Three 5G broadband experiences
Discussion
As The Count says above, you do have 14-days return period. But be careful to make sure you do it within the time. And keep copies of the chats you have with them.
They rejected my 14-day cancellation, even though they told me on chat that it was OK. They finally relented when I sent them copies of the chats I had with their agents. But they really were sticking to their guns.
I tried it. I've got clear line of sight to a 3 5G mast a stones throw (very literally); but the signal was inconsistent, dropping to 4G quite regularly. And when streaming it took a right hammering. Hence handing it back.
They rejected my 14-day cancellation, even though they told me on chat that it was OK. They finally relented when I sent them copies of the chats I had with their agents. But they really were sticking to their guns.
I tried it. I've got clear line of sight to a 3 5G mast a stones throw (very literally); but the signal was inconsistent, dropping to 4G quite regularly. And when streaming it took a right hammering. Hence handing it back.
k 3 if that's how they deal with people. Just buy your own router, £60 upwards and get a data only SMARTY sim with no contract. Mazinbrum said:
Just tried to order it but the search for address doesn’t work. I give up, looks like I’m sticking with Now Broadband.
The same for me. I had to chat (online) with the representative as it said i wasn't in the 5g area (i am) so i couldn't have the router and deal. They took my details and concerns (as Kinky said) and processed it over the chat; that was over 2 years ago. I, too, was with Now and i've never looked back. The only thing that could tempt me away would be Starlink...if it got faster and cheaper. P.s. our internet has only been down once for 6/7 hours in all that time and hitting over 200mb.
I have been toying with the idea of moving to 3 home broadband so I went to a local 3 shop and got a £10 PAYG sim to test the quality of the speeds on different days and different times, it might be worth trying that to see what the signal is like for you. I am within a mile of a transmitter and I found the speeds to vary quite a bit, uploads particularly. 5g routers seems to be pretty expensive at the mo to so taking the one supplied by 3 would probably be the most cost effective option. 3 also offer a 30 day money back guarantee now so a month to try and and 3 months free too.
As an alternative 1p mobile do a 200gb per month (which should be enough for me YMMV) sim deal for £20 on a one month contract which runs on the EE network which has good connectivity for me and that is something I would consider if I could get a cheap 5g router or maybe mifi, if anyone has got any pointers on that I'm all ears.
As an alternative 1p mobile do a 200gb per month (which should be enough for me YMMV) sim deal for £20 on a one month contract which runs on the EE network which has good connectivity for me and that is something I would consider if I could get a cheap 5g router or maybe mifi, if anyone has got any pointers on that I'm all ears.
The Count said:
Mazinbrum said:
Just tried to order it but the search for address doesn’t work. I give up, looks like I’m sticking with Now Broadband.
The same for me. I had to chat (online) with the representative as it said i wasn't in the 5g area (i am) so i couldn't have the router and deal. They took my details and concerns (as Kinky said) and processed it over the chat; that was over 2 years ago. I, too, was with Now and i've never looked back. The only thing that could tempt me away would be Starlink...if it got faster and cheaper. P.s. our internet has only been down once for 6/7 hours in all that time and hitting over 200mb.Mazinbrum said:
My bad, there was en error further up the page, now ordered, will report back!
Oooh. One thing to mention, there is a bit of a faff with positioning (i actually quite liked the process) around the house to get the quickest download speed.I used CellMapper.net to find the exact angle to the mast. It ended up in a central bedroom behind a wall out of the way, but has a fantastic broadcast range, esp for picking up my (eight) wireless cameras dotted around the place.
Swapped to 3 at the start of this month as Vodafone increased our monthly fixed Line broadband bill by circa 25%. I gave them the option to reduce it but VF weren’t interested so as our contract was up they lost a long term customer.
The 3 postcode checker indicated we would only get 4G, 3’s 5G signal in our area is excellent and all the routers and sims sent out are 5G so we went for it, setup was really easy and we’ve gone from 30-40 mbs download to 250 mbs for £16.40 plus the vat (and first 3 months free).
The 3 postcode checker indicated we would only get 4G, 3’s 5G signal in our area is excellent and all the routers and sims sent out are 5G so we went for it, setup was really easy and we’ve gone from 30-40 mbs download to 250 mbs for £16.40 plus the vat (and first 3 months free).
bunchofkeys said:
I'm using 3 5G and i'm happy with the results and service.
That’s really good download speed, I’m guessing you’re pretty close to a mast? Were about 1/2 mile as the crow flies with good line of sight, if I check the speed using my mobile adjacent to the tower i can get those results. Essarell said:
bunchofkeys said:
I'm using 3 5G and i'm happy with the results and service.
That’s really good download speed, I’m guessing you’re pretty close to a mast? Were about 1/2 mile as the crow flies with good line of sight, if I check the speed using my mobile adjacent to the tower i can get those results. Handy link here for Three mast locations in your area, upcoming masts and LPA approvals.
We tried the Three 5G router and agreed to the 24 month contract at £20 / month (£10 /month for the first 6 months) in November 2022. it was available for test for 28 days and the deal was to return it to them within 28 days and the agreement would be cancelled.
We are on the fringe of the signal range and by just sitting the router on the table downstairs it worked fine on 4g only (about 30-40 download) but siting it upstairs by any bedroom window and it produced 400+ on 5G.
I decided against it and just by calling them and providing feedback they sent a reply paid bag to return it and there was no problems or cost. curiously, they asked in the telephone conversation if I'd been using it away from my home address and I said 'no' but later remembered that I'd taken it to a friend's house to try there (where it worked fine as well) so they must triangulate signals or sommit.
Will likely take them up shortly as it was a great option
We are on the fringe of the signal range and by just sitting the router on the table downstairs it worked fine on 4g only (about 30-40 download) but siting it upstairs by any bedroom window and it produced 400+ on 5G.
I decided against it and just by calling them and providing feedback they sent a reply paid bag to return it and there was no problems or cost. curiously, they asked in the telephone conversation if I'd been using it away from my home address and I said 'no' but later remembered that I'd taken it to a friend's house to try there (where it worked fine as well) so they must triangulate signals or sommit.
Will likely take them up shortly as it was a great option
Essarell said:
That’s really good download speed, I’m guessing you’re pretty close to a mast? Were about 1/2 mile as the crow flies with good line of sight, if I check the speed using my mobile adjacent to the tower i can get those results.
I'm also about 1/2 a mile from the mast, i popped a 4x4 MIMO antenna on the roof through to get a better signal. It's peak time now, off peak i can see over 600Mbps down and 100Mpbs up.
bunchofkeys said:
Essarell said:
That’s really good download speed, I’m guessing you’re pretty close to a mast? Were about 1/2 mile as the crow flies with good line of sight, if I check the speed using my mobile adjacent to the tower i can get those results.
I'm also about 1/2 a mile from the mast, i popped a 4x4 MIMO antenna on the roof through to get a better signal. It's peak time now, off peak i can see over 600Mbps down and 100Mpbs up.
I ordered the 5G mobile unit from Three which was a Zyxel NR5103E.
With the Three SIM in the unit i got a download speed that wasn't much better than my broadband speed (20Mbit at best) so i returned it within the cooling off period. The upload speed was actually faster than the download speed!
Before returning the unit i tried my Voxi SIM (Vodafone) and got >100MBps download. So, I bought a NR5103E off Ebay and another Voxi SIM and this is now our house broadband connection.
I'm close to a couple of masts and might try a Smarty SIM at some time as this is cheaper for unlimited data than Voxi.
I feed the output of the NR5103E into my existing router as the NR5103E wouldn't allow me to use the current WiFi password and it was a PIA to change all the attached WiFi devices over. So I've lost WiFi6 connectivity but i can live with that.
With the Three SIM in the unit i got a download speed that wasn't much better than my broadband speed (20Mbit at best) so i returned it within the cooling off period. The upload speed was actually faster than the download speed!
Before returning the unit i tried my Voxi SIM (Vodafone) and got >100MBps download. So, I bought a NR5103E off Ebay and another Voxi SIM and this is now our house broadband connection.
I'm close to a couple of masts and might try a Smarty SIM at some time as this is cheaper for unlimited data than Voxi.
I feed the output of the NR5103E into my existing router as the NR5103E wouldn't allow me to use the current WiFi password and it was a PIA to change all the attached WiFi devices over. So I've lost WiFi6 connectivity but i can live with that.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff