Is a JioFi Router Faster Than Jio SIM Used in a Mobile As Hotspot?

Lockdown caused us to work from home. Even many companies sent their employees to their home, town and assisted to work from there if decent internet connectivity is there. Thanks to Indian telecom who handled the connectivity all over India, telcos like Jio which is affordable and available everywhere. I was bombarded with over a dozen of non-techie friends about the use of a JioFi router vs. using Jio SIM in a mobile as hotspot.

Even the JioFi router uses the same mobile Jio SIM for internet access. So the coverage will be mostly the same, while JioFi has advantages over Jio SIM used as mobile hotspot. But before that, read the below advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of JioFi Router.

• JioFi has a bigger 4G antenna compared to what we get in our mobile device (specifically budget ones), which means there will be marginally better and stable signal coverage compared to mobile.
• JioFi is a kind of dedicated device for the internet, means 100% internet availability and no sharing for other things like mobile do.
• You can place JioFi anywhere you get better signals.

Disadvantages of JioFi Router.

• The Carrier Aggregation (CA) feature is not available in JioFi which we get in high-end mobiles only. But this is not the issue because JioFi is a router, and it is meant for connection stability. CA is not a good solution when we want stability.

Advantages of Jio SIM Used as a Mobile Hotspot.

• To turn on the mobile hotspot, you don’t need any other device and another SIM card. Your mobile is enough. Just tap the hotspot button and you are good to go.
• The carrier aggregation feature may be useful (if mobile supports it) for better connectivity and speeds. It may be a little unstable but good for basic use.

Disadvantages of Jio SIM Used as a Mobile Hotspot.

• The noticeable issue is a faster drain of the battery. Mobile hotspots are a power-hungry feature, and meant to be used in emergency situations.
• Carrier aggregation feature often makes the browsing experience worst when we are accessing secure web pages; we could face session timeout, invalid session, and intermittent connection drop due to change in IP address.
• A Mobile hotspot is a temporary solution for a mobile router, and it cannot compete with a dedicated mobile router like JioFi. So the connection and coverage will not be stable.

In conclusion, JioFi is not faster, but stable to use as a mobile router.