Eir 5G, but account says 4G?

smartarsery

So I signed up with Eir last week for the 5G €45pm "no limits" plan, but my account seems to be confused (see the image below).

Is this just Eir not updating their website, and using the old code from 4G packages?

Does everybody's 5G account look like this?

I do have a 5G signal, and I got sent the new 5G CPE Pro 3 router (that doesn't even seem to be out yet!), but it doesn't have a way to isolate 4G and 5G signals, so I don't even know which I'm using at any time. Both have 4G and 5G have 4/5 bars on the router, but I'm hoping a future update will give the ability to separate them like you can with 2G and 3G.

I get speeds from around 20-80Mbps.

Much better than my old Three 4G package which ranged from 1-15Mbps.

I'm just hoping that I don't start getting charged when I hit 387.097GB!

lenoude

With the allowance, once you reach it the service will just stop working. So there will be no out of bundle fees. It'll reset when the new month begins.

I'm not sure about the 4g on the account. Just keep an eye and see if it changes when the new month begins. It could be a generic name by the system for a pro-rata allowance. Its highly likely that you are on the 5G plan though.

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118515678#Comment_118515678

Yes, that was my thought as well.

I was on a plan years ago alright where they'd charge you once you go over the limit, but I'm sure they'd have made it clear if it was the case here.

Nowadays I think they'll either notify you, throttle you, or cut you off in extreme cases if you're totally taking the piss.

wassie

Your on 5G - its says so. (Fixed Mobile Service) FMS 5G Wireless Broadband. Also check your bill - that will confirm it.

The other is basically a data consumption meter - ignore that it says 4G. Might have something to do with their backend systems given they use equipment that delivers both 4G and 5G on the same spectrum band using existing antenna infrastructure.

As for differentiating between 4G & 5G - Im guessing your havent logged into your router? Log into the web-based management page via pc - see the label on the bottom of the router for the default IP address (typically 192.168.8.1), username & password

You can also manage your router using the Huawei AI Life app on android & apple.

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564895#Comment_118564895

Yes, I logged into the router, (I mention this around the middle of the OP). But the only mention of 4G and 5G is on the router home page (see below). There's literally nothing else in the router settings regarding 5G, no way to change between 4G and 5G, or no way to even know which one you're using.

So, technically I could be using 4G all the time, even though there's a 5G signal there.. But still paying for a 5G contract.

Even when I go into AI Life app there's no way to distinguish between 4G and 5G, even though the other providers do let you know which one you're on.

I didn't know that they could bundle them in together, into the same "antenna infrastructure", as you say. I thought it would be massively different because 5G is so short ranged compared to previous generations. But if this is the case I suppose it would make sense.

But if anything, I would have thought they'd bundle 5G in with the landline network, and just stick 5G antennas on telephone poles.

The Cush

Someone may be able to explain this better, 5g in this country operates in NSA mode, non-standalone mode, meaning it uses 4g infrastructure, it was a stepping stone to full SA mode which wasn't ready at the time of the initial network rollouts.

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565935#Comment_118565935

Ah right, thanks. That makes a bit more sense now.

I've heard the term NSA floating around (in regards to 5G obviously) but never bothered to think about what it actually meant!

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565830#Comment_118565830

Apologies if I am reading this wrong, but are you wanting to modem to lock on to the 5G or 4G network exclusively so you can monitor performance?

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566704#Comment_118566704

Yea, that was something I'd like to do, but I kind of packed all my questions into the original post!

The speeds I'm getting with Eir are definitely better than the 4G speeds I was getting with 3Ireland on 4G (which would drop to 1-2Mbps in the evening), but I think the fastest speeds I'm getting with Eir still fall within the range of 4G (about 80Mbps).

So basically I don't know if I would have been as well off going with a 4G contract with Eir, since it could just be that they have better 4G consistency than 3Ireland.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566794#Comment_118566794

Could you see settings outlined, my B818 does not support 5G, but allow me to force 4G or 3G explicitly. Would expect your to be able 5G, however, as The Cush said....

In any way, refer to T&C's - almost certain you will find line reading "5G providing available" and "99% coverage for 4G in other cases."

So far, from what i read and experienced, 5G is marketing gimmick at the moment and seam you overpay. Same we had with 4G years ago.

Please consider that with previous provider you potentially were using different router(make/model?) and LTE CAT was lower than current. This could have significant influence to your speed now with Eir vs Three on old device. You could be surprised.

wassie

You should also be able to select in the app with one of these settings (same setting as post above)

Once its locked you will be able to view your speed with certainty.

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566794#Comment_118566794

Re: 4G vs 5G contract

So late last year my 12 month Eir 4G broadband (Huawei B818) contract was up and it is now a rolling 30 day contract.

I am on the fringe of 5G, so I took out a new 5G plan with Eir to test out whilst keeping my 4G plan active. If the 5G was good enough I could cancel the 4G costing me 1 month €29.99. Otherwise I could cancel & return the 5G at no additional cost as long as I was in the 14 day cooling off period.

I was able to test the service by locking the 5G CPE Pro 2 router on the 5G network, followed by the 4G and compare results by doing as @smuggler.ie described. I moved the modem around with various results, but the higher I moved it the better the signal. I also did repeat tests across a few days, each at the same interval throughout the day.

Unfortunately the 5G was not consistent and speeds were not as good as 4G (85-95mbs) so I cancelled it and have been with the 4G since. The 5G speeds also took a noticeable hit with rainfall which I put down to being just a bit too far from a cell. This may have improved with upgraded cells this year but I wasn't prepared to gamble when I have a solid 4G connection.

Good luck with it all

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566864#Comment_118566864

No, that's greyed out for me..

The overly suspicious part of my brain keeps insisting that Eir have done this intentionally so that customers can't check the speeds of 4G and 5G directly. But it could just be the NSA architecture.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566996#Comment_118566996

Yea, I'd like to be able to do this alright, but I haven't been able to find a way to separate the networks.

wassie

Think I found the answer on this reddit that discusses in part network locking.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Huawei/comments/re1clm/huawei_5g_cpe_3_5g_cpe_pro_3/

Looks like the 5G CPE Pro 3 is unable to network lock (unlike the the previous Pro 2 which I had). Seems a couple of new features are improved single antenna to make use of a feature called 5G/4G DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) which may be the culprit. Article below offers a good explanation:

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS for short) is a new antenna technology that for the first time enables the parallel use of LTE and 5G in the same frequency band.

https://www.telekom.com/en/company/details/intelligent-5g-network-how-does-dynamic-spectrum-sharing-work-611104

So looks like you cant network/band lock, but that's not necessarily bad thing as it looks like your going to get the best of both worlds (sort of). Actually wished now I had this device when I was testing.....tempted to try again.

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567467#Comment_118567467

Ah yes, I was also participating in this thread, gijoe50000.

It just goes to show how little info is out there about this device when somebody links to a thread that you're involved in!

Huawei are being suspiciously quiet about it..

I'll give that other link a read, but I think I have the main gist of what's going on now..

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567367#Comment_118567367

Mhh, setting unavailable you say..., have a feeling this could well be Eir firmware restriction - setting disabled, but functionality still there behind the scenes.

Should be easy to check and perhaps overcome. See LTE H-Monitor This will/should allow you to control router bands and frequency .

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567636#Comment_118567636

Thanks!.

Yea ltemonitor does seem to work alright, just doing a bit of messing around with it there now.

So far it seems that 5G alone doesn't work at all (or maybe I just didn't choose the right band), 4G alone sometimes gives better speed for a few seconds, then drops away (maybe from 40Mbps to 3Mbps), and 4G+5G gives me a more consistent speed, but not quite as fast as the peak 4G speeds, if that makes sense.

It kind of seems like the 5G is just supplementing the 4G and keeping the speeds up at something useable all the time. But it's hard to say for sure because mobile broadband varies so much from minute to minute..

I'll definitely do a bit more experimenting with it..

smuggler.ie

If to be very critical, current 5G is just label, sales badge. It should be some like 4++. In 2-3 years perhaps it will get better.

Shane_o12

I have the same problem. I went with eir 5g broadband back in early November. I was getting 5 bars on 4g and 5g but the speeds were very poor and unreliable both on upload and download with a max download of 54Mbps and upload from 1-20 Mbps. I can't tell if it was using 4g or 5g and can't set it to 5g.

Over a month ago I took the sim card out of the 5G modem and put it back into the previous 4g modem from eir which I was using for the previous 2 years. I've been getting a solid 20+ up and 45-70 down from the previous 4g modem. I tried the 5gh modem last week again and the same thing was happening. It was dropping to unusable speeds.

I haven't had time to contact them yet as I'm stuck with this contract until November but the 5g modem and network is terrible. Even when the 5g dropped it would switch to 4g and it was like 3g and I would have to re-start the router to get the so called 5g signal to appear again.

I was hoping there would be an update on the 5g router. I might contact them and ask for a new sim and see if that works.

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565830#Comment_118565830

Off topic, but what network is 272-42? Doesn't show up on any MCC-MNC list I've seen.

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118568298#Comment_118568298

Yea, it does sound like an issue with the router alright. My previous 3Ireland 4G router was like this too, I'd have to restart it a few times a day, or a week, as it would drop down to about 1-2Mbps. But I don't know if it was connecting to a bad antenna, or if it was overheating, or glitching, etc.

If you haven't reset the router settings, that might be worth a shot.

Or you could try sharing files between 2 devices on the network and see what the speeds are like, for example from phone to PC, that way you'll know if it's an ISP issue or a router issue.

Might be worth checking which towers the/each router is connecting to, and what their signal strength (dBm) is like in the router signal settings (Advanced>System). For example the 5G router could be connecting to a far away tower because it has a stronger antenna, even though the signal strength might be better, it could be poorer quality.

This page should give you an idea of what signal strengths to expect for RSSI, SINR, etc.. Mobile Signal Strength Recommendations - Teltonika Networks Wiki (teltonika-networks.com)

smuggler.ie

Yea, it does sound like an issue with the router alright. My previous 3Ireland 4G router was like this too, I'd have to restart it a few times a day, or a week, as it would drop down to about 1-2Mbps. But I don't know if it was connecting to a bad antenna, or if it was overheating, or glitching, etc.

From what i experienced, speed drop when router switch band it is connected to - B20(worse) vs B3 vs B1. But to me it happens rare, mainly after phone calls during which router drops to 3G. Mostly it restores 4G on "right" band, but sometimes i have to force it into B3

You will be able to monitor this with LTE H-Monitor or view-source:http://routerIPhere/api/device/signal in the browser(you have to be signed in to router on another tab)

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118573960#Comment_118573960

Yea, I've been messing around with LTE Monitor alright, but afterwards my 5G signal dropped to 2 bars (4G was still at 4 bars) and my speeds went to ****. Had to close the program and restart the router to get back to decent speeds. Which does suggest that NSA 5G isn't purely a gimmick.

I suppose it might just a matter of finding the right bands in LTE Monitor. I might do some more messing around with it later, but so far it seems that the router's auto settings are doing their job.

Interestingly I couldn't get any speed with 2G or 3G, it kind of seems like the router is only designed for 4G and 5G, but I could be wrong or course, maybe I just screwed up something somewhere.

smuggler.ie

Me calling 5G gimmick is due to - it does not provide services to the degree it suppose to by its definition and, most, it is advertised. They compare it to fiber , but you have your results of real life, don't you. My skepticism grew gradually as more i learned about it as it is now. 5G certainly goes toward better and eventually we all be more or less happy with it.

LTE HM is tool with some limitations, especially free version. It does allow you to overcome certain restrictions introduced by ISP (why? good question...) but as you will find in the manual it does not store settings on free version. Router will follow its protocols build in(and i am not sure what it is) - LTE HM (paid) can monitor it and re-apply settings that you choose @ intervals.

Its not ultimate can-all/do-all - use it as-is , different tools might be available, let us know if you get one.

After all, it all depend on masts/cells/bands available in your reach. As you on mobile broadband route, no harm to see Midband forum for more info, tips and tricks.

Not familiar with your router, 5G CPE Pro 3 is fancy name, actual model behind is H138-380, from your screenshot seam similar to B818-xxx or H122-xxx line interface. It has 4G CAT19 - good.

However it does not have external antenna ports - no chance to improve your signal reception. Only option to move it around and see if "better" spot available.

Signal bars on the router (and even in LTE HM) is set by firmware/software - it could show you 7 if they wanted to. Signal is defined by dB not by "bars". Speed will depend on dB and combination of several other factors:

RSRQ   -11.0dB

RSRP   -103dBm

RSSI   -87dBm

SINR   -10dB

These are mine and they are fair/bad, but they give me this at the moment (congestion time ?), in the morning and during business hours i have ~100/20 - good enough for this setup (one user, one device)

This is second setup - not great either. Multiple users, 12 devices now(phones, tablets, TV's, PC's). Off peak it goes up to ~200/50.

RSRQ   -9.0dB

RSRP   -91dBm

RSSI   -69dBm

SINR   -5dB

Both now, both 4G, same routers, nearly same antennas. Both not on Eir. DIFFERENT masts - 7.5km and 4 km away - you can guess which is which.

Compare to your stats, speed https://www.nperf.com/en/ and let me know - do you care about 5G tag presence more than about speed you can get?

I guess you wont, as long speed is satisfactory to your needs. Once 5G helps - great.

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118578073#Comment_118578073

Mine is a bit poor right now (see below) but this is at 9:30pm. Although compared to when I was with 3 it's worlds better. With 3 it would drop to 1-2Mbps between 9:30 and midnight.

For some reason I usually get the best speeds with my phone (with Wifi 6), maybe 80-100Mbps, but my PC usually caps out around 50-60Mbps (off peak). Even though I'm using an ethernet cable, but I can get high speeds transferring from phone to PC (400Mbps), so it's not a dodgy cable or anything.

Probably just have to dig around in the Realtek controller settings or something.

But yea, I'm happy enough with the speeds really, once I can watch a video without it lagging I'm happy enough!

This is my current speed check:

RSRQ -13.0dB

RSRP -102dBm

RSSI -71dBm

SINR 2dB

Masts are only 2 and 3 km away, but there're some trees and hills in the way.

wiresandmore

I’ve had eir 4G BB for over a year and for the most part it’s been great. Off-peak its 120/10, during the day drops to 75/8 or so. See below

I have line-of-sight to the mast, it’s about 700m away from our house.

Eir is the only operator with 5g near us.

I tried the 5g device and it was occasionally better (the 5G light was on but seemed only randomly to really get 5G, registering 300/30) but mostly worse (like 30/5) vs the 4g service. The big issue was that it seemed to have major latency issues as it switched from 4g-5g which since I spend a lot of time on video calls as I work from home was a big problem. So I have cancelled it and will stay with 4g for now.

Also it seems strange that the device they supply has no antenna ports. There’s a UK company (search router mods) which can adapt the device to have SMA sockets added so you can use external antennas. I might go back and explore than option in a while, but I’d need someone to fit the antennas to my roof. The suppliers I called only install their own antennas whereas I’d be looking to purchase something specifically. Has anyone used an installer (Dublin area) who would let you use your own equipment?

Bob24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058229233/eir-5g-but-account-says-4g

Sorry for taking you into a slight tangent, but would you know whether Eir is assigning a public IP address to your router, or is it a private one? (I am asking because I just got the equivalent service from Vodafone, and they are giving a private address which is an issue for me).

And btw FYI with the 5G CPE Pro 2 router on the Vodafone network, I am getting download speeds between 200-500 MBPS and upload speeds between 20-50 MBPS depending on the time of the day. So while obviously performance very much depends on your location, what you are getting is definitely very far from what the hardware can deliver with good 5G connectivity.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118583667#Comment_118583667

This what 5G should be. External antenna? Distance to the mast? if you don't mind to share

Bob24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118584145#Comment_118584145

No external antenna, but the 5G router is next to a large bay window so probably the best case scenario for indoor signal penetration. I don't know where or how far the closed mast is located (is there a way to check?), but I am in a rather dense area of Dublin so I would assume I am not very far.

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118583667#Comment_118583667

It's private (AFAIK).

There's a 100.x.x.x, on the router, and then there's a 212.x.x.x that the internet sees..

brav

Three were the only ones giving public IP but I think that has also stopped now.

Regarding speed, you don’t need 5G to get 200mb down, I get that most days during the day and middle of night but not peak evening times on 4G.

it all depends on location and having a good 4G modem with id say a LTE12 modem at least and external antenna if further from mast. (I’m about 3km from a Three LTE only mast wand use external antenna)

wiresandmore

Just noticed eir seem to have increased the usage cap on my 4G to 1TB (1024GB), up from 750GB. Anyone else got this?

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118590115#Comment_118590115

Mine still says 387.097GB, like on my original post here, but it could be because I'm still a new customer and the "part month" isn't over yet.

Might have to wait until the end of the month to see a change.

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118590115#Comment_118590115

Yes - same for me. I hit my quota last month on the 26th and got throttled to 5mbs for a torturous few days. Hopefully they have bumped up to a full 1TB which would be perfect. Nothing on the website mentioned anywhere or in any of the plans either.

Just dont get me started on the use of the word 'unlimited' by the ISPs......

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118591105#Comment_118591105

I asked them recently what would happen if I go over the limit and they said "You will not have access to the data." which isn't very specific!

But if it drops to 5mbps for a few days I wouldn't mind.

But yea, the unlimited data that's actually limited really pisses me off! It should at least be a ridiculous limit, like 5TB or something, since a lot of people will easily go through 750GB pm nowadays with YouTube, Netflix, gaming, etc. Especially with several people in a household.

ED E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118584145#Comment_118584145

Please don't say this, its misleading.

5G and 4G are only as good as the resources they're provided. In many areas you'll be served by a single 5G cell while you could be picking up four cells for 4G. In practice this can mean they're on par or either RAT wins out depending on multiple factors. In future as we refarm more spectrum into 5G the idea that 5G always beats 4G will be mostly true but again not always. Look at rural dwellers in the last two-three years who got better service on HSDPA+ as all their neighbours defaulted to LTE.

smuggler.ie

You right, little excitement was talking.

BTW, H138-380 apparently does not support 2G and 3G. That would mean no use of RJ11, in conventional fashion?

https://lowcostmobile.com/en/products/huawei-h138-380-5g-cpe-pro-3-ghtelcom-routeur-categorie-19-wfi-6-2-ports-rj45-slot-nanosim-box-5g

smartarsery

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118593709#Comment_118593709

Great find! This is the first time I've actually seen one of these routers for sale, with what seems to be the complete specs and bands listed.

It doesn't seem to be a "top of the range" model, almost seems like some corners were cut, no external antenna, much slower speeds than the Pro 2, X55 chip is about 3 years old, no QOS, etc. And still pricey as hell.

Although I'm not sure if I've ever seen QOS on a Huawei router. IIRC older routers 5-10 years ago had many more options and settings.

wiresandmore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118578073#Comment_118578073

I assume you are using external antennas given these kind of speed results on 4G - what have you installed? I've just tried the Bluespot 4G/5G antenna with no real improvement at all on either 4G or 5G.

ED E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118593709#Comment_118593709

The port would be for SIP not cellular calls.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118597770#Comment_118597770

Other might not care, but i use some of credits on outgoing calls, international mainly.

This where B593, B5186, B525 and now B818 were handy. Perhaps H138-380 could work as well if/when 4G calling will come to life.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118597694#Comment_118597694

Have Iskra's P58 and P60

Check mounting instruction before commitment, might not be suitable for everyone.

wiresandmore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118597902#Comment_118597902

So the P58 is up to 4G only, the P60 is 5G as well?

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118598464#Comment_118598464

Correct.

I have no no idea about antenna you have, but presume you have ensured that router(remind me the model) is set for external(if router interface hidden by ISP firmware can use LTE H-Monitor), and antenna pointing right direction.

It might take trial and error to find sweet spot even for antenna. Pointing to mast might not mean you are connected to it and/or its your ISP mast until confirmed.

wassie

Anyone know if the Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2 router supplied by Eir is locked to the EIR network?

Yggr of Asgard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118805234#Comment_118805234

The one I got 6 months ago is not.

But note that Eir is now giving the Huawei 5G CPE Pro 3 for new subscriptions. It's still 49€ for the device so in principle it should be the same, you owe it, you just have to pay the 12 month you signed up for.

But this is eir, so your best bet is ordering, testing and using your cooling off period if it does not work.