Associate
I have the same setup as you described. Id mobile SIMO and a '3' zyxel router bought from cex.
****The Official 5G Home Broadband Thread**** (Three/EE/Vodafone/etc)
- Thread starter TallPaul_S
- Start date
I have the same setup as you described. Id mobile SIMO and a '3' zyxel router bought from cex.
Soldato
Cheers mate, I might actually grab router then to give it a try using my current sim
Associate
Zyxel NR5103EV2 5G Dual Band Indoor WIFI Router, Unlocked
Is what I bought from them. It says unlocked but when it arrived it has the '3' logo on it.
I have read that all the '3' NR5103EV2 are supposed to be unlocked as well.
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Associate
Initial impressions of 5G broadband using an NR5103EV2 with Three on their £6 a month business SIM.
First of all the download speed I get is quite variable unlike my FTTC fixed line broadband which sits at 75/20 all day long. With Three's 5G I have seen it drop to as low as 20mbps down, 40mbps up for an hour at a time. This could be due to maintenance on the mast as I do get a warning on the network status website for my postcode. However, now that I have found the sweet spot in my house for the router, more often than not I get at least 100 down and 40mbps up. Later at night it seems to go nuts and gives me close to 300mbps down and 55mbps up. As I type this at 8:30am on a Saturday I am getting 225/40.
I am about 3 miles away from the 5G mast with no direct line of sight according to cell mapper.
The total cost of this internet service over the 2 year contract including the cost of the router will be £12 a month which is fantastic I think. As long as I get an average of around 100mbps down and 40mbps up and there are no significant connectivity issues then I will be extremely happy.
First of all the download speed I get is quite variable unlike my FTTC fixed line broadband which sits at 75/20 all day long. With Three's 5G I have seen it drop to as low as 20mbps down, 40mbps up for an hour at a time. This could be due to maintenance on the mast as I do get a warning on the network status website for my postcode. However, now that I have found the sweet spot in my house for the router, more often than not I get at least 100 down and 40mbps up. Later at night it seems to go nuts and gives me close to 300mbps down and 55mbps up. As I type this at 8:30am on a Saturday I am getting 225/40.
I am about 3 miles away from the 5G mast with no direct line of sight according to cell mapper.
The total cost of this internet service over the 2 year contract including the cost of the router will be £12 a month which is fantastic I think. As long as I get an average of around 100mbps down and 40mbps up and there are no significant connectivity issues then I will be extremely happy.
Soldato
Well I've had 3 years of 5G with Three, and there have been a couple of ups and downs but mainly when they were upgrading masts, removing hardware, or most recently when they installed another mast with similar signal strength meaning it kept jumping between cells. I wanted a modem that had PCI lock but even the 5103 can't do that, only band lock but that was enough to fix my issues. I see a low of 300/60 and usually 800/100 and the best I've had was over 1200Mbps down but for that I needed to move the modem outside which is something I was planning to do when I get a new external CPE. Still paying £2.50 +VAT, so total cost for 24 months is £72 inc. VAT, and now rolling over on it until I either cancel or upgrade if the NR7501 (or similar) ever comes out here.
Associate
My 3 business connection has been up and down speed wise over the last 3 weeks, not sure what they are doing but my download speed is down, the upload speed has doubled, now just under 60mbps.
I can live with that.
I can live with that.
Associate
I wondered what would happen at the end of the contract. So it just continues at the current rate on a month by month contract?
Soldato
Yes, took me a bit of digging with Three sales support but they told me if they were going to change it at all they would send an actual letter first, but it was unlikely and to stick with what I had as all the new current offers we more expensive, e.g .thh £5+ VAT
Associate
£2.50 +VAT is an incredible deal. Long may it continue.
Associate
Still better than most people's regular internet
Soldato
Indeed, I have several SIM's at that price, one of them is used in tandem with a super cheap unlimited calls and texts SIM only deal in a dual SIM phone, total cost is less than £6 per month.
Soldato
Took delivery of the router today but no matter what SIM I try it just keeps blinking the blue signal light which is no or invalid SIM 
Soldato
Took delivery of the router today but no matter what SIM I try it just keeps blinking the blue signal light which is no or invalid SIM
What did you get, and from where?
Soldato
A NR5103E, got it from cex, it's actually working though now after a few resets and many many SIM reinsertions, speed isn't as good as my pixel though
Soldato
Where have you got it situated?
Associate
You should definitely get the app for the router if you haven't already. It gives you a signal strength readout to help you situate it in the best position.
Associate
Did you get the V1 or V2 ? In ispreview forum their mega thread mentioned that some early batches have faulty SIM slot. Luckily yours eventually worked.
What app is this? Zyxel app? Does it work when using passthrough mode?
Associate
It's called "Three 5G Broadband" in the android play store. Not sure about iOS.
Associate
Very nice! It works with passthrough mode with manual setup. Had to provide the ip address and admin password to get it connected.
Associate
Hi All - I have been with Three 5G since October 2022 and I am trying to get to the bottom of why my speeds have changed so dramatically. I have posted the below on Three community site and thought I would post in some dedicated 5G forums to see if anyone else is experiencing the same, I know they are as the Three community site is getting new posts weekly about this -
Three are refusing to admit they are throttling connections yet multiple users have posted on the community site about this and stating they can not only hit 120mbps download when they used to hit much higher, these are different people in different parts of the country, being impacted exactly the same. My response I posted was this -
Hi All, just to say I am in exactly the position. I live right next to the 5G mast in my area, literally 30meters away. When I first went with three 5G broadband in October 2022, up until November 2023, I was hitting anything from 600 to 900mbps download, all the time, even peak hours, I still have all the results recorded on my ookla speed test app/account.
In November, Disney plus stopped loading on my TV stating I was out of region, nothing I did/changed could get it to load so contacted three, who advised they had made some changes to my account and restart my router and try again. Sure enough disney loaded, but from that point on my download speed is stuck at 120mbps, won't go any higher. It jumps to 400mbps when the speed test starts and then quickly drops down to 120mbps and stays there, clearly they are throttling and limiting the download speed.
I contacted them on multiple occasions over the next few months and they were giving me all sorts of excuses and said they had changed settings and to try again, and another said they were working in the area but it would be back to normal in a month. I speed test every week and nothing has changed, stuck on 120. I have had a month refunded and a month half price but all this time they are still claiming they do not limit the download speeds which is obviously absolute rubbish.
As someone else has mentioned, when I do a speed test on my phone, and I'm also with three, I still hit the usual 500mbps, nothing has changed with my phone, just my broadband from November onwards.
At the time I googled and couldn't find any posts on this so thought it was just an issue in my area, but after a speed test earlier, stuck on my 120, I googled and found this. Now I know this is happening to others I am going to contact them again and keep up the fight!
For those that want to leave three, due to the speed decreases, who are stuck in contract, they agreed with me that I could leave with no charges due to the change in service. When you first sign up, you get 30days no quibble trial to see how it works and what speeds you get and you can send back if you not happy. So, if the speeds you are getting now, do not match the ones when you first got it, you can argue this and say you want to leave without a charge!
A further update to this - I made three send me out a brand new replacement router, so I could rule out that being an issue. I have a new router, new sim card, and nothing changed. exactly the same stuck at 120mbps. You can clearly see in the screenshot below of my speed tests, the moment they made the changes at their end on the 14/11/23, and from this point on my speed has been throttled to 120mbps. I have also added a screenshot of speed tests from Feb 2023, compared to speed tests from Feb 2024 and the differences are striking. My speed used to vary, as non throttled speeds should between 400mbps up to 900mbps depending on the time of day as you would expect. Now, my download speeds have no variation at all, 7pm on Saturday evening at peak times, 120mpbs, 3am on a Sunday at the quietest time, 120mbps.
I would like someone from Three to respond and admit that they are throttling speeds on the home broadband now.
Speed Tests showing the dramatic drop in speeds the day Three changed the settings on my account at their end, and from this day forward (14/11/23), I am now stuck on 120mbps.
Speed Tests from Feb 2023 when my download speeds were not being limited and extremely impressive!
Speed tests from Jan/Feb 24 showing download speeds limited to 120mbps, up to 6 times slower than they were 1 year ago!
Does anyone have any comments of thoughts on this?
Three are refusing to admit they are throttling connections yet multiple users have posted on the community site about this and stating they can not only hit 120mbps download when they used to hit much higher, these are different people in different parts of the country, being impacted exactly the same. My response I posted was this -
Hi All, just to say I am in exactly the position. I live right next to the 5G mast in my area, literally 30meters away. When I first went with three 5G broadband in October 2022, up until November 2023, I was hitting anything from 600 to 900mbps download, all the time, even peak hours, I still have all the results recorded on my ookla speed test app/account.
In November, Disney plus stopped loading on my TV stating I was out of region, nothing I did/changed could get it to load so contacted three, who advised they had made some changes to my account and restart my router and try again. Sure enough disney loaded, but from that point on my download speed is stuck at 120mbps, won't go any higher. It jumps to 400mbps when the speed test starts and then quickly drops down to 120mbps and stays there, clearly they are throttling and limiting the download speed.
I contacted them on multiple occasions over the next few months and they were giving me all sorts of excuses and said they had changed settings and to try again, and another said they were working in the area but it would be back to normal in a month. I speed test every week and nothing has changed, stuck on 120. I have had a month refunded and a month half price but all this time they are still claiming they do not limit the download speeds which is obviously absolute rubbish.
As someone else has mentioned, when I do a speed test on my phone, and I'm also with three, I still hit the usual 500mbps, nothing has changed with my phone, just my broadband from November onwards.
At the time I googled and couldn't find any posts on this so thought it was just an issue in my area, but after a speed test earlier, stuck on my 120, I googled and found this. Now I know this is happening to others I am going to contact them again and keep up the fight!
For those that want to leave three, due to the speed decreases, who are stuck in contract, they agreed with me that I could leave with no charges due to the change in service. When you first sign up, you get 30days no quibble trial to see how it works and what speeds you get and you can send back if you not happy. So, if the speeds you are getting now, do not match the ones when you first got it, you can argue this and say you want to leave without a charge!
A further update to this - I made three send me out a brand new replacement router, so I could rule out that being an issue. I have a new router, new sim card, and nothing changed. exactly the same stuck at 120mbps. You can clearly see in the screenshot below of my speed tests, the moment they made the changes at their end on the 14/11/23, and from this point on my speed has been throttled to 120mbps. I have also added a screenshot of speed tests from Feb 2023, compared to speed tests from Feb 2024 and the differences are striking. My speed used to vary, as non throttled speeds should between 400mbps up to 900mbps depending on the time of day as you would expect. Now, my download speeds have no variation at all, 7pm on Saturday evening at peak times, 120mpbs, 3am on a Sunday at the quietest time, 120mbps.
I would like someone from Three to respond and admit that they are throttling speeds on the home broadband now.
Speed Tests showing the dramatic drop in speeds the day Three changed the settings on my account at their end, and from this day forward (14/11/23), I am now stuck on 120mbps.
Speed Tests from Feb 2023 when my download speeds were not being limited and extremely impressive!
Speed tests from Jan/Feb 24 showing download speeds limited to 120mbps, up to 6 times slower than they were 1 year ago!
Does anyone have any comments of thoughts on this?