ZTE 5G CPE MC888, Unlocked 5G WiFi Home Router, Fast WiFi 6, Up to 3.8Gbps, Premium Design with Low Power Consumption, UK Plug + UK Warranty (White)

This is a review for the ZTE 5G CPE MC888.I live in the country and we have terrible wired internet, and no fibre broadband available here. 4G coverage is excellent, so we've been using '4G broadband' for a few years now, via a Huawei mifi device and a SMARTY card. We ended up needing two cards/devices as our walls are thick and the signal wasn't getting through. Wanted to get rid of having two devices, and use a better router with a mesh system......I did LOADS of research before getting this!! I'd tried a cheaper Archer MR 600 CAT6 4G device first, which just got very hot, kept dropping out and was disappointing! Sent it back, did more research and came up with this.I'm using a SMARTY card in it, and I'm on the edge of a 5G network, so thought I'd get the 5G capability, even if we can't get 5G just yet. As I thought, I'm only getting 4G, BUT the speeds I'm getting are still amazing compared to the old wired BT internet, and to the SMARTY card used in the mifi device. Setting up the device was easy. It works best in a very specific spot on a window sill in the living room. I moved it all over the house to see if anywhere else was better: upstairs was worse strangely.Bought a set of three Deco mesh hubs (TP-link Deco X10 AX1500, £144.99 on Amazon), as on its own the ZTE couldn't get through our very thick walls. The set up works perfectly. The first Deco hub connects to the ZTE router directly, and becomes Hub number 1 (hidden under an old 50's radio's shell in the photo!) which then sends the signal to the other Deco hubs. I now have a brilliant signal all over the house, with two Decos, and one extra one which we only use when people stay in the Granny annex.We've had this set up for a couple of months now, and we only lost signal once, when it was chucking it down with rain/stormy. We've had bad weather since then, and all has been well. Copes with three devices at once streaming films with no problem. No problems with Teams meetings for work, with lots of people on the meeting, and sharing presentations etc.It's fairly pricey (£212.49 when I bought it), but so far this has been money well spent.

It turns a weak signal to decent speed and improve download speed significantly but upload speed is slow but much better than other routers (if not the best). I tested portable ZTE router, 2 different TP link routers and a Huawei router and this was the 5th.I used to live in an old flat building that was blocking the signal. I used it with SIM from Three (which might not be good everyday and every where). You should investigate it with other SIMs before committing to long term plans.It's extremely useful to have 2 connection ports in this router for my PC and laptop to give me stable internet connectivity.try placing it in a room with good 4G or 5G signal and test speeds in different places in your home then you might want to connect it through cables to your PC/LaptopWhen I moved flat, I didn't have down time in my internet connection using this router and SIM card and I rescued myself from long contracts with TalkTalk which increased prices after contract and they didn't offer better terms, they just kept taking a lot of money every month from my bank account without letting me know if there are better contract terms. Leave alone the issues I had with OpenReach to connect the new fibre and had to reschedule and didn't get a satisfactory solution.

A recent outage by my broadband supplier that lasted from a Friday until Monday morning had me trying to connect my old DrayTek router into taking my iPhone with a 5G connection on it. It didn't really work out that well.I wasn't able to do my work during this period of Internet outage and that justified my search for a backup broadband solution.My primary broadband comes in over the telephone line and is a fibre connection. So I wanted my secondary connection to turn up using a different method, but I didn't fancy paying the costs of a cable type connection. Remembering that I had a 'spare' 5G SIM, I decided to go for a 5G router as my backup broadband. That SIM would be relatively cheap to run in the background, and I can share extra data to it from another connection if any outage would be prolonged.So I went for the ZTE 5G CPE MC801A as my 5G router, and it's been brilliant! The ZTE also takes a 4G SIM too and I've tested this with a spare 4G SIM on EE (oh, the SIM size you'll need is the nano-SIM). With good signal, 4G will still be good enough for use as an emergency backup when there aren't too many users connecting to the ZTE on your network.The interface is simple and I've not seen an option that I've missed. I've configured DHCP for my installation so that it doesn't give out any IP addresses, but I've had moments where I've locked myself out of the router. But a quick reset and I was back in the game.This router is well priced and is well built. On price, this router and a separate SIM easily beats any packaged contract options from the likes of EE and 3.It plugs into my new, replacement DrayTek router - a DrayTek Vigor 2927 (I've reviewed this on Amazon) and it has become my backup broadband solution. The DrayTek handles primary WAN failure perfectly and I've pulled out the primary broadband connection to see that within a minute, the ZTE steps in to continue providing Internet connectivity.I'm very happy.

This product is insane. As long as your provider gives good speeds, this modem delivers. Im getting shy of 500mb all day long. Super powerful, great range and no performance issues even with multiple devices connected. But ultimately I got this device as a portable modem so when I travel I have internet on the go. The bad news is this device doesn’t not worm on certain 5G bands especially US ones. Which ultimately was a deal breaker for me. Went to states and couldn’t use it. Would not get service at all. ZTE said they don’t support US 4G/5G bands. A little bit of a disappointment but no big deal.