanently on the router so it appears as a smartphone on the smartone network. PM me if you decide to go this route for more information. Some routers have a built SSH software so if your lucky and have one of those it negates the soldering work but the key to change IMEI in most huawei routers is the data unlock AT command (even though the router is unlocked ) prior to the IMEI change AT command.
    Sounds like it would be a good idea to buy a router that allows command line changing of IMEI. Any recommendations?

  9. #89

    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    9

    Yes the B315s is the model that has SSH built in. I remember the key to getting the change imei AT command with that one was sending two different unlock request first. PM me for details on that if you get that far.

    orel100x likes this.

  10. #90

    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    451

    Can't you just use a cheap phone as a hotspot?


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