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End of contract dilemma...

scoobydooby

ULTIMATE Member
Having had 24 months on Three wireless home broadband, using the ZTE MC801A my contract has just about expired. It's been a revelation to me because previously we only had the copper wire, through the phoneline type home broadband. There were initial problems with the router, firmware updates that bricked some of the routers but Three did resolve those and sent me a new router. There have been a few disconnects and slow speeds in that time due to engineering works but mostly it's a great alternative to the fibre companies that are all of a sudden, available to me.

I really do not want to sign up for another 24 months, or even 12 months, we go away as often as we can and I don't want to be locked in if there are further faults or if, as is happening, the peak times get too crowded.

So I bought a used Zyxel nr5103ev2, Three branded with the idea of using a Smarty or ID Mobile unlimited sim on a 30 day, rolling contract. That did not go well, the router went back to CEX who were helpful, turns out my ZTE was faster and more reliable, the Zyxel dropped internet on various devices no matter what settings I tried. On reboot especially. The firmware is not yet good enough, IMO and the settings very complicated.

Well what to do now?! Three offered me a new, 24 month contract with a "new" Zyxel nr5103V2 at £19 per month. Or a rolling deal at £24 per month. Not really what we want as we can stay as we are with our old router, at about £21.90 as things stand.
I am hoping I can keep my 2 year old ZTE if we end the rolling deal, I would not think Three would want to use it again, they don't last forever... but if not I will have to buy another one or other type of router. There is some EE service in my area but probably not 5G and more expensive than Three.

What have your experiences been in this regard? Did you leave Three, renegotiate or switch to Smarty, ID or other? Did you have to send back your router?
What is the best router available now in your opinion? Best deals? Let's discuss our options after being locked in for 2 years!
Freedom!!
 
Router: I bought a secondhand v1 NR5103e when I discovered we now had a 5G signal. Speeds are fantastic. Router reliability 100%. Our 24 month 4G contract ended in May and we get to keep the MF286D (because it is 4G).

As for data, I'm now on a prepaid Scancom 500GB/month until Nov 2026 which works out a £4.70/month. I gave my daughter the 4G router and she is on a 12 month contract with Three, unlimited data £11.59/month. If you want a 30-day unlimited then the one I used to test her signal for a month is iD Mobile PAYG - they do a 30-day unlimited data bundle addon for £20. Worked a treat.
 
What have your experiences been in this regard? Did you leave Three, renegotiate or switch to Smarty, ID or other? Did you have to send back your router?
I'd give SMARTY or iD a whirl really given they're both £15 a month on Unlimited plans. SMARTY won't credit check you though so may be a better bet if you're not certain.

Scancom also have a good deal on there's until August 2026, but these have a hard 1TB/month cap so unless you're certain you won't hit that it (or have a backup in case you do) may not be worth it.
 
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Router: I bought a secondhand v1 NR5103e when I discovered we now had a 5G signal. Speeds are fantastic. Router reliability 100%. Our 24 month 4G contract ended in May and we get to keep the MF286D (because it is 4G).

As for data, I'm now on a prepaid Scancom 500GB/month until Nov 2026 which works out a £4.70/month. I gave my daughter the 4G router and she is on a 12 month contract with Three, unlimited data £11.59/month. If you want a 30-day unlimited then the one I used to test her signal for a month is iD Mobile PAYG - they do a 30-day unlimited data bundle addon for £20. Worked a treat.
Great info there, thanks.
With your V1 on 5G...how many devices are running? I have 8 or 10 running and when I rebooted the V2 half of them would get kicked offline...a Samsung smart tv and 2 wifi cameras. Sometimes a Samsung phone would drop off for no reason. Have you not had any such disconnections, superglue...and is that a Three branded router or unlocked?
 
No surprise disconnections so far. Usually there are up to six devices connected or up to nine when son, DiL and GS come over on Sundays. It is a Three-branded router; they come unlocked and it runs fine on the EE network by changing APN settings - RWG speed tests and Lyca for some weeks.

I have the router scheduled to switch off WiFi overnight just to save power. I also use three.co.uk rather than 3internet - happy to stick with IPv4 and hide behind CGNAT in addition to our Torguard VPN.
 
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