****The Official 5G Home Broadband Thread**** (Three/EE/Vodafone/etc)

Associate
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Cheshire
Been having issues with my 3 5g Hub since last week. Had it since August last year and I usually get a solid 5g connection with the hub being placed right next to my back door. Speeds are usually around the 200-400mb and shoot up to over 600mb if I move the hub just a meter away on the other side of my back door and slightly in my garden.

Since last week it looks like my Hub is stuck on 4g and no matter where I move it (even outside) it won't shift off 4g. I put the sim card out of the hub in my mobile phone and instantly got a 5g connection.

Spoken to their support multiple times but not getting anywhere with them unfortunately.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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14,181
Location
West Midlands
Been having issues with my 3 5g Hub since last week. Had it since August last year and I usually get a solid 5g connection with the hub being placed right next to my back door. Speeds are usually around the 200-400mb and shoot up to over 600mb if I move the hub just a meter away on the other side of my back door and slightly in my garden.

Since last week it looks like my Hub is stuck on 4g and no matter where I move it (even outside) it won't shift off 4g. I put the sim card out of the hub in my mobile phone and instantly got a 5g connection.

Spoken to their support multiple times but not getting anywhere with them unfortunately.

Which device is it, can you do a manual select on the APN?
 
Associate
Joined
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Location
Cheshire
Which device is it, can you do a manual select on the APN?
It's a ZTE MC888, and yes, I can manually select. I usually have it configured to three.co.uk but I see no change when set to auto 3internet. I can see which mast I'm connected to on Cellmapper, it's only over the road from me (about 300 yards from house)

Just to add, and this bit I don't get at all. When my signal drops to 4g one of the light usually turns blue which I usually just move the router slightly and it changes back to all white lights. At the minute, all lights are white on the router even though I'm only getting 4g, I'd expect it to display a blue light in this instance, it's almost like 3 don't want me to know there is an issue!
 
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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,181
Location
West Midlands
It's a ZTE MC888, and yes, I can manually select. I usually have it configured to three.co.uk but I see no change when set to auto 3internet. I can see which mast I'm connected to on Cellmapper, it's only over the road from me (about 300 yards from house)

Just to add, and this bit I don't get at all. When my signal drops to 4g one of the light usually turns blue which I usually just move the router slightly and it changes back to all white lights. At the minute, all lights are white on the router even though I'm only getting 4g, I'd expect it to display a blue light in this instance, it's almost like 3 don't want me to know there is an issue!

Swap in another network SIM to check the router hasn't fried its 5G. What firmware is it on?
 
Associate
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Cheshire
It's on v1.0.0B02, I do have a Smarty SIM in my phone, will this work putting that in the router?? The SIM out of the router in my phone gives me 5g. So you suspect there could potentially be an issue with the actual router?

I'll try swapping over the SIM later, thanks for your help, within 5 minutes you've been more helpful than 3 hours talking to 3 support:cry:
 
Soldato
Joined
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Posts
14,181
Location
West Midlands
It's on v1.0.0B02, I do have a Smarty SIM in my phone, will this work putting that in the router?? The SIM out of the router in my phone gives me 5g. So you suspect there could potentially be an issue with the actual router?

I'll try swapping over the SIM later, thanks for your help, within 5 minutes you've been more helpful than 3 hours talking to 3 support:cry:

Smarty still uses Three, but it is worth a go. Better off getting borrowing another network SIM from family/friend etc. even just for 15 mins and a few MB/s data to test. Alternatively buy a Lyca/Lebara (EE/Voda) SIM for £1.50 with 10GB or similar, cancel once tested, no contract, no fuss.
 
Associate
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I also have a Vodafone SIM in my my phone as I have dual sim, I'll give this a go later, thanks.

I did try to do a manually connection on the router and it found a load of 4g connections and one Vodafone 5g.
 
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Soldato
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12 Sep 2003
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Newcastle, UK
It's a ZTE MC888, and yes, I can manually select. I usually have it configured to three.co.uk but I see no change when set to auto 3internet. I can see which mast I'm connected to on Cellmapper, it's only over the road from me (about 300 yards from house)

Just to add, and this bit I don't get at all. When my signal drops to 4g one of the light usually turns blue which I usually just move the router slightly and it changes back to all white lights. At the minute, all lights are white on the router even though I'm only getting 4g, I'd expect it to display a blue light in this instance, it's almost like 3 don't want me to know there is an issue!
Is the APN set to IPv4 only? If it is set to IPv4/IPv6 that could be potentially an issue. I've seen that in the past and most recently with my neighbour (albeit on EE). The EE 5G Router (rebranded Zyxel) wouldn't connect on 5G. I tweaked the APN settings for him and it magically kicked back in. That was after days on phone to EE support as well. So definitely worth a check.
 
Associate
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Location
Cheshire
Is the APN set to IPv4 only? If it is set to IPv4/IPv6 that could be potentially an issue. I've seen that in the past and most recently with my neighbour (albeit on EE). The EE 5G Router (rebranded Zyxel) wouldn't connect on 5G. I tweaked the APN settings for him and it magically kicked back in. That was after days on phone to EE support as well. So definitely worth a check.
Unfortunately, I've already tried it on IPv4 only. For some reason it still issues me with a local IPv6 IP along with my normal IPv4 IP
 
Associate
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I think there is something up with the router itself, Or 3 have put a block on 5g on my device.

Both 3 SIM and Smarty SIM in mobile phone and instant 5g connection, 3 SIM and Smarty SIM in router and it's maxed out on 4g signal.

I've tried to set the network selection to manual, it's displaying 7 possible connections from all the major known networks, Voda and O2 both have a 4g option and a 5g option (although I can't get 5g on Voda in my area) there is only a 4g option for 3.
 
Associate
Joined
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Posts
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Location
Cheshire
:mad::mad: It's back to being locked on 4g again. Can anyone tell me what the top light represents on a ZTE MC888? After the reset the top two lights didn't light up, after a while the 2nd to top light lit up, still on 5g, now the top light has lit up and no more 5g. I reset the device over an hour ago and the device has only just completely come alive.
 
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