portable router "modem" that accept E-Sim

[DarkFalcon]

Greeting, 

 

had an tricky questin, is there any portbal modem or routers that accept E-sim "virtual sims" instead of a phyiscal Sim card?

[Agall]

2 minutes ago, DarkFalcon said:

Greeting, 

 

had an tricky questin, is there any portbal modem or routers that accept E-sim "virtual sims" instead of a phyiscal Sim card?

Cheap unlocked cell phone with eSIM capabilities duct taped to a battery bank running hotspot.

[Kilrah]

+1, especially at the prices those cell modems go for now.

Basic 5G modem = $500, used phone with same capabilities = $150

[Alex Atkin UK]

56 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

+1, especially at the prices those cell modems go for now.

Basic 5G modem = $500, used phone with same capabilities = $150

To be fair a good 5G Router has far better reception than a phone and doesn't constantly turn off hot spot mode when you've been idle too long.  So depending on your signal strength and how reliable you need it to be, a phone can be a real pain.

[Agall]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

To be fair a good 5G Router has far better reception than a phone and doesn't constantly turn off hot spot mode when you've been idle too long.  So depending on your signal strength and how reliable you need it to be, a phone can be a real pain.

I spent years having to use my cell phone as a primary WAN source, there's ways around those problems. The only requirement I'd have is at least 3 bars of 4G LTE and it was enough to game on in even competitive gameplay (at that time it was only 2200 rated arenas in WoW so top 2% at the time, but that's nothing to slouch at). In the OP's case, if its a device they're not actively using as a smartphone as well, it'll make positioning for better reception even easier.

[Alex Atkin UK]

22 minutes ago, Agall said:

I spent years having to use my cell phone as a primary WAN source, there's ways around those problems. The only requirement I'd have is at least 3 bars of 4G LTE and it was enough to game on in even competitive gameplay (at that time it was only 2200 rated arenas in WoW so top 2% at the time, but that's nothing to slouch at). In the OP's case, if its a device they're not actively using as a smartphone as well, it'll make positioning for better reception even easier.

To be fair, they did say portable so yeah you're right, a phone is by far the best option there.  Its only fixed routers where its absolutely worth getting a proper one, though if you are going to be somewhere with a outlet available then you can always treat one as portable.

 

I'm speaking from personal experience here btw having used all these things and honestly portable routers are the worst as they often use much older technology than the phones so you miss out on things like carrier aggregation.

But honestly if you need portability, ideally you'd just get a good data plan on the phone you always have with you and no extra device at all.

[Agall]

12 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

To be fair, they did say portable so yeah you're right, a phone is by far the best option there.  Its only fixed routers where its absolutely worth getting a proper one, though if you are going to be somewhere with a outlet available then you can always treat one as portable.

 

I'm speaking from personal experience here btw having used all these things and honestly portable routers are the worst as they often use much older technology than the phones so you miss out on things like carrier aggregation.

But honestly if you need portability, ideally you'd just get a good data plan on the phone you always have with you and no extra device at all.

I imagine those little hotspot devices can be a pain to manage when there's an issue versus a phone which has its own host OS that doesn't require another device or such to troubleshoot it.

[Alex Atkin UK]

9 minutes ago, Agall said:

I imagine those little hotspot devices can be a pain to manage when there's an issue versus a phone which has its own host OS that doesn't require another device or such to troubleshoot it.

I think they're just built extremely cheap, they should be a lot easier as the OS has to do so much less.  But we see the same with consumer routers, budget end models can be absolutely terrible.

[2dfx]

6 hours ago, DarkFalcon said:

Greeting, 

 

had an tricky questin, is there any portbal modem or routers that accept E-sim "virtual sims" instead of a phyiscal Sim card?

Just out of curiosity, why does it need to accept an e-SIM?