HUAWEI B311 2020, CAT 4, 4G/ LTE 150 Mbps Mobile Wi-Fi
HUAWEI B311 2020, CAT 4, 4G/ LTE 150 Mbps Mobile Wi-Fi Router, Unlocked to All Networks- Genuine UK Warranty STOCK (Non Network Logo)- White
Wireless Router
The Huawei B311 Wireless Router provides you with access to the Internet through mobile networks, and Ethernet networks. By connecting to the B311 using Wi-Fi or a network cable, you can get access to high-speed Internet services.
| Weight: | 2.91 kg |
| Dimensions: | 18.1 x 12.6 x 3.6 cm; 2.91 Kilograms |
| Brand: | HUAWEI |
| Model: | B311-221 |
| Colour: | White |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Livewire Telecom Limited |
| Dimensions: | 18.1 x 12.6 x 3.6 cm; 2.91 Kilograms |
Brilliant for CCTV in a remote locatio
Just installed CCTV in a remote location and was unable to have a landline installed. This coupled with a low cost 4G SIM has solved the problem. Good speeds of around 30-40 MBps which more than enough to see what’s going on. I would definitely buy this again.
Works grea
Put a sim in this and use as internet in our holiday home . Works perfectly. Have tv , smart plugs , Alexa, etc all working off this with a sim only plan only 10 a month . Can’t beat that .
Much improved speeds
This was to replace my fried 4gee router 3. I live on the edge of a 4g area and I would get an unreliable 15md dl and 2 min ul previously. This unit seems to have a better internal aerial setup giving 57 mb dl and 14 mb ul. Very steady graph with low jitter. Very fair price too. An easy recommendation.
Excellent produc
Good product for price runs cameras phone and tv 10 mins to set up very occasional lag and for 20 a month unlimited internet and no contract best to check network coverage in your area not sure the suspicion around Chinese manufacturers from certain parties is justified as they provide innovative products at a reasonable price recommended
Couldnt live with my pitiful landline connection so i got this 5G router. Using an unlimited Lebara sim card which was super easy to set up and now im getting Wifi 6 and speeds averaging 250mbs. Great thing is i can take it on hols etc. aswell. Sim is 25pm with no termination period so im getting better wifi than BT unbreakable at half the cost. Definately worth the investment as it will pay for itself in a year.
Bought to use in our caravan with an EE sim.Works very well, only minor negative is the sim card slot is a bit hit and miss to get the sim card in the right position but whenyou do performance is excellent.
Update to my review – Jan 2024
This product is brilliant, assuming you can get 4G service in your location, the internet speeds are brilliant, I’m writing this review whilst away in our caravan where we connect our TV, laptop, ipads, iPhones and it doens’t skip a beat. Excellent value
Great speed
I am able to get 5G even though we are on the edge sometimes getting down load speeds of 350mbs more often over 100mbs that’s living on a farm using a SIM card
Works well, except some odd interaction with a sim card from French provider Free. After cell network outages (lightning), the connection seems to get stuck in ‘roaming’ mode (except it isn’t roaming, it just has no data). The only fix I have found is to put the SIM into a phone temporarily then back into the router.
Things to note:
Assume unless you know otherwise that you will be behind CGNAT and will not be able to access ports from the WAN.
Built-in VPN works (at least with my ASUS home router), but I have no routing between the home LAN and the VPN (I think this might be fixable, but easier to install a R-PI and set up a tunnel).
Works well in a remote area
Purchased this to set up mobile broadband in a remote area only serviced by EE. It works well so far and no problems.
Would recommend as a cost effective way of getting internet in rural areas.
Immediate swap-in replacement for my 4G router from Huawei
No fuss. Just powered it up, changed the admin password and the internal IP address to suit my network, and just dropped it right in to replace a 4G modem, also from Huawei. Nice!
I bought this because my new house is not serviced by any of the major internet providers. For the most part, 4G is enough for what I do (basic video streaming & office work). It has allowed me to connect all of my smart devices, and was substantially cheaper than the alternatives. I also think it looks great (for a router). Performance is adequate. But beware – this only has one LAN port and so I felt the need to buy an Ethernet switch in addition.
Easy set up and quick connection once activated sim. Bought this to use in a static caravan and really amazed by it, connected to 5 mobiles plus a smart tv not once did it buffer with netflix on. Highly recommend plus you can buy unlimited data 20 for a month with no contract. Worth 5 stars
I bought this for our static caravan to save hot spotting from our phones all the time.
I’m impressed, no drop outs and has full bars through out the van on all our devices even sat outside.
I will be bringing it home with me to test here too before I buy another for the house and cancel my broadband contract with a rubbish and expensive provide
This is really easy to set up and seem to work well. I have only used it for a weekend away in my caravan. it is an improvement on using a phone . It will be a good investment in the end. The signal is strong enough to drive two ipads and TV. It is a shame that the advertised Smarty sim card was not actually included in the sealed box.
Works well
I’m using this with a good value unlimited data SIM which uses the EE network (1P internet). 5G speed is good, better than on mobile phones, in a poor signal strength area.
I have previously used Huwawei’s 4G modems. They have sockets to which an external antenna can be attached to boost signal strength. This model does not. The antenna I purchased works well with 4G and was marketed as “5G ready”. It seems a shame that it cannot be attached to this modem.
For the past 2 years I had been using a 4G router supplied by Three, which was giving me download speeds of up to 60 to 70 mbps. These speeds were way better than what I used to get with BT fibre so I was happy but I decided to try a better router to see whether there would be an improvement in the speeds I would get. I decided to go with this router because my current one is also manufactured by Huawei and so I am familiar with the interface when setting the SSID/Password and other parameters.
Setting up this device is a breeze (like all 4G or 5G routers). All you need is to insert the nano sim and plug the router into a power socket (comes with a UK plug) – that’s all you need to do to get up and running.
If you want to change the preinstalled SSID and PW, you will need to connect your PC/Laptop via an ethernet cable and enter the device’s web address into your browser – all quite straightforward. I then decided to check the download speed and was amazed that I got 400 mbps so tested again, with similar results – totally unexpected and very pleasantly surprising.
I have been using the device for a day so it’s early days but so far everything is great. Even at busy times (evening) I was getting a download speed to well over 300. Keep in mind that I have a 4G sim and not 5G.
All in all, I am very happy with this device and would recommend it to anyone who wants faster speeds.
If you’ve ever been on holiday in a North Wales caravan park, you’ll probably not be able to get WiFi – do I bought this, with a cheap antenna from Amazon for a few quid and also from Amazon an EE preloaded data sim (100gb for a period of 30 days for 20) and I now have WiFi on holiday! Brilliant
*you don’t need the antenna – this is a later update*
Brilliant compact router, got it up and running in less than 5 minutes. Just plugged it in, inserted the sim, and I was online. I live in a rural area in a valley where the signal via a landline is terrible, with regular outage. I have been using this router for about 3 days now, and I have a solid 2 bar signal, sometimes 3 bars.
This router is tucked away on the far side of my lounge at present, maybe if I reposition it nearer the window I may get the full 3 bars, however the upload/download speeds, and browsing speed is fine for my needs.
One small niggle, the main lead is relatively short, which restricts how far you can move the router from the Power socket. Not big deal, I will make up an extension cable.
I am using the Smarty no contact, unlimited data package which is costing me 18 a month (Group Plan) as I also have Smarty as my mobile phone provider. So now I have a decent broadband connection, and saving myself 20 a month by leaving my previous ISP.
Very good
As a medium internet user, I bought an unlimited data card. It was a little tricky inverting the SIM card at first, but eventually it was sorted out.
This router was easy to use and living in a 2 bed flat it works very well.
My internet bill per month is 16 using this router with a SIM card.
I would give this router a score of 8 out of 10.
Great value for money.
Stable 5G connectio
I bought this to replace a ZTE 5G CPE MC801A device that was constantly disconnecting. Although the speeds are slightly slower than the ZTE the connection has been rock solid so far.
I was paying 33-50pcm with S** (work it out) with the contract ending due to increase to 42pcm. This was for broadband and l/line telephone (which I never used). no TV package included. Rip off.
I bought this router and now pay 18pcm (no contract, so I can move to a different SIM whenever I choose). The old router’s signal wasn’t strong enough to reliable run my cctv; this one is! Two tellys + tablets + three echo dots on all the time and no buffering! One needs to check mobile coverage but this is one of my best purchases ever! I cannot recommend highly enough.
Nice bit of ki
Brilliant router easy to install and use, currently being used where the phone lines keep going down every other week, once we are set up with an unlimited data bundle will cancel the Internet through my provider and just use this
Works fine
Set up with a ‘Smarty’ SIM – internal arial good enough but want to use an external arial for my application (inside a metal shed, all signals blocked) – the one I bought to go along with it does nothing so this only works if I keep the door open!
excellent for our carava
This is an excellent bit of kit.
We bought it to get a decent signal at our caravan which was patchy or non existent at best of times.
I pay a small monthly fee to EE for broadband signal and installed the SIM card provided by them and off we went. It was a little tricky to find how to install the sim card but we got there in the end and after that its been plain sailing and all the members of the family are very pleased to have WiFi at the caravan at last.
Highly recommended.
Arrived on time. Easy set-up
I ordered this router to replace a mobile phone wifi hotspot. It arrived the next morning and began functioning as soon as I inserted the SIM card and turned it on. It seems to provide decent coverage although I haven’t given it a great challenge in terms of wall thicknesses and disruptive signals.
Worked very well for me.
I bought one of these after a house move, when (courtesy of Covid) we were outlooking several weeks’ delay to get a Virgin connection installed. I signed up to a rolling data plan with Smarty, popped the SIM in, connected my old router to the box via Ethernet and had my whole LAN up and running as normal with minimal configuration in very short order. Mobile signal strength is obviously important, so position may be key, and there were points where the signal I was getting wasn’t fantastic – but I was mostly able to stream Amazon Prime video and to get good, low ping values for online gaming with no problem. I cancelled the SIM plan before the end of the first month. WiFi strength was fine, but I should add that overall it was sufficiantly robust for me to consider sticking with it as a permanent solution. Overall, I reckon it didn’t cost me much more than a normal ISP subscription – and a significant part of that was the initial outlay on the box.
Great device, poor WiFi performance
This thing is amazing and I have now made the switch to mobile broadband. However, the WiFi performance on this thing is not that good, I had to connect another router to handle my network.
I recently moved to an area that doesn’t have fibre, and the max speed I could get was 14Mps so I did my research and noticed that mobile broadband would be the better option for my household.
In my area I get very good 4G speeds, and constantly get over 100Mps! The speeds varys during the day, but I never get less than 70Mps and have speeds reach up to 180Mps!
However to reach those speeds, I had to buy a separate router as the Huawei can’t handle lots of devices.
If you live in a area that has good 4G speeds or have 5G then I would definitely recommend to make the switch, as I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the greedy UK ISPs.
I got this Huawei CPE Pro 2 5G to use with a Three (UK) 5G unlimited data plan as a backup for my unreliable Vodafone/BT Openreach VDSL fixed broadband connection. Unlike Three’s pathetic 4G LTE, their 5G is outstanding where I live, with over 400Mbps down and 30 Mbps up, vs. 40 Mbps down and 10 up on VDSL, albeit with slightly higher latency of 12ms vs. under 8ms.
The CPE Pro 2, unlike the CPE Pro, does not have CMA ports to plug your own antenna. 5G is extremely sensitive to placement, just 20 centimeters in my window are the difference between 30 and 12 Mbps up and 12ms vs 20ms latency. This means having the option for better antennas can make a huge difference, and it’s disappointing Huawei took this out.
I run a Ubiquiti UniFi switch and AP network, so I have zero interest in the Huawei’s built-in WiFi. I’ve had bad experiences with a previous 4G LTE router (Netgear LB1121) that did weird things with unsolicited ARP that would cause it to disable the rest of the network, so I put the Huawei in a VLAN, but even then it was still able to take portions of my network down, those using Devolo Magic2 LAN powerline bridges. It turns out the Huawei spews Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) packets that force reconfiguration of the network. Perhaps they were trying to be “helpful” in a misconfigured consumer network, but the end result is that even in a VPN this is unusable. My solution was to plug it into the Ethernet port of an OpenBSD router to isolate it. I was going to do that to establish a WireGuard VPN tunnel anyway to get around Three’s Carrier Grade NAT. It’s possible the Huawei doesn’t play these tricks in Bridge Mode, but I haven’t tried that yet.
Apart from that, the Huawei is a fast wireless router that offers a respite from the sad state of the UK”s abysmal fixed broadband infrastructure. Just keep in mind you don’t have much control over the routing features and it does some really weird stuff that doesn’t play nice outside consumer network setups.
This router is very easy to use – I didn’t even have to read the manual. All the information you need is on a sticker attached to the device. Can’t really comment on the range unfortunately, as I’m only using it for devices within the same room.
If your SIM is provided directly by the network (i.e. O2 / Three / EE / Vodafone), it appears that it will automatically detect the settings, so it’s as simple as putting a new SIM card in, reboot it and the new SIM will be detected and off you go. This is also true for some “mobile virtual network operators” (MVNO’s) that I tried – such as Smarty (Three) and Lebara (Vodafone).
However, for some MVNO’s, particularly the ones using O2’s network, you may need to enter the settings manually. In my experience, this is true for Lycamobile and GiffGaff at least. The APN settings I needed were easy enough to find online.
So if you are looking for a mains powered 4G router to provide you with internet via a SIM card, I recommend this one.
Best to check 4G coverage in your area first though, as you will want to go with the network that is best in your location. Once you’ve decided whether O2 / Three / EE / Vodafone is best for you, search Google for “List of United Kingdom mobile virtual network operators” and it should direct you to a Wikipedia page where you can see all the MVNO’s available and sort them by host network – there are much better deals to be had from an MVNO if you only want data.
Great improvement with the Wi-Fi 6
I had been using the Huawei 5G CPE Pro for about 7 months before upgrading to the “Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2” for the main reason being that it supported WiFi 6. For those that don’t know, WiFi is a massive update and improvement over the past generations. I won’t go on about it as the review would be too long, but I’d recommend anyone with a small business or working from home to seriously look into WiFi 6 and setting it up correctly.
Now onto the actual device. The speeds I got were fantastic, when plugged into Hyperoptic connection at my friend’s place we were able to setup a WiFi network which allowed my mobile phone to have a download speed of 900mbps, the fastest I had ever seen my phone achieve.
But of course the main reason I got this was for the use of 5G. Thankfully my location in SE1 , London is covered well by Three. PLEASE NOTE, that speeds will obviously vary if your ISP doesn’t have great coverage in your area. For me I average about 10ms ping, 450mbps download and about 100mbps upload (I’ve attached a screen shot of a test I’ve just done)
My phone which is also on a Three contract doesn’t come nearly close to that speed by itself (about 280mbps download) which while still fast, just shows how well this router works.
I want to leave this review as I spent lots of time researching. I decided over CPE Pro2 as I was fed up with traditional network providers. I also looked over other mobile router brands but there was always something missing. 5G, Wi-Fi6 and reliability were the main areas of concern. I was undecided between CPE Pro and Pro2 for long time, because of external antenna. But Pro2 was more packed. What I did was to order both Smarty and Voxi sim cards and test them (14 days trial and you can cancel and get refund if one didn’t work well). For my surprise Voxi couldn’t get speeds over 3mb in my location and I kept Smarty. So Smarty (Three) is able to get me WiFi speeds over 30mb (ethernet speeds are higher) which is more than Sky provides me. The difference is that Sky wants to charge 27 if I accept renewal for 2 years otherwise it’s 32. I’m paying 18 for Unlimited Data on Smarty, no contract, no caps nor throttling. What about that… In less than two years the investment is repaid.
CPE Pro2 is not fully boosting, as 5G is not yet working in my area, but it will in future. So I’m expecting upper speeds. CPE Pro2 was a future investment, as there are cheaper 4G mobile routers, but when 5G comes, the investment is lost, as you can’t upgrade it. Despite all the BS about Huawei, they know what they do, and they are really good on that.
To enjoy the experience I’m getting, I also bought the router Huawei AX3 quadcore 3600mb Wi-Fi6 Plus (you will be surprised with the price compared to other brands). So I turned my CPE Wi-Fi off, linked it via ethernet to the router. CPE grabs signal, AX3 manages and provides it. NVidia shield tv and NAS hardwired to the router, running Netflix and Plex server and other streaming services, and there is still juice for phones.
Fantastic, bye bye Sky.
The equipments are managed via App so its a plus. Both CPE Pro2 and router seem modern and good looking. Love the blue led in CPE.
Note: Speeds are good enough to videostream but it won’t be enough for online gamers that need all the juice, unless you are in a 5G area already, of course). Google on mobile providers antennas in your location when deciding which sim to order.
I’m on a tight budget being homeless in temporary accommodation in a place with terrible reception and I was lucky to get 200kbps tethering my phone to my laptop if I crawled on to the kitchen counter and had the phone out of the window. I couldn’t afford broadband and am not allowed to get it installed in the building anyway not to mention being tied i n to a contract is a bad idea when your circumstances are unstable. I got this not realising it came with a Smarty SIM and already activated a 25 GiffGaff plan before it arrived which I got 0.5-3mbps down on during the day and a max of 10mbps in the early hours. At first I thought maybe its because I bought a cheap router with a cheap antenna GiffGaff suggested it was my device and even asked me ‘if I had data turned on’… No, it was the SIM not the router. The Smarty SIM suggested is far superior! I’m getting 34.3mbps down and 5.11 up last time I checked. I also switched my phone over to Smarty so my broadband and phone cost 23.40 altogether with the group plan discount. I am astounded at the speeds and coverage possible with a combination of this device and plan. It was well worth the investment even with how tight everything is for me right now as I can access services, read maps of the local area as I’m totally unfamiliar with it, correspond with the council regarding my housing situation, order my prescriptions, pay bills and find ways to earn money online now.
I’m getting better speeds and a more stable reliable connection than I’ve previously experienced with Virgin Media, BT etc and you are free to just not pay for it when you don’t need it or can’t afford to on a one month rolling contract. You can easily set it up anywhere. It’s a minimalistically designed, sleek little thing. Obviously made of light plastic but as one of the cheapest devices of its type on the market, I am certainly not complaining. I’d be lost without it.
We have a caravan sited out in the country. The site provide free wifi but it is painfully slow and unreliable. I’m working from home just now and could work from the caravan if I had decent internet access. Mentioned this to the site manager and she recommended one of these Huawei boxes. She said quite a few people on the site use one and stream films and tv programmes on it without any issues. I bought one and tried it at home. Worked a treat. I put it through the mill by streaming films on three devices at home while testing my internet phone for work (I work in a call centre). This box handled it fine. I’m in a built up area where mobile signals are good.
I took a risk and took my laptop and desktop computer down to the caravan and set it up with the Huawei box. It worked a treat. I appreciate the signal strength may vary by provider but in the main I had a signal strength in the middle bar of 3 bars most of the time and it occasionally moved up to the third bar or down to the fist bar but I was able to do everything on the internet I needed for work, my internet phone worked fine and all the time I was streaming films to my tv. I never lost the connection once.
I also bought a cheap landline phone which I’ve plugged in to the box using a suitable adapter so our tin shed has a ‘virtual landline’.
Great little bit of kit that I wish I had discovered sooner. As an aside I’m using a sim card for a smaller company that uses the network of a main provider. I’m on a monthly contract that I can pause or stop at any time so I don’t need to pay for when the caravan is mothballed for the winter and it’s cheaper than if I’d gone with the main provider..
I probably don’t need one but there is an option to improve reception by adding either an additional internal antenna to the back of the Huawei box or add one that can be sited outdoors and wired in to the Huawei box.
Oh and I should have said set up was a piece of cake.
When we first moved in there wasn’t any good broadband here. The deals for our house were at something like 20 for 4mb? It was shockingly awful and we almost went for it. It seemed like everyone else around us did too. At least it’s reliable. I was looking for other options though and thought, maybe we should try this instead. Wasn’t really sure if we were wasting our money but the other option is just horrible. The router came with a smarty SIM card which costs 20 a month with no contract! I thought that was pretty good for unlimited data. Still wasn’t sure about it but after using it for like 3 months now it’s worked extremely well. We are both happily streaming stuff, playing music on Spotify, watching stuff on YouTube. I didn’t have much hope for it but it’s definitely so much better than I thought it could be. I would say if you’re a gamer it’s a little bit annoying, because that’s when it gets laggy. If you like to play competitive matches then I would say hold out until you get stronger, more reliable broadband. Other than that I’ve been really happy with it. My boyfriend still games on his pc, and sometimes he says it works really well while other days his ping is really high. If your only choice is crappy broadband, definitely get this! If you don’t do any gaming this would save you a lot of money. You really don’t need expensive internet if you’re not gaming. You can take this on holiday too and swap SIM cards if you need different coverage – but don’t use your phone SIM, it’ll mess it up. A lot of them do free data abroad now (not that anyone’s going abroad because of corona, but still something to think about). Just make sure to check your network coverage first. Here, luckily 3 is the strongest (which is what smarty uses) whereas Tesco for example uses the O2 network. So make sure to get the right SIM card.
I actually originally had issues with putting the sim card in. I had been drugged at the dentist though and may have been a bit wacky. I’m usually good with techy stuff, but didn’t see the metal bit for the sim card slot. So make sure to slide it in underneath! It’s been great other than me not putting the sim card in properly. Wifi strength is great on this floor, but a bit weak downstairs. We’re usually on our computers up here only though. Am thankful it worked so well, was worried it was a bit of a risk. But it isn’t, works amazingly well for a couple and still does gaming.