But, to my surprise, I could not find any 5G dongles that are cheap and available to buy easily... I found one on an Austrian website intended for IOT uses coming at a price almost as that of a laptop.https://www.fts-hennig.at/netztechnik/router/mobilfunkrouter/hocell-5g-dongle-m210.html
What am I missing? If my phone could have 5G and even my watch could have 5G for cheap, why not a laptop?
Wifi access is near-universal, so the average consumer will pretty much never be without internet access - and their phone is a pretty suitable backup hotspot.
The people who do need GSM-based internet - like surveyors or door-to-door people - are probably better served by tablets anyways, and definitely don't want to deal with a USB dongle. If they have to, they'll just get a laptop with a M.2 GSM card. Whatever remains probably doesn't need 5G speeds to begin with.
So yeah, it's a tiny market. Expect them to be expensive. There's a 5G USB dongle made by Apal available for €400, but that's about it.
Are you sure 4G won't be enough? You can get one of those for €50 or so.
I faced a similar problem. I have now invested my money in an external battery instead to charge my phone if necessary. For me, this seemed like a simpler solution (also, I don't have to worry about a second SIM this way).
For iPhones, there are now batteries that do not even need cables.
https://www.anker.com/products/a1611
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJWY3AM/A/magsafe-battery...
From my own experience the problem with USB dongle (used ZTE USB) is that they are inconvenient in the move - dedicated SIM card, sticking out of the port, easy to get lost. Drivers are stability and security nightmare too.
Next problem is that 5G/4G need to meet some local frequency usage restrictions thus the devices need to differ between countries/regions. The market is too small to invest in separate certification, sales and distribution. The same applies to smartphones but the market is bigger and the issue is handled well already.
My preferred solution: I carry a small 4g router (TP-Link M7350) in my backpack. Extremely useful when working in places that lack wifi (e.g. some coffee shops etc). The battery lasts very long.
Since you're talking about USB, and battery drain, you can probably assume that the phone will use roughly the extra power that is required to do the 5G data transmission and relay to the USB host, and so, if you connect your phone to your computer via USB, and enable internet sharing via USB, you've achieved USB dongle behaviour ?
I wonder how much power 5G in a moving train needs. The point being that you'd just drain the laptop's battery faster *.
Do you even get 5G in that train or a 4G dongle would be as good?
Must it be usb-c or usb-a plus short adapter will do?
As everyone else said, the convenience of a hotspot plus not having to manage/pay for a separate cell phone subscription outweighs the battery drain for most, so no one gets dongles any more.
Edit: * maybe as fast as powering a cell phone from it...
Alternatively, you can look into mobile 5g modems/routers with battery. They're also in the same price range though plus you have to charge them.
You mentioned Austria so I assume you're in the EU?
Geizhals ist usually you're best bet for product and price discovery.
https://geizhals.eu/?cat=phonmdg&xf=4844_5G~5694_USB&sort=p&...
It's not just the part itself but its context. You are asking for engineering to spend time figuring out how to integrate that into a current (potentially hyper-optimized) design, supply chain management, lawers, etc.
Additionally, in terms of alternatives, phones almost universally tether, you can buy specific 5g devices that you can fit in your palm.
You can buy a phone battery for $30 and run your phone all day no matter how hot you are running your phone.
It's expensive and complex to implement and there are plenty of good enough easily attainable alternatives, I'm not sure why a company would implement a niche product like that.
https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-us/products/laptop...
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/latitude-5440-l...
The framework community designs for a swappable dongle are nice but they're not exactly complete. The cheapest way I can think of is to grab one of those M.2 boards, put them into a small M.2 to USB C converter and print a case around that. Most affordable M.2 modules seem to be 4G only though.
There is still premium for these products so the prices are high.
WiFi dongles are worth considering even though the wifi is a potential bottleneck. In most travel situations you are more interested in stability than max speed and having a WiFi dongle allows you to position it away from the laptop, in a window or high up to pick up marginal 5G signals.
https://rpishop.cz/iot-karty/5753-waveshare-5g-dongle.html
But look at that heat-sink! The thing looks very big and very power-hungry.
I recently started using my android phone as USB hotspot to connect my desktop PC to the internet. It's great. Cable connection is way better than over wifi dongle in my pc which was unstable. And the phone is charging at the same time.
You can charge your phone off the laptop. Or get an external battery bank.
In your case, a cheap battery pack would be a much better alternative.
Amazon has a few USB-A dongles available; no USB-C though.
Do you remember the last USA telephony network to go bankrupt with that idea? Hint it starts with a C, mid late 1990s. Came with laptops pre-installed in fact.
chinese sites have dozen of 5g dongles you can buy for under $100.
also, i think 4G has better battery usage anyway.