An external antenna for your 4G router typically provides faster internet speeds.

If you have a router that allows you to connect an external antenna, it is often preferable. An external antenna will certainly make your mobile broadband faster. For a few hundred kronor, you can increase the speed by almost 50 percent, sometimes more, depending on where the router is installed.

There are three main types of antennas: omnidirectional, so-called mimo antennas or directional antennas, and patch antennas.

Omnidirectional antennas have a 360-degree signal spread and are designed to receive and send signals in all directions. If you live in an area with generally good mobile reception, but your specific reception is poor, an omnidirectional antenna is a good choice to improve speed. The antenna doesn’t necessarily need to be placed outdoors; it may be enough to place it in a window for significantly better reception.

Directional antennas, on the other hand, are designed to be aimed at the direction of the base station you’re connected to. Directional antennas are better if you have a clear line of sight to the base station, which is more common in rural areas than in cities.

There are also panel antennas and patch antennas. These are variants of directional antennas but have a signal spread similar to a cone, making them easy to aim in the right direction. We always recommend having two patch antennas. At Wifi.se, we have excellent experience with these antennas, and they are the ones we offer for our vehicle routers. They are easy to position and provide good 4G reception.

MIMO Antennas

Another significant difference between antennas is whether they support MIMO or not. MIMO (multiple input multiple output) is a radio technology used for 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. In simple terms, the technology increases communication capacity by having multiple antennas on both the sender and receiver.

MIMO means you get higher speeds for radio communication, similar to how a highway with multiple lanes in each direction becomes faster than a regular road with just one lane in each direction.

On the way from the sender to the receiver, radio signals bounce off buildings and are disrupted by various objects. Thanks to MIMO, the best-received signal can be used at each given moment to maintain speed.

To achieve high speeds in mobile networks, you need antennas with MIMO support or dual antennas. In our test, we developed dual antenna setups for antennas that didn’t support MIMO.

At Wifi.se, we have a wide range of MIMO antennas for indoor use, motorhomes, caravans, boats, and your holiday home.

We know what works best for each device, and we offer good prices compared to our competitors. Additionally, we test all antennas ourselves before selling them.

If you’re not satisfied, you can return the antenna. For us, it’s important that you have stable and fast internet where you can connect many devices.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!