Three UK - 4G Home Broadband - any users here?
Discussion
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
Used Three 3G and 4G MBB on and off for about 10 years. Was the case that tariff capping made it expensive, my contract was limited to 20GB per month. That was fine until Netflix arrived.
Uncapped tariffs at the moment.
As always it's down to signal strength. 80% signal in the house here, so it all works well with an older Huawei B315 router, or a TP-Link 4G router. It's also good enough with a 4G USB dongle plugged into a router. About 60/40 down/up on 4G.
It's a rural area so not much contention. It does slow down slightly between 16:00 and 19:00 as the kids come home from school, or something.
Other reports on here say latency not good for gaming. VOIP works fine for me with a two line VOIP desktop phone plugged into a cheap Netgear GS908 Managed Switch.
Haven't used a VPN with it.
The current Three Huawei B311 HomeFi routers only have one ethernet out port, so you might need an extra switch or a wifi extender. Don't know about the newer Cube, but it looks like a single port.
Best 3G/4G signal is often by an upstairs window, I pipe ethernet around with PowerLine adaptors from the router ethernet socket.
Will be moving back to Three MBB when current landline broadband contract finishes. Three do (did) offer small discounts for existing users over the phone.
You can check the Three signal at home with a free Three PAYG sim and a mobile phone before splurging on a contract.
Uncapped tariffs at the moment.
As always it's down to signal strength. 80% signal in the house here, so it all works well with an older Huawei B315 router, or a TP-Link 4G router. It's also good enough with a 4G USB dongle plugged into a router. About 60/40 down/up on 4G.
It's a rural area so not much contention. It does slow down slightly between 16:00 and 19:00 as the kids come home from school, or something.
Other reports on here say latency not good for gaming. VOIP works fine for me with a two line VOIP desktop phone plugged into a cheap Netgear GS908 Managed Switch.
Haven't used a VPN with it.
The current Three Huawei B311 HomeFi routers only have one ethernet out port, so you might need an extra switch or a wifi extender. Don't know about the newer Cube, but it looks like a single port.
Best 3G/4G signal is often by an upstairs window, I pipe ethernet around with PowerLine adaptors from the router ethernet socket.
Will be moving back to Three MBB when current landline broadband contract finishes. Three do (did) offer small discounts for existing users over the phone.
You can check the Three signal at home with a free Three PAYG sim and a mobile phone before splurging on a contract.
Edited by Slushbox on Friday 17th May 15:31
They are largely dependent on where they are situated - as I found out after picking one up.
Your best bet is to google search the location of your nearest Three 4G mast and determine if you can position the box somewhere with a clear line of sight to it. My flat is part of an old renovated factory, and I found that without a clear line of sight to the mast my speed kept fluctuating between 3-20Mbps. Fine for day-to-day browsing but started to grate when using netflix due to bufferring and the picture quality constantly changing.
Speed was more stable once I better situated the box, but random slowing and disconnecting of devices ultimately led to cancelling it in the cooling off period - worth a try!
Your best bet is to google search the location of your nearest Three 4G mast and determine if you can position the box somewhere with a clear line of sight to it. My flat is part of an old renovated factory, and I found that without a clear line of sight to the mast my speed kept fluctuating between 3-20Mbps. Fine for day-to-day browsing but started to grate when using netflix due to bufferring and the picture quality constantly changing.
Speed was more stable once I better situated the box, but random slowing and disconnecting of devices ultimately led to cancelling it in the cooling off period - worth a try!
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.
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.
I just got off the phone to Three to order the HomeFi B311 thingummy, as an upgrade to my old 20GB Mifi. No discounts for the asking, but they did waive the £5 delivery charge.
Yay!
--
Edit: testing Amazon Prime Video on the battery powered 3G only Mifi on Three MBB is working fine with no stuttering. Speedtest gives 12 Mbits/s down.
The 4G HomeFi should arrive on Monday, so I'll re-test and report back.
The 4G test with a TP-Link 4G router on Three MBB gives:
Yay!
--
Edit: testing Amazon Prime Video on the battery powered 3G only Mifi on Three MBB is working fine with no stuttering. Speedtest gives 12 Mbits/s down.
The 4G HomeFi should arrive on Monday, so I'll re-test and report back.
The 4G test with a TP-Link 4G router on Three MBB gives:
Edited by Slushbox on Friday 17th May 17:01
Hi I am am on a BT internet package (No Fiber available where I live) and had constant issues with loosing their connection and of course it was "not their fault"
Anyways I changed the settings in their smart hub disabling WiFi and made it a modem essentially.
I added my own WiFi router which has built in 4G backup that kicks in should I lose BT again, for the 4G I installed a Three data only SIM prepaid. During testing it worked well and had decent speeds.
The router works great and you hardly can tell when its on BT or Three, that being said the BT service has become more reliable through my router and the issue was really the Smart Hub 6 and not the phone line but it can still drop out in peak times.
I think this is a better solution than going fully over to 4G.
https://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/mobile-bro...
Anyways I changed the settings in their smart hub disabling WiFi and made it a modem essentially.
I added my own WiFi router which has built in 4G backup that kicks in should I lose BT again, for the 4G I installed a Three data only SIM prepaid. During testing it worked well and had decent speeds.
The router works great and you hardly can tell when its on BT or Three, that being said the BT service has become more reliable through my router and the issue was really the Smart Hub 6 and not the phone line but it can still drop out in peak times.
I think this is a better solution than going fully over to 4G.
https://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/mobile-bro...
^^^^^
The auto-fail-over routers are useful, but require you to pay for two services, unless the 4G standby one is PAYG or free.
My very cheap Post Office ADSL occasionally drops out about 16:00 every three days or so. The modem doesn't show anything other than frequent probing attacks on the remote configuration ports which seems fairly common for Openreach ADSL services. It's been otherwise reliable.
On the upside, you might be able to move to 4G only when the BT contract finishes as you've already got the 4G bits. (No pun intended.) Be useful to see your 4G speed-tests with the BT service unplugged.
One advantage of the 4G routers is you can take your broadband with you on holiday (in the UK). Three do cap roaming on their HomeFi MBB.
The auto-fail-over routers are useful, but require you to pay for two services, unless the 4G standby one is PAYG or free.
My very cheap Post Office ADSL occasionally drops out about 16:00 every three days or so. The modem doesn't show anything other than frequent probing attacks on the remote configuration ports which seems fairly common for Openreach ADSL services. It's been otherwise reliable.
On the upside, you might be able to move to 4G only when the BT contract finishes as you've already got the 4G bits. (No pun intended.) Be useful to see your 4G speed-tests with the BT service unplugged.
One advantage of the 4G routers is you can take your broadband with you on holiday (in the UK). Three do cap roaming on their HomeFi MBB.
Edited by Slushbox on Saturday 18th May 07:32
I live in an area with no fibre / ADSL provision and have been using EE 4g mobile broadband for a number of years. Good speeds (approx 20MBps down), decent latency (50ms) and reliable. Used for home working, streaming and some online gaming. Issue with EE.is datacaps and cost - I have a 200GB allowance for £50 a month.
I also signed up to Three’s unlimited plan recently with an eye to replacing the EE contract with it. I’d say the level of service is broadly the same in terms of speed and reliability. But latency for me is significantly higher and it’s unusable for video calls (which I need to do a lot of when homeworking). It’s a good service for streaming though - my kids chew through data viewing Youtibe and TV is pretty much exclusively streamed these days.
I also signed up to Three’s unlimited plan recently with an eye to replacing the EE contract with it. I’d say the level of service is broadly the same in terms of speed and reliability. But latency for me is significantly higher and it’s unusable for video calls (which I need to do a lot of when homeworking). It’s a good service for streaming though - my kids chew through data viewing Youtibe and TV is pretty much exclusively streamed these days.
towser said:
But latency for me is significantly higher and it’s unusable for video calls (which I need to do a lot of when homeworking).
I haven't tried Video calls over 4G, but the VOIP phone is OK. I've also sent faxes over it which is supposed to be 'impossible' due to latency. Very good signal strength here, though. Some of the Huawei 3G/4G routers auto-switch down to 3G when VOIP calls are in operation, which has worse latency. No idea if this happens with video-calling, or with other routers. The TP-Link router here seems to keep a 4G connection up during VOIP calls.
I do have the 4G router feeding a GS908E 'managed' switch, which prioritises the VOIP phone and the 4G router connections over the rest of the gubbins attached to it. £15 at the moment - the Amazon page mis-labels it as 'unmanaged.'
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS908-100UKS-Unma...
Edited by Slushbox on Saturday 18th May 08:11
The Huawei Spybox/4G HomeFi router arrived from Three, with a fresh sim card. Unlimited 'Pay monthly' MBB. £22 p.m.
Box has only one antenna socket on the back, but the internal antenna(s) currently give 52Mb/s down, 28 up, with the box on a downstairs windowsill. Moving it away and sticking it on a shelf does drop the signal strength. I lose a lot of signal at the back of the house, the front faces the mast. (Rural area so little contention.)
Some sleuthing for the best position in the house for the 4G signal is needed, says YouTube. Even a few inches can make a difference.
The HomeFi doesn't come with the external 'rabbit ear' antenna, I have one lying around, but it makes no difference.
Downside: Three say VOIP is disabled on the router. They must mean from the RJ11 socket on the rear. The SipGate VOIP ethernet-phones work fine.
Box has only one antenna socket on the back, but the internal antenna(s) currently give 52Mb/s down, 28 up, with the box on a downstairs windowsill. Moving it away and sticking it on a shelf does drop the signal strength. I lose a lot of signal at the back of the house, the front faces the mast. (Rural area so little contention.)
Some sleuthing for the best position in the house for the 4G signal is needed, says YouTube. Even a few inches can make a difference.
The HomeFi doesn't come with the external 'rabbit ear' antenna, I have one lying around, but it makes no difference.
Downside: Three say VOIP is disabled on the router. They must mean from the RJ11 socket on the rear. The SipGate VOIP ethernet-phones work fine.
Edited by Slushbox on Monday 20th May 17:45
I'll add a note after a couple of days use. Moved the Three HomeFi unit 1 metre away from the windows and turned it 90 degrees. Now getting 65 mb/s down. It doesn't like Windows!
All Firesticks, laptops etc very happy with the 2.5Ghz (only) Wifi.
Router has a Gigabit ethernet port, now hooked up to 8 port switch, VOIP phones, NAS unit, ethernet printers.
V.happy with price and performance.
Other providers are available. :-)
All Firesticks, laptops etc very happy with the 2.5Ghz (only) Wifi.
Router has a Gigabit ethernet port, now hooked up to 8 port switch, VOIP phones, NAS unit, ethernet printers.
V.happy with price and performance.
Other providers are available. :-)
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
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 said:
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
Have you got some 'smart' listening device in your home, perhaps recently acquired and made by Hu-Are-We? Edited by thetapeworm on Wednesday 22 May 15:32
I admit to liking the Huawei phones and routers. Some times I think they understand everything I say.
OK, back to the 4G plot. When the B311 HomeFi router arrived, I whacked in the existing Three MiFi sim, and rushed about setting it up over Ethernet, slobbering with glee.
I must have rushed 'something' because the bleader crashed, and then would feebly blink a light, any light, at random. After two resets by prodding the hole on the back with a paper-clip; of Freude und blinkenlampen, there was keiner.
Well, what the heck. I've got another router. Made tea. Came back, and held paper-clip in hole, then applied power, countered up to 30, and removed paperclip. Deep joy. Blue lights = interwebs.
The thing seems reliable now. I've lit a joss-stick.
What is common with these 3G/4G routers is that Three sends billing, usage limit warnings and info SMS's to the sim. So you have to log into the router's private parts occasionally to read them. To be fair, they also seem to send emails.
It's progress, Jim, but not as we know it.
This is a port scan from Three, presumably checking the router. If you use the supplied router you can log straight into your Three account without a password from any connected client.
Very interesting and detailed thread! Loosing my current broadband on the 1st after cutting my nose off to spite my face (cancelled our out of contract sky tv to save £20 a month, which then put the broadband up by £20 a month...) and this might work for me, especially as it's very cheap for unlimited data. My last phone network was 3 as well and it was perfectly fine in certain parts of the house...
Might order one and be damn sure to devote alot of time to it for the 1st 7 days so it can go back if it turns out to not work. 1 ethernet port would work for me as I only have the desktop hard wired, everything else is Wifi (and I've got a gigabit switch somewhere if that changes)
I can remove all of the phone extension wiring too which just lays behind the furniture to reach where the TV is and tidy the place up!
Might order one and be damn sure to devote alot of time to it for the 1st 7 days so it can go back if it turns out to not work. 1 ethernet port would work for me as I only have the desktop hard wired, everything else is Wifi (and I've got a gigabit switch somewhere if that changes)
I can remove all of the phone extension wiring too which just lays behind the furniture to reach where the TV is and tidy the place up!
beko1987 said:
Might order one and be damn sure to devote a lot of time to it for the 1st 7 days so it can go back if it turns out to not work.
Yeah. 4G Broadband commitment is a SIAS experiment. (Suck-it-and-see). Even small movements can increase or degrade the signal. A chap on the nerdy broadband forum found putting his router in the airing cupboard upped the signal strength. Nobody knows why. Damp laundry, perhaps. Also, 'they' say you may now put a Three 'phone sim' in a 4G router without penalty, so £20 a month for 'unlimited' might be achievable.
The One True Ethernet Port on the B311 is Gigabit, so you can dangle switches and other obstructions off it. There are settings for PPoe in the set-up, should you enjoy a fight with cable or FTTH.
I also have a TP-Link MR400 4G router. It has four ethernet ports but they are 10/100. More modern 4G routers are much better equipped I think.
This is the current 4G set-up here. It uses the classic Cisco 'router-on-a-stick' scheme so everything below it is managed to give the VOIP phones absolute priority, through a cheap managed switch. All the local traffic goes through the fast switch, not the budget router.
Sorry about the big pic:
I've just picked one of these up for very rural area.
50-60mbs down sitting in the window but the router isn't great. WIFI is terrible so I've hardwired an old router in for now.
The system is only SISO so hopefully I'll pick a MIMO router at some stage but for now I am very happy with speed. Slowest I have seen is 35mbs down at peak times, latency just under 50ms.
I'm 1.6 miles (as the crow flies) from the mast and have near line of sight bar a couple of trees.
Also I was told I could stick their £20 a month unlimited data and calls sim for phones in a different router if I liked.
This meant a shorter 12 month contract but the price jumped to £24 when I went to the shop but has since came back down again.
Very happy with the performance. It was better than the patchy 1.5mbs down and 0.4 up I was getting for the same price.
It's much faster and cheaper than a neighbours EE setup although they are on another mast.
Looking forward to perhaps upgrading the router and getting an antenna up.
OnaRoll said:
Very happy with the performance. It was better than the patchy 1.5mbs down and 0.4 up I was getting for the same price.
It's much faster and cheaper than a neighbours EE setup although they are on another mast.
Looking forward to perhaps upgrading the router and getting an antenna up.
Another happy customer. I was tempted just to get an 'ordinary' unlimited phone sim for £20 a month but already had a Mifi contract, so upgraded it over the phone to Three's Mothership.
The 'free' HomeFi's wifi is OK in my bijou des-res, most of the essential gear is wired ethernet. I've got a WiFi Extender, unused, somewhere. Max throughput over 2.4Ghz Wifi here is about 16 Mb/s.
Amazon FireStick is happy, the main user of the Wifi.
Be interesting to see what an external antenna does. At 330 metres from the local mast, the signal here is too good to bother much.
Here's the nerdy signal stats, the HomeFi is about 1 metre away from a large window facing the mast. RSSI is 'received signal strength indicator'.
Edited by Slushbox on Thursday 23 May 13:25
Slushbox said:
Yeah. 4G Broadband commitment is a SIAS experiment. (Suck-it-and-see). Even small movements can increase or degrade the signal. A chap on the nerdy broadband forum found putting his router in the airing cupboard upped the signal strength. Nobody knows why. Damp laundry, perhaps.
Also, 'they' say you may now put a Three 'phone sim' in a 4G router without penalty, so £20 a month for 'unlimited' might be achievable.
The One True Ethernet Port on the B311 is Gigabit, so you can dangle switches and other obstructions off it. There are settings for PPoe in the set-up, should you enjoy a fight with cable or FTTH.
I also have a TP-Link MR400 4G router. It has four ethernet ports but they are 10/100. More modern 4G routers are much better equipped I think.
This is the current 4G set-up here. It uses the classic Cisco 'router-on-a-stick' scheme so everything below it is managed to give the VOIP phones absolute priority, through a cheap managed switch. All the local traffic goes through the fast switch, not the budget router.
Sorry about the big pic:
Only issue with a £20 phone SIM is I'd have to stump up for a MIMO (thanks whoever said that, I tried looking yesterday and could not find the right search term) router on top, for £22 I get the Huawei one to compliment my Huawei phone for maximum spy points, and as long as it's not bad, it'll be OK. Also, 'they' say you may now put a Three 'phone sim' in a 4G router without penalty, so £20 a month for 'unlimited' might be achievable.
The One True Ethernet Port on the B311 is Gigabit, so you can dangle switches and other obstructions off it. There are settings for PPoe in the set-up, should you enjoy a fight with cable or FTTH.
I also have a TP-Link MR400 4G router. It has four ethernet ports but they are 10/100. More modern 4G routers are much better equipped I think.
This is the current 4G set-up here. It uses the classic Cisco 'router-on-a-stick' scheme so everything below it is managed to give the VOIP phones absolute priority, through a cheap managed switch. All the local traffic goes through the fast switch, not the budget router.
Sorry about the big pic:
PC will be the only thing running via ethernet 100% of the time, maybe the odd old laptop for s
ts and giggles trying to browse the net on Windows 2000 or installing linux on something without wifi, but I can't remember when I last did that. Only other things I will have once my ex moves out are my phone, amazon fire stick, a chromecast and the odd laptop, sounds like it will be fine as long as the signal is OK.I did do some digging yesterday and found that our local 3 mast points directly at our house, although without a line of sight due to other houses and the lay of the land, it's 1/4 a mile away however. Our house is awful for reception though, my old 3 phone and current EE are OK in the front room, and no service one room over in the kitchen. In the garden however, EE pulls down 70mb on my phone...
So I found this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4G-LTE-SMA-Male-Antenna... and some extender cables for very cheap, the plan being that if the huawei device on its own is OK I can have a day of trailing it by putting it outside on the table, then if that mega improves things just nail the antenna up on the wall above where the table is and run the wires around the inside of the doorframe or windowframe. Could even get clever and cable-tie it to the soon to be redundant sky dish that points in the right direction anyway...
Meant to do a proof of concept last night with my phone and pair the chromecast to it and play something, pull a video down off the server which I need to upload to youtube anyway and set that off on a laptop via wifi and sit on the sofa and browse the web on my phone but got busy and forgot. Will try again tonight. Will place my phone where I'l like the huawei box to go and experiment a bit.
I did get slightly worried about upload speeds, but again my phone pushes 17mb up on an average day, and I usually hit upload on youtube and go and do something else anyway (my channel is only very small) so it's no real big deal if it does take twice as long as our 8mb ADSL upload does now.
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