Pepwave or ???

[lemondrop9344]

Sorry, was out at an event. Yes, you can custom select bands. That's been around for quite a while. I tried it back in the BR1 MK2 days and was not successful with it. Pepwave seems to do the job better on its own but it's available for you to customize as you found out.

I have the Max BR1 Pro with the 4G CAT-20. Band selection is available with the 8.2.1 firmware release.
I played around with band selection and was never able to achieve superior results than what the device would do on its own.

 

[Gizmo]

@lemondrop9344
This is my first Pepwave with a modem ( I have Solo) so my experience has been with the MOFI which may or may not select bands like the Pepwave. What I found on T-Mobile it selects the band with the strongest signal, not with the highest throughput. The MOFI would select I believe band 16 and I could lock all the bands except 71 and most of the time I would get maybe a weaker signal but more thoughtput. I'm not sure if T-Mobile manages bands or complete towers. I have gone though checking each band for the hightest thoughput but that lot time and effort for little gain. I dont really care if i'm 40 or 42 on speedtest but if i'm getting 1 or 2 speed test I start band locking to see if I can better thoughput.

Note - this is just my opinion and nothing more.

 

[jbh]

Sometimes I've achieved far higher speeds locking one or two bands rather than letting the unit auto-select. It apparently goes for the strongest signal. Pepwave Max Transit.

 

[lemondrop9344]

GIZMO,
The MAX BR1 PRO series, along with other Peplink products, does band aggregation if the bands are available on the tower.
T-Mobile coverage was not that prevalent in the geographical areas I frequent when I 1st acquired my Peplink Device back in May, 2020, so I did not consider them. A lot has changed since then.
On my current device, as well as the previous device (CAT-18), I typically would see 4 band aggregation with AT&T & 3 band aggregation with Verizon.
You can also play around with multiple sources in Priority 1 to attain increased reliability. For example, one can put either of the ceullular sims in priority1 as well as a WiFi signal from a RV park. The Peplink device will manage the signals. Until you see the UI (user interface) on the Peplink device, I suspect none of this makes sense.
If you have not yet become a member of the Peplink forum, I would encourage you to do so. While some of the discussions can be overly technical (at least for me), many forum members go out of their way to help.

 

[Gizmo]

@lemondrop9344
I have the Pepwave Solo which doesn't have modems so I have seen the interface. I have been really disappointed in Verizon lately and have been pleasantly surprised with T-Mobile. For the last two years, I have all three seem west of the Mississippi I have found that in most places T-Mobile (M2000) is giving me the best service with my AT&T phones with Verizon(8800) bringing up the rear. This is just using hotspots most of the time. Looking forward to BR1Pro 5G.
My intinial plan is to put the Verizon sim in the Pepwave and use WAN over WIFI for the M2000 T-Mobile since the T-Mobile connection is Caylx and TOS states it has to be in the M2000 only. I live in the city limits and my Verizon seldom gets above 2 or 3 on speed test so hopefully Pepwave will improve on that. Things may change as I learn more...

 

[lemondrop9344]

Is SOLO a typo or do you have the Pepwave SOHO router? Assuming you have the SOHO, the question about the USB port makes sense.
In our home office (Southport, NC) we are using a Balance One core as our primary router for the network, We also use a Max Transit CAT-18 as well as Starlink for fail over when cable internet fails (hurricane season) or when the owner travels in the RV.
With all that said, the owner (my son) uses iPhones & their OS is not compatible with the USB port on the Peplink Balance router.

 

[Gizmo]

Got my Pepwave BR1 Pro 5G into day and setup and running. Currently we are running the Verizon sim in the Pepwave and using WIFI Wan to connect to the M2000 hotspot with my Calyx T-Mobile 5G SIM. I did get boost of speed put the the Verizon sim in the BR1 from average of 0.5 to 4 or 5.
I did pull the Calyx SIM and tested it in the BR1 and come right on line no problems so all reading I have done about not working at least in my case wasn't the case.
I not sure why but seems that I'm getting boost of speed running the M2000 though the BR1. Using WIFI WAN so seems there would be some overhead.
So far extremely happy with plans to add the Pepwave antenna.

 

[Gizmo]

I understand that IOS 13 made some changes that broke threthering but seems to also affect the hotspot feature of the iPhone/IPad. When I put either into hotspot mode the Pepwave BR1 Pro doesn't see a hotspot. Anyone else seen this?

 

[Neal]

I'm not sure about the tethering as I personally have never tried it.

By the way I see Pepwave just dropped the BR1 Pro 5G pricing $500. You may want to ask who you bought it from for a credit or maybe consider returning it and buying it again at the lower price.

Pepwave MAX BR1 Pro 5G Router with Global 5G/Cat 20 LTE Modem + PrimeCare

This Pepwave Peplink 5G Router includes PrimeCare for 1 year. PrimeCare includes InControl, warranty with standard RMA, FusionHub license, and SpeedFusion bonding and WAN smoothing and can be renewed after the first year. If PrimeCare is not renewed, SpeedFusion features are disabled (basic...

5gstore.com

 

[Gizmo]

I have the Max BR1 Pro with the 4G CAT-20. Band selection is available with the 8.2.1 firmware release.
I played around with band selection and was never able to achieve superior results than what the device would do on its own.

I'm not sure about the tethering as I personally have never tried it.

By the way I see Pepwave just dropped the BR1 Pro 5G pricing $500. You may want to ask who you bought it from for a credit or maybe consider returning it and buying it again at the lower price.

Pepwave MAX BR1 Pro 5G Router with Global 5G/Cat 20 LTE Modem + PrimeCare

This Pepwave Peplink 5G Router includes PrimeCare for 1 year. PrimeCare includes InControl, warranty with standard RMA, FusionHub license, and SpeedFusion bonding and WAN smoothing and can be renewed after the first year. If PrimeCare is not renewed, SpeedFusion features are disabled (basic...

5gstore.com

I have a 30-day return policy but here is the other option from Pepwave.