4G and 5G Routers: When Mobile Internet Can Replace a Wired Connection, What the Speed Depends On and Why a Router on the Windowsill Beats One in a Cupboard

Fibre internet is available in most residential buildings in Tbilisi, but not everywhere: in new builds the provider sometimes arrives months after people move in, country houses in Tskneti, Okrokana, Kojori or by the Tbilisi Sea may have no cable at all, and for a temporary office or a flat rented for a few months you don't always want a long contract. In these cases a 4G or 5G router with a SIM card comes to the rescue. Businesses also need one as a backup line when the main provider lets them down. But mobile internet is a fickle technology, and the result depends heavily on how everything is chosen and installed.

When a mobile router is a good choice

• A country house or dacha that providers don't run cable to.
• A new building where fibre hasn't reached the entrance yet.
• Temporary housing or an office for a few months.
• A backup line for a café, shop, guesthouse or office where losing the internet means losing money.
• A building site, exhibition or event — anywhere internet is needed for a short time.

If fibre is available, though, it's almost always better for permanent use: more stable, lower latency and not dependent on how busy the cell tower is in the evening.

4G, 4G+ and 5G — what's the difference

Ordinary 4G (LTE) gives tens of megabits per second in good conditions. 4G+ (LTE Advanced) combines several frequency bands and can deliver 100–300 Mbit/s if both the tower and the router support it. 5G is potentially faster, but its coverage is still limited, and a 5G router only makes sense if your location has a steady 5G signal from your chosen operator. It's important that the router supports the bands used by operators in Georgia — otherwise even an expensive device will work on a worse frequency or not at all.

What speed really depends on

• Signal quality, not the number of bars. The router shows a level, but quality metrics such as signal-to-noise ratio matter more for speed. Full bars with poor quality mean slow internet.
• Tower load. In the evening, when everyone around is watching video, speed drops. It's especially noticeable in densely populated areas and at country houses at weekends.
• Placement. The difference between a router deep inside a room and one on a windowsill facing the tower can be three to five times. A cupboard, a metal roof, energy-saving double glazing and reinforced concrete all heavily block the signal.
• The operator. At one spot one operator is better, in the next village another. It's worth comparing on site before buying a plan.
• The antenna. At a country house or in a dip, an external directional antenna on the roof can turn unusable internet into comfortable internet.

External antennas

If the house is far from the tower or behind a hill, an external MIMO antenna is fitted, pointed at the base station, with a short high-quality cable to the router. Another option is an outdoor all-in-one router mounted on a mast, with only a network cable carrying power coming into the house. Choosing the antenna and aiming it precisely is work that needs measurements: an antenna pointed "roughly that way" can sometimes perform worse than the built-in one.

Plan restrictions and latency

Mobile plans can have data caps, speed reductions after a certain volume and restrictions on use in a router. Before buying, check the conditions specifically for a home router. Latency (ping) on mobile networks is higher and less stable than on fibre: it's usually fine for work, video and video calls, but can be uncomfortable for competitive online gaming. In addition, many mobile operators hand out addresses behind shared NAT, which means remote access to cameras or a computer over the internet may not work without extra measures.

A mobile router as a backup

For a business, the best option is a router that supports two connections: the main one over fibre and a backup over 4G/5G. When the main line drops, it switches automatically to mobile, and when the fibre comes back it switches back. The till, terminals and important computers keep working, and café guests may not even notice the outage.

What our technician does

1. Measures the signal from different operators on site and finds the best one for your location.
2. Selects a router with the right bands and, if needed, an external antenna.
3. Finds the best place to install it, mounts the antenna and aims it by measurement.
4. Sets up the router, Wi-Fi throughout the house and, if needed, automatic failover for the main line.
5. Tests speed and stability in different rooms and at different times of day.

A real example

A family who had moved to their country house in Okrokana for the summer bought a 4G router in a shop and were getting 2–4 Mbit/s — work video calls kept dropping. Our technician measured the signal: the tower of their operator was behind a hill, and the router sat in a room with windows facing the opposite way. We compared operators, switched to a SIM from the one whose tower was best visible from the plot, fitted a directional antenna on the roof and aimed it by measurement. Speed rose to 60–80 Mbit/s, calls stopped dropping, and Wi-Fi was extended to the veranda and the guest house.

Call a technician

If you need internet where there's no fibre, or a reliable backup line, we'll come to Tbilisi and its suburbs around the clock. Learn more on our internet for a country house, router setup and internet setup pages.