Three UK’s Home Broadband Users Suffer Intermittent Connectivity
Some customers of mobile network operator Three UK, specifically those who are taking one of their 4G and 5G powered unlimited Three Home Broadband packages, have – for the best part of a year – been complaining about an intermittent connectivity problem that is sporadically disrupting their use of various internet services.
The issue, which has in recent months been experienced by members of ISPreview’s forum and is also covered via a 41-page thread on Three’s forum (here), first surfaced in late 2023 and has thus far proven tricky for the operator to identify and resolve. Part of the reason for this may be because mobile connectivity is inherently quite variable and this can make it difficult to spot something more specific, particularly if it’s intermittent.
The problem itself appears as if it could be some sort of fault within Three’s network routing/peering or internet-filtering system that causes sporadic problems for some users on active connections. For example, in some cases it throws up “Secure Connection Failed” (SSL / HTTPS) notices when loading certain websites (similar to if an SSL certificate had expired) or will pause the loading of a website mid-page, which usually goes away after a few refreshes.
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In other cases the issue may cause problems when attempting to login to certain online services, such as Xbox Live, PSN, Battlenet, various banking apps and so forth (several attempts may be needed before the login process succeeds). Customers affected by the issue have also reported stuttering while streaming videos via Disney+ and some other platforms, as well as connection drops during online multiplayer games etc.
The problem doesn’t appear to be related to a specific mobile router (Hub), as it occurs in the same way on several of the operator’s supplied devices (e.g. ZTE MC801A, Zyxel NR5103EV2 etc.) – irrespective of whether you’re connected to it via wires (LAN) or WiFi (WLAN). Changing the operator’s APN profile or trying different DNS servers also has no impact.
Example Customer Complaint 1
“I am experiencing it all the time, especially in the evening when I am using the internet at home most. Sometimes I need to force the refresh 3,4 times before the page loads up correctly.”
Example Customer Complaint 2
“I have had the same issues related here. It started happening a few months ago, it was fine for a year or so and I contacted support. They’ve swapped me from a Huawei hub to a Zytel hub, got a replacement SIM and it’s all still happening. Connection is good with fast speeds but often get the connection failed error when loading websites or checking out. Reloading the page will fix it. It happens on all devices, when people come to visit it happens on their devices too. Happens on my ethernet cable connected devices too.”
Example Customer Complaint 3
“I was seeing this issue months and months ago but (maybe coincidentally) by introducing a mesh network in the house, it went away. It’s back with a vengeance now though – I’m seeing the same PS Networking issues this last 2 days to the point where I’m nearly banned for the season from Overwatch due to the number of dropped connections on game start.”
Example Customer Complaint 4
“I also see that all the issues reported over the last 6 months or so by various users are now hitting me at once: really high latency when making a connection, inability to use banking apps reliably, stuttering when streaming from Disney+, SSL errors when using github,com and as mention above, connection drops when connecting to online games. I’m seeing that roughly 7 out of 10 Overwatch games disconnect when attempting to connect to the server which means I’m now banned until the end of the season (mid October). Great, I’m obviously less than impressed.”
However, customers affected by the issue did find that using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) usually resolved the problem, although VPNs are not a complete solution and won’t work well for every single situation and service. But if you are suffering from this then using a VPN is at least a temporary way to avoid the annoyance. One free option that some people use is Cloudflare WARP.
A Three spokesperson told ISPreview:
“We are aware of some connectivity issues affecting a small number of home broadband users. We are investigating these and will update customers as soon as possible. We continue to encourage our customers to report issues so that we can optimise the home broadband service.”
We should point out that this is by no means the first time that we’ve heard about such issues occurring on Three’s network, particularly the SSL error, which has periodically occurred in the past too. Quite why it crops up we don’t yet know, but the operator is actively analysing data from a number of live traces in order to identify the root cause.
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The latest issue did appear to crop up during part of the operator’s IPv6 rollout, which initially disrupted some VPN clients and device connectivity to their Hub, but we don’t currently believe this to be the cause of the above problem (although it can’t yet be ruled out).
Finally, one of Three UK’s customers has just been told that Three’s “Major Incidents” team is now working with Nokia on this problem, “who in turn are working with Microsoft“. Make of that what you will. Meanwhile, the long.. wait for a solution continues.
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 and Linkedin.
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I am not big fan of Three awful, worse ever service! Avoid at all cost! EE are much better.
Is it just Three itself or is it affecting VMO’s that use their network?
I’ve been having this issue on Three and idMobile (as well as other on the Three’s forum post) so I think it does affect VMNOs too.
I get this all the time on Three
I put it down to congestion, because despite living in an isolated rural area with only about 3 houses within distance of the mast, and me having direct line of site to it, I’ve just always found it a poor quality network, even with perfect signal
I’d move to another network, but the signal of the others is spotty here
So I’m stuck with Three, and their poor quality & horrendous customer service
if it’s a rural mast, it might not have that much backhaul. this is why 3 gate-keeps their home broadband service to specific postcodes.
in such locations, i’d assume their goal is to allow people to make phone calls and basic internet activities, not people rinsing it for home use
EE is likey to be better..
I use a SMARTY unlimited data SIM in a huwaei router(122-373) and got to say i never noticed it drop, i noticed the 5G light go off for maybe 5 seconds but the 4G light is always on. i am about 5 miles from doncaster city centre and the 5G mast is at other end of the village, i found all other networks pretty bad here.
I can’t be certain it’s the same issue, but certainly sounds familiar.
Back in mid-late 2020 I tried using three as main internet for a month (moving houses). Good signal, ok speed (from memory around 60-80 Mbps but constant intermitted connection stalls). I moved to voxi (same hardware) which was fine. SInce then I moved to fixed BB – first zen, then giganet, just now EE & never seen anything similar.
Unfortunately I don’t have any hard data, traces etc which might help
Doesn’t happen on my 4G Plus Sercomm router.
I am using a 3 business data sim in an iPhone and have had the SSL error’s at times
re: “Secure Connection Failed”
I’ve seen this on the biz data only sim, so its not only affecting home based sims but also biz ones. Which means its Three system wide.
I’ve seen large files from a certain hdri site, repeatedly fail on a Three sim.
Yes same problem banking is a pain and my ring doorbell loses connection regularly even though it’s next to the router. Mobile phone keeps reconnecting on web pages but laptop seems ok. However streaming via YouTube and Amazon seems ok perhaps it is dropping out but the buffering compensates for it?
Three/ smarty denied there were any problems when I reported this last year and told me that it had to be my phone’s and the router I swapped the SIM into, replaced SIM because next it was a faulty SIM.
i think it still says a lot that BT and VMO2 both get you onto their fixed line product whenever they can. Does Vodafone even offer a serious cellular-based home broadband, or is everyone pushed onto fixed line? It’s only really Three who is serious about the now-discredited “5G means you don’t need fibre” myth.
I don’t know why anyone would willingly use it if they have a choice. Even if you can get a half decent VDSL connection, its reliability and consistency of performance will be superior.
I am cynical that most mobile operators have backed away from promoting these systems now.
While I agree FTTP is an altogether better solution, for some areas the mobile 4G broadband option is simply the only workable solution. Yes it can be prone to flakiness, but that comes with the territory.
TBH though, I must say it seems daft to attempt online gaming over a 4G network. Inherently unreliable and high ping? Not surprised those are going wrong and I could imagine any data loss packets could make the system unstable.
A major advantage of 4G networking is to avoid committing to 12-month or 24-month broadband contract. A SIM card can provide a more flexible 1-month rolling contract.
So it looks like they are trying to do some MITM attack on their own customers. (To me it would be enough to change providers immediately if I noticed – I am using VPNs.)
I have been having similar issues and have spent hours on the phone with the 3 help desk.
They have now told me that this occasional drop out is when I switch between masts.
They have told me I can exit my contract without a cancellation charge.
I had this exact issue since the beginning of 2022.
It was really annoying and no one at three believed me, even though I provided proof and even packet traces.
iirc it was related to the TLS handshake immediately after the initial 3 way handshake.
I solved it by moving over to fibre broadband and haven’t looked back since.
I had these issues 6 weeks after joining them. It took me 5 months of constant emails and calls complaining to get them to cancel my 24mth contract.
They’re the worst company I’ve ever had to deal with.
I had this use but disabling IPv6 on the hub fix the issues for me
*issue
had this issue my elf but since paying £3 a month for my business sim i’ve put up with it.
Just disabled ipv6 on my hub, see how that goes.
Didn’t bother calling three, the users understand the issue better than them lot and whilst i’ve never called three business, i’m sure they are just as useless as the domestic side.
I’m getting speeds of 0.6mbs on my
Three home broadband.its constantly buffering. I phoned three they said the best thing I could do was to cancel my contract as my two years was up with them. This has been a ongoing issue after the thirty days
Cooling off period ran out. They told me they didn’t know when my signal would get any better or if it ever would and have given me a month
free internet again. But no solution to the problem. Perhaps this is what you get for twenty odd pounds a month. I will definitely be looking at other options.
Try disabling the adult content filter. I had some odd networking issues on Three mobile broadband, the most obvious being incoming messages for some apps like WhatsApp not being delivered. Everything worked fine after the adult content filter was disabled.
I don’t know what is going on with three but the network has never been the same since the major hours long outages they had starting in December 2023 then January and February this year something is definitely still broken making phone calls has also turned into a nightmare it just goes silent and cuts off
I used to use 3 and EE when fixed BB wasnt available. Has anyone tried not using threes DNS?
The thing that always fooked my internet is when they turned on the initiative of shutting down bands at certain times, i used to lock to masts on certain bands and used to wake up to no internet and have to cycle the connection. Otherwise I would end up on a rubbish band for the whole day.
I’ve tried using different DNS addresses but the problem persists for me. My current router is too slow to provide a whole house VPN solution capable of 500mb+ so that’s going to be upgraded before long.