A new router that will let you combine home broadband with 4G connections has been launched on Indiegogo.
Multipath’s router promises to let you achieve speeds of up to 100Mbps by sharing fixed and mobile broadband connections. The tiny red box will do this by letting you combine up to four connections, typically your single fixed line connection and up to three dongles or MiFis.
If for example you’re getting around 10Mbps on your ADSL broadband and you can get 4G in your area providing average speeds of 20Mbps, the Multipath router will combine the streams and give you a 30Mbps total download speed.
The Indiegogo page says that this will work with any combination of technologies, including ADSL, cable, wireless, 3G and 4G. You simply connect your modems, dongles and whatever combination of devices you have and Multipath’s software does the rest. It’s very much a plug and play operation.
Multipath’s servers will aggregate all the connections, ensuring that packets of data don’t get lost.
CEO of Multipath Networks Justin Collery told us that if 50 people in a specific area, say, Cambridgeshire, pledge and the project is successful, then Multipath would set up a server in that area, guaranteeing a better performance.
While 4G speeds recorded so far are beating what you can get on ADSL lines, the one area where traditional broadband beats 4G is on data caps. All of the 4G services on the market right now come with monthly usage limits, and most ADSL services these days come with unlimited downloads as standard. With Multipath you can get faster speeds, but you’d run the risk of falling foul of restrictive data caps.
Collery told us that that the router will come with an ‘overflow mode,’ which lets you prioritise one connection, normally the unlimited fixed-line connection, for heavy downloads, without a reduction in the overall download speed.
The Multipath router will ship with one WiFi antenna (802.11 b/g/n) and will come with the option for you to add a second, which would connect to one of the USB ports. So far the plan is for the router to be single band (probably 2.4GHz).
Another great feature of the Multipath router is that the second wireless card would let you connect to a neighbour’s Multipath router, so you could use their bandwidth when they’re not and vice versa.
Other connections include a single Ethernet port for LAN, two Ethernet ports for WAN and two USB ports for tethered phones/dongle/MiFi connections, wireless cards or USB modems.
So far, the Multipath project has already attracted $8,203 (£5,055) of pledges after one day. Multipath wants to hit $30,000 (£18,490) within the next 30 days.
The primary markets Multipath wants to launch in is the UK, Ireland and the US. Pledging $199 (£122) will get you a Multipath router, which we understand is representative of the price you’d expect to pay for one off the shelves.
Minimum pledges are $15 (£9.25). The funding window closes on October 31. Check out Multipath’s Indiegogo page here.
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