Ubiquity Bullet M2 vs PepLink Max BR1 Mini. Wan WiFi

[Skybolt]

I had Verizon service for 32 years. I got fed up with their BS, high prices and mediocre service and switched to T mobile last month. So far, better in every way.

Check their map and see if t mobile has 5G in your area. You can get a pre-paid plan. Or, switch everything, get big discounts and add a hotspot plan.

Yeah I have T-Mo for our cell's, have for many years. There ok, bad service around here and only Vzn has towers everywhere. If you look at there map for 5G there are towers every where, some for t-mo. But cust svc (T-M) said they don't support the PL same as Vnz did. That said and my phone shows the 5G symbol while at the boat ...

 

[Skybolt]

I had Verizon service for 32 years. I got fed up with their BS, high prices and mediocre service and switched to T mobile last month. So far, better in every way.

Check their map and see if t mobile has 5G in your area. You can get a pre-paid plan. Or, switch everything, get big discounts and add a hotspot plan.

And the plot thickens, I paid for next day service for the sim, was guaranteed I would have it by noon today. Had to call to get a tracking number, not arriving until Monday. Dialed 611 on my cell, found the closest T-Mo and got my 5G sim in minutes. There and back and working between posts. 40min each way and 10min in store. Called ahead and they had it waiting for me. Verizon can kiss my ass!

 

[b_arrington]

Awesome!!

 

[Skybolt]

Awesome!!

Except it doesn't work. Spent most of the afternoon with T-Mo level 3 tech and the Pro 5G is blocked and they don't know why. Need to follow up tomorrow. From what I have read online T-Mo also requires a bis account. Both 5G and LTE modes connect and get IP's etc. worked long enough to do speed test and the zero through put. But the 5G speeds were insanely high. Testing with my phone only on wifi saw saw speeds >400MBps, LTE saw >50MBps. Both more then adequate for the boat. I think I need to change that over to a bis. account.

 

[Skybolt]

Well it seems that T-Mobile also requires a bis account to have the Peplink on there network. Just finished doing that and hope to get new sim tomorrow or so.

Just so this is clear, with both Verizon and T-Mobile the Max BR1 Pro 5G router requires a business account to be used on their networks, even though the SIM will connect and get an IP, it needs to be a business account to get through put and not bot be blocked.

It seems this is a relatively new short coming, but is in fact true. It also posted on the Peplink site forums. Some may already have this workking without a bis account, but that is grandfathered in and may stop working when a new sim is required. Now off to cancel everything done in the past few days ...

 

[dtfeld]

Well it seems that T-Mobile also requires a bis account to have the Peplink on there network. Just finished doing that and hope to get new sim tomorrow or so.

Just so this is clear, with both Verizon and T-Mobile the Max BR1 Pro 5G router requires a business account to be used on their networks, even though the SIM will connect and get an IP, it needs to be a business account to get through put and not bot be blocked.

It seems this is a relatively new short coming, but is in fact true. It also posted on the Peplink site forums. Some may already have this workking without a bis account, but that is grandfathered in and may stop working when a new sim is required. Now off to cancel everything done in the past few days ...

Great...

My Verizon is not a business acct, but I just bought the Mobile Hotspot plan and its been working like a champ.

When I switch, I usually consult www.rvmobileinternet.com and see what they are doing as these plans tend come and go pretty quick, so when I see what I want, I jump on it. BUT, it does take some monitoring.

Edit:

Looks like these plans are still available, no biz acct required.

 

[b_arrington]

What

Well it seems that T-Mobile also requires a bis account to have the Peplink on there network. Just finished doing that and hope to get new sim tomorrow or so.

Just so this is clear, with both Verizon and T-Mobile the Max BR1 Pro 5G router requires a business account to be used on their networks, even though the SIM will connect and get an IP, it needs to be a business account to get through put and not bot be blocked.

It seems this is a relatively new short coming, but is in fact true. It also posted on the Peplink site forums. Some may already have this workking without a bis account, but that is grandfathered in and may stop working when a new sim is required. Now off to cancel everything done in the past few days ...

That stinks. What's weird is I wanted to merge my existing T-Mobile pre-paid account for the boat with my new post-paid phone plan. I could do it, but they REQUIRED I have a 5G device, and they were willing to give me a FREE hotspot device. But because I wanted to keep my 4G Peplink it wasn't aloud. Why not just let people use whatever equipment they want? The data cap is the data cap regardless.

What do you have to do to prove you're a "business"? Asking for a friend....

 

[Skybolt]

Great...

My Verizon is not a business acct, but I just bought the Mobile Hotspot plan and its been working like a champ.

When I switch, I usually consult www.rvmobileinternet.com and see what they are doing as these plans tend come and go pretty quick, so when I see what I want, I jump on it. BUT, it does take some monitoring.

Edit:

Looks like these plans are still available, no biz acct required.

View attachment 143302

Well I can tell you first hand that when I first tried to set this up on Friday, the cust svc rep said what you are saying but when the phone call was made to register the IMEI we were told it had to be bus. acct. That's first hand exact info right from Verizon.

 

[Skybolt]

What


That stinks. What's weird is I wanted to merge my existing T-Mobile pre-paid account for the boat with my new post-paid phone plan. I could do it, but they REQUIRED I have a 5G device, and they were willing to give me a FREE hotspot device. But because I wanted to keep my 4G Peplink it wasn't aloud. Why not just let people use whatever equipment they want? The data cap is the data cap regardless.

What do you have to do to prove you're a "business"? Asking for a friend....

Yeah, you need to be careful on who tells you this. I was misinformed at every turn this weekend. And only when I scoured the net I did find the answer in that a bis acct is needed.

Now you may get someone to convert that acct over and all of that, but you will require a new bis based sim to get any through put. My current T-Mo sim connects and looks like it should work great and it did for a minute or two. Works fantastic in my cell, get's crazy DL speeds north of 400MBps. Put it back in the 5G device and nothing.

Like I said, spent literally all day on Saturday with T-Mo and no one knew what they were talking about NO ONE. It was only this morning when I called to discuss the bis acct that anyone knew what I had done wouldn't work. At least Verizon actually knew at the end of trying this and directed me to the bis end.

I know this may has or still is working for others but it won't at some point. The only place I found any insightful info was the PL forums. They were spot on and others have had this exact same issue since about Sept of last year.

I just received the new Verizon sim and am going to go test that and see if any of this is true ...

 

[Skybolt]

@b_arrington Brad, I stand corrected on T-Mo.

I received the Verizon sim and tried that in the PL and it did not work either. Trouble shooting ... So at the end of the day there is a hidden support.cgi screen in the Peplink and part of that allows you to check for the cellular modem FW version and allows you to check for newer versions and install. Mine was not current and I had to update that. This is different from the device FW (which was updated on Saturday). After the cell modem FW was updated both sim's started working.

So the consumer account T-Mobile sim works just fine in the Peplink. So Brad you can merge those accounts like you want to it seems. Also the current 100gb plan for $55/month seems to be working great. I am getting speeds over 40MBps on average. A lot better then the Verizon sim which was only ~28MBps.

 

[Blueone]

Just curious….what’s the end goal here with the sims?

 

[b_arrington]

@b_arrington Brad, I stand corrected on T-Mo.

I received the Verizon sim and tried that in the PL and it did not work either. Trouble shooting ... So at the end of the day there is a hidden support.cgi screen in the Peplink and part of that allows you to check for the cellular modem FW version and allows you to check for newer versions and install. Mine was not current and I had to update that. This is different from the device FW (which was updated on Saturday). After the cell modem FW was updated both sim's started working.

So the consumer account T-Mobile sim works just fine in the Peplink. So Brad you can merge those accounts like you want to it seems. Also the current 100gb plan for $55/month seems to be working great. I am getting speeds over 40MBps on average. A lot better than the Verizon sim which was only ~28MBps.

Great news for you!

 

[Skybolt]

Just curious….what’s the end goal here with the sims?

I was just trying to validate and get something reliably working. I have more Verizon cell towers around me, almost two to one of T-Mo. Since the PL can use two sims at once I wanted to take the boat to a limited service area and test things out. But since the whole sim/5g thing turned into just getting something to work, I gave up on that and just wanted something to work. So I got both working at the same time today. But the issue with Verizon is they claim no 5G service around me and only offer 4G LTE. That coupled with needing a bis account to even get this far made me bail on Verizon. Not to mention what they wanted per month was like a SL account.

So now the plan is to just use T-Mo and wait for the whole SL thing to gel and make sense. Then pick that up as well.

My plan all along was to get a new 5G PL and set that up on wifi and cheap cell account. I need that because I bought a slip that has a roof on it, so when I start using that slip I will need this anyway. If your wondering why bother? I need to be able to work from the boat and so does my wife. Not long hours but a couple of hours a day at times. That way I can take long four day weekends or weeks without an issue.

 

[Blueone]

Okay …..working from the boat makes complete sense…… carry on

 

[Skybolt]

I have to say for the past three weeks since I have gotten T-Mobile to work on the boat with the Max BR1 Pro 5G and the 40G antenna, I have had consistent speeds in the 50-60MBps range. The new antenna has really been fantastic at amplifying low signals. I haven't hit all of the bad spots but I have hit a few and these are the results.

I also have the Poynting 496 Antenna for WiFi as well. Not sorry I did this upgrade.

 

[bajturner]

I have to say for the past three weeks since I have gotten T-Mobile to work on the boat with the Max BR1 Pro 5G and the 40G antenna, I have had consistent speeds in the 50-60MBps range. The new antenna has really been fantastic at amplifying low signals. I haven't hit all of the bad spots but I have hit a few and these are the results.

View attachment 144182

I also have the Poynting 496 Antenna for WiFi as well. Not sorry I did this upgrade.

Hey Orlando. Question about your 40G antenna. How long is the cable run from the antenna to the PL? I understand on longer runs the signal losses can be greater than what is gained by the antenna.

I would need an antenna cable about 22' to go from the PL location under the helm, to an antenna on the hardtop. I have been thinking about locating the PL under the hardtop, but I am concerned about the amount of shake and bake up there...

 

[Skybolt]

Hey Orlando. Question about your 40G antenna. How long is the cable run from the antenna to the PL? I understand on longer runs the signal losses can be greater than what is gained by the antenna.

I would need an antenna cable about 22' to go from the PL location under the helm, to an antenna on the hardtop. I have been thinking about locating the PL under the hardtop, but I am concerned about the amount of shake and bake up there...

So yes partially true. But the longer the cable run the more loss is seen. The cables from the antenna are 6.5' and I added 15' to that. My rssi is -55dbm at the dock. Which is that SS I posted of ~60MBps.

You could mount the Peplink closer to the antenna like up in the arch, but I didn't want to do that. It i snow mounted in the "Entertainment center" (Sea Ray's term) and it seems to do just fine. If I use the WiFi from the marina, which everyone complains about, I can actually stream tv and the like. So I can't ask for more that.

EDIT: If you can get it in the hardtop and mounted, I would think that would be the best case scenario.

Also keep in mind I am not using the 5G as a router, I have a 3rd party router that I am using for WiFi on the boat. I have the AP turned off.


.

 

[dtfeld]

Hey Orlando. Question about your 40G antenna. How long is the cable run from the antenna to the PL? I understand on longer runs the signal losses can be greater than what is gained by the antenna.

I would need an antenna cable about 22' to go from the PL location under the helm, to an antenna on the hardtop. I have been thinking about locating the PL under the hardtop, but I am concerned about the amount of shake and bake up there...

I've had 2 Peplink units mounted in the arch, just held in place with some 3M VHB foam tape. I have the standard 6' leads off the Peplink 42G antenna and all works great even on the hottest days. If your worried about it bouncing around a mounting board could be installed.

I ran power from the DC panel in the bilge from an open Accessory slot with a 10A breaker, and an ethernet cable. It's my main router and I added some 12VDC industrial switches around to handle other items like TVs

 

[bajturner]

I've had 2 Peplink units mounted in the arch, just held in place with some 3M VHB foam tape. I have the standard 6' leads off the Peplink 42G antenna and all works great even on the hottest days. If your worried about it bouncing around a mounting board could be installed.

I ran power from the DC panel in the bilge from an open Accessory slot with a 10A breaker, and an ethernet cable. It's my main router and I added some 12VDC industrial switches around to handle other items like TVs

Thanks for the advice!

 

[dtfeld]

For anyone thinking about upgrading to a more modern cell router, this is a very capable router, and it’s about 1/2 of what it cost when it launched (during the pandemic/chip shortage). It will be interesting to see if the 5g version also drops.