HUAWEIB818-263, CAT19 4G/ LTE, 1.6 Gbps Mobile Wi-Fi Router, Unlocked to any Network, Genuine UK Warranty stock (non-network logo) –White

We're in an ADSL black spot - most we can get is 2Mb, and when it's windy it drops out constantly.I really couldn't face it any more - gaming has been a nightmare, not least of all the weeks it takes to download a single Xbox game.I'd thought mobile broadband would be a similar nightmare - we frequently don't even get calls in the house let alone data - as we have dense woodland on 3 sides of us, but got some tests done and it looked ok.I was horrified to discover that in the UK phone and broadband are now an inseperable package, so BT would want me to keep paying £37 per month for a broadband package that I wasn't going to use (not that it was usable in the first place!) and a rarely used phone.So I looked with interest at this router with a phone socket...I wasn't sure, as the question - do I plug in my normal phone to make calls - was met almost universally with no, you can't make calls.So one of the first things I did when I set it up was test this - the answer is YES, you can, so long as the SIM you are using is one with a call and text package. You just plug what was your old landline phone into the back. Dialing out takes a little getting used to. When you pick up the phone there's no old dialing tone (which may have fooled some people into thinking it wasn't working). You dial the number then hit the ring button and off it goes.My browsing of all the mobile packages almost universally had data only packges more expensive than their call enabled ones with the same amount of data: you'd be mad not to take advantage of that!When you make a call it is made using your mobile call minutes. You just need to give friends and family the new mobile number and dring dring there goes your old (now mobile enabled) phone! We've the added benefit of finally having the phone in living room rather than the other end of the house where the OpenRead socket is. You'll need to figure this into your positioning if your intending to make use of it as a phone.The WiFi signal is a bit iffy - doesn't extend far - but you can put it into access point mode. No difference to me as we have ethernet and WiFi off most of the time.In the router dashboard there's a text message section (important for receiving verification pins from your mobile supplier). So whilst I would have liked to keep a landline for emergency services (hubby retired and me disabled) I just can't justify (nor afford) £37pm for that.So to speeds...Sitting on a windowsill (remember VERY rural, in literally middle of dense woodland) and it's getting 27Mb with EE - tests with the same sim in a mobile were coming up with 4Mb, so the built in antennas are doing a good job.I also purchased the Poynting external antenna frequently paired with this on Amazon, and had it all round the house today. Interestingly, side by side and using the dashboard to look at signal strengths and download speeds for internal only and external only gave identical results, so the built-in antennas are on a par with the Poynting. Of course the point of an external antenna is to give more flexibility in positioning. It turns out that with the antenna on one spot on our living room window it goes up to 27Mb download and 8Mb upload. Woo hoo!My advice is very much to buy a small PAYG sim from each provider and test. EE used to be useless here, but it's now come up trumps. Vodafone - which a lot of others locally are using for mobile broadband - took 3 minutes to load the ads on the speed test website - download 0.01Mb lol Interestingly, this was a stronger signal than the EE, so make sure you actually do speed tests rather than using a signal strength app on your mobile/router.And do make sure you try every nook and cranny. My speed trebled simply moving the external antenna/router from one side of a window to the other side! Roof may be better, but at 27 Mb I'm probably going to settle for not having the hassle and cost of getting someone to do a roof installation.It's a really nice wee bit of kit, and the dashboard is all well laid out and certainly does everything I want. Plus I get the additional joy of ringing BT to tell them to cut off the pathetic phone line!I've now taken out an EE contract. I ended up opting for the £25 200GB package with one Smart Benefit ( I chose Unlimited Video Data). With this package, if we do use our full allowance there's unlimited data throttled to 2mb - same as our old phone line - and can upgrade in 3 months if we need to.So far the Unlimited Video Data is working a treat with our Samsung TV and this router. Netflix 4k, Prime and iPlayer all play away without using our allowance. Also works for YouTube on the TV but not networked PCs as you need to use a dedicated app it seems.Absolutely loving our cord cutting, and saving money too: the router will have paid for itself in no time!VERY happy bunnies :)Edit: don't do what I did... Make sure you switch off voicemail on your mobile provider if you want to use your existing answering machine!

Excellent 4G router probably the best available anywhere.Originally this router appears to have been manufactured by Huawei for the Australian ISP/Mobile provider 'Optus', (Optus and Huawei split up a while ago over the usual paranoia/sinophobia about China and dumped all their Huawei equipment). This router probably was repackaged with a UK plug but was left with the Optus logo on the firmware in lieu of the stock Huawei logo and also broadcasts its default SSID as 'Optus-B818-****'.A great router with an interesting back story, highly recommended. Australia's loss is our gain.

The best 4G router around, I was impressed with the claim it was an 'Unbranded UK Spec' model.The seller had a choice of new or 'as new', under this description, I chose the 'as new', and recieved a very clean 'as new' router that functions perfectly, but as you can see from the picture, - it definitely an Australian Optus branded unit, possibly refurbished.I did query this with the seller, whose response was, if you don't like it, return it for a refund

This device drops signal every 2-3 minutes first time it was used. Inserted Vodafone sim with unlimited data, after a very frustrating weekend night on online chat with Vodafone and Amazon ( all tech help was restart the device) , took the device to the Vodafone shop : same thing! And the sim works perfectly well in the Vodafone Huawei device. It is a very very poor quality faulty product. End up buying a new router from Vodafone who has better / more strict quality control to their equipment supplier. That was only half of the nightmare. Another half nightmare with the return and refund : every day, Amazon customers service online chatting assured me: Hermes will collect the return next day : it has been a week. No collection at all and when I type in the tracking number from Amazon for this “ collection “ on Hermes website: invalid. This is a totally faulty product and good luck to get it returned and refunded . Buy it at your own risk. Donate the money to charity not to this !

Excellent work, warranty 4G - speed 30Mbs stable, 5G - fly to sky. Depend is only form bad weather but latency is stable

Great product when used in isolation. However, it did not work and does not appear to be compatible with my TP Link Deco Mesh devices which I rely on for extending my WiFi coverage throughout my house. If you need it to work with a Deco network, you may find you have compatibility issues. If not, this is a great router.

My mobile internet was very slow so I bought this flagship router in hope to fix the problem. Now it's so good it's ridiculous. Late at night I'm getting over 500Mbps/40Mbps speed(downloading a game 35MB/s it's close to fiber optic speed) on unlimited EE sim only. In peak hours I'm still getting at least 100Mbps/20Mpbs so no lag even in streaming 4k at peak. Goodbye overpriced Virgin and all other useless cabled broadbands that get very slow over time. This one can switch between towers and aggregate multiple bands so it doesn't become slow over time.

A nice big, sturdy case and one that isn't fussy on placement due to the internal antenna design. Locks onto 4G+ and regularly get over 80 Mbps. Previously we were on the B535-232 which was quite fussy with placement compared to the 818.Not cheap but very happy with the performance.