Phone with hotspot faster than sim card router?

choosetheend

Hi,

Apologies if this has been touched on before, I had a search though the sub and still can't figure this out.

I have a tp-link Archer MR200 4G LTE Router.

I have been using an old Samsung S8 as a hotspot for the last several months and finally got this router thinking it would improve things.

My download speed using the phone as a hotspot was 35Mbps.

My download speed using the router was 1.08Mbps.

That is brutally slow and very unsatisfactory. I thought I would get the same speeds at least and better connectivity.

Am I doing something wrong? This speed test was with both devices sitting in the same spot, and one after the other.

This doesn't make any sense to me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

choosetheend

Could the network provider be throttling my connection? Does the sim card "know" that it's in a router?

smuggler.ie

Its not that you doing something wrong, its that you did, when you purchased TP-link Archer MR200 .

TP-link Archer MR200 = LTE Category 4

Samsung Galaxy S8 = LTE Category 16

Get something matching or better, e.g. Huawei B818 = LTE Category 19 and you will stand better chances. This is not to say TP cant go better than 1Mb, but its harder to achieve.

choosetheend

Thanks for that. It's a bit disheartening. Category 4 should be able to get up to 150Mbps, so 35Mbps shouldn't be a problem though should it?

Is there any possibility that Three throttle the speeds? It is a phone sim in a router. Does the sim know what type of device it is in, and could it be set up to do this?

smuggler.ie

Not only you rely on what is provided by ISP in your area, you have limitations implied by your (dated)hardware.

What is your stats?

Not trying to discourage you, there is few things you could try:

Move router around house, near windows/attic to see if you can get better speed. Test preferably over Ethernet connection rather WiFi to eliminate WiFi fault

Try set "band" to B3(1800MHz) if option available(depending on device version)

Try switch to 3G only mode if unable to get better 4G reception

Consider installing external antenna.

Three, as any other ISP, can see device(by MAC, IMEI) is not the phone, and they could potentially act on it, but i have not experienced.

ED E

THe MR200 is cheapo trash, it uses a MediaTek MT7620A while your Samsung depending on model either has a really decent Qualcomm radio or a fair enough Exynos(Samsung) one.

Just return it.