Comparison Novatel MiFi 5510L vs Novatel MiFi 2200

Wi-Fi connection speeds, more precisely, Wi-Fi standards supported by a modem with the appropriate capabilities (see "Type", "Connection").

— Wi-Fi 3 (802.11g). A further development of the Wi-Fi 1 (802.11b) standard, developed primarily for increasing connection bandwidth (2.4 GHz) and introduced in 2003. 802.11g hardware is fully backwards compatible with 802.11b, so even the simplest of today's Wi-Fi devices support both of these standards.

— Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). The Wi-Fi standard, which is a further development of the formats described above — in particular, by supplementing them with support of MIMO technology (distribution of input and output between several antennas). Introduced in 2009. The main operating frequency is 2.4 GHz, but there are devices supplemented with a 5 GHz band.

— Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). Built on top of 802.11n, introduced late 2013. The main improvements were the increase in the number of streams at the second frequency (5 GHz) and the introduction of more advanced MIMO and modulation standards, which increased the throughput accordingly.

The largest number of devices that can be simultaneously connected to the modem via Wi-Fi (see "Connection").

The presence of this limitation is due to the fact that processing network requests from several devices at once requires a fairly large amount of computing resources, and there are not so many of them in miniature electronics like wireless modems. However, even inexpensive models can support about 5 – 6 devices, which is more than enough for most cases; and in more advanced modems, this number can reach 10.

Data transfer technologies supported by the modem.

— GPRS. The oldest communication technology in use today. It was developed as a standard for GSM cellular networks, allowing data to be transmitted in parallel with voice communications and text messages, as well as charging network access by the amount of data transmitted, and not by connection time (as in the previous CSD standard). At the time of its creation, it was very progressive, but now it is considered completely obsolete and is used only in cases where more advanced standards cannot be used.

— EDGE. A technology created as a modification of the GPRS described above, which would increase the channel throughput and improve communication reliability. Otherwise, this standard is completely similar to GPRS in terms of its main practical features.

— W-CDMA. One of the early third generation ( 3G) communication standards. Used in UMTS networks. One of the main advantages of such networks is the ability to build networks based on the existing GSM infrastructure. Therefore, UMTS, and specifically W-CDMA, is being used by many mobile operators in the early stages of their transition from 2G to 3G.

— HSUPA. Third generation (3G) communication technology, an evolution of W-CDMA described above. The name stands for "Hi...gh-Speed Uplink Packet Access" — high-speed packet data transmission in the "from the subscriber" direction. This, in fact, describes the purpose of this technology: it increases the speed of data transfer from the modem to the base station, which can be useful for some specific tasks — for example, video communications.

— HSDPA. Further, after HSUPA, improvement of the W-CDMA standard (see above). It belongs to third generation (3G) networks, but is considered an “extended” standard, which is why HSUPA-enabled networks can be referred to as 3.5G, 3G+, etc. The name itself — "High-Speed Downlink Packet Access" — translates as "high-speed packet data transmission from the base station to the device."

— HSPA+. Today's most advanced third-generation communication standard based on UMTS networks (W-CDMA). Thanks to a number of improvements, it allows to achieve higher speeds than the options described above, approaching fourth-generation networks in terms of capabilities; therefore, sometimes conventionally referred to as 3.75G.

— WiMAX. Initially, WiMAX was created in two versions — "mobile" and "stationary"; the vast majority of modern cellular modems use the second option. It belongs to the fourth generation standards — 4G (whereas "mobile" was a competitor to 3G technologies, although sometimes it is also referred to as a 4th generation connection for marketing purposes). Some time ago, WiMAX was actively promoted as an alternative to wired broadband Internet connection (in particular, as the best option for areas, where it is difficult to reach the cable). However, now this standard is gradually losing popularity — in particular, in connection with the development and promotion of a more advanced LTE (which also does not have a division into "mobile" and "stationary" varieties).

— LTE (up to 173 Mbps). The fourth generation cellular communication standard, the most popular 4G technology today — in particular, due to the fact that it is a further development of W-CDMA/UMTS and can be implemented by improving existing networks (both UMTS and CDMA2000). Another reason for the popularity is the same convenience for both stationary and mobile equipment. On the other hand, when choosing a modem of this standard, you should keep in mind that LTE bands and channels may differ in different countries, so the support of this technology does not guarantee compatibility with a particular network. It should also be taken into account that in some countries LTE networks are only at the deployment stage, and in some they are not available at all.

— EV-DO (Rev.A). EV-DO is a third-generation (3G) data transmission technology used in CDMA mobile networks (not to be confused with W-CDMA, built on another basic standard — UMTS). Note that in some countries this type of 3G network became widespread much earlier than W-CDMA and its modifications, and for a number of technical reasons it is mainly used for data transmission — that is, for the operation of 3G modems. As for Rev.A, this is the second and most common version of the EV-DO standard.

— EV-DO (Rev. B). The third version of EV-DO technology, the development and improvement of Rev.A; see above for details. Here we note that this standard is also often used as a 3G data connection; its coverage area is not as extensive as the previous version, but still covers most major cities and their surroundings. It is also worth considering that in order to use all the features of Rev.B, you need a modem that supports this version, and not all modern EV-DO devices can do this.

When evaluating the capabilities of a modem, note that the speed values given for each technology are the maximum, which in fact is achievable only under perfect conditions. The actual values of the speed, usually, are lower than the potential ones; they may depend both on the specs of the network, signal strength and other technical issues, and on the policy of the operator and the conditions of a particular tariff.

The presence of a connector for an external removable antenna in the modem design. The meaning of all external antennas is described above; here we note that the connector makes it possible to use rather large antennas with the modem, which significantly exceed the capabilities of stock antennas (both internal and external non-removable ones). In addition, the user can choose the antenna at his discretion.

The presence of a slot for memory card in the design of the modem. Memory cards are very popular in modern electronics as removable storage media; in wireless modems, there are two main options for working with them. The first one provides use as an external card reader, for exchanging information between the card and the device to which the modem is connected via USB (see below); Simply put, installing a card turns the modem into a "flash drive" with removable storage. And in models with Wi-Fi (see "Type"), it may also be possible to work as a server that provides access to the contents of the memory card to all wireless devices connected to the modem. As for the types of cards, the most common support for the microSD standard is that they are small enough to be easily combined with compact wireless modem cases. Note that even within the same standard of memory cards there are several varieties, and before buying it's worth to clarify which of them the device is compatible with.

The presence of a slot for a SIM card in the design of the modem. The abbreviation SIM stands for Subscriber Identification Module, and this is the main purpose of these cards — binding the device to a specific subscriber account (personal account, mobile number, etc.). Note that in this case, the term SIM refers to both the original cards of this standard used in GSM networks, and USIM used in 3G W-CDMA networks (with all relevant add-ons, see "Transmission Technologies"). The presence of a SIM slot is mandatory for modems that support the mentioned communication technologies — they practically do not use firmware for binding to the operator's network.

The presence of a display in the design of the modem. Even the simplest screens used in modern modems are very versatile and capable of displaying almost any service information about the operation of the device (and sometimes not only purely service information). Due to this, this feature provides much more opportunities to inform the user than various indicators. At the same time, we note that this feature is found only in Wi-Fi modems (see above) designed for stand-alone use. This is due to the fact that in models that are connected to another device via USB, the screen of the external device is used for displaying this information, and it simply does not make sense to equip the modem with its own display.

The capacity of the battery installed in the modem with the corresponding type of power supply (see below).

The higher the capacity, the longer the battery is able to work without recharging, all other things being equal. However, note that the situation of "other things being equal" is almost not found in modern wireless modems. First, different data transmission technologies (see above) have different power consumption; secondly, even models supporting the same standards can differ in power consumption (and battery life) due to design differences. Therefore, this indicator in most cases is purely reference information, and even very similar models can only be compared approximately. When choosing, it is worth focusing primarily on the claimed specs of the battery life (see below).

The maximum operating time of the modem with battery power (see "Power") on a single charge in Internet browsing mode. Such power is typical for Wi-Fi routers, therefore, usually, Internet browsing is supposed to provide access to the World Wide Web for an external Wi-Fi device.

This spec is the main indicator of battery life for any battery-powered modem, because it describes the time of using it for its main purpose without recharging. At the same time, you should know that this indicator is measured under certain "perfect" conditions; the actual operating time depends on a number of factors, including the intensity of browsing, the amount of data transferred, the number of connected devices and the distance to them, the cellular network signal strength, etc. Therefore, in fact, the battery life of the modem may be somewhat lower. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to compare different models with each other according to the operating time stated in the specs.