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

[sparkyhx]

beko1987 said:

Lord Marylebone said:

Hi all,

I need a bit of 4G home broadband advice here.

A house move means that very soon I need temporary internet for 6 months or so without going to the hassle of signing up to a BT line contract and wired internet contract etc, as I will likely be moving again.

I work from home and so does my wife, and we don't move large amounts of data, just mostly emails and documents, but we do also make a few video calls each week on Zoom/Teams etc.

My question is, in your experience, is 4G home broadband good enough for working from home and video calls etc. We also watch all our TV via streaming Netflix etc, but this isn't critical and we can live without it if needs be. I'm more concerned with work stuff.

We have EE Fibre right now, and couple of Speedtests just carried out show that our EE wired connection supplies 25-45Mbps depending on which device you run the test.

Thanks

I do all of that with mine. I get 32mb download, I imagine it's a bit grim if you get 6mb but I have my children today and the TV will be streaming netflix whilst they play on phones and tablets ignoring it. I have 3 teams calls this morning and they will be fine too, and I'll probably be browsing facebook on my phone just down out of sight of my webcam...

Copes fine!

Jeez, I only get 32mbs for wired connection.and it often drops well below that. It's perfectly acceptable and not had any issues doing stuff, but impressed at your speeds for 4g.

[anonymous-user]

sparkyhx said:

Jeez, I only get 32mbs for wired connection.and it often drops well below that. It's perfectly acceptable and not had any issues doing stuff, but impressed at your speeds for 4g.

My EE Fibre gets around 28-34Mbps (a few tests over the last few days confirm this)

Just tried a few tests with my EE 4G Wifi device and it was running at 45-68Mbps.

I think this has confirmed for me that I genuinely no longer need a landline. We don't even have a landline phone plugged in as it's been years since anyone called us on it, and with so many free minutes on mobiles, we don't even need it to make calls.

(My tests were carried out with the 'Think Broadband test')

[IanA2]

Lord Marylebone said:

sparkyhx said:

Jeez, I only get 32mbs for wired connection.and it often drops well below that. It's perfectly acceptable and not had any issues doing stuff, but impressed at your speeds for 4g.

My EE Fibre gets around 28-34Mbps (a few tests over the last few days confirm this)

Just tried a few tests with my EE 4G Wifi device and it was running at 45-68Mbps.

I think this has confirmed for me that I genuinely no longer need a landline. We don't even have a landline phone plugged in as it's been years since anyone called us on it, and with so many free minutes on mobiles, we don't even need it to make calls.

(My tests were carried out with the 'Think Broadband test')

If it's of any interest, both the B618 & the B315 have jacks for DECT phones. We had half a dozen already set up & use them mostly as internal phones but obviously can be used normally.

[anonymous-user]

IanA2 said:

Lord Marylebone said:

sparkyhx said:

Jeez, I only get 32mbs for wired connection.and it often drops well below that. It's perfectly acceptable and not had any issues doing stuff, but impressed at your speeds for 4g.

My EE Fibre gets around 28-34Mbps (a few tests over the last few days confirm this)

Just tried a few tests with my EE 4G Wifi device and it was running at 45-68Mbps.

I think this has confirmed for me that I genuinely no longer need a landline. We don't even have a landline phone plugged in as it's been years since anyone called us on it, and with so many free minutes on mobiles, we don't even need it to make calls.

(My tests were carried out with the 'Think Broadband test')

If it's of any interest, both the B618 & the B315 have jacks for DECT phones. We had half a dozen already set up & use them mostly as internal phones but obviously can be used normally.

That is interesting.

So if the SIM card allows for calls as well as data, you can use it to make calls via the DECT handset? I probably wouldn't ever use it, but it's interesting to see how much these 4G Routers have advanced.

I wonder if the rapidly rising popularity of home 4G/5G routers instead of landlines will be their downfall? If too many people started ditching the landline for these, then I guess the mobile data networks would simply slow to a crawl.

[page3]

Has anyone tried using a VPN (on the router) to provide a fixed IP and proper NAT?

[IanA2]

Lord Marylebone said:

IanA2 said:

Lord Marylebone said:

sparkyhx said:

Jeez, I only get 32mbs for wired connection.and it often drops well below that. It's perfectly acceptable and not had any issues doing stuff, but impressed at your speeds for 4g.

My EE Fibre gets around 28-34Mbps (a few tests over the last few days confirm this)

Just tried a few tests with my EE 4G Wifi device and it was running at 45-68Mbps.

I think this has confirmed for me that I genuinely no longer need a landline. We don't even have a landline phone plugged in as it's been years since anyone called us on it, and with so many free minutes on mobiles, we don't even need it to make calls.

(My tests were carried out with the 'Think Broadband test')

If it's of any interest, both the B618 & the B315 have jacks for DECT phones. We had half a dozen already set up & use them mostly as internal phones but obviously can be used normally.

That is interesting.

So if the SIM card allows for calls as well as data, you can use it to make calls via the DECT handset? I probably wouldn't ever use it, but it's interesting to see how much these 4G Routers have advanced.

I wonder if the rapidly rising popularity of home 4G/5G routers instead of landlines will be their downfall? If too many people started ditching the landline for these, then I guess the mobile data networks would simply slow to a crawl.

And you can surf and talk at the same.

I think landlines are dying. Regarding congestion, I'm quessing 5G will help out, and satelite will be cheaper in time.

[S6PNJ]

IanA2 said:

Lord Marylebone said:

IanA2 said:

Lord Marylebone said:

sparkyhx said:

Jeez, I only get 32mbs for wired connection.and it often drops well below that. It's perfectly acceptable and not had any issues doing stuff, but impressed at your speeds for 4g.

My EE Fibre gets around 28-34Mbps (a few tests over the last few days confirm this)

Just tried a few tests with my EE 4G Wifi device and it was running at 45-68Mbps.

I think this has confirmed for me that I genuinely no longer need a landline. We don't even have a landline phone plugged in as it's been years since anyone called us on it, and with so many free minutes on mobiles, we don't even need it to make calls.

(My tests were carried out with the 'Think Broadband test')

If it's of any interest, both the B618 & the B315 have jacks for DECT phones. We had half a dozen already set up & use them mostly as internal phones but obviously can be used normally.

That is interesting.

So if the SIM card allows for calls as well as data, you can use it to make calls via the DECT handset? I probably wouldn't ever use it, but it's interesting to see how much these 4G Routers have advanced.

I wonder if the rapidly rising popularity of home 4G/5G routers instead of landlines will be their downfall? If too many people started ditching the landline for these, then I guess the mobile data networks would simply slow to a crawl.

And you can surf and talk at the same.

I think landlines are dying. Regarding congestion, I'm quessing 5G will help out, and satelite will be cheaper in time.

Do both the B618 & the B315 allow calls to be made (via the dect phones) from the inclusive calls or via a voip service (and hence need a voip account)? I'm sure I read elsewhere that the inclusive minutes couldn't be used via a GSM router.

[IanA2]

S6PNJ said:

IanA2 said:

Lord Marylebone said:

IanA2 said:

Lord Marylebone said:

sparkyhx said:

Jeez, I only get 32mbs for wired connection.and it often drops well below that. It's perfectly acceptable and not had any issues doing stuff, but impressed at your speeds for 4g.

My EE Fibre gets around 28-34Mbps (a few tests over the last few days confirm this)

Just tried a few tests with my EE 4G Wifi device and it was running at 45-68Mbps.

I think this has confirmed for me that I genuinely no longer need a landline. We don't even have a landline phone plugged in as it's been years since anyone called us on it, and with so many free minutes on mobiles, we don't even need it to make calls.

(My tests were carried out with the 'Think Broadband test')

If it's of any interest, both the B618 & the B315 have jacks for DECT phones. We had half a dozen already set up & use them mostly as internal phones but obviously can be used normally.

That is interesting.

So if the SIM card allows for calls as well as data, you can use it to make calls via the DECT handset? I probably wouldn't ever use it, but it's interesting to see how much these 4G Routers have advanced.

I wonder if the rapidly rising popularity of home 4G/5G routers instead of landlines will be their downfall? If too many people started ditching the landline for these, then I guess the mobile data networks would simply slow to a crawl.

And you can surf and talk at the same.

I think landlines are dying. Regarding congestion, I'm quessing 5G will help out, and satelite will be cheaper in time.

Do both the B618 & the B315 allow calls to be made (via the dect phones) from the inclusive calls or via a voip service (and hence need a voip account)? I'm sure I read elsewhere that the inclusive minutes couldn't be used via a GSM router.

Yes they do, from inclusive calls, (at least with Three they do). You have to set the SIM up in a phone before transfering it to the router. Then just plug in the DECT and yabber yabber....

[Will O. Bey jr]

Silverage said:

That’s pretty much top of the range for 4G. Good going.

iAnal but even though the DL is quite impressive it is still way off what's possible on typical modern 4G. 150/50 on CAT4 with 2CA would be top of the range. On 4CA you can get 300+ DL.

[barryrs]

Will O. Bey jr said:

Silverage said:

That’s pretty much top of the range for 4G. Good going.

iAnal but even though the DL is quite impressive it is still way off what's possible on typical modern 4G. 150/50 on CAT4 with 2CA would be top of the range. On 4CA you can get 300+ DL.

I’m getting zero today, network issues locally apparently.

[page3]

Well my internet is still down (2 1/2 weeks) and BT don’t seem fussed about fixing it. When it worked I got 26/2 with daily drops in connection.

Huawei 535 + Three SIM + A&A VPN working well and giving 26/15 average.
Tried my EE phone SIM and getting 50/45

I’ve not even located the router anyway ideal yet, will probably move it to the loft.

So, instead of load balancing I’m thinking of dumping my landline and just using EE 4G plus the A&A VPN and VOIP service to bypass CGNAT issues,

[megaphone]

I got an offer from EE via the portal. Additional sim, unlimited data/call/text £25/m. If you have an account, might be worth checking.

[towser]

megaphone said:

I got an offer from EE via the portal. Additional sim, unlimited data/call/text £25/m. If you have an account, might be worth checking.

Thanks - may give them a call. My unlimited Three solution has really started acting up over the last month or so. According to the rather woeful support team it's due to network congestion (and looking at jitter and ping variances that would seem to be correct). I'm a bit disappointed as I had been with Three before and the same problem happened, looks like their network upgrade planning leaves a bit to be desired. Shame as it's a really good service when it works.

[gus607]

Has anyone on here had any experience of Three 5G home wifi ?
Three have recently upgraded my local mast to 5G & on my 5G phone I'm getting 480/45 downloads.
I would be happy if it was reliable.

[Lemming Train]

Just avoid Three. The seemingly never-ending tales of woe from users of them in this thread and elsewhere on the internet indicate that you'll be setting yourself up for a world of pain. They seem to be in the same camp as Vodafone and O2 these days for stty service with EE being the only reasonably decent provider remaining.

[Will O. Bey jr]

page3 said:

Huawei 535 + Three SIM + A&A VPN working well and giving 26/15 average.
Tried my EE phone SIM and getting 50/45

You can use Huawei Monitor to force 2CA (aggregation of 2 bands) on your 535 which will increase the speed significantly. It will also lock and remember the setting so that it's permanently on.

[dmsims]

Has anyone used an external antenna (and if so which one)?

[IanA2]

Lemming Train said:

Just avoid Three. The seemingly never-ending tales of woe from users of them in this thread and elsewhere on the internet indicate that you'll be setting yourself up for a world of pain. They seem to be in the same camp as Vodafone and O2 these days for stty service with EE being the only reasonably decent provider remaining.

Except of course for those who've had a good experience with Three for the past two years.....

[IanA2]

dmsims said:

Has anyone used an external antenna (and if so which one)?

You don't say what router you're using.

I tried rabbit ears on the B315, made no difference.

I then tried a B618, big increase on speeds, so much so I haven't bothered trying an antenna

Also, have you found the best position? Small changes can make big differences.

[Troubleatmill]

Will O. Bey jr said:

You can use Huawei Monitor to force 2CA (aggregation of 2 bands) on your 535 which will increase the speed significantly. It will also lock and remember the setting so that it's permanently on.

More information please.

Thank you.