Three 5G broadband “unavailable” despite having a 5G mast on my roof

TCA1989

Morning,

I’d like to move to mobile broadband as fibre to the property isn’t available here, so I have no high speed options. 4G speeds are absolutely awful, averaging below 20MB/s. 

I recently had a Three 5g mast installed atop my property and my mobile data speeds are now just under 1GB/s. My neighbours got Three 5g mobile broadband the moment it was installed 3 months ago, they love their new speeds at lower prices than the low speed alternative. I’m reluctant to try other networks as the 5G masts are far away and I’ll be signed up and stuck in a contract before potentially realising they’re awful.

The issue is it appears Three have either a glitch or an intentional artificial block on new customers getting 5G, saying only 4G is available for the postcode now. Their support won’t budge from this, but they also don’t seem to understand why it’s odd.

I borrowed my brother’s Three 5G router and it works swimmingly in my property with just under 1GB/s like my phone. 

The flats behind mine are in a different housing estate and have a different postcode area, and they have 5G internet which will be fed from the mast on my building. 

I can buy a 5G router and a Smarty (Three network) data only sim and get 5G internet. 

I begrudge paying £3-500 for a router and then pay Smarty £20/m when I could just pay Three £20/m and get the router for free (rented I assume), but their system seems to be artificially or incorrectly stopping me. 

I’ve tried to see if I can sign up using my brother’s address but it won’t allow more than one account there.

Has anyone had this issue and managed to circumvent their “computer says no” system to get a 5G router? 

QrizB

TCA1989 said:

Has anyone had this issue and managed to circumvent their “computer says no” system to get a 5G router?

A recent poster with a slightly different problem had more luck visiting a Three shop and speaking to a sales person face-to-face:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6477677/three-home-broadband-start-a-new-contract

Have you tried that?

TCA1989

Interesting, that didn’t show up in my search as slightly different buzz words.

I will definitely head down to my local Three store later today and update for any future readers. 

Thanks @QrizB

Blackjack_Davy

I've noticed the same thing only 4g deal offered despite availability checker stating 5g is in my area

How did you get on at the store?

TCA1989

Blackjack_Davy said:

I've noticed the same thing only 4g deal offered despite availability checker stating 5g is in my area

How did you get on at the store?

Absolutely head into the store. 

Walked in and another man just before me literally had the same query and the worker said no problem we can bypass that 100%. I just said same problem as that guy and 20 minutes later I walked out with my new 5G router and SIM card, getting speeds of 600MB/s so far which is great! Whilst I was there a good 3-4 others came in for the same reason…

He said the shops have a vastly better system than online support and basically remarked the online support are useless anyway.

Marvqn1

@TCA1989. What is the speed like on a 5G phone in the area compared to the speed via a 5G mast?

TCA1989

@Marvqn1 I assume you mean speed of 5g on my phone vs speed of my 5g wifi on my phone? If not let me know and I’ll update.

I sat doing speed tests constantly yesterday and found that 5G wifi is about 25% slower than 5g mobile data on average, I assume as my router is like a middle man it loses some strength in that extra strength. 

My phone 5g was getting 800MB/s vs the same phone getting 600MB/S using the wifi, both three network. 

I’ve found (very weirdly) that the wifi router is best placed in the centre of the property where it’s surrounded by walls, if I put it at the window where it can see the mast it is around 75% slower 🤔 doesn’t seem logical, but doesn’t cause an issue.

The wifi strength indoors always seems weak u less you’re standing there next to it, my phone shows only 1 bar of wifi strength but still gets those 600 odd speeds and it doesn’t drop out or anything. 

QrizB

TCA1989 said:

Blackjack_Davy said:

I've noticed the same thing only 4g deal offered despite availability checker stating 5g is in my area

How did you get on at the store?

Absolutely head into the store.

I'm really glad to hear that it worked out for you

Blackjack_Davy

TCA1989 said:

I’ve found (very weirdly) that the wifi router is best placed in the centre of the property where it’s surrounded by walls, if I put it at the window where it can see the mast it is around 75% slower 🤔 doesn’t seem logical, but doesn’t cause an issue.

Someone else said something very similar, strange. Awfully lucky to to sitting on a 5g mast though lol

Rob5342

TCA1989 said:

I’ve found (very weirdly) that the wifi router is best placed in the centre of the property where it’s surrounded by walls, if I put it at the window where it can see the mast it is around 75% slower 🤔 doesn’t seem logical, but doesn’t cause an issue.

The signal doesn't spread out evenly from a mast, it's focused into a beam aimed slightly at the ground. There's a picture here that shows the sort of beam that is emitted from a mobile phone mast. Being so close I'd imagine that moving the router to the window moves it towards the edge of one of the "fingers".

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Shape-of-the-beam-produced-by-cell-phone-tower_fig3_261471748

Cisco001

Used three 5G router is £115 at CEX.
Alternatively, 5G android phone with USB tethering to normal router.