Three UK Discounts 5G Unlimited Home Broadband to £20
Mobile operator Three UK has informed us that they’ve slightly lowered the standard charge on their 5G based unlimited Home Broadband packages from £21 to £20 per month on a 24-month term. But on the flip side those in 4G-only areas will now be paying the same price (earlier this year it was just £14).
Take note that both the 4G and 5G based Home Broadband packages are currently being offered alongside a discount for new customers, which reduces the price to just £10 per month for the first 6 months of service. All of Three’s Home Broadband plans also include a mobile broadband router by default.
However, one catch to be aware of is that Three’s availability checker for their home broadband plans is still restricting access (this doesn’t extend to their normal SIM-Only mobile plans), which means that in some areas the service will say that it is not available – even though the local area may have an excellent 4G and 5G signal from them.
Advertisement
You can also take their 5G Home Broadband service on a short 1-month term, but the standard price then goes from £20 to £24 per month.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« ISP BT Discounts UK FTTC and FTTP Home Broadband Packages
Might be worth adding that the coverage checker shows broadband as unavailable when they’ve determined an area to be heavily oversubscribed and performance is likely to be very poor… or at least poorer than usual.
Which is also a nice way of knowing of mobile performance will be good in your area even if you’re not gonna get the broadband.
Good point there, Connor 🙂 .
but it’s subject to change at any time. For example I was one of the people that could have shown you the 1.2gbit speedtest screenshots a year ago. Now i’m lucky if I get 300mbit. Not complaining because it’s well beyond what I need to work with, but judging things based off of what a mobile checker says today can be invalidated tomorrow.
So basically most areas will not be able to order this then? 😉
I wouldn’t say that – their 4G network is heavily oversubscribed with heavy data users, but their 5G network seems to perform pretty well. Obviously, only time will tell with this one. The downside is that upload speeds, especially in oversubscribed 4G areas, can be abysmal due to it not going over the 5G network just yet.
I’m kind of curious why this hasn’t been implemented yet. It surely would make sense to get all services capable of being delivered via 5G as quickly as possible.
Been trying to get the 1 month contract for the last 2 hours have been passed around with no luck they keep claiming it’s a 3rd party deal can’t find it on there website either
When i check for 5g coverage in my area it says none. Nearest is about 13 miles away. I can get into my car, drive 800 yards and i get 5g with about 500 mbps. Do 3 only say an area is covered only when it’s fully covered?
Three uk crap regardless of offering 5g broadband
I switched from three to ee
Yes I was a three uk defender but not anymore
I rather stick with ee yes they more expensive but they not oversubscribed
Hey Steve. They go by the coverage map, if it’s not updated then they will insist there’s no coverage even if there is.
They update it around once a month I believe.
I’ve seen a massive improvement in 4G coverage & speed last 2 years. Especially with 5G gaining more coverage.
[Mostly around Cardiff & South Wales]
No service for weeks wont let me out of contract won’t change hardware saying it’s their network but no one else has a problem and now this!
No service for weeks wont let me out of contract won’t change hardware saying it’s their network but no one else has a problem and now this!
I heard the exact same thing happened to a bloke called Simon.
Meanwhile they are offering unlimited minutes, texts,and data for £16 (seen on a discount cashback site).
Why they place a premium on broadband (data only sims) remains a mystery nobody is able to solve.
Customers would be better of going for their unlimited plan with calls and texts and just use it as a data only sim.
I suppose the only consideration with that is whether you end up cgnat or not, the mobile broadband service has a dynamic IP service not behind cgnat. There may be others who know the answer – would changing the apn to the mobile broadband address change this?
The other advantage of this is if you already have a mobile router with phone ports you’d be able to actually use the free minutes, bonus!
@Steve
Yes – you can use the ‘3internet’ APN (as opposed to ‘three.co.uk’) with a SIM intended for phone use, and your connection will not be CGNAT-ed.
You have to pay for the router… it’s not free. That’s how simple it is, it’s nothing to do with IP Addresses since anyone on 3 can get a Non-CGNAT IP by using 3internet
Is that a Huawei b818 router? They look fancy
No, it’s a ZTE MC801A it’s not bad. But not as good as a Huawei. Firmware is typical Chinese garbage and three have been knocking out very buggy firmware for it. Annoyed a lot of people, myself included.
Three Home Broadband is still not available in all 4G only areas – in areas (like mine) where it isn’t available they suggest mobile broadband which is more expensive.
So is it possible to use the network checker and lie about your address to an area that isn’t restricted if you know the service is available, then change the router delivery address during checkout?
No need to have it delivered elsewhere. Supply a suitable postcode to get past their initial checks on coverage and you can then get it delivered to somewhere where there is apparently no ‘indoor 5G’, like your home address.
We did exactly that and went from a flakey 8Mbps download, 4Mbps upload on 4G, to 300-400Mbps and a rather poor in comparison 2-4Mbps upload on 5G.
There is no FTTP here despite lots of openreach fibre first infrastructure less than 100m away installed in the past three years, no FTTC either despite saturation coverage of other cabinets for over a decade, openreach claim ‘network complete status’ for this area of a ‘fibre first city’ openreach copper network remains very, very poor, in fact it’s an utter shambles (4-6Mbps DL, 0.6Mbps UL) hence why we, probably permanently, disconnected from the fixed network. The upside is as everyone around here moves away from openreach the number of holes in verges will reduce and the grass will grow again. The fewer drives dug up with steel plates across excavations for weeks on end will reduce as well.
Also forgot to ask, is it possible to use one of these 5g routers in a 4g area as 4g until 5g is rolled out? (Again presumably this would rely on lying to the network checker site and changing delivery address). If that is possible I don’t see why Three would roll out any 4g kit as 5g is future proofing.
@Steve go on cellmapper.net & see where your nearest 4G mast is.
Also go on bidb.uk & check on there for coverage.. the bidb coverage checker is pretty good.
*5G checker on bidb.uk is pretty good. The 4G checker shows blanket/full coverage (which is incorrect)
Maybe its a way to deplete the MC801A in preparation for the MC8020 release
This is odd. Three 4G broadband is the same price as their 5G broadband (£20 per month) I wonder why.
I was looking to get the 5G on Three but for some reason it states not available but it allows the 4G broadband. According to cellmapper the nearest masts are capable of 5G.
Looks like Three will offer Zyxel 5G router model NR5103E next.
I dont get why theyre not offering the oppo T2
Is the sim provided by three on this plan data only, or can it also be used for calls and texts?
The SIM included is a data only SIM (it is possible to make calls) however if you make calls from the SIM thats included then you’ll be charged very expensive rates.
* calls & texts
I’d like to see Three move away from the Chinese vendors. I know Three Sweden has moved to Inseego who have a very capable 5g router, with a Snapdragon modem.
Would much rather use that product, than pretty shoddy offerings from ZTE
Has anyone else had problems trying to order this? Ive used a valid postcode but when I add to basket it doesnt go through.