Three UK - 4G Home Broadband - any users here?
Discussion
It is, extra £8 for the weeks useage in May, which is fine.
But the monthly cost was shown as £32 a month... Had a live chat this morning and apparently it's sorted, need to wait for the billing to update to reflect the actual cost, I have the web chat copied and pasted into a word doc, along with the ref number. So we shall see
But the monthly cost was shown as £32 a month... Had a live chat this morning and apparently it's sorted, need to wait for the billing to update to reflect the actual cost, I have the web chat copied and pasted into a word doc, along with the ref number. So we shall see
Found myself next to a Three mast today so did some testing.
I did 3 tests, 1 right under the mast, 1 about 50m away and another bout a rugby pitch length away and managed between 25-27MB down and 40-50MB up.
The phone had line of sight to the mast at all times and was handheld. I'm wondering if perhaps Three throttle certain masts or devices.
My 4G box arrives tomorrow!
I did 3 tests, 1 right under the mast, 1 about 50m away and another bout a rugby pitch length away and managed between 25-27MB down and 40-50MB up.
The phone had line of sight to the mast at all times and was handheld. I'm wondering if perhaps Three throttle certain masts or devices.
My 4G box arrives tomorrow!
ashleyman said:
Found myself next to a Three mast today so did some testing.
I did 3 tests, 1 right under the mast, 1 about 50m away and another bout a rugby pitch length away and managed between 25-27MB down and 40-50MB up.
The phone had line of sight to the mast at all times and was handheld. I'm wondering if perhaps Three throttle certain masts or devices.
My 4G box arrives tomorrow!
You would have been better testing at 100m plus, being under the mast does not give you the best results as you could be between sectors. Also they don't throttle masts but there is only a certain amount of bandwidth available to that cell site, that is your restriction, the more users on the cell, the less bandwidth available for you to use, it will also depend on what those users are doing, of they are just browsing web pages then its low bandwidth, if they are streaming HD films then thats more bandwidth used, so the cell just uses what it has available and allocates according to user and user priority.I did 3 tests, 1 right under the mast, 1 about 50m away and another bout a rugby pitch length away and managed between 25-27MB down and 40-50MB up.
The phone had line of sight to the mast at all times and was handheld. I'm wondering if perhaps Three throttle certain masts or devices.
My 4G box arrives tomorrow!
Right. Well the box is here. Been running for an hour or so. Speeds are just as bad as my iPhone.
Tried to speak to Three about it and I just keep getting sent to their offshore call centre. They say there's an issue with the mast but then why has it been like this since at least April.
I really wanted this to work but I doubt it's worth even trying to wait. Pretty much decided I'm cancelling the hub, will also cancel my mobile and will go elsewhere. Will leave the Virgin in place as it's running much better with the new hub they sent me.
Very disappointed all round.
Tried to speak to Three about it and I just keep getting sent to their offshore call centre. They say there's an issue with the mast but then why has it been like this since at least April.
I really wanted this to work but I doubt it's worth even trying to wait. Pretty much decided I'm cancelling the hub, will also cancel my mobile and will go elsewhere. Will leave the Virgin in place as it's running much better with the new hub they sent me.
Very disappointed all round.
I got bored this morning so decided to unbox my AI Cube and set it up earlier than planned, unfortunately the chap in the 3 store set the SIM to activate on the 18th so having spent 30 minutes chatting to someone at 3 I'm now waiting for it to allow me to use it.
I managed to connect to it via WiFi and have a bit of a look at things but it kept redirecting me off to a sign-up page that didn't seem to be for the SIM - hoping this stops once it's all ready to go.
One thing I did notice is how lightweight the unit is compared with something like a Sonos, presuming the speaker isn't going to blow me away beyond delivering Alexa answers but looking forward to having a mess around.
I managed to connect to it via WiFi and have a bit of a look at things but it kept redirecting me off to a sign-up page that didn't seem to be for the SIM - hoping this stops once it's all ready to go.
One thing I did notice is how lightweight the unit is compared with something like a Sonos, presuming the speaker isn't going to blow me away beyond delivering Alexa answers but looking forward to having a mess around.
thetapeworm said:
I got bored this morning so decided to unbox my AI Cube and set it up earlier than planned, unfortunately the chap in the 3 store set the SIM to activate on the 18th so having spent 30 minutes chatting to someone at 3 I'm now waiting for it to allow me to use it.
I managed to connect to it via WiFi and have a bit of a look at things but it kept redirecting me off to a sign-up page that didn't seem to be for the SIM - hoping this stops once it's all ready to go.
One thing I did notice is how lightweight the unit is compared with something like a Sonos, presuming the speaker isn't going to blow me away beyond delivering Alexa answers but looking forward to having a mess around.
It scared the life out of me when it started speaking to me. 'YOUR HUWAI CUBE IS READY FOR SET UP'. I managed to connect to it via WiFi and have a bit of a look at things but it kept redirecting me off to a sign-up page that didn't seem to be for the SIM - hoping this stops once it's all ready to go.
One thing I did notice is how lightweight the unit is compared with something like a Sonos, presuming the speaker isn't going to blow me away beyond delivering Alexa answers but looking forward to having a mess around.
thetapeworm said:
ashleyman said:
It scared the life out of me when it started speaking to me. 'YOUR HUWAI CUBE IS READY FOR SET UP'.
Likewise 
It's not in its final resting place but currently seeing :
It looks like that was my peak, it's been more around the 30 mark for downloads since I moved it to the position I'd planned to have it in so obviously more work needed there.
In fairness anything 20+ is OK for me but as we've already seen above once you know more is easily obtained it becomes a bit of a challenge
Somewhat disappointed with the WiFi performance, I live in a townhouse, the AI Cube is currently on the bottom floor and I'm on the middle one, it's lost connection and switched to using my normal mobile phone 4G instead, that means there's absolutely no hope of it working up on the top floor. My existing Virgin router could happily reach all floors and out into the garden with no issues.
Also can't seem to get Spotify to play to the Cube, the Alexa app is happily seeing it but despite being connected to it my phone just won't let me see it as an available device to use as a speaker.
In fairness anything 20+ is OK for me but as we've already seen above once you know more is easily obtained it becomes a bit of a challenge
Somewhat disappointed with the WiFi performance, I live in a townhouse, the AI Cube is currently on the bottom floor and I'm on the middle one, it's lost connection and switched to using my normal mobile phone 4G instead, that means there's absolutely no hope of it working up on the top floor. My existing Virgin router could happily reach all floors and out into the garden with no issues.
Also can't seem to get Spotify to play to the Cube, the Alexa app is happily seeing it but despite being connected to it my phone just won't let me see it as an available device to use as a speaker.
ashleyman said:
Right. Well the box is here. Been running for an hour or so. Speeds are just as bad as my iPhone.
Tried to speak to Three about it and I just keep getting sent to their offshore call centre. They say there's an issue with the mast but then why has it been like this since at least April.
I really wanted this to work but I doubt it's worth even trying to wait. Pretty much decided I'm cancelling the hub, will also cancel my mobile and will go elsewhere. Will leave the Virgin in place as it's running much better with the new hub they sent me.
Very disappointed all round.
Very disappointing indeed. I had a text from Three yesterday saying 'We're doing some work in your area and there may be some disruption', but so far the magic 4G pixie-bits keep flowing. Tried to speak to Three about it and I just keep getting sent to their offshore call centre. They say there's an issue with the mast but then why has it been like this since at least April.
I really wanted this to work but I doubt it's worth even trying to wait. Pretty much decided I'm cancelling the hub, will also cancel my mobile and will go elsewhere. Will leave the Virgin in place as it's running much better with the new hub they sent me.
Very disappointed all round.
What I can't get to work is Cellmapper, either on a phone or on the PC. It's a rural area, so maybe the masts haven't been mapped, but the local city isn't showing maps either. There is a VPN and other subterfuges in place here which might be one reason.
For T. Worm: I used Netgear Range Extenders on our 'other house' to get Wifi up from the distant kitchen, which were a bit faffy to get linked, but which work fine on the first floor.
Sorry if it has been answered but it is actually unlimited? I use about 300gb per month for work.
Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
I'm looking into updating my Homeplugs to some gigabit ones with WiFi and pass through plugs as I seem to have a shortage of sockets.
Oddly just after I posted last night the WiFi seemed to improve significantly so I'll keep testing.
I've unplugged the Virgin router this morning and replaced it with the AI Cube to see what wired performance is like when working from home with Spotify playing etc
CAT5 no problem.
VOIP being used by one of the other posters above I believe.
Oddly just after I posted last night the WiFi seemed to improve significantly so I'll keep testing.
I've unplugged the Virgin router this morning and replaced it with the AI Cube to see what wired performance is like when working from home with Spotify playing etc
skilly1 said:
Sorry if it has been answered but it is actually unlimited? I use about 300gb per month for work.
Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
It's supposed to be totally unlimited, people say the box has received texts to the contrary but not been charged extra or access stopped. Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
CAT5 no problem.
VOIP being used by one of the other posters above I believe.
skilly1 said:
Sorry if it has been answered but it is actually unlimited? I use about 300gb per month for work.
Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
Re questions 1 & 2:Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
I've been with them for about six months. I regularly use 300 - 400 a month, no problems.
Both B618 and the B315 have phone sockets into which I plugged in my old Panny Dect. Works a treat.
Some random ramblings from testing today.
CAT5 connectivity to my various machines is all good, simply had to run an ipconfig /renew on them.
VPNs - my work ones are fine on the 3 network but they seem to be blocking TunnelBear - works perfectly OK with the WiFi connection disabled and over my EE 4G instead, as soon as I go back to the 3 4G it disconnects.
Can't manage the SIM using the My3 app on my non-3 mobile, it insists on checking for a 3 SIM in the device it's installed on rather that just asking you for your 3 login details.
Adult content filter - enabled by default and set to BBFC's guidelines, as the My3 app doesn't work you will need to speak to a nice lady in India if you want this removing and it takes up to 24 hours to happen... according to a friend of mine.
SMS messages sent to the device with links in can't be clicked despite them saying "please click here" so if you really want to do that survey they have sent through you'll need to type out the URL manually.
The Three retention team are a little odd. I was paying £30/month for 100gb (good deal at the time) but my contract is up. So they offered me unlimited for £22 for 24 months (same as the website) but with a new router. I don't want it as I just got one from them last year, but they won't a) not send it or b) change the price or contract duration.
So I just cancelled and will sign up for £22/month one year unlimited SIM with £60 back from Quidco ...
So I just cancelled and will sign up for £22/month one year unlimited SIM with £60 back from Quidco ...
thetapeworm said:
SMS messages sent to the device with links in can't be clicked despite them saying "please click here" so if you really want to do that survey they have sent through you'll need to type out the URL manually.
skilly1 said:
Sorry if it has been answered but it is actually unlimited? I use about 300gb per month for work.
Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
Ethernet VOIP is fine using Sipgate Basic and a Grandstream GXP desk VOIP phone with two lines. Sipgate recommend disabling all SIP ALG's in the router, (any router) but mine's OK. I hooked up Port 5060 as a passthrough, which probably isn't needed. Both lines register, and the Message Waiting Indicator works fine.Also would it be ok for voip telephone system if I have crap 4mbps hard internet line for backup. We have 2 phone mast on out land so signal should be good.
Last question, can I hardwire cat5 into it (we have 24 port hub) for internal computer network?
On other Huawei 4G routers than the HomeFi B311, you can plug a POTs phone (landline phone) into the phone sockets and use the SIM number for calls. Three say this feature is disabled on the B311s. (not yet tested) Outgoing calls would be added to the bill.
One useful feature of Sipgate Basic is you can get a local 'landline' number, then forward it to the SIM number in the router, if said router works with the phone sockets on the back. Outgoing calls would be from the SIM number.
So far, 'Unlimited' seems to mean 1TB a month. Posters on other forums say if you go over this, your 'allowance' is cut-off until the next billing period.
You can plug an Ethernet switch into the B311 HomeFi router for more ports, or more Wifi WAPs, etc.
Edited by Slushbox on Thursday 6th June 12:22
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