Antennas

4G and 5G Antennas for Routers, Gateways and IoT Devices

An external antenna is one of the most effective upgrades you can make to a cellular installation. If your router or gateway is indoors, in a cabinet, or in a location with marginal signal, the right external antenna will improve throughput, reduce latency, and give you a more stable connection – without changing your hardware or SIM.

We stock a full range of 4G and 5G external antennas from Fullband, Panorama, Poynting, and QuWireless – covering everything from low-cost omni-directional options to high-gain directional and 4×4 MIMO systems for demanding fixed-site deployments.

Why use an external antenna?

Most cellular routers include internal or stub antennas that are adequate when signal conditions are good. In practice, many installations are not in good signal conditions. Routers are often mounted in enclosures, plant rooms, or buildings that attenuate the signal before it reaches the modem.

An external antenna placed in a better location – typically on an outside wall, roof, or mast – captures a cleaner signal and feeds it to the router via low-loss coaxial cable. The antenna does not boost or amplify the signal. It receives it more effectively than an internal antenna can from inside a building.

In many cases, moving from an internal to a well-placed external antenna will improve signal by several dB – enough to shift from a marginal connection to a reliable one, or to unlock a higher LTE band that was previously unavailable.

Choosing the right antenna type

Omni-directional antennas receive signal from all directions. They are the right choice when mast locations are mixed or unknown, or where the installation requires a clean external antenna without aiming. Most omni antennas in our range are wideband and cover 4G LTE and 5G sub-6GHz in a single element.

Directional antennas concentrate gain in a specific direction. They work best when you know where the serving mast is and need maximum gain on a weak signal. A directional antenna pointed at the correct mast will outperform a comparable omni – but it needs to be aimed and is less forgiving if the network fails over to a different direction.

2×2 MIMO antennas provide two independent antenna elements – either physically separated or cross-polarised – to feed the MAIN and AUX ports of your router. To get the benefit of MIMO, both ports need a proper external antenna. A single-element antenna on both ports does not deliver MIMO gain.

4×4 MIMO antennas are required for higher-end 5G routers such as the Teltonika RUTX50 and RUTM51 that support four simultaneous antenna connections. Using a 2×2 antenna on a 4×4 router means two ports are receiving no external signal – you are only getting half the benefit of the hardware.

All antennas in our range are supplied pre-terminated with SMA Male connectors, which suit the majority of industrial routers. If your router uses TS9 connectors, you will need TS9 to SMA adapters.

These are a few of our best selling 4G antennas – click the link below to view the full range.

5G ANTENNAS

These are a few of our best selling 5G antennas – click the link below to view the full range.

Pairing an outdoor antenna with your 5G router

If your 5G router is installed indoors or in a location with marginal signal, adding a quality outdoor antenna is the single most effective improvement you can make to the installation. This applies equally to rural broadband users, business continuity links, and IoT deployments where the router cannot be positioned optimally.

For routers with 4×4 MIMO – such as the Teltonika RUTX50 and RUTM51 – we recommend using a matched 4×4 MIMO outdoor antenna to get full use of all four antenna ports. Connecting only two ports, or using a 2×2 antenna, leaves half the modem’s capability unused.

Most industrial 5G routers use SMA antenna connectors. If you are unsure which antenna ports your router has or which antenna to pair with it, contact us before ordering – we will point you in the right direction.