Three UK - 4G Home Broadband - any users here?

[essayer]

Do I just buy the XPOL-1 or are there cheaper nearly-as-good alternatives?

[Murph7355]

essayer said:

Do I just buy the XPOL-1 or are there cheaper nearly-as-good alternatives?

For what?

I think that's an aerial/signal booster...what router do you have?

[essayer]

Sorry I forgot the first sentence

I have a Three 4G router (the ZTE MF286D) and it has SMA connectors on the back. Was going to get an external omni; that one I mentioned gets good reviews but just wondering it there were cheaper alternatives

[blueg33]

shopper150 said:

Are the routers provided by Three unlocked so they can be used with any network?

Also, if I go SIM only, are TP Link routers any good if I’m happy with 4G over 5G?

Yes. Mine was. Now on EE. Although I was only 4 months in when I cancelled they let me keep the router and the Amazon Echo show that was free.

[brisel]

I have unlimited data on EE (through a local telecoms provider) with a TP Link router and an external Poynting antenna. I live next to a main rail line, so have a 4G phone mast a mile away with near perfect line of sight apart from a couple of trees. 40 mbps down and 30 up.

[Murph7355]

essayer said:

Sorry I forgot the first sentence

I have a Three 4G router (the ZTE MF286D) and it has SMA connectors on the back. Was going to get an external omni; that one I mentioned gets good reviews but just wondering it there were cheaper alternatives

Try it within 14 days and send it back if no good on distance selling regs

I've read mixed reports about external antennae.

Three aren't the fastest network IME, and haven't read any reviews on that router. A better router and network might be a better bet than an external antenna (though mileages vary of course).

[essayer]

In testing I was able to get around 55/20 with it sat on an internal windowsill. I tried it outside and didn’t see much improvement ~2m above the ground. Will do some more trials but would be happy with that (it’s a temporary solution until Gigaclear show up)

Edited by essayer on Monday 9th August 07:10

[Psycho Warren]

blueg33 said:

I have just ditched Three

Connection speeds under 2mbps despite them reassuring me that I would get 60+ and that they are just doing some workon the masts for 10 days.

Have the same issue here. I managed to get a semi straight answer from the local 3 shop. What they told me was that the local tower near me had been prepped for 5g which involved some loss of current capacity meaning the network in my area is now overloaded. Hence st speeds. Between 5pm and 11pm in the week its almost unusable for TV streaming services like netflix but fine outside peak hours.

However they said the 5g roll out has been delayed for a number of reasons and they have no idea when it will continue.

Even more annoying that in my city, the posh areas have in the last year had 5g towers installed but it doesnt reach here. Guess the poor areas arent a priority.

[Shnozz]

Yep, gave it a try and returned it in the cooling off period. Speeds as G33 reported, living in city centre. To be fair, living so central we have a decent choice of wired connections so it was only really an attempt to have a more flexible fast connection where the router didn't need to be in a certain part of the apartment and also could potentially pack it with us if staying elsewhere and working. Speed just wasn't good enough, however.

[thetapeworm]

I'm both amazed this one is still active (I think it's the only thing I've ever posted that's received more than a handful of replies!) and that the same issues that forced me to leave Three still seem to exist today, very disappointing to read.

[halo34]

I will be ditching them soon as moving. I live fairly rural at moment and its just about got me through. But the variation in service quality has been terrible and heading downwards.

Constant working on mast according to the service notifications - but when I query it they just say it will be better once works done and usually its just the same or worse.

[Murph7355]

thetapeworm said:

I'm both amazed this one is still active (I think it's the only thing I've ever posted that's received more than a handful of replies!) and that the same issues that forced me to leave Three still seem to exist today, very disappointing to read.

It's not really a surprise IMO.

They offer pretty much the cheapest (only?) truly unlimited tariffs, on a network that isn't the best out there in terms of speed. Something has to give.

EE are more expensive and have FUPs on their tariffs...but from personal experience their network is literally 4x faster.

Experiences will vary, but I would bet EE are generally faster/more stable.

Now, having said that ...there were issues on our local mast recently and in the run up to them, and since, I'm finding upload speeds are half what they were (download are still strong) and I have to restart the router occasionally. I have a suspicion that there are either ongoing issues with the mast or services are starting to get more heavily subscribed (or a combo of both). Still faster than 3 though.

I got a flyer from County Broadband a few weeks ago saying they were completing FTTP in my area and that I could get free connection. So put an order in. I am convinced their postcode checkers are wrong and will be very pleasantly surprised if they can actually follow through with a connection...but if they can it will be 600mbps for £30 per mth (for 6mths then £55). So the 4G connection will be moved to backup duty/retired.

[chopper602]

I have the Huawei B818-263 4G router and I'm finding that it will often just drop the connection and display a red LED on 'MODE'. It will then re-establish and then be ok for a few minutes, but it's doing it often. I've updated the firmware and amended the settings to connect to 4G only.
Any ideas ?

[IanA2]

IanA2 said:

We're in the sticks and Three has been fine for us for best part of three years.

We rarely get less than 30, and often a lot more.

Just checked speeds EE & Three:

Three with router 35.7 EE with phone 17.4

Strange thing is I think they're on the same mast, at least they used to be.

Ho hum.

[Psycho Warren]

Soon as I can ditch 3 I will move to someone else for home broadband. its been a right royal pain in the ass having both the phone and home broadband with same provider.

It was fine which is why i went with them, been with 3 probably 10 years and with a tower being near where i am, never had any issues except 2359 on new years eve when things slowed down.

So thought I would be fine.

Then the signal speed just suddenly dropped off which was the mast work mentioned above. 6 months later no change, no sign of change in the future. They cant even give me a date.

So They will loose a customer soon.

[page3]

brisel said:

I have unlimited data on EE (through a local telecoms provider) with a TP Link router and an external Poynting antenna. I live next to a main rail line, so have a 4G phone mast a mile away with near perfect line of sight apart from a couple of trees. 40 mbps down and 30 up.

Nice speed, although unfortunately you don’t have unlimited data on EE as they don’t offer such a plan.

[Murph7355]

page3 said:

brisel said:

I have unlimited data on EE (through a local telecoms provider) with a TP Link router and an external Poynting antenna. I live next to a main rail line, so have a 4G phone mast a mile away with near perfect line of sight apart from a couple of trees. 40 mbps down and 30 up.

Nice speed, although unfortunately you don’t have unlimited data on EE as they don’t offer such a plan.

A FUP does not necessarily constitute a limit. It is reserving the right to rate limit you.

[Murph7355]

chopper602 said:

I have the Huawei B818-263 4G router and I'm finding that it will often just drop the connection and display a red LED on 'MODE'. It will then re-establish and then be ok for a few minutes, but it's doing it often. I've updated the firmware and amended the settings to connect to 4G only.
Any ideas ?

Can you try the sim in a mobile phone and see if it does the same thing?

Only time mine's done this was the aforementioned mast issue...

[HRL]

Now living out in the sticks I thought I’d try 4G via a B818 and an O2 sim.

Holding my iPhone up against the inside of the window in the bedroom that has the best signal I get between 30-40Mb DL and about 10Mb UL.

The B818 however gets me about 10Mb DL and UL. I’ve now plugged in a Poynting A-XPOL-001-V2 and pointed it in the same direction the iPhone was facing and still only get about 10Mb DL and UL.

Bit confused TBH as when I first plugged in the external antenna yesterday I did one speed test and immediately hit 45Mb DL and 30Mb UL, then left it until today to do more thorough testing.

Side by side I repeatedly get higher DL/UL on my iPhone than on the B818 and external antenna. I’ve used LTE-H to see if I can figure out what the problem but I’m really scratching my head right now!

[bristolracer]

This may sound obvious.....

On some of the Huawei routers you need to go into the advanced settings and change the setting to external antennae
Its easily missed, ask me how I know.....