Getting better 4G signal in a rural part of Bohol by getting a 4G antenna?

[bend]

Hello all,

My girlfriend is in Candijay, Bohol. And she's having trouble getting a good 4G connection on her phone (and laptop). When we did a speed test on a good day, we reached about 2 MB up and 3.5 MB down, which is a little low for stable video chatting (for her online language class over Zoom). I've ordered a Huawei HUAWEI 33155 936 4G router, hoping that it will help to get the situation a bit better. I'm also trying to find information about a 4G antenna to connect to that. But I'm getting lost on what to buy. 

I found an interesting movie on Youtube that got good results with the 4G—XPOL—A0001. However, I can't find a shop in the Philippines that can send it to the Philippines, and I'm not sure if the bands (MHz) are different in the Philippines since the video is British. What I liked about that specific 4G antenna is that it is both Omni—directional (so no need to find the sweet point to point it toward the 4G Tower like a directional antenna???) and cross—polarized (pointing horizontally and vertically, I think??). Is this important when choosing a 4G antenna for the Philippines? Because I mainly see antennas in the shops like Lazada and Shopee that have only 1 of those 2 options. As you can notice, I'm getting lost at this point on what to buy.

Does someone have experience getting an unstable 4G signal to a stable signal in a rural area in the Philippines and wants to advise us on this topic or share his experiences?

What did you buy? How much did it help you? Did you install this yourself? Or did you hire someone to advise and install it? Should I go for a whole different solution, like satellite internet? ls Globe the best 4G provider in that area? Any other advice or thoughts you want to share? 

 

Thanks!

Greetings Ben D

[Jollygoodfellow]

10 minutes ago, bend said:

I'm also trying to find information about a 4G antenna to connect to that. But I'm getting lost on what to buy. 

Maybe something here will help, https://shopee.ph/search?keyword=4g antenna&trackingId=searchhint-1670757595-bd1f28f7-7945-11ed-bcfa-d08e79cf80a6

[BrettGC]

We're looking at the same thing right now, thankfully I have a background in this stuff so I can weed out the dodgy sales people pretty quickly.  

Multi-band only refers to the fact it will pick up 2G, 3G and 4G with each "G"eneration being in a seperate band (the "G" in no way stands for Ghz even though they do operate in those frequency ranges).  There's no wriggle room for providers on this, it's the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard, so a 4G reciever should operate in any country if it's been built to the standard.  

Antenna's come either horizontally, vertically or diagonally polarised as you found out. "Cross" is simply an antenna on two diagonals that catches both horizontal and vertical signals as well as the diagonal.  The polarisation is the plane of the electric field (the other field is the magnetic) in a radio wave relative to the earth i.e. If the electric field is horizontal to the earth's plane, the signal is horizontally polarised.  GSM signals are all polarised "cross" ways which allows for duplex operation, but I won't go into that. 

I'd recommend an external antenna over the ones that sit in the windows but you could try that first, and if no luck, buy the external antenna. 

As for installation, depends on your residence.  I personally wouldn't be getting out on our very high roof up a ladder of dubious origins but the local "Cignal" TV guy said he'd do it for us if we wanted.  I'm happy to pay for that.  

[bend]

Should I go for directional or omni-directional, you think?

[Jollygoodfellow]

15 minutes ago, bend said:

Should I go for directional or omni-directional, you think?

Best to quote the poster as that way they get a notification that you have replied to them. 

[bend]

1 hour ago, BrettGC said:

We're looking at the same thing right now, thankfully I have a background in this stuff so I can weed out the dodgy sales people pretty quickly.  

Multi-band only refers to the fact it will pick up 2G, 3G and 4G with each "G"eneration being in a seperate band (the "G" in no way stands for Ghz even though they do operate in those frequency ranges).  There's no wriggle room for providers on this, it's the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard, so a 4G reciever should operate in any country if it's been built to the standard.  

Antenna's come either horizontally, vertically or diagonally polarised as you found out. "Cross" is simply an antenna on two diagonals that catches both horizontal and vertical signals as well as the diagonal.  The polarisation is the plane of the electric field (the other field is the magnetic) in a radio wave relative to the earth i.e. If the electric field is horizontal to the earth's plane, the signal is horizontally polarised.  GSM signals are all polarised "cross" ways which allows for duplex operation, but I won't go into that. 

I'd recommend an external antenna over the ones that sit in the windows but you could try that first, and if no luck, buy the external antenna. 

As for installation, depends on your residence.  I personally wouldn't be getting out on our very high roof up a ladder of dubious origins but the local "Cignal" TV guy said he'd do it for us if we wanted.  I'm happy to pay for that.  

Should I go for directional or omni-directional, you think?

[BrettGC]

8 hours ago, bend said:

Should I go for directional or omni-directional, you think?

Without sitting out there with a spectrum analyser to measure the signal strength I can't give you definative advice, but I can say:

• If you're not sure of the direction of the tower, go for omni.  Given that you are getting some reception, you're probably going to be fine with omni-directional and it has the advantage of picking up the strongest signal if you have more than one tower in your area, and yes, this can vary depending on the conditions throughout the day.  
• If you know the exact direction of the tower, go for directional; the signal should be stronger and more consistant if you have the antenna aligned properly.   

 

[Mike J]

Here in Moalboal our internet service was not very reliable, quite slow and sometimes not working at all.  We now have a Huawei 4g Router model B818-263.   You choose the brand of carrier chip to be installed, currently we have a Smart chip.  Prior to the typhoon, we would gets speeds up to 80 megs per second.   I think towers were damaged during the typhoon and now it is slower but still adequate.    You can buy these units on Lazada or Shopee cost is approx P10,000.   You then buy load as needed.  There is a program that allows you to manage the unit via your smart phone.  Included in the app is a feature that measures the strength of the carrier signal.  You can move the unit to various locations to determine the area that receives the strongest signal.   We had ours set up by a local expat who set up internet solutions for resorts, restaurants, etc.  If memory serves me correctly we paid 15K for the unit, plus the installation, and instructions on use and maintenance.  Two years in and no problems, but may consider changing over to an alternative sim  chip if speed continues to drop.  For us it was a good investment, overall very pleased, and recommended.   Final thought, is 5G service available in Candijay?

 

[bend]

19 hours ago, BrettGC said:

Without sitting out there with a spectrum analyser to measure the signal strength I can't give you definative advice, but I can say:

• If you're not sure of the direction of the tower, go for omni.  Given that you are getting some reception, you're probably going to be fine with omni-directional and it has the advantage of picking up the strongest signal if you have more than one tower in your area, and yes, this can vary depending on the conditions throughout the day.  
• If you know the exact direction of the tower, go for directional; the signal should be stronger and more consistant if you have the antenna aligned properly.   

 

The tower is not so far away, so I think we'll go for a directional one. Thanks for your expertise :) Outside the house, the connection is already a bit better. So maybe we should try to do some speed tests with a smartphone. I guess after we decided on which antenna to use, it's a matter of trial and error to decide how high the antenna should be placed.
 

 

18 hours ago, Mike J said:

Here in Moalboal our internet service was not very reliable, quite slow and sometimes not working at all.  We now have a Huawei 4g Router model B818-263.   You choose the brand of carrier chip to be installed, currently we have a Smart chip.  Prior to the typhoon, we would gets speeds up to 80 megs per second.   I think towers were damaged during the typhoon and now it is slower but still adequate.    You can buy these units on Lazada or Shopee cost is approx P10,000.   You then buy load as needed.  There is a program that allows you to manage the unit via your smart phone.  Included in the app is a feature that measures the strength of the carrier signal.  You can move the unit to various locations to determine the area that receives the strongest signal.   We had ours set up by a local expat who set up internet solutions for resorts, restaurants, etc.  If memory serves me correctly we paid 15K for the unit, plus the installation, and instructions on use and maintenance.  Two years in and no problems, but may consider changing over to an alternative sim  chip if speed continues to drop.  For us it was a good investment, overall very pleased, and recommended.   Final thought, is 5G service available in Candijay?

Yeah after Odette, internet was gone for almost 2 weeks, and it has never been the same ever since. Thanks for sharing your experience. Except for 5G sim cards, 5G is not available in Candijay yet. We would be very pleased with stable 3G :D. If my experiment with the cheaper Huawei router fails I will try your model. Thanks :)

What kind of antenna do you use?

Thanks for your responses. I'm still curious about other people's setup in rural area's :)

[Mike J]

4 hours ago, bend said:

What kind of antenna do you use?

No exterior antenna.  I have the unit perched up high on top of the kitchen cabinets.   Pretty much line of sight from there, out the french door (always open), and over the water to a tower located in Badian.  Distance is about 7-8 kilometers.