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

Firegod said:
Madness isn't it. The distributor is getting in touch with them. :) I have a directional antenna - Solwise - 5G Panel LTE Antenna - 5G-XPOL-A0002 (XPOL-2-5G) | Solwise Ltd.

Yeah so Cell Mapper seems fine for showing me all the 4G LTE masts, and I found the one I connect to with 4G+. IDs match up etc. Now this Router reports the Cell ID and I can't find it at all, but also I can't seem to see any towers listed. I select EE - 23430, 5G NR, All Bands and nadda. Set it back to 4G LTE and all the masts appear. :confused:

Unless I'm doing it wrong. :)

EDIT: So i'm just going to move it 10-15º, check signal, rinse and repeat. See if I can guess. I must be in the ball park area already. But I could just be clipping it, saying I'm not omni.
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I like the Poynting stuff, it is really well priced and does a good job.

If you look on the EE coverage map for 5G does it not show the 5G 'hotspots' so you can tell where the mast is located? Sounds to me like there isn't much data for Cellmapper 5G in your area, I try and keep it on my phone when I can, and update the masts when I see them.
 
Journey said:
I like the Poynting stuff, it is really well priced and does a good job.

If you look on the EE coverage map for 5G does it not show the 5G 'hotspots' so you can tell where the mast is located? Sounds to me like there isn't much data for Cellmapper 5G in your area, I try and keep it on my phone when I can, and update the masts when I see them.
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Managed to suss out where the masts were. I forgot my mobile has 5G. So I put the Cellmapper app on. And found that the two masts that handle 4G for me, also do 5G. The closest mast, 2.1KM away gives me a good low ping (20ms) but download speed is only ~60MB. I think it only has the lower bands. My aerial on the roof just so happened to be in between this mast and the other, quicker mast. What I was finding is that I'd flap between the two. So I've turned the aerial to be more towards the quicker mast further away. This is 4KM away, gives a ping of 50-60ms, but download speeds touching 200MB. I think I'm at the limit of what I can achieve now "tech wise" so until we get more 5G coverage in the area I think that's my limit. :)

EDIT: Thinking about it, I'm not seeing much improvement over 4G+. But I'm sure in time things will speed up.
 
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Firegod said:
Managed to suss out where the masts were. I forgot my mobile has 5G. So I put the Cellmapper app on. And found that the two masts that handle 4G for me, also do 5G. The closest mast, 2.1KM away gives me a good low ping (20ms) but download speed is only ~60MB. I think it only has the lower bands. My aerial on the roof just so happened to be in between this mast and the other, quicker mast. What I was finding is that I'd flap between the two. So I've turned the aerial to be more towards the quicker mast further away. This is 4KM away, gives a ping of 50-60ms, but download speeds touching 200MB. I think I'm at the limit of what I can achieve now "tech wise" so until we get more 5G coverage in the area I think that's my limit. :)
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Well that isn't totally terrible, are EE the only choice you have for 5G in your area? No others offering coverage yet? The mast I connect to is ~2.9km away, with LoS, and I am obviously stuck on n78 (3500MHz) with Three, but I can't complain at the speeds, and ping at all.
 
Journey said:
Well that isn't totally terrible, are EE the only choice you have for 5G in your area? No others offering coverage yet? The mast I connect to is ~2.9km away, with LoS, and I am obviously stuck on n78 (3500MHz) with Three, but I can't complain at the speeds, and ping at all.
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Thanks, yeah it's certainly better than my 1Mb fixed copper line, that is the only other alternative haha. I'm up 200%! :D No others for 5G yet sadly, plenty for 4G. Just I've been with EE for ages now as our work gets 20% discount with them. Which is cool.
 
Firegod said:
Thanks, yeah it's certainly better than my 1Mb fixed copper line, that is the only other alternative haha. I'm up 200%! :D No others for 5G yet sadly, plenty for 4G. Just I've been with EE for ages now as our work gets 20% discount with them. Which is cool.
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200% must feel like an almost indescribable increase in quality for browsing media heavy websites. :)

What are the connection stats showing in the router for the 5G?
 
Journey said:
200% must feel like an almost indescribable increase in quality for browsing media heavy websites. :)

What are the connection stats showing in the router for the 5G?
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It's lovely just being able to download stuff, like games. :)

So not much info sadly. Router settings are very basic which is annoying. I can see I'm on 3 out of 5 bars for 5G. Led light is Amber which is "OK". If blue, that is the best. And stats wise I can see RSSI -63db, RSRP -94db and SINR 12db. So my received signal strength isn't the best. Could be the distance to the tower.
 
@Journey Does the map view in cell mapper, do you happen to know, where it shows the white line to your location, is that where you are connected to?

As it shows the line to the closer tower again, even though I've turned the aerial away. And under stats for cells it says Not_restricred, I was wondering why it doesn't say connected for 5G.

Sorry for all the questions. :)
 
Hi, Can anyone tell me if I buy an unlimited plan with a Huawei 5G CPE Pro from EE or Vodaphone that if the 5G is limited or not yet rolled out yet, I can still use it on a strong 4G signal instead? My family will be moving back into my parent in laws in the coming weeks and will like to setup my own internet for home working. 5G service is currently limited on Vodaphone and not there (yet) from EE but is in other parts of my town. Is there any benefit from waiting for EE or shall I see how it works with Vodaphone. I'm tempted to get the rolling 30 day contract as monthly costs are the same on Vodaphone, I just spend more upfront for the Huawei 5G CPE Pro.
 
Mark Tompkins said:
Hi, Can anyone tell me if I buy an unlimited plan with a Huawei 5G CPE Pro from EE or Vodaphone that if the 5G is limited or not yet rolled out yet, I can still use it on a strong 4G signal instead? My family will be moving back into my parent in laws in the coming weeks and will like to setup my own internet for home working. 5G service is currently limited on Vodaphone and not there (yet) from EE but is in other parts of my town. Is there any benefit from waiting for EE or shall I see how it works with Vodaphone. I'm tempted to get the rolling 30 day contract as monthly costs are the same on Vodaphone, I just spend more upfront for the Huawei 5G CPE Pro.
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I would think it will depend entirely on the 4g signal strength. If mine ever drops to 4g it's nigh on unusable, but then my 5g signal is around 75% and 4g is 25%, so that's why.

I would question why you're looking to buy a 5G broadband product when 5G isn't available - unless of course you're planning to move to a 5G area within the contract length, it would make better sense to buy a 4G router and contract.


I'm going to be moving house in August and will be moving to an area where the 5G signal stops short around 200m away, according to the Nperf 5G maps. And the only broadband at the new place is FTTC with a speed of around 50mbps :(

I'll take the router with me and test the connection, the same maps say there's 4g+ so will check the speed on that. Otherwise I'll be testing the cancellation policy of Three 5G broadband.
 
TallPaul_S said:
I'm going to be moving house in August and will be moving to an area where the 5G signal stops short around 200m away, according to the Nperf 5G maps. And the only broadband at the new place is FTTC with a speed of around 50mbps :(
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I'm no where near the coverage for 5G, but still have it, looking at the maps I am 500-700m or more out of the range.
 
Journey said:
I'm no where near the coverage for 5G, but still have it, looking at the maps I am 500-700m or more out of the range.
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Hmm, thanks - I'll definitely be testing it before getting rid, the new house is in one of the highest areas in our town too. Not too sure where the nearest mast is (I know 2 mast locations but they're the other side of town and I'm sure there's a 3rd going by the coverage).

Is that the Three maps or the Nperf 5G map you're going off? As the Three map gives us being 550m out of range, the nperf map only 200m.

https://www.nperf.com/en/map/5g
 
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I am thinking of buying for 5g to future proof my purchase. So if it runs on a fast 4G signal before 5G becomes fully available, I thought it might be beneficial. I don't fancy signing up for a long contract on a 4G sim if 5G comes in say 5 months time. At the house I am temporally moving to it has limited 5G coverage already, according to Vodafone's coverage checker.
 
Weirdly since we've had this incredibly pleasant weather, my 5G ping has dropped to between 12-14ms, but my speed has dropped below 500Mbps as well (average across the day) my upload is throttled to 70mbps so that is pretty constant. Could just be a total coincidence, but we'll see over the coming weeks if the pressure changes.
 
Is it worth me fixing a exterior Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002, only 4G where I am but good signal, 1 mile away mast with line of sight?.

Stats from my HUAWEI B818-263 on the internal antennas.

RSRQ -9.0dB

RSRP -81dBm

RSSI -53dBm

SINR 16dB

Usual speeds are 80-100 up, 30-40 down on three contract
 
Troop said:
Is it worth me fixing a exterior Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002, only 4G where I am but good signal, 1 mile away mast with line of sight?.
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They are decent stats to be fair, you might improve them with a good external antenna but you might lose out on the 4x4 MIMO (4 streams) so it could end up not as good speed wise. I would also say go for a 5G version of the antenna that supports 4G bands, as you then have some future proofing if you change at some point.
 
Journey said:
They are decent stats to be fair, you might improve them with a good external antenna but you might lose out on the 4x4 MIMO (4 streams) so it could end up not as good speed wise. I would also say go for a 5G version of the antenna that supports 4G bands, as you then have some future proofing if you change at some point.
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Good point on the future proofing.

Not sure what to do now, fat chance of 5G arriving here in rural mid Wales, lucky I have 4G+.
 
Well the TCL Linkhub is on its way back for a refund. Just could not get it to work with the external antenna, even though it should and all bands, frequency ranges etc are supported. And of course the trouble I had with the connectors claiming to be TS9 when they were actually CRC9. I've got my eye on the next router to try, this time from a UK distributor. Hopefully stock will arrive start of July. This will be my 3rd 5G Router. haha. I may as well just try them all and review them for everyone. :p
 
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