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Quick review of Three's new outdoor 5G hub

deedscali1401

Regular Member
Hey all, (long time lurker - first time poster)

I currently own a ZTE MC7010 and a Huawei CPE Pro WIN. I managed to get a hold of the new outdoor hub from Three which is a custom device made by American firm Greenpacketdevice. The model is Y5-210MU.

This device is actually very good, I have tested it for 48 hours now and had consistently better speeds on both Three and EE than i was getting on either the 7010 or the WIN. The firmware on the Y5 has band locking and cell locking built in so no need for scripts to unlock that functionality. Im not sure what the antenna gain is on the Y5 but im gonna say its higher than the 9dBi on the 7010 given the signal improvements im experiencing.

I am not sure if 5CA is supported as ive yet to see it lock onto more than 4 bands at once. Where as on the 7010 i was consistently getting 5CA albeit one of those was Band 20 which is pretty useless anyways.

There is only mid band 5G in my area so I have no way of testing any high bands like n77 or n78. The only options for me here are N1, N7 or N28. N7 is always the fastest for me so i tend to lock on to that and get a solid 300+ on EE with an SINR of 26dB.

Anyways I just wanted to briefly share my experience with the new piece of kit and give it a thumbs up its definitely going to be my new primary CPE. It performs substantially better than either of the two I have used previously and the firmware is unlocked with a lot of options.

Hope this helps for anybody interested :)
 
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Hey all, (long time lurker - first time poster)

I currently own a ZTE MC7010 and a Huawei CPE Pro WIN. I managed to get a hold of the new outdoor hub from Three which is a custom device made by American firm Greenpacketdevice. The model is Y5-210MU.

This device is actually very good, I have tested it for 48 hours now and had consistently better speeds on both Three and EE than i was getting on either the 7010 or the WIN. The firmware on the Y5 has band locking and cell locking built in so no need for scripts to unlock that functionality. Im not sure what the antenna gain is on the Y5 but im gonna say its higher than the 9dBi on the 7010 given the signal improvements im experiencing.

I am not sure if CA5 is supported as ive yet to see it lock onto more than 4 bands at once. Where as on the 7010 i was consistently getting CA5 albeit one of those was Band 20 which is pretty useless anyways.

There is only mid band 5G in my area so I have no way of testing any high bands like n77 or n78. The only options for me here are N1, N7 or N28. N7 is always the fastest for me so i tend to lock on to that and get a solid 300+ on EE with an SINR of 26dB.

Anyways I just wanted to briefly share my experience with the new piece of kit and give it a thumbs up its definitely going to be my new primary CPE. It performs substantially better than either of the two I have used previously and the firmware is unlocked with a lot of options.

Hope this helps for anybody interested :)
Oh,great to hear some on hand experience of the new hub, it sounds really good, and a warm welcome along to the forums too deedscali1401. (y)
 
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Thanks bud, I forgot mention there is a digital signal indicator on the outside of the device which makes it a piece of cake to get the best position and direction for signal.
Oh that's very nifty, great it has band locking and cell locking too. (y)
 
Hey all, (long time lurker - first time poster)

I currently own a ZTE MC7010 and a Huawei CPE Pro WIN. I managed to get a hold of the new outdoor hub from Three which is a custom device made by American firm Greenpacketdevice. The model is Y5-210MU.

This device is actually very good, I have tested it for 48 hours now and had consistently better speeds on both Three and EE than i was getting on either the 7010 or the WIN. The firmware on the Y5 has band locking and cell locking built in so no need for scripts to unlock that functionality. Im not sure what the antenna gain is on the Y5 but im gonna say its higher than the 9dBi on the 7010 given the signal improvements im experiencing.

I am not sure if CA5 is supported as ive yet to see it lock onto more than 4 bands at once. Where as on the 7010 i was consistently getting CA5 albeit one of those was Band 20 which is pretty useless anyways.

There is only mid band 5G in my area so I have no way of testing any high bands like n77 or n78. The only options for me here are N1, N7 or N28. N7 is always the fastest for me so i tend to lock on to that and get a solid 300+ on EE with an SINR of 26dB.

Anyways I just wanted to briefly share my experience with the new piece of kit and give it a thumbs up its definitely going to be my new primary CPE. It performs substantially better than either of the two I have used previously and the firmware is unlocked with a lot of options.

Hope this helps for anybody interested :)
That's very strange, my new outdoor hub like yours doesn't have band locking? Did you update it? Mine doesn't seem to have that option.

Thanks
 
That's very strange, my new outdoor hub like yours doesn't have band locking? Did you update it? Mine doesn't seem to have that option.

Thanks
Are you logging in with the user login or the admin login?

On the back of the device (bottom right) look at the label there and you will see the admin login details. Log in using the admin login to access the full firmware features. Using the user login gives a pretty basic functionality.
 
I have tested it for 48 hours now and had consistently better speeds on both Three and EE than i was getting on either the 7010 or the WIN.
Thanks for your mini-review.

Does this mean that the Three 5G Outdoor router is unlocked so that you can use it with an EE sim? That would be useful for me as I use a 3 SIM for my existing 5G router (TP Link X50-5G) but if there was an issue with 3's network I can switch t othe SIM in my phone.
 
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Thanks for your mini-review.

Does this mean that the Three 5G Outdoor router is unlocked so that you can use it with an EE sim? That would be useful for me as I use a 3 SIM for my existing 5G router (TP Link X50-5G) but if there was an issue with 3's network I can switch t othe SIM in my phone.
Yeah the device is unlocked.
 
Yeah im just using the one i got from 3 and using an EE Sim. Three is supposed to be getting n78 in my local tower this year at which point ill switch the sims back around.
 
Despite me using a Three 5G data SIM at the moment with my existing 5G router it seems that Three do not want to sell me their outdoor hub as they are convinced that there is no Three 5g in my area. :-(
 
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Easy to get around that my guy, You just need to put in another address in the coverage checker, what i did was put in a random address for Mcdonalds in London, then when it came back and said I was in a 5G area i moved to the next step it allowed me to sign up for service at my address and billing address etc.. you just need to get past the coverage checker step the rest is easy peasy and normal.
 
Are you logging in with the user login or the admin login?

On the back of the device (bottom right) look at the label there and you will see the admin login details. Log in using the admin login to access the full firmware features. Using the user login gives a pretty basic functionality.
Hey, also got the new Outdoor Hub and put my voxi sim in the old zte hub and get even better speed with the indoor hub.
Tried to put the sim in the outdoor hub but didn't work. I logged in using the admin login but not sure what to do in the admin panel to get it work. In the ZTE Hub I just changed the APN settings but with the Outdoor one it's weird, I cant add another APN. Did you just change the one that is pointing to 3internet?
Would be great if you could explain what you changed in the admin panel to "unlock" it
 
Hey, also got the new Outdoor Hub and put my voxi sim in the old zte hub and get even better speed with the indoor hub.
Tried to put the sim in the outdoor hub but didn't work. I logged in using the admin login but not sure what to do in the admin panel to get it work. In the ZTE Hub I just changed the APN settings but with the Outdoor one it's weird, I cant add another APN. Did you just change the one that is pointing to 3internet?
Would be great if you could explain what you changed in the admin panel to "unlock" it
Hey buddy, sure thing yeah. Modify the existing APN. You are only permitted one APN on the Y5. I would also change it to IP only. There are 3 options. IP,IPV6 and IPV4v6. As far as I am aware three is the only provider that provides a public IPV4 address, the rest of the operators are CG-NAT. In the case of Vodafone being CG-NAT make sure when you are modifying the APN to adjust it to IP only. That is all you need to do though adjust the APN to Vodafones one and you should be good to go!

If you need anything else let me know.
 
Hey buddy, sure thing yeah. Modify the existing APN. You are only permitted one APN on the Y5. I would also change it to IP only. There are 3 options. IP,IPV6 and IPV4v6. As far as I am aware three is the only provider that provides a public IPV4 address, the rest of the operators are CG-NAT. In the case of Vodafone being CG-NAT make sure when you are modifying the APN to adjust it to IP only. That is all you need to do though adjust the APN to Vodafones one and you should be good to go!

If you need anything else let me know.
Thanks for your help. I had no luck with voxi. In my other ZTE Three Router I can change the APN and it's working
I also got a lebara sim card (vodafone) and it worked without me even changing anything, apn was still 3internet
Really weird, altough they both provide monthly plans, so I think I go with lebara then

But in general my upload speed with three, voxi and lebara is always quite bad. any ideas?

I once lived right next to a tower and got easy 500/200 up and down
Now it's never more than 20
 
Should receive mine today to replace the Huawei CPE pro 2 I've been using for over 2 years, locating this unit outside should give a measurable improvement. I plan on putting the majority of my internet though a VPN using a unifi cloud gateway capable of around 500mb on a VPN. Once three resolve the SSL issues I and many others experience I will take everything off the VPN.

Ordering wasn't straight forward, I'm not in a recognised 5G area, so I tried several postcodes that are but three only offered the indoor unit for postcodes with good reception. Experimenting a little managed to get a postcode that they offered the outdoor unit for.

For anyone ordering don't forget toipcashback/quidco.

This link will bypass the postcode check. https://www.three.co.uk/shop/broadband/home-broadband/5g-hub-with-eero/plans
 
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If anybody is using it with a three sim card, im not gonna lie BAND 32 is fast if your using 4G. Ive never noticed that before and didnt even know that band existed in the first place, pretty cool. Something that EE doesnt have anyways. Was pulling 220Mbits/s via 4G on that band. Anyways im gonna pop that EE sim back in because Band 7 is still the king.
 
Thanks for your help. I had no luck with voxi. In my other ZTE Three Router I can change the APN and it's working
I also got a lebara sim card (vodafone) and it worked without me even changing anything, apn was still 3internet
Really weird, altough they both provide monthly plans, so I think I go with lebara then

But in general my upload speed with three, voxi and lebara is always quite bad. any ideas?

I once lived right next to a tower and got easy 500/200 up and down
Now it's never more than 20
To get Vodafone / voxi to work you need to change the apn info with the three sim card inserted and then save and put voxi sim in.
Great router, shame you can't get it without signing up for a 24 month contract (I.e not ever owning it)
 
To get Vodafone / voxi to work you need to change the apn info with the three sim card inserted and then save and put voxi sim in.
Great router, shame you can't get it without signing up for a 24 month contract (I.e not ever owning it)
Yeah it is currently the best router for 5G in my opinion and ive tried many of them, you are correct it sucks its proprietary equipment but hey it can be gotten if you want it bad enough,
 
Three pushed a firmware update last night. Requires a Three SIM to receive it just to let the folks using the Y5 know. Only thing I can see is Roaming has been added. Prob stability improvements mostly.

***UPDATE : DO NOT INSTALL IF YOU ARE NOT USING THREE. APN IS HARDLOCKED AFTER UPDATE.***
 
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