Two ZTE Devices, One Small Office Problem
If you searched for ZTE Greyjoy, you are probably not looking for a phone. You're looking at a strange default Wi-Fi name on some ZTE networking gear and trying to figure out what you actually have. On the units I've handled, Greyjoy is an internal firmware/project name used on that batch of gateways—not a separate product family. Some of them even broadcast something like GREYJOY_4831 as the default Wi-Fi name. Check the sticker on the bottom to get the exact model number.
Now the other half of this article: the ZTE Blade A35 chipset and whether a phone can do a gateway's job at a small office. I tested that theory on a real job in January 2024. A client needed internet at a three-week trade show: no wired line, a usable mobile signal, about eight employees on laptops, and a card terminal that could not drop. I had a ZTE Blade A35 sitting in a drawer and a ZTE fixed-wireless gateway waiting for another deployment. I picked the phone. That was a mistake.
Before you call me crazy, think about why I compared them. In the small-business world, these two devices get treated as interchangeable every day. The phone is already paid for; the gateway is an extra purchase. So I am going to compare them on the four things that decide whether a setup survives business hours: chipset intent, connectors, cabling and enclosures, and the actual cost of getting it wrong.
Round 1: Chipset Intent
For people searching for ZTE Blade A35 chipset details, here is the honest answer: I want to say it uses an entry-level Unisoc part, and I have seen SC9863A in some spec sheets, but don't quote me on that exact number. Regional variants are real, and I have not checked every listing. More important is what the chipset was designed to do.
A cheap phone chipset is built to power a screen, run Android, take photos, keep the modem connected, and do it on a small battery. It is actually good at that. It is not built for 24/7 routing duty with a dozen Wi-Fi clients, a VPN, and no screen to show what is wrong. A gateway chipset is boring by design: no apps, no animated background, no battery optimization that can decide to kill the tethering service. It just routes.
Speed is not the issue. The phone can beat the gateway in a single-device speed test. Heat and power management are the issue. On the second day of the showroom job, the phone's Android system decided the hotspot app was using too much battery and closed it during a video call. The screen still showed signal. The internet was gone. Nobody noticed until the card terminal timed out in front of a customer.
Our senior tech had warned me: always deploy a gateway, even for temporary setups. I did not listen because the phone seemed better than nothing. It was not better than nothing, because when it failed, we had nothing anyway. A lesson learned the hard way.
Round 2: Connectors and What Is a Connector
If you have ever typed what is a connector, this section is for you. A connector is the standardized plug-and-socket junction between a cable and a device. It has to match mechanically and electrically. It sounds simple, but connector mismatch is the reason a lot of perfectly good gear sits unused in a drawer.
The Blade A35 has a USB-C port and not much else. No Ethernet, no external antenna connector. If you want wired internet for a printer or payment terminal, you need a USB-C Ethernet adapter, and then you have created a new point of failure. The phone's internal antenna is designed for holding the phone in your hand, not for sitting on a shelf behind a filing cabinet in a room full of people.
The gateway I call Greyjoy is different. It has Ethernet ports so you can plug in the switch, the card terminal, or whatever the site needs. It also has connectors for an external antenna, which matters when the signal is strong on one side of the building and useless on the other.
That lesson cost me money. I ordered pre-terminated cables for an external antenna without checking whether the port was SMA or RP-SMA. Those two connectors look nearly identical. They are not interchangeable. Ninety dollars of cable ended up in a drawer, and the site waited a week for the correct version. The surprise was not the price; it was how much downtime a tiny connector could cause.
Round 3: Cabling and Enclosures
The words enclosures and cable belong together in this conversation. A gateway is designed to stay in one place. It has an enclosure with ventilation, mounting points, and room for cable entries. You can put it on a shelf, screw it to a wall, or fit it inside a larger telecom enclosure.
A phone has a glass front, a lithium battery, and one exposed USB-C port. There is no mounting point. If you put it in an enclosure to protect it, you trap the heat it is already struggling with. I have seen a phone hotspot shut down inside a sealed plastic box on a warm day. Worse than expected.
Cable choice is also real. The USB cable that came with the phone is for charging, and its data capability is marginal if you decide to tether over USB. For a proper site install, you need cable designed for the job: outdoor-rated Ethernet where the run goes through a wall or up to an antenna, and proper glands where the cable enters an enclosure. I once used an indoor flat Ethernet cable on an outdoor run to save twenty-five dollars. It worked for three weeks. Then water found the RJ45 connector, and I had to redo the whole run.
If you mount a gateway inside any enclosure, remember that heat matters. An IP65-rated box is dust-tight and protected against water jets per IEC 60529, which sounds perfect for outside use, but if the device makes heat, a sealed metal box turns into an oven. Read the manufacturer's mounting guidance before you buy the enclosure.
Round 4: What Small Clients Actually Need
I get why small offices try the phone first. Budgets are tight. A phone might already be in someone's pocket, while a dedicated gateway is one more box to buy. That math looks smart until you count the second visit, the lost payment, and the client who loses trust in your advice.
Small does not mean unimportant. A showroom with four employees and a card terminal depends on its connection exactly the same way a head office with four hundred employees does. The only difference is the IT budget. If anything, a small client needs a more reliable solution, because they do not have an IT person to troubleshoot the phone's power management at 10 a.m.
I should mention that the Blade A35 is fine for one person, for a few days, in an emergency. I still use a phone hotspot when I travel. The difference is that I am the only user, and if I lose connection, I only annoy myself.
For anything with more than one user, or where business depends on the connection, use the gateway. It is not about brand loyalty—the A35 is a decent phone. It is about putting the right tool in the right enclosure with the right cable and the right connector.
So Which Should You Choose?
If the job is solo, short, and genuinely disposable, the ZTE Blade A35 as a hotspot is acceptable. If there is a team, a payment terminal, or any deadline, buy or rent a dedicated ZTE fixed-wireless gateway. That is the device I would install today, and it is the one I should have installed in January.
The cheapest way to run a small site is not the option with the lowest price tag. It is the option that does not fail at the worst possible moment. Connectors, cables, and enclosures seem like boring details until they take down your connection. They are not boring. They are the whole job.
