I am looking for a router that supports a UK mobile SIM data plan, not sure if there are any cheap OpenWrt routers or whether it is best to buy some fantastic model members here recommend and plug my existing router(s) into it?
Any suggestions appreciated.
Get an USB LTE on a stick (from a known brand), plug into whichever openwrt capable router with an USB port.
Just make sure it isn't sim locked.
Low cost: ZBT WE826-T1 , industrial quality: Teltonika RUT955
Both to be used with a Quectel EC25 built-in modem.
Not sure what a known brand is but saw some unlocked on ebay for £20
I wonder if I can turn off the wifi on these so they focus on 4g/3g to USB?
They look interesting especially the one that allows two sims for fault tolerance.
but more power, wires and money.
It would be good if they produced a 4g to Ethernet or maybe 4g to USB3 without the wifi, my concern is the bottleneck.
I want to use one of these to test a series of SIMS to choose a mobile data provider, where I used to live I was in a blackspot for two providers.
depends on if they're modems, or mifi devices.
the latter have a wifi hot spot built in, the modems don't.
Huawei, D-Link, ZTE, SAMSUNG, BT (i assume they're OEM, probably sim locked), Alcatel.
you'll probably want a 150mbps device.
this one works very well, got one myself - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275122425442
How does 150 Mbps compare to wifi via broadband?
Right so this cheapo one is 100mbs
and this one 150 mifi
I've managed get 8-9MB/s from the Huawei LTE modem I posted earlier. Which is close to 100 mbit.
150mbps via LTE is an utopia.
I'd stay away from the LTE sticks you linked to, no known brand names, at least to me.
And they are MiFi devices, unless that's what you want.
If so, check out the EE branded Alcatel devices.
I call BS on that. Just did a couple of tests on my 2016 laptop using the EM7455 modem it came with. Running Debian, ModemManager and Debian's 5.10 kernel with the cdc_mbim driver. Sitting indoors by my kitchen table and not trying to optimize anything. Got 220 Mbps using IPv6 and 180 Mbps using IPv4. Might be the different servers. I don't know of any other than the Telenor ookla instance doing IPv6.
Note that I work for Telenor, and happen to be one othe authors of the cdc_mbim driver. But I'm not using anything special here. It's an ordinary subscription, and I haven't tweaked the driver at all.
I was referring to the 150mbit rated devices, not the network itself, sure you can go faster, if you'd get a cat6 unit, or better.
Like all those ads you're getting, haven't seen those before 
i am using an old fanless atom pc with 2 ethernet cards as a router with OpenWRT in a remote site. By attaching a Huawei 3372s 4G usb stick i have Internet access in that site.
Make sure to get an unlocked version of that stick, or any other version. i got mine from ebay for < £20.
Thanks for that information, but surely that is comparing apples and pears, if this is the device you are referring to, it has a bus connection not USB, also I could not put it into the back of most routers.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sierra-Wireless-EM7455-LTE-Module/dp/B0783N98MR
It is interesting to know though so thanks.
The bus is USB but the connector is m.2. You can use it in a USB port with a simple adapter. This is generally what people do if they need higher speed modems, or modems which are still available.
From my own industrial expirience, the MC7455 is THE choice, in case of higher speed required. Otherwise, EC25 the way to go.
Those EM7455 cards are quite interesting, the Dell and Lenovo branded versions sell for 10€ or so.
Seems the casings are more expensive than the modems though ...
I imagined that the M2 device has a faster throughput and that once you put it on USB that would limit the speed to the same as is likely if either were plugged into a Netgear or Linksys Router's USB port.
No, the cat6 devices aren't faster than USB 2.0, but there are USB 3.0 enclosures.
For some unknown reason, the m.2 wwan slot of my laptop (Thinkpad X1 Carbon 4th gen) only supports USB2 even though the EM7455 modem supports USB3. This surprised and annoyed me when I got it, as I was looking forward to finally be able to play with a USB3 connected modem. But in practice it never mattered of course. The modem is Cat6 (300 Mbps max) and USB2 (480 Mbps) is more than enough bandwidth.
As for USB cable or m.2 slot - there is no difference. If you have a USB3 adapter, cable and modem, then the bus bandwidth is 5 Gbps. That's still more than enough for most modems, even the 5G ones.
Some 5G modems have started using PCIe instead of USB. But I still haven't seen any test where this makes a difference. It might of course matter for other reasons than plain bus bandwidth. But so far it seems like the USB3 connected 5G modems are good enough.
