UniFi 5G

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

The three most prevalent themes in the Hacker News discussion regarding the Unifi 5G product are:

1. Product Use Case Ambiguity / Directional vs. Mobile Use

A central debate revolves around whether the outdoor unit, with its directional antennas, is primarily suited for fixed/stationary applications (like backups) or truly mobile deployments, contradictory to how it is sometimes depicted.

"The fact that the outdoor version is directional kind of limits its adoption in mobile usage, doesn't it? Most similar products have omnidirectional antenna." - cromka

"I think it’s going to be targeting mostly stationary HA redundant uplinks. Backup for primary uplink or low usage primary link. In those scenarios pointing at your nearest antenna fixed is much better than an omnidirectional antenna." - gvkhna

"The video shows it on a moving vehicle" - k33l0r

2. Ubiquiti's Position Between Prosumer and Enterprise (The "Apple of Networking Gear")

Many users frame Ubiquiti as occupying a distinct space—offering enthusiast-level control (unlike consumer brands like Eero or Linksys) but below traditional enterprise gear—leading to discussions about its firmware philosophy, complexity, and ecosystem lock-in compared to open-source alternatives like OpenWrt or Mikrotik.

"Unifi is the Apple of networking gear." - kkapelon

"Apple is actually the opposite of Ubiquiti -- they don't want you to be able to configure anything or have any visibility into anything." - zbuttram

"I now exclusively use open-source projects with a strong history and community - or used high-end enterprise gear that I pick up when it reaches EOL so it's dirt cheap." - int0x2e

3. Appeal as a Seamless Failover Solution for Existing UniFi Users

The most immediate excitement centers on how easily this device integrates with existing UniFi gateways (like the Dream Machine) to provide cellular redundancy, often cited as a major advantage over competitor hardware that requires complex configuration for multi-WAN setups.

"The fallback support for UniFi setups will be awesome. I’m honestly tempted to get it for my house." - dagmx

"The Unifi product just worked. It was just a simple setting in the gateway's management UI." - bitexploder

"Can it be reflashed [like OpenWrt]? [...] To be fair, they have a nice ecosystem for networking nerds." - beAbU

🚀 Project Ideas

Prosumer Carrier-Agnostic eSIM Management & Band Selection Tool

Summary

A desktop or web application designed for users of advanced 5G/LTE modems (like the one discussed, or Teltonika/GL.iNet devices) that lack refined user interfaces for SIM and antenna management.
Provides easy visual monitoring of cellular usage per SIM and allows users to proactively select or pin preferred frequency bands based on coverage maps or signal quality metrics, addressing the complexity of modern multi-carrier roaming/failover setups.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Advanced prosumers, WISP operators, and mobile power users running third-party 5G modems (Mikrotik, Teltonika, custom OpenWRT builds).
Core Feature	Visual dashboard for managing dual SIMs (including per-SIM data quota tracking) and a Band Locking/Preference GUI that translates complex AT commands into actionable choices (e.g., "Prioritize Band n71 over n41").
Tech Stack	Electron/React (Desktop App) or Flask/Django/Vue.js (Web Service). Core logic interacts with modem via standard control protocols (like QMI/MBIM over USB/Serial, or HTTP API if available).
Difficulty	Medium
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

Users expressed pain points around checking data usage on limited SIMs ("Even figuring out how much GB is left on your simcard is a nightmare.").
Solving the antenna/frequency selection issue would cater to users who need better performance than default consumer gear provides but lack the deep CLI knowledge required for current solutions ("I'm just on the edge of 5G coverage and I'm not sure I want to splash out on something which I can't tune for decent reception.").

Unified Network Failover & Load Balancing Validator

Summary

A monitoring service/tool specifically for users running multi-WAN setups (e.g., Fiber + 5G backup on UniFi, pfSense, or VyOS).
It tracks the quality (latency, jitter, packet loss) of all WAN links continuously, actively testing the actual application performance layer, not just link status, making failover instantaneous and intelligent.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Users heavily invested in multi-WAN setups (especially UniFi/pfSense users mentioned in the thread).
Core Feature	SLA monitoring configuration where users define acceptable thresholds for latency and jitter per WAN link. Integrates via SNMP/API with routers to trigger immediate failover if measured performance degrades below the threshold, even if the link is technically "up."
Tech Stack	Go or Python (for lightweight polling agents), Prometheus/Grafana (for visualization), API/SNMP integration with destination routers.
Difficulty	Medium
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

This directly solves the problem noted by users struggling with slow, but nominally "up," backup links: "The problem with this setup for me is that it doesn't work with uplink that sometimes becomes unstable yet nominally working, and in general LTE fallback triggers slowly."
It would generate significant engagement by allowing users to compare performance data across their fiber/5G/Starlink setups over time.

High-Density PoE Budget & Bandwidth Planner for Prosumer Hardware

Summary

A specialized modeling tool for network enthusiasts planning UniFi/Omada/Ruckus deployments. It allows users to map out planned APs, gateways, and switches, factoring in the complex power requirements (PoE/PoE++) and the uplink bandwidth demands of modern Wi-Fi standards (Wi-Fi 6E/7).
Addresses the pain point of finding hardware that balances high-speed uplinks with power delivery constraints, particularly around 2.5G/10G ports on PoE-powered devices.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Prosumers and small IT shops running larger-scale UniFi (or similar ecosystem) home/office networks.
Core Feature	Interactive floor plan/diagramming tool that calculates total PoE draw, flags required PoE++ ports, identifies necessary switch uplink speeds (e.g., validating if 2.5G is sufficient or if 10G is needed) based on predicted client load and AP model specifications.
Tech Stack	Web-based (React/TypeScript), utilizing a canvas library like Konva or D3.js for drag-and-drop component layout.
Difficulty	High
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

It taps into the detailed hardware specification debates about bottlenecks: "Can anybody explain to me why these supposedly premier networking devices are lacking so much in bandwidth? ... 2.5Gb ethernet is enough for that [2Gbps downlink is the 5G downlink]."
This tool would appeal to those frustrated by having to manually calculate wattage and link saturation across multiple vendor components.