Verizon 4G antennas available - RV-Dreams Community Forum

3Gstore_Matt · RV-Dreams Family Member

Verizon 4G antennas available

FD5 · RV-Dreams Family Member

So is this to add an antenna? Not a wireless router? Part number?

-- Edited by FD5 on Wednesday 15th of December 2010 06:23:39 PM

J Riechman · RV-Dreams Family Member

How much? I have the VL600 and there is no place to connect an antenna.

-- Edited by J Riechman on Wednesday 15th of December 2010 07:46:20 PM

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Matt:

I’m confused, which takes little these days, so please help us out here.

Does the 4G use different frequencies from the 3G system and hence require a “separate / different” antenna? I assumed the good old RV / Trucker antennas and dual band Wilson Amps, etc. (~950Mhz / ~1.9Ghz) would be a plug and play for 4G; especially since the 4G modem was compatible with 3G and would use 3G when 4G was not available, etc. (‘Speaking about Verizon here.)

I admit my confusion, please fill us in.

Thank you

Bill

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Verizon 4G is on 700MHZ where analog TV used to be. That means it does need new antennas and amplifiers. 700MHZ should extend the range and be affected a bit less by trees and buildings.

Racerguy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Will 3G go away when 4G is fully implimented which means we have to buy all new equipment?

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:
Verizon 4G is on 700MHZ where analog TV used to be. That means it does need new antennas and amplifiers. 700MHZ should extend the range and be affected a bit less by trees and buildings.

Thanks other Bill:

OK, someplace above TV channel 51 this ends at 698Mhz. OK. But that means, assuming we have 3G fall over when no 4G, we’ll need a tri-band antenna. Didn’t find the antenna Matt was referring to and doubt it is tri-band as he commented it was 700MHz. Hmm, that will be interesting not to mention having a tri-band amp? That probably isn’t going to happen – too much compromise and expense.

I agree, coverage could be a bit better down into the UHF band and out of the sometimes microwave frequencies. (Love 2Ghz, but not for this type of service.)

Maybe 3G is just fine for us for a time – or at least until the 3G air-card goes belly up. We don’t “stream,” so maybe for once I’ll let you be the “beta tester” for all this. {Grin} Isn’t change just “ducky?”

Thank you.

PS, no George. I doubt 3G will go away for quite a while due to the installed base of equipment. Even today, the orginal Rev-1 service (i.e. the one before Rev-A / 3G is still around due to that installed base. But someday I bet it will go away, but I would bet not for a number of years.

Bill

-- Edited by Bill and Linda on Thursday 16th of December 2010 03:11:03 PM

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Racerguy wrote:

Will 3G go away when 4G is fully implimented which means we have to buy all new equipment?

It will be 2013 before Verizon has their LTE (which they call "4G") fully implemented. I think 3G will be around a few years after that so I would not worry about it. The aircards themselves can be had for two year upgrades for free to $50. It is the external amplifiers and antennas that will need replacement. Routers can have their firmware upgraded to handle new aircards, but that is up to the manufacturer of the router.

Racerguy · RV-Dreams Family Member

That puts me at ease,by then I will probably be ready for a technology upgrade any way.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

The aircards move to the new systems first, the phones come later and those phones can be around a long time. As the other Bill said, there are still many EVDO Rev-0 phones being used today so it is still supported. I suspect they will still be selling 3G only phones for many years, so it is another reason to not worry about 3G going away. Also Verizon still owns the 900 and 1800 spectrum they are using today, they will also be running LTE on these in addition to 700MHZ. They could even run EVDO on 700MHZ if they want to and it would not surprise if they did.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Thursday 16th of December 2010 08:54:11 PM

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:
The aircards move to the new systems first, the phones come later and those phones can be around a long time. As the other Bill said, there are still many EVDO Rev-0 phones being used today so it is still supported. I suspect they will still be selling 3G only phones for many years, so it is another reason to not worry about 3G going away. Also Verizon still owns the 900 and 1800 spectrum they are using today, they will also be running LTE on these in addition to 700MHZ. They could even run EVDO on 700MHZ if they want to and it would not surprise if they did.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Thursday 16th of December 2010 08:54:11 PM

Ah-ha! I thought we could expect 4G on 900 or 1800MHz for compatibility, eventually. Maybe not everywhere at first, but in a limited roll out which means maybe the dual band antennas and amps will still be good. (Just musing here.) Anyway, I would expect to see 3G and 4G service eventually show up on the same band. As you correctly point out, they own those other bands and also, as you said, there are a lot of Rev-0 (your right, not Rev-1 – brain slip) phones still out there as well as air-cards.

One thing I have found, both personally and professionally, Verizon, to date, hasn’t tried to make the hardware technology obsolete overnight. They are interested in selling minutes and bandwidth (data) usage. It to their benefit not to disenfranchise existing hardware too soon.

Bill

3Gstore_Matt · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hello guys,

Sorry for the delayed response but it's been a busy week!

The antenna solution is currently available for the Pantech UML290 and we should have the LG VL600 antenna connector on site shortly. To answer J Riechman - the LG VL600 does have 2 antenna connectors hidden on the back of the device.

Here is a link to the compatible Panel antenna - 3G/4G Directional Panel Antenna

This is essentially a tri-band antenna meaning it will work with 3G on 800/1900Mhz as well as the LTE 4G 700Mhz frequency. All you need to do is swap from the 3G antenna port to the 4G antenna port on the device depending on the area you're in.

For those concerned about their current systems, you won't have something that is obsolete for a while. Verizon will have their LTE service covering their entire 3G market by 2013 but they don't plan to switch voice to LTE until 2020. This means that although a current system may not boost 4G service you'll still get the voice benefits and data benefits where 4G isn't available yet.

I was just at a Wilson conference the other day and can tell you other solutions besides the Panel we currently offer are in the works! I should have more details for you after CES in January.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good news, Matt and thanks for that clarification.

I am pretty sure Wilson, or other vendor, will have something in an Omni tri-band before long. I’ve done the directional / beam / yagi antenna thing and frankly it is just way too much trouble unless you’re at a fixed location for a while and need the extra gain. The SNR / signal meter on all this stuff (which is software based and not very good) has way too much lag to do a good (easy) setup unless you are going to be there for quite a while and it’s just a necessary. So the Omni, for us RV types, is just sort of a necessity IMO.

If you’re going to CES in January, have fun. Not! {Grin} That convention was a mad house and I doubt it has gotten any better in the last year. But it does have a lot of toys.

Please keep us informed and thank you.

Bill