Three UK Users Complain of Outdoor Hub Reboots on 5G Broadband UPDATE
Some customers of mobile network operator Three UK (VodafoneThree), specifically those who took the new 5G Outdoor Hub (Green Packet Y5-210MU) option for their Three Home Broadband service, are finding that the router has recently developed an annoying habit of rebooting itself – often once every hour (variable and intermittent).
The problem appears to have first started on Thursday 7th August 2025 and isn’t being reported by everybody. Several threads on the operator’s community forum (e.g. here and here) make reference to the issue, as do several posts via social media and some review websites. But so far Three UK have not acknowledged that the issue exists and has merely continued to gather data from those affected.
One of those impacted by the issue, Matt, suggested to both ISPreview and Thinkbroadband that the problem may have been caused by a possible Firmware update that seems to force a TR-069 inform interval of 3600 seconds and each inform event ends up restarting the modem session.
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For the uninitiated, TR-069 is a common remote management service, which is what enables broadband and mobile ISPs to access, manage and update your broadband router (e.g. necessary for use as part of customer support tasks).
Matt told ISPreview:
“Customers are unable to disable TR-069 or change the interval because the firmware is locked down (and even ignores attempts to override it). My own connection — which I rely on for delivering online training sessions from home — is currently disconnecting once per hour like clockwork, which is now directly impacting my work/income.
Three’s customer support say the only advice is “reboot the router”, and there’s no escalation route that actually addresses the firmware flaw. They continue to advertise this as an “outdoor 5G broadband solution”, they even insisted I was sent a new EERO and Router but the problem is exactly the same again.”
Naturally, we’ve contacted Three UK in the hope of securing an update and will report back when they respond. But it’s worth noting that resolving firmware bugs, if indeed that does turn out to be the issue, tends to be a very slow process for most networks. This usually extends more from the manufacturer’s side than the network operator. Any changes also have to go through testing before they can be distributed in the wild, which adds another delay.
As we say, ISPreview hasn’t yet seen similar complaints from every user of the same kit, although we aren’t currently sure whether they’re all on the same firmware version. Customers who report the issue are on hardware version 1.0 and firmware version: Y5-210MU_V1.3.5_ThreeUK. Mind you, it’s not the first time an issue related to connection drops has cropped up with this specific device (mega thread).
UPDATE 2:30pm
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We’ve had a limited response from Three UK. The operator also indicated that the connection drops should be considered intermittent and do not always occur hourly.
A Three spokesperson told ISPreview:
“We apologise that a small number of customers are experiencing temporary connectivity dropouts, which we are investigating.”
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.
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“Three’s customer support say the only advice is “reboot the router”
Great advice Three. Routers are rebooting themselves, so their advice to fix is to reboot it?
They are far the worse customer service ever! I used to call them before for my Three Hub, 5G issues from the mast. They are clueless!
Don’t waste your time of calling up Three customer service.
100% a hard reset works. You need to unscrew the weather proofing with the supplies Allen key and long hold the reset button. This immediately resolved the issue.
What about factory reset? It’s might resolved it!
Like what Duncan Bramble says – hard reset will solved it. Seem I am right on this.
This rebooting situation has been going on ever since the device was launched, prior to that some of there indoor 4G routers suffered the same rebooting issue, I took one for my parents but had to return it for this reason and we’re going back a good number of years.
Assuming Duncan Bramble is correct, how come ThreeUK don’t offer this advice as a possible solution and advise the manufacturer accordingly.
Of course I can imagine some installations of the outdoor router may make a hard reset challenging, furthermore, does it need to be repeated every time there is a firmware update?
For me, even at £16.80 a month I won’t take it until the matter is resolved, a 5G signal would help too.
im in a bit of a pickle.
My area is full fibre by openreach but management company won’t agree to have it in the block (I own my flat).
my DSL connection is very unstable. No engineer wants to fix it because area is full fibre and the fault in the line could be within the block. having used a modified HG612, I can read line stats and here I see tons of CRC/FEC errors.
I also see constant resyncs, i have had 0 interleaving, 8 inter, and 16 inter. speeds ranging from 68mpbs down to the lowest 32mbps.
every day I get cutouts – I have another engineer coming this Friday. lets see what happens.
I should add my block is the only block in the estate without full fibre as we use a different management company to the rest.
so until the red tape is cut and I can get full fibre I thought I’d give this a go and see if three’s solution at least gives me a line I can use with some speed.
Couldn’t be sleep mode on the main system kicking it off ?
There are advantages to having a separately powered 4G router and a manual switches controlling access of the 4G mobile router to whatever access port is used on your main system ? i.e. not auto fail-over controlled by flaky software.You have control or data flow between devices so you know what initiates action and reaction, as well as having control of electrical power to the 5G router. You get the benefits of access to both Worlds, you control when the switch is made . . and you don’t have to be in a “Fail-over” situation for it to work.
Over the last few months I’ve tried both methods i.e. manually initiated software switch and an auto sensing router . . . . and I found the hard switch variety ( Using a two position multi-port 3 in, one out) to be more reliable and just as quick.
The sequence of operation (Needs two multi-port manual switches to work) for manually switching being:-
1)Isolate VDSL data into the main modem/router using another multi-port switch VDSL switch and wait until signal lights on main modem/router adjust to show “No VDSL signal”.
2). Switch on power to 4G modem and wait till all signal lights come on steady (Except the LAN light).
3).Operate the manual switch between the 5G modem and main modem/router to connect the two and wait until the LAN light on the 5G modem comes on.
4). Go into your main device system software, in this case Windows 11, and re-start the ethernet adapter (Control Panel/Network and Internet/Network sharing centre/Change adapter settings).
5). You’re on 4G.
Operate the sequence in reverse to return to Main modem router operations which use VDSL.
If your main router operates on full fibre then the 4G mobile modem to main modem/router needs to be connected to the WAN port (Port 4 on my BT Smart Hub 2 . .if full fibre is selected. Strangely, the BT Smart Hub 2 will operate in full-fibre mode even if its only receiving a VDSL i.e. FTTC signal . . and the performance seems better than when in FTTC mode !)
A 4g or 5G dongle plugged into your main device would be even simpler (I found the signal I got locally not to be as reliable)
My mobile modem router (Tenda) uses the Three service and whilst the data download rates are appaulling (usually 5-6 Mbps down, very occasionally 20Mbps down and invariably 5Mbps up !), when connected the service is good for hours and has sufficient bandwith to stream videos, live streams e.g. Tour De France (Courtesy of VPN and French TV) sans data loss. Enough for a single person household.
as an update, mine is in and working.
I get 80 ish mbps down and roughly 77 ish mbps up.
not quite stable enough for sky stream but everything else working fine. (it might be the fact I have UHD – so I will test again dropping it to HD)
So far my partner is working from home and has not had any issues.
as for this on the hour disconnection thing – yes out of the box mines doing it as well!
I have a day off tomorrow so will fiddle with it and see if I can get better (might use a pole to push it higher see if that gets better signal) but so far for £17 a month I think I will keep this in place. it’s not bad for what it is.
@Nick – yes eventually my plan is to use this as a backup. I currently testing another firewall distro but will go back to PfSense/OpnSense and use the failover wan feature it has to offer.
I assume the 3 outdoor hub doesn’t require anything special? just plug it in and use wan port as acquire DHCP? or is there more to it?
the little eero isn’t bad either, I’ll keep that as a backup as my main AP is a repurposed Asus Rapture GT-AX11000 on Merlin FW that uses a small PC as firewall. My DSL line uses the Openreach Huawei HG612 on the modified firmware to access gui stats. But even with the vodafone hub I still get errors so I know it’s the line (stats prove it).
overall i am happy with the three service a unique design choice but if fed a decent signal it really can work.
It looks like Three have decided that the outdoor hub issues can’t be resolved. After 3 weeks of no service, Three’s customer service have agreed to change it for another unit. The can only offer an indoor hub as the outdoor is now obsolete. As I need an outdoor unit they agreed to cancel my contract with 20 months still left.
Shame, when it worked it was great. Will have to look at other outdoor options now !