Ask HN: Why are there no 5G USB-C dongles for laptops?

Cell phones are good enough. Very few users want to shell out for dedicated device and a monthly 5G plan for it when phone hotspots cover almost all cases.

In your case, a cheap battery pack would be a much better alternative.

But it's such a rare use case for most people. I understand you though, but I guess the real answer is that there's just no demand for it. For those sitting in a coffee shop with shoddy WiFi, you can just hotspot with your phone. If you're at home you'll have WiFi to your fiber (or to your wall mounted 5G access point even).

You can order laptops with 5G WWAN card built-in or just insert one later, every business laptop brand like Lenovo (Thinkpad), Dell or HP allow them.

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.