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

[thetapeworm]

I wouldn't rely on results from one provider to give an accurate idea of Three performance.

I'm not sure how it works but is the mast ID for the physical location of the kit of the actual kit itself as several stick their bits up on the same things don't they?

I'm fairly sure my EE phone and Three router connect to the same chimney in town but there's lots of kit bolted on to it.

[IanA2]

thetapeworm said:

I wouldn't rely on results from one provider to give an accurate idea of Three performance.

I'm not sure how it works but is the mast ID for the physical location of the kit of the actual kit itself as several stick their bits up on the same things don't they?

I'm fairly sure my EE phone and Three router connect to the same chimney in town but there's lots of kit bolted on to it.

EE & Three certainly share my nearby mast.

[FunkyGibbon]

bunchofkeys said:

And is there a router that would allow me to connect to 4G, but also allow the option of bonding (correct technical term?) with a landline broadband connection as well?

A quick search shows a Huawei B535 is a possible contender for the 4G side of things, but no information about bonding.

I have an Asus 4G-AC86U that has dual WAN connection. One being the 4G and the other can be any other Broadband connected by ethernet to the WAN port.

It can run in failover mode or load balancing.

It also has the ability to work with other Asus AI Mesh devices to create a mesh WiFi around the house. It includes the ability to create guest networks.

Works a treat.

[bunchofkeys]

FunkyGibbon said:

I have an Asus 4G-AC86U that has dual WAN connection. One being the 4G and the other can be any other Broadband connected by ethernet to the WAN port.

It can run in failover mode or load balancing.

It also has the ability to work with other Asus AI Mesh devices to create a mesh WiFi around the house. It includes the ability to create guest networks.

Works a treat.

Excellent, thanks for that.

Popped a 3 SIM into the phone and the speeds are about the same as EE. However, the speed tests were all over the place with 4G.
One day it was peaking at 110 down and 55 up, another day it was 16 down and 2 up. This is with the phone in the same location in the house, and in the same orientation. Seems that contention affects 4G more than landline brand-band.

[Barlows]

Has anyone tried taking their 4G router abroad (in EU)?

Going away to a private apartment which will have no wifi.

[theboss]

Barlows said:

Has anyone tried taking their 4G router abroad (in EU)?

Going away to a private apartment which will have no wifi.

All the time - EU and elsewhere. It’s usually excellent, better in most cases than apartment or hotel Wi-Fi. Just double check you get your full UK data allowance in the other country - you don’t want to go over.

[BobSaunders]

Hi,

After six months of fantastic use and internet speeds without a care, last Friday whilst working suddenly the download speeds dropped off the map, from an average of 4-5mb/s, to about 1mb/s. The Huawei router never moved, signal dropped in real time as i was logged into the console trying to figure out what happened, then recovered back to full bars. Since then it has never recovered. I move it up into the loft, and purchased Poynting Omni aerial and still no difference.

I set up a regular speed test to execute randomly throughout the night, and it was not until 1am when things got better, peaking around 4am at 6.6mb/s peak, it drops off again around 6am.

Anyone else experienced this?

One assumes either they have tweaked the backhaul connection, or downed an antenna forcing everyone to consolidate, or something else has occurred.

I've complained, an i've been 'rest assured we will resolve this by 27/01"... great stuff... because if you have not i will be cancelling my connection.. and you've rest assured me that you will resolve by x.

[thetapeworm]

That's pretty much what happened to me but just after the cooling off period. I've now had the issue for about 5 months, at best I get 4Mbps, that's rare though, it's usually under 1Mbps.

My theory is that they're screwing something up as they install their 5G kit.

I leave Three next week having done formal complaints and negotiated an early end to the contract. I have to pay £32 to cover the cost of the hardware.

Edited by thetapeworm on Thursday 23 January 22:13

[BobSaunders]

I've literally just crossed the six month line.

[Lemming Train]

^ Another reason (as if there were not enough already) to avoid Three like the plague! Hook you in til you're through the cancellation period and then turn your speed down to nothing!

[thetapeworm]

Lemming Train said:

^ Another reason (as if there were not enough already) to avoid Three like the plague! Hook you in til you're through the cancellation period and then turn your speed down to nothing!

It's quite shocking how many people report this on Twitter, Facebook etc

[NoComment]

BobSaunders said:

I've literally just crossed the six month line.

Is this Threes cancellation period?

I moved house in October and I'm literally 100 yards from the three mast, consistently get 40-50mb download on my phone but my AI Cube struggles to get over 5mb most days. I'm onto my 2nd Cube now and 2nd SIM and its not improved.

I was hoping to cancel as the girl in the store told me i would get speeds better than my phone due to the antenna in the Cube but this isn't the case whatsoever.

Be interested to know if i can cancel as i was told in store purchases cant be cancelled.

Thanks

NoComment.

[thetapeworm]

NoComment said:

Is this Threes cancellation period?

I moved house in October and I'm literally 100 yards from the three mast, consistently get 40-50mb download on my phone but my AI Cube struggles to get over 5mb most days. I'm onto my 2nd Cube now and 2nd SIM and its not improved.

I was hoping to cancel as the girl in the store told me i would get speeds better than my phone due to the antenna in the Cube but this isn't the case whatsoever.

Be interested to know if i can cancel as i was told in store purchases cant be cancelled.

Thanks

NoComment.

Mine was a store purchase, contract started last June and following a lengthy period of trying to fix things (new SIM, router resets, escalations to "network team" and then trying an EE SIM in the AICube and finding it worked to ~80Mbps when the Three one was 1Mbps) they agreed to let me cancel.

Early cancellation fee is £85, minus a 60% reduction due to the issues I've had and it came out to £32.60 to escape, I get to keep the AICube so that'll go to CEX for £25 cash or £30 in credit as I've found every aspect of it to be a disappointment, contrary to every other Huawei product I've owned.

You just need make sure you have previous web chats in the bag and actually ask them to raise a formal complaint rather than just try to fix things at your end when the issue so obviously lies at theirs.

http://www.three.co.uk/support/how-to-complain

Ombudsman Services can help if they fail to respond to your complaint in 8 weeks but I suspect a web complaint will be enough to get the ball rolling.

It's flying today!

Edited by thetapeworm on Friday 24th January 11:38

[NoComment]

thetapeworm said:

Mine was a store purchase, contract started last June and following a lengthy period of trying to fix things (new SIM, router resets, escalations to "network team" and then trying a Three SIM in the AICube and finding it worked to ~80Mbps when the Three one was 1Mbps) they agreed to let me cancel.

Early cancellation fee is £85, minus a 60% reduction due to the issues I've had and it came out to £32.60 to escape, I get to keep the AICube so that'll go to CEX for £25 cash or £30 in credit as I've found every aspect of it to be a disappointment, contrary to every other Huawei product I've owned.

You just need make sure you have previous web chats in the bag and actually ask them to raise a formal complaint rather than just try to fix things at your end when the issue so obviously lies at theirs.

http://www.three.co.uk/support/how-to-complain

Ombudsman Services can help if they fail to respond to your complaint in 8 weeks but I suspect a web complaint will be enough to get the ball rolling.

It's flying today!

Edited by thetapeworm on Friday 24th January 09:13

Sorry, dont follow, was it not with Three originally then?

[thetapeworm]

NoComment said:

Sorry, dont follow, was it not with Three originally then?

Three on the brain, I meant EE.

[rfsteel]

Have had a 3 unlimited 4G SIM and AI Cube since the end of June 2019, in November I started to notice dire speed issues, even though the AI Cube was reporting full signal, as reported above by others.

After a couple of weeks I bit the bullet and replaced the AI Cube with a Netgear LB2120 LTE modem and MIMO antenna, and even though the LB2120 is reporting 2 bars of signal strength, I now get 3.8 - 4 MBs download speeds again, also not struggling on the volume of data being consumed each month;


My 4G is running on WAN2 on my ER5120 router;

FTP download speed;





Make me wonder is the speed issues being reported are due to using huawei hardware ?

[PushedDover]

Can't fault my full transfer to 4G internet connectivity - but on EE.

Thanks to another thread on PH, I have also cut off my landline and free bundled rural / poor wired Broadband, buying a gigaset GO VOIP compatible handset and an account on Sipgate.

In the space of 5 months - and largely due to finding a thread on here and signing up, I have gone from 30gb capped 4G on EE @ circa £38pm, plus Landline and Broadband @ circa @28pm to unlimited 4G, at cracking speeds as below, keeping my landline (ported to the Sipgate account) and all it costs is £ 27 for lightening fast broadband



I move in a month, so take it all with me too...

[thetapeworm]

rfsteel said:

Have had a 3 unlimited 4G SIM and AI Cube since the end of June 2019, in November I started to notice dire speed issues, even though the AI Cube was reporting full signal, as reported above by others.

After a couple of weeks I bit the bullet and replaced the AI Cube with a Netgear LB2120 LTE modem and MIMO antenna, and even though the LB2120 is reporting 2 bars of signal strength, I now get 3.8 - 4 MBs download speeds again, also not struggling on the volume of data being consumed each month;


My 4G is running on WAN2 on my ER5120 router;

FTP download speed;





Make me wonder is the speed issues being reported are due to using huawei hardware ?

I'm no expert but that RSRP isn't a great figure is it?


Another friend of mine has recently reported a sudden degradation in his service from Three across various locations where it was once OK. No changes his side.

There's something going on at Three.

Edited by thetapeworm on Sunday 26th January 20:14

[NoComment]

thetapeworm said:

NoComment said:

Sorry, dont follow, was it not with Three originally then?

Three on the brain, I meant EE.

Ah i see, so you went from Three with dire speeds to EE with great speeds?

Is the AI cube unlocked out the box then? I could try the Mrs's SIM in it and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks

NoComment

[thetapeworm]

Supposedly they're all unlocked, give it a whirl