To bridge a UK iPhone hotspot do I need router or modem router

Question

I have an iPhone with unlimited data on Vodafone and I want to share that connection with more devices in the home & home office environment. Like my office PC, printer, then playstation, home TV & other smartphones. There's a problem that the iPhone personal hotspot range is too restricted so I want to boost the range. Also the personal hotspot appears to require a restart to add a new device so I don't actually want devices to connect to the iPhone but connect to a 3rd party router that connects to the iPhone.

To resolve these issues and create a wireless network out of the phone hotspot do I need a modem router or just a router?

Like https://www.asus.com/uk/Networking/DSL-AC88U/ vs https://www.asus.com/uk/Networking/RT-AC86U/

Answer 1

The really unlimited plans from Verizon don’t allow tethering at all, unless your iPhone is rooted (which I don't recommend).

The following are articles detailing workarounds:

• How to share Unlimited 4G Data with your Router
  Requires tethering via USB cable and the router must support tethering.

• iPhone Tethering with Router with DD-WRT
  Requires installing DD-WRT on the router, which does support iPhone tethering.

• Verizon native tether subscription bypass
  Bypass the verizon tether subscription check by installing network signal refresher, refresh signal and immediately turn on hotspot while refreshing.

Answer 2

I used Asus AC2900 RT-AC86U router and it does not need a modem to share my iPhone connection.

There were a number of ways to share the internet connection.

If the iPhone is connected to my PC via USB and hotspot is on then per this question the router can be setup as an "access point" with a fixed IP to share the connection. With PC on there is also a way to use the router as a "wireless router" without a fixed IP.

However, per this link if the router is setup as a "repeater" then it can repeat the wireless hotspot on it's own network. This works for my PC at least.