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

[thetapeworm]

TL:DR - Three UK mobile broadband for home use - any good?

Longer version:

I'm having endless issues with Virgin, constant disconnects, slower speeds than expected, terrible customer service etc and no end of engineer visits or daily complaints when it drops seems to be getting me anywhere. Given I throw £58 a month (often more if I forget and make a phone call during the day) at them with no TV and they are unwilling to compensate me for downtime or the constant issues I've finally had enough.

Unfortunately I live in a small pocket of new build houses that BT decided to fit with a cabinet that's stuck on ADSL with no sign of an upgrade any time soon. I've tried asking many times but my only option currently seems to be to pay for the whole upgrade myself or buy a pool car from someone in Bradford and drive it in to the cabinet in the hope it's replaced with a better one.

6Mbps down and 1Mbps up seem to be the best speeds offered to me but based on my experience when I moved in originally (before pestering Virgin to come) it's likely to be much less. These speeds also come at the same sort of prices being offered to people for fibre so it stings a little.

So this brings me on to the point of my post - Three UK and their 4G offerings via the Huawei AI Cube (my preferred option) and HomeFi units.

www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices/Huawei/AICubeB900

I currently have a couple of machines connected for work via VPNs doing general office type stuff, a couple of phones, Sky box, Netflix and misc other devices, I occasionally download and upload large files for work and then it's just streaming stuff, mainly Netflix which I believe 3 include in their "Go Binge" bundle. At worst there are probably 5 or 6 things trying to connect at the same time and the cube apparently supports up to 64 connections.

Some of the above is connected to my current router via ethernet, some via WiFi.

Is there anyone here living a similar online existence and just using 4G? Any issues or regrets? I'm with EE and have no experience of 3, their coverage checker shows I'm OK so presumably the rest comes down to how reliable they are?

I'm guessing my biggest issue will be latency so I'll probably have to knock the online gaming on the head but I can probably cope with that. The Huawei privacy thing isn't a concern, we already have 2 of their phones and a watch in the house, they are already aware of how dull things are here

[thetapeworm]

Thanks, it sounds as thought it might be a plausible alternative for me, I have to say that the Netflix buffering bothers me though as this is one of the major gripes I have on Virgin, it's like watching YouTube on 144p at times or just doesn't work at all.

There's a mast about half a mile away but I live in a town built on many hills and despite being on top of one a line of sight to would be impossible without a hefty aerial.

I think I'm going to risk it, ultimately I'll be cancelling a £60 a month connection to try one that's under £30 so if it's awful I'll just have to pay £20 extra for a crap ADSL line solution and still be saving a tenner. Oh and I'll have gained a speaker that listens to all my conversations

Appreciate the feedback, I've been Googling and haven't found any horror stories as yet but wanted to check with the PH folks as well.

[thetapeworm]

That's more than acceptable, if I can get over 20mbps I'll be happy enough.

As soon as I get home I'll be ringing Virgin to give my 30 days notice.

[thetapeworm]

Thanks for the updates, I got my AI Cube on Sunday but am just waiting until next week to set up and activate so the duplication of providers isn't too big.

Virgin have been pestering me constantly since giving notice and the bill that couldn't possibly be reduced got much cheaper, stuck to my guns though, I'm sick of them.

Edit: And now some chaps are outside installing the fibre BT said wouldn't be in place until 2020, it's almost as though the world wants to punish me at times

Edited by thetapeworm on Wednesday 22 May 15:32

[thetapeworm]

Slushbox - what are you using to get the stats for the connection? Is this from bundled software on the device itself or something external?

[thetapeworm]

ashleyman said:

We’re currently with Virgin but after a few outages, unexpected remote router upgrades that wipe port settings and failed engineer visits I’m thinking of moving away.

They still won't admit they wiped all my settings remotely and I'm still getting daily router reboots that seem to be remotely initiated.

I logged a formal complaint, 8 weeks later I got a letter saying they were sorry for not responding yet and that I could escalate to an external agency if I liked.

Presumably they are chuffed I'm leaving.

As well as the unmarked van outside laying fibre earlier in the week an Openreach one appeared yesterday according to my wife. Nobody at BT can confirm what's going on, presumably the second I activate the 3 sim and commit for 12 months it'll go live 😊

[thetapeworm]

Openreach are still telling me 2020 before their services go live so I'll probably put the Huawei in place this weekend and have extended dual running. Typing this on 4G as Virgin is down for the 3rd time today.

[thetapeworm]

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.

[thetapeworm]

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 :

[thetapeworm]

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.

[thetapeworm]

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

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.

CAT5 no problem.

VOIP being used by one of the other posters above I believe.

[thetapeworm]

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.

[thetapeworm]

IanA2 said:

If you're using a Huawei router you can access SMS messages via the HuaweiHiLink

That's exactly what I'm doing and it's fine for reading and deleting, you just can't click any links in the messages.

[thetapeworm]

ashleyman said:

thetapeworm said:

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.

If you haven't done so already, download the power line / tp link app and see what transfer rate is shown. There's no point in paying for gigabit power lines if you're power cables can only support 300mbps. I have 600mbps power lines everywhere and I'm only able to get 200 or less through the copper.

You'll also find that having the power lines plugged directly into the sockets rather than into extension leads can make a difference.

Cheers, the ones I have now are only 200s, they're coping OK it seems but you know, updates and all that, especially in this transitional period where my wife is more accepting of these essential things

[thetapeworm]

It's not setting the world alight tonight but it's working so still better than Virgin.

[thetapeworm]

Slushbox said:

That's gone down a bit, you were getting 80 mega-pixies two pages ago. Signal or contention issues?

Not sure what's happening but it's at 19.9 currently, my EE 4G phone (I know you can't really compare) is currently...



I need to look at the location of the device some more but based on the app I thought I'd found a good spot.

Edited by thetapeworm on Wednesday 12th June 07:55

[thetapeworm]

AI Cube and Spotify - it doesn't seem to work, you can't "Spotify Connect" to the speaker but it'll happily play stuff from Amazon Music.

Anyone had any joy?

[thetapeworm]

Spotify is happily playing on other Alexa speakers, a Roberts radio and the Fire but it seems reluctant to acknowledge the Cube for some reason.

Give the Cube is the device linking all the others you'd think it would be easy enough.

Others on Reddit reporting the same issue but very little other discussion out there.

[thetapeworm]

I hadn't considered Bluetooth, cheers.

I've already accepted I can't do a Sonos style multiroom setup with Alexa enabled devices that aren't specific Amazon ones so Bluetooth will do.

[thetapeworm]

Regarding Spotify :

Huawei UK said:

Thank you for contacting Huawei UK.

I truly hope you enjoy your device and that it meets your expectations!

In regards to your query, kindly be informed that the AI Cube will only work with Amazon Music, as Spotify is not supported at the moment.

However, we appreciate the customer's input and are very thankful that you took the time to write these suggestions regarding this aspect.

Your requests have been passed on to the development team and we can assure you that they will be taken into account for future updates & development.

Thank you for your feedback.


Best regards,
Maya


Huawei - Customer Care UK