Features:

  • Works with 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE, xLTE, AWS, GSM & CDMA cellular data services from carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Telus, Bell Canada, Rogers, DigiCel and more
  • Also compatible with 4.9 GHz Public Safety, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and 900 MHz radio systems
  • High gain increases signal strength and data speeds in areas with marginal coverage
  • Female N connector with 12" pigtail - Outdoor weatherproof enclosure protects antenna elements
  • Includes pole/wall mounting bracket and hardware (mast sold separately)
Quality antenna for a backup Internet connection

I decided to set up a backup Internet connection for use during weather related, long term outages of our cable Internet service. Because of the topography of the land around my rural home, we have no useful cellular service with a hand held device such as an iPhone or cellular enabled iPad. My plan was to replace the function of the cable modem with a cellular modem and directional antenna mounted high on the exterior of my home. I purchased a Netgear Nighthawk M1 (MR1100) Mobile Router which offers an Ethernet port to take the place of the cable modem. Since the M1 has 2 MIMO antenna connectors (TS-9), I decided to purchase a pair of these Proxicast 9/11 dBi Ultra Broadband antennas and mount them perpendicular to each other on my mast. Testing involved rotating the antenna mast in the general direction of all the cell towers I knew of, then checking the RSRP and run Speedtest. This M1 Mobile Router promises amazing speeds, but since my antennas don’t see a good signal, my speeds are more on the order of a DSL connection, but I expected that. Curiously, no matter where I pointed the antennas, my M1 always connected to the same Cell ID, with differences in performance depending on the azimuth. I plotted the location of all the nearby cell towers I knew of from a physical survey and then calculated the bearing and distance to each from my home to help with the antenna installation. I made an incorrect assumption that I must be connecting to a tower at bearing 51 degrees, 4.0 km (2.4 miles) because I was influenced by my knowledge of the terrain in that direction. Finally, I used the OpenCellID.org database to find the GPS co-ordinates of the tower I was connecting to and was surprised to find that it was at bearing 147 degrees, 8.25 km (~5 miles). So, back up on the roof and rotate the mast to that bearing. I’m leaving it there as the average of a half dozen speed tests today yields 8.2 Mbps D/L, 1.5 Mbps U/L, average ping 28 msec on ATT Mobile on LTE B 12 (700 MHz). I can live with this performance for emergency situations, especially because it will be accessible throughout my house using my existing WiFi network. Now that I have proved the concept to myself, I intend to replace the Nighthawk M1 with a different cellular router that can be configured for “fail over” as well as run on any US cellular carrier depending on which SIM I use. The Proxicast antennas seem nicely made and I am pleased with them. I did have to modify the supplied brackets to provide clearance when mounting the antennas at the 45 degree angles required for the MIMO installation, however I expected that as well from another review. The brackets supplied were NOT like those in the picture of the MIMO installation. Before I figured out about the true bearing of the LTE cell tower, I had tried the Proxicast panel type MIMO antenna. As it turns out, that may have been a cheaper solution compared to this pair of ultra broadband antennas had I simply aimed it properly.

Better than stock kit antenna!

This antenna works better than the stock kit Wilson and Hiboost antennas!

Five Stars

Exactly what i wanted

Great for overworked internet access

Working at a trade show in the middle of nowhere with limited WiFi and a lot of people trying to use the limited resources. In years past I would get dropped from my VPN. Installed this antenna and the amount of slow and dropped internet greatly decreased. I was getting good speeds and connectivity while others were computer complaining.

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