18 months of 4G Broadband

[spudulike]

If you get a decent 4G or 5G service it may be worth looking at dumping traditional broadband especially since there is a lot of upgrade work going on with the shutdown of 3G getting nearer.

So, a couple of years ago while still in contract with an ISP we trialled a Three 4G router for a couple of weeks. Speed tests/streaming at various times of day and weather conditions. Handed it back and weren't charged anything. All good.

When our ISP contract expired we also dumped our landline and got another Three 4G contract (in my wife's name to get a Quidco cashback as I was a previous customer). Previously we had a rock-solid 38Mbps connection. With 4G that became the minimum download speed some evenings. 95% of the time 80-100Mbps and this improved over the months to a max of 160 recently.

However, I bought a secondhand 4G router from eBay for £35 and tried the EE network - usually getting north of 200Mbps!

When the Three contract ends we're getting a prepaid data-only SIM from Scancom (prices on their website exclude VAT, prices on their Amazon shop include VAT). We use 100-350GB/month and I'm undecided whether that will be a Three SIM e.g. 500GB/month works out around £7.50 or an EE SIM - unlimited working out at about £12.50/month. That's not true - I'm decided - I'll be getting the EE one as they're both cheap.

I'll add we are a household of two. I download a lot. We stream video. We sometimes have our son come over and WFH (our home) and often have four adults online simultaneously. Never had any problems.

I'd be interested to hear from people who have no traditional fibre broadband, do you just use your phone, or what are your experiences of a 4G or 5G router?

 

[skyscraper101]

In a previous home, I had an EE Sim in a 4G Huawei B-535 router and for months it worked fine. Absolutely flawless. But then it started doing this weird thing where it would entirely drop out, virtually hourly for a number of minutes. No amount of fiddling or changing settings worked. I never managed to find out what the issue was. Shortly after I moved anyway and there was a FTTP router with Hyperoptic already installed so I switched to this. Hyperoptic was amazing. I don't remember it dropping out once in 2 years.

Then I moved again, and tried the Three '5G' router. It got great speeds and worked fine. Until it didn't. Virtually dropping to almost zero bytes during peak hours, every single day. I took it back within the 14 day cooling off period and switched to another FTTH provider. Thread here all about it.

If I could guarantee consistently good speeds, I'd consider going back to 4G again. The speeds I got when I was using EE on the Huawei router were brilliant, better than Virgin. But it has to be consistent and dropping out at any point is a big no from me.

 

[nick]

I've banged on about Three 5G before - Been my sole provider for a year or two (Fibre to the home still not available in my road, even though they cabled the street a year ago)
Good value and I get almost a gig. Only problem is, if thundery or really bad weather, it can drop. and, as I am on Three for my mobile, I have no backup for when the tower goes down (maybe 3/4 times a. year).

(Just checked and see I am now paying £28 pm for it, which was more than I thought. May be time to devote an hour to dealing with their execrable phone system and getting it reduced)

 

[spudulike]

If I could guarantee consistently good speeds, I'd consider going back to 4G again. The speeds I got when I was using EE on the Huawei router were brilliant, better than Virgin. But it has to be consistent and dropping out at any point is a big no from me.

We have various SIMs we can swap between EE and Three networks, but only had a few hours "trickle" downloads on the router in 18 months so just waited it out.

 

[spudulike]

I've banged on about Three 5G before - Been my sole provider for a year or two (Fibre to the home still not available in my road, even though they cabled the street a year ago)
Good value and I get almost a gig. Only problem is, if thundery or really bad weather, it can drop. and, as I am on Three for my mobile, I have no backup for when the tower goes down (maybe 3/4 times a. year).

(Just checked and see I am now paying £28 pm for it, which was more than I thought. May be time to devote an hour to dealing with their execrable phone system and getting it reduced)

I'd be interested to know if they want their 5G router back if you terminate.

 

[skyscraper101]

I'd be interested to know if they want their 5G router back if you terminate.

The first Three router I got they didn’t want it back and it was unlocked so I ran it with another SIM after cancelling.

The 5G one I think they did want it back but I was happy to give it back tbh.

 

[nick]

I've banged on about Three 5G before - Been my sole provider for a year or two (Fibre to the home still not available in my road, even though they cabled the street a year ago)
Good value and I get almost a gig. Only problem is, if thundery or really bad weather, it can drop. and, as I am on Three for my mobile, I have no backup for when the tower goes down (maybe 3/4 times a. year).

(Just checked and see I am now paying £28 pm for it, which was more than I thought. May be time to devote an hour to dealing with their execrable phone system and getting it reduced)

Took an hour out on Saturday to call Three.
I am now back to £18 per month for a 24 month contract . With a brand new router (which I may not install as the current one is fine) . There are annual inflation plus 3.9% increases built in, which always annoys

New customer offer is currently £20 per month for 2 years with the first 3 months free , so my negotiation didn't quite match that

reminder to call them again set for November 2025

Down-speed is just under 500mbp. Could probably put the router next to a window , but meh.


spudulike When negotiating they said that I would have to return the router (now two routers) when my contract finally ends, or there would be. charge. Whether they really mean this, or if it is just something they say for greenwashing purposes, I don't know

 

[spudulike]

I was looking at the Three Terms & Conditions recently to find out when to give notice to end the contract on the right date. I saw that 5G routers remain their property and are to be returned, but whether they enforce that is a another matter. Secondhand Sercomm 4Gs go from £35 but 5G routers more likely start at £130 (eBay, Cex) so you can see why they'd want the 5Gs back.

On another topic, Scancom prepaid 500GB data-only SIM is £99.99 on Amazon Black Friday sale - expires 8th August 2025 i.e. under a fiver per month. It's meant for business use but many people just say they are a Sole Trader and got hold of them.

 

[sim667]

I have virgin 100mband seem to average about 130mb…… I pay £24 a month. I’ve been wondering about getting a 5G router as in three here I get double the speed and it’s cheaper. But I do worry about the volatility of the connection

 

[spudulike]

But I do worry about the volatility of the connection

That's valid. Unfortunately it is very specific to your location. For me Three is the most consistent maxing at up to 150 Mbps 90% of the time but down to 40 some busy evenings. I prefer Lyca (EE) maxing up to 260 90%, but a few evenings I've seen a drop to 20. Three signal strength is weak/poor over much of the village (3k population) but the other MNOs (EE, O2, Vodafone) are strong/excellent. My theory is that the vast majority avoid Three so when everyone comes home the other networks get crowded if there is some popular event.

There's a lot of work going on due to the phasing out of 3G on top of general infrastructure improvement. Quality should be on an upward curve. We have a house mobile on RWG (EE) with 2GB data we could put in for essential email/messaging/web if needed during an outage but haven't bother yet. I could also move the router to the other side of the house to connect to another tower.

I think the worst problem you may come across with Three is trying to get a free returns bag if you want to send the router back within the 30-day money back period. Well over a dozen complaining over the last six months on Three forums but I guess thousands have no problem and you can get a moderator to take it up with a special team.

 

[spudulike]

I registered for AppleTV streaming this morning - all OK. Then I did a routine speed test on the Lyca SIM: 20/2, Three SIM was worse!

Both EE and Three network checkers said "work on the mast". EE said it would be done in 10 hours but I'm now getting 150/40.

I can live with that.

 

[spudulike]

Update 1

In December my daughter wanted shot of Vodafone Broadband. I gave her my ZTE MF286D 4G router and lent her my iD Mobile PAYG SIM loaded with a £20 one-month unlimited data boost for her to trial. Strong and fast Three connection at her house so she's now on a 12-month unlimited data contract with Three from fonehouse via moneysavingsexpert - £11.59/month after automatic cashback. She's chuffed.

Update 2

We're soon out of minimum term contract with Three. I snagged a bunch of unlimited data 30-day LycaMobile SIMs for £3 each (EE network) to run until Black Friday when I'll look for a Scancom deal.

I borrowed my son's 5G router again as I saw from EE's signal checker that 5G might reach us.

I found I was now getting a 5G signal on Three's network which they've been keeping a secret! So I got a secondhand Zyxel NR5103E 5G router from eBay for £120. CeX also sell them from £135.

(1) Three's phone coverage checker for my address:

5G Coverage
Unavailable
Unfortunately, our 5G network isn't currently available in this area.

(2) Three's home broadband coverage checker for my address:

We can't offer Home Broadband at your address right now, but we're busy expanding our network to connect more homes

(3) My 5G router next to a window upstairs:

 

[Saul Goodman]

I got my first 5G phone a few days ago. The speeds seem pretty good.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I got my first 5G phone a few days ago. The speeds seem pretty good.

View attachment 416073

Do you live in a lightly populated place that isn't the middle of nowhere? That's where I generally seem to get really good results.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Do you live in a lightly populated place that isn't the middle of nowhere? That's where I generally seem to get really good results.

I live in a sparsely populated place that's about three miles off the beaten track from the middle of nowhere

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I live in a sparsely populated place that's about three miles off the beaten track from the middle of nowhere

So they've installed 5g and it's basically just you using it?

 

[Saul Goodman]

So they've installed 5g and it's basically just you using it?

I had to sit outside in the car to get that speed. It's shite in the house. I'm going to get a 5G repeater and put an antenna on the roof... Maybe... Someday.

 

[spudulike]

I'd prefer an outdoor 5G modem/router mounted high, run gigabit ethernet into the house to a wireless router. That should also give better upload speeds. Learning 4G & 5G stuff from ISPreview forums, apparently long cables and cheap antennae could make things worse and I'd be wary of spending on quality Poynting stuff in case I couldn't get it to work.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I'd prefer an outdoor 5G modem/router mounted high, run gigabit ethernet into the house to a wireless router. That should also give better upload speeds. Learning 4G & 5G stuff from ISPreview forums, apparently long cables and cheap antennae could make things worse and I'd be wary of spending on quality Poynting stuff in case I couldn't get it to work.

I have 1 gig fibre, so I'm covered on that front. It's just the phone signal that's pants in the house. I had the same problem at the last house I was in, so I spent silly money on a huge antenna and a repeater, only to discover that the UK repeater wouldn't work in Ireland, as the frequencies were different. I sent the repeater back but kept the antenna. I'll probably sort another repeater next time I have a power cut and no internet. A bit horse and stable door but I'm nothing if not a procrastinator

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I have 1 gig fibre, so I'm covered on that front. It's just the phone signal that's pants in the house. I had the same problem at the last house I was in, so I spent silly money on a huge antenna and a repeater, only to discover that the UK repeater wouldn't work in Ireland, as the frequencies were different. I sent the repeater back but kept the antenna. I'll probably sort another repeater next time I have a power cut and no internet. A bit horse and stable door but I'm nothing if not a procrastinator

Wifi calling?

 

[Saul Goodman]

Wifi calling?

The WiFi network is excellent in the house. I have 5 routers on a mesh network, but a few weeks ago we had a power cut for a few days, and a decent phone signal would have prevented a near slip into insanity. I have a couple of uninterruptible power supplies, and I could have powered up the router and the fibre thing downstairs, but I couldn't be arsed, as I kept thinking the power would be back imminently. It'd be handy to just fail over to a mobile network. The main router has failover, and I have a 4 G router, I just CBA setting it up, although it'd be easier and cheaper than setting up a repeater

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Mine does fail over as well. Doesn't seem worth having a seperate data plan for the odd time it falls over though.

I hard wired 3 APs in to my place. It was total overkill and I had to turn the power down on all of them if actually want devices to roam.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I have Home Assistant running on a little NUC, and pretty much everything in the house is now automated. Unfortunately, the walls in this house seem to be made from impenetranium, and some things aren't getting a decent enough signal from the main router, so I've scattered a few around the house, no doubt negatively offsetting any savings I might have made from using LED bulbs everywhere, but if I'm truthful, I don't think it was ever about saving money, it was about talking to a box, and telling it to make my bed warm

 

[ID47]

I've used Smarty 4G internet for a couple of years now, generally get 115 - 150 down and 25 - 40 up depending on day of week and time. Huawei 4G router in bridge mode with wifi turned off to Gl.inet Beryl AX wifi6 travel router. Phone gives 380 down on 5G but I have no need of such speed.

Only issue I've had is that internet banking blocks me unless I use a specific VPN (Proton based in Tokyo) which is installed on the GL.inet and accessed using the sliding switch on the side. Anyone have any other ideas to get around this?

 

[Elpenor]

18 months of 4G broadband

Doesn’t sound like a great sequel to One Hundred Years of Solitude tbh