Billion BiPAC 8920NZ

A VDSL MODEM-ROUTER WITH INTEGRATED LTE SUPPORT.

ONCE THE DARLING of technical users, Billion has been quiet of late, releasing only a few new routers models in the last few years. The new BiPAC 8920NZ brings it back, however, with a router that has unrivalled connectivity. It’s built a priced for ‘prosumers’ and small business, though it has a few consumer-friendly elements thrown in.

The key selling point for most will be the integrated twin 3G/LTE SIM ports, which allows you to give the router LTE failover or even primary WAN access without the need for any kind of USB modem. Just slot the SIMs straight into the ports and you have an additional WAN option.

The SIM ports are combined with a Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, as well as an ADSL/ VDSL modem port, giving you pretty much the ultimate in connectivity options supporting LTE, FTTH, FTTN, fixed wireless and ADSL (but not cable without a separate modem). Priority and failover can be configured in the settings, but as far as we could see, there are no load balancing options.

The router also natively supports VPNs (client and server), with up to 16 PPTP/L2TP/ OpenVPN tunnels supported simultaneously. We really like the VPN setup process, too, which nicely breaks it down into bite size chunks. But connectivity and VPN support aside, the rest of the router is a disappointment, especially for the price that Billion is asking. Let’s just start with the industrial design, which hasn’t changed much for Billion in a decade or more. It’s ugly as hell, and at least the DrayTek Vigor2952P (reviewed in this issue as well) has a reason for it.

For something that’s ostensibly designed for home gateway use, the wireless is also a weak point. It only supports 802.11n at 300Mbps, so if you want a serious home Wi-Fi network, you’re going to have to invest in some external access points.

And then there’s the firmware. Where other router vendors have made their setup process friendlier to the non-technical, Billion’s firmware hasn’t changed much. It’s certainly easier than DrayTek’s firmware to manage, but it’s still likely to be rather challenging for the non-technical. At least it does come with an old-fashioned setup CD to get the basics going, but there is no mobile app to do the same.

In terms of the capabilities of the firmware, it’s simply OK. It doesn’t have the business tools of DrayTek, though it does support DLNA on its single USB 2.0 port. QoS tools are limited to prioritisation based on schedules or ports (with no hard volume limits), and it does support VLANs for business users. But beyond that and VPN support, it’s nothing to get excited about.

And that’s pretty much the story of this Billion router. The integrated SIM dual-sim slots and VPN support are cool, but everything else is a little lacklustre or just plain weak. For the very high asking price, you’d expect quite a bit more. Modem routers do tend to be somewhat more expensive than broadband routers, admittedly, but nearly $700 for this is simply way too much.