HUAWEI B525 2017 -4G 300Mbps, CAT 6, mobile WiFi Router, NOT UK warranty stock

We live in a rural area where fixed line broadband runs at a snail-pace 200Kbps. On receipt of the B525, and within about 60 seconds (put EE SIM card in, switch on, connect to WiFi), we now have download speeds of around 70Mbps - that's fibre optics speed! We're also getting upload speeds of 25Mbps. The B525 is a very good router, and the CAT6 protocol is currently the fastest available. Huawei makes professional communication equipment for most of the mobile network providers, and their expertise is evident in their consumer products. The 4G reception is excellent (compared to my iPhone), and the dual WiFi frequencies give you the choice of reach or speed. One great feature of the B525, is the ability to reboot itself should the network provider disconnects the device. 3G and 4G mobile broadband services are an "always available service" and not an "always on service". This means that any permanently connected 3G/4G device will get disconnected by the mobile network. This normally require the router be turned off and on again to reconnect to the network. So far, I'm very happy with the purchase.

I bought this item because I wanted to upload to the Cloud faster than the paltry 1Mbit/s provided by my ADSL line. Where I live, the smartphone only occasionally shows a 4G signal outside, but not for long enough to use it, and never a 4G signal inside the house. The Huawei B525, when placed at a window facing the nearest 4G mast (about 8 miles away) locks on to the 4G network with a steady 2 bars out of 5, just using its internal antenna. This gives a download speed of around 12 Mbit/s and, far more importantly for me, an upload speed of around 6-7 Mbit/s. An external antenna would no doubt improve those speeds considerably, but my monthly allowance total of 100GB would be used up in an instant, so I may not bother to get one, as the unit is fast enough for my needs as is. Update: after the router updated its firmware, the received signal is better optimised, with 3 bars now instead of 2. Upload speed a solid 1MByte/s (8Mbit/s) Update Dec '18: I did try it with an external outdoor antenna, a well-reviewed one costing nearly £100 on here, but the received signal level DROPPED, no matter how I positioned it. So I would urge caution if you are thinking that investing in a pricy outdoor antenna will always improve the signal received. The router on its own is the best solution for me.

After much investigation I opted for this product to replace my broadband from landline to 4G. We live around 5miles from the nearest BT exchange served by old dated copper wire infrastructure with no sign of fibre ever appearing in our vicinity. I was tiring of paying for a poor service with <1Mbps download and frequent drop outs. I took the plunge and bought this, simple to set up, popped in the SIM card and I was overwhelmed at the speeds I had been missing out on, our nearest mast is about 2 miles Line of Sight which gives 30-40Mbps download. Service seems good too, no drop outs or lack of service to date. Router is located on a downstairs window sill and reception is showing the full 5 bars with just the internal antenna, I had considered an external antenna which the router does accept but there is no need in my case. Only one grumble (hence only four stars) is the wi-fi strength isn't great, I have subsequently bought some powerline adaptors to counter this which have solved this issue. Goodbye BT we wont be back !

I bought this router to use with a 3 sim card I bought, I manage to get the deal of £10 a month for unlimited everything :) It was a glitch on their system which they honoured. After reading other reviews I knew that this would allow me to add external antenna's and also you can connect up to 64 devices and it promises good WiFi coverage. For me the router gives varying speeds during the day and from checking how many masts 3 has in Spennymoor where I live I have only a choice of 1 mast. That means also that everyone else on 3 uses the same mast so I would have expected the speeds to go up and down as more or less people login and use their data allowance. I have added a few photo's to show the router and how many bars I'm getting off 3, the interface and the results of an average speed test. You will see that I have got four bars so the signal is quite good but my download speed is 17Mbps and upload speed is 14.4Mbps. This is about 1/3 of my current download speed I have on my BT internet broadband but as there is normally only me on the internet streaming then I don't see this as being a problem as I have been doing tests where I have use the WiFi router for my streaming and downloading and it has performed well, the WiFi signal is strong and when it get later on a night the speeds go up as most people have gone to bed. I did buy a Cross Polarised 4G Omni LTE Antenna for the router and I got no increase is speed and only a minimal increase in signal strength, not enough to warrant the price of the antenna. With the router being unlocked on all networks it means that I can plug in the home telephone in the RJ11 socket and use the mobile calls using the router. When calling out the router takes about 10 seconds before it dials the number you punch in on the keypad, I read somewhere that this is due to the router dropping down to 3G to make the call but I cannot confirm this. This router will save me lots of money and do more than my original router I got from my current broadband supplier. Very happy with the purchase and price.

Now I have super fast internet in an area with very poor broadband. My street has poor broadband speeds available through the telephone line and Virgin won’t run a line to my house as it’s to far from the street. I though I was destined to have slow speeds for ever and rely on using my mobile phone as a hot spot to stream HD TV. I opened the box, put in a Vodafone mobile sim and it worked straight away. I used Vodafone as they have the best 4G signal where I live (use whichever network has best service in your area). I selected a package with unlimited data and the fastest speed available, I am getting speeds of up to 150mbps and 40mbps at the very lowest. If you log into the router using a web browser then you can send/receive texts and even plug into a landline phone to make 4G calls (sim depending). Id say the router is quite expensive but is well made and it’s by no means the most expensive out there. Buying this out right and using a Vodafone mobile sim works out much cheaper than taking out one of their 4G or 5G GigaCube packages. The router looks good in white but was bigger than I expected especially with the external aerials that I also purchased. I get best signal with this placed on a window sill however it looks quite imposing and lights up like a Christmas tree but it will also work at a good speed though brick walls depending on where in the house I place it so generally I tuck it down behind the bed.

Bought for our next holiday because we want more internet than a hotspot will provide. Good 1: it works - just drop in a sim (we bought a 24gb "Three" data sim, and tested it with that. Good 2: it really is quick to set up and use. just pop in the sim and plug in the router to the "mains"! Then log (with your tablet/laptop/whatever) into the wifi with the passkey printed on the bottom of the router. Job done. Good 3: it is pretty lightweight. Good 4: it has a set of Ethernet sockets on the back, so you can connect stuff by cable. you can also connect NAS drives and network printers and all that. Plus cable speeds are always at least as fast as wifi, and normally faster. Good 5: it will be used as a "backup"/"fallover" wifi in our home, as well as our "holiday" wifi Good 6: "unlocked", so just buy a sim from whoever has them cheapest, or whoever has the best coverage where you are going to be, For us 2 network providers had better coverage than the other 2, then we just bought the best value sim from those that had the better coverage in our intended use areas. Good 7: take out the sim, and it should just work as a router/switch (haven't tested this yet, though!), because it has a WAN port and some LAN ports, Autosensing and all that modern goodness! Good 8: it has a pair or rear connectors to take an external aerial/antenna. it will take one or two, actually. Handy if you want that bit of extra boost, or you want to fit an external antenna. External weatherproof antennae are available for e.g. caravans, and will improve signal further. Can't do that with a hotspotted smartphone! We will see how we get on this year, and if we have issues, an external antenna will be on next spring's shopping list! Meh 1: The B525 is pretty sensitive about position - moving it about 6 inches and turning it a bit pushed up the signal strength from 2 bars to 4 bars! Meh 2: it costs money. if you are in a good mobile signal area, you might be better just hotspotting your 'phone. Save the money and spent it on data! (but we are going somewhere a bit remote, so we bought a solution for OUR needs!) Meh 3: the power adapter outputs 12v. be nice is a "car" adapter was included. but we can always plug it into our inverter :-)

At first this was a great product giving me fast broadband. However after 2 weeks use it has just decided to go no more. So disappointed

I have this now for nearly 2 weeks and thought i would share my experience. Overall i think it is a quite a good product the reception from the internal antennas is very good and you can add external antennas to improve signal , it has 4 gigabit ethernet connections and you can connect a land line phone to a RJj11 connector to make calls if your sim supports this function. There is also a USB socket where you can share a hardrive via samba which works quite well or a printer. The display leds provide average information you can see cellular signal strength via 5 bars , WiFi on but you don't know if you are using 3G or 4G or 2.4Ghz or 5ghz band. I don't really like the placement of the sim socket which is underneath the unit under a flap and is quite finicky to access with a spring loaded sim slot only accepting micro sims only and there is only one sim slot, 2 full size sim slots would of been good at this price point . The unit is very light and can be knocked over or pulled via cables very easily because of the stand-up design a bit more weight on the base would of been better. The web interface for the router is quite good with a number of options and settings but i found it can be a little sluggish and the timeout for admin access for me is to quick with no option to adjust meaning you find yourself typing the password in frequently. Also the APN settings unlike a phone only allow APN to be added nothing else which i am not sure is a good or bad thing however i had no trouble using a a Vodafone, Three or Virgin sim on auto. The problem i had was using the 5Ghz wifi connection. When using channel 64 on 5Ghz i could get a connection of 433mbps,.no one else is using that channel range where i live, however on occasion when connecting to the 5Ghz WiFi network via a phone or laptop, sometimes that action would knock out the 5Ghz WiFi network and all devices connected. The 5Ghz WiFi network would then take approx 3 mins to re-appear, this started to become a pain for example if you were downloading something you would have to restart or hope you could resume or if a family member was watching a video you would have to reload. If you are on a unlimited package you might be able to live with that but on limited data allowance you are wasting money. I am not sure if this started with an update which even though i turned off automatic updates kept telling me to update with pops ups. The funny thing is i started noticing this problem when i would leave my house with my phone and when i came back, the phone would try to connect to the 5Ghz WiFi network and bam disconnect everything, the phone is a Huawei Honor View 10 ! I never had this problem with the 2.4Ghz WiFi and you can have both bands on at the same time however I can't be bothered to fault find the exact problem partly because Huawei support can't be bothered to log a fault investigate and call you back and seem quite quick to blame you and come out with BS , so for this reason i have returned it.