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Three 5G question

ap5g

Casual Member
Hi everyone,

I am new to the wireless broadband game and I would really appreciate if someone could offer me some support.

I recently took receipt of the Huawei 5G CPE pro with Three on a home broadband contract. I have placed the hub in my loft space to achieve the best signal (only place 5G is picked up).

Sometimes I can get speeds of 300-400mbps with 20-40mbps upload which is far superior to my previous home Broadband with BT (35 down, 6 up, 19 ping). The issue with the 5G so far is that my ping varies from 50-100 (usually towards the higher end) and the download/upload speed also drops in and out and I get lag during online gaming.

I think the 5G signal in my area might be questionable as only a small portion of the three map shows pink for my area. The Huawei AI app tells me I get 80% 5G signal & ~40-50% 4G.

I have copied my hub information below and I was hoping someone could help make sense of it for me...ie. tell me if it is a non starter and I should cancel the service while still inside my cancellation period.

Any support would be appreciated.

If any further information is required, then please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

----------------

RSRQ
-14.0dB
RSRP
-100dBm
RSSI
<=-113dBm
SINR
-12dB
Wireless transmit power
PPusch:1dBm PPucch:0dBm PSrs:1dBm PPrach:2dBm
Uplink mod/demod of MCS
mcsUpCarrier1:14
Downlink mod/demod of MCS
mcsDownCarrier1Code0:12 mcsDownCarrier1Code1:10
PLMN
23420
5G RSRQ
-10.0dB
5G RSRP
-91dBm
5G SINR
7dB
 
The others have more experience but to me your 5G signal looks good.

Three’s network gets congested though which causes significant slow downs for a lot of people. If the speeds aren’t what you are expecting, it’s highly recommended to return it and try another provider that will meet your needs.

Especially with Three - many people have tried to resolve these issues but it’s just a rabbit hole because it’s not on your end, it’s theirs.
 
Thanks for the reply - I really appreciate it... unfortunately EE, Vodafone & O2 don't claim network coverage in my area for 5g although that is surprising because the nearest 5g tower as far as I'm aware is an EE one!

If anyone else can offer any support or has a view on my issue I'd appreciate it their support.

Thanks
 
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Can you share your connected Cell_ID and/or photos of the mast/antennas if you know for sure that's the one you're connected to?
 
Sure - I get the following cell ID from the hub menu. Unfortunately I don't have a picture as I'm not sure how to identify where the mast is. Happy to hunt it down with some support :)

CELL_ID
298311
 
That comes back as being a site just to the north of Clydebank Dalnottar Crematorium - does that feel right? That'll be for the 4G at least, but it might also be where your 5G is coming from too (though equally that might be somewhere else)
 
That definitely is feasible. That location is 3.4km (2.1 miles) directly from my house. If I were to locate the mast, would a photo be able to confirm if it is 4g or 5g and would this help?

Today the Three 2nd line team have escalated the issue to establish the problem however they don't fill me with confidence!

Thanks for your help.
 
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A photo of the antennas would be a good clue as to what technologies are there - 5G antennas are pretty distinct.

Unfortunately Google streetview doesn't really get close enough to make out any details, and neither does satellite view - though both of those could be several years out of date.
On streetview there is a small bright white object, which might be a microwave (MW) link to another site. If your site is MW backhauled then that might be why the ping is high - MW adds latency, and if that is the case then unfortunately there is not going to be anything you can do about that. Latency on a hard wired connection is inevitably going to be more consistent than a wireless medium that more factors can have an influence on.
 
Three network lie most of the time they hardly dispatch a team about the problems your facing on a mast.

They are more concerned about giving offers and more concerned about getting customers on board.

That's why i moved to Vodafone for my mobile broadband needs the second cheapest network after Three like most say you get what you pay for no point on moaning like i use to moan about Three beause of the very low prices it tempted me to stay on i stayed on Three network for over 2 years.

I will never go with Three network 4G is not very good as you guys know.

Look at the speeds im getting on Vodafone 4G+ using Honor 9X which is under Huawei.

I am using smarty which is run by Three network as you guys might know as my main sim only staying with them as there give 30gb for £10 per month but i rely on the data speeds mostly use whatsapp, youtube etc.. When out and about or coming from work.

Im just waiting for Huawei to release there new 5G router saving for that then will use Vodafone sim in it
 

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Three network lie most of the time they hardly dispatch a team about the problems your facing on a mast.

They are more concerned about giving offers and more concerned about getting customers on board.

That's why i moved to Vodafone for my mobile broadband needs the second cheapest network after Three like most say you get what you pay for no point on moaning like i use to moan about Three beause of the very low prices it tempted me to stay on i stayed on Three network for over 2 years.

I will never go with Three network 4G is not very good as you guys know.

Look at the speeds im getting on Vodafone 4G+ using Honor 9X which is under Huawei.

I am using smarty which is run by Three network as you guys might know as my main sim only staying with them as there give 30gb for £10 per month but i rely on the data speeds mostly use whatsapp, youtube etc.. When out and about or coming from work.

Im just waiting for Huawei to release there new 5G router saving for that then will use Vodafone sim in it
Go away. If you aren’t going to help don’t post you’ve already ranted enough about your experiences on your own thread. Three work perfectly fine for me and OP got a call from second line so they are doing something about it.
 
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Overall Three are not good be ho
Go away. If you aren’t going to help don’t post you’ve already ranted enough about your experiences on your own thread. Three work perfectly fine for me and OP got a call from second line so they are doing something about it.
Go away. If you aren’t going to help don’t post you’ve already ranted enough about your experiences on your own thread. Three work perfectly fine for me and OP got a call from second line so they are doing something about it.
Overall Three network are not good not consistent thats true
 
Thanks for the information - very useful. I will attempt to find the mast and get some photos if possible. Hopefully I will manage this tomorrow but it may be Friday before I get the opportunity.
 
Update: Vodafone have seem to have fixed the network issues on 4G I was having getting 4G+ now im getting full bars I get 4 bars sometimes that's only in the living room when I move to the kitchen getting 2 to 4 bars signal keeps jumping even I get 4G+ with 4 bars sometimes.
 
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From experience and if no one suggested it already, try switching your DNS away from Three's default one to another provider (google or cloudflare) as Three's can be wonky sometimes and caused me problems.

I would be surprised if you ever got amazing low latency (certainly compared to fixedline) - it's just the nature of mobile networks. I float around 30-40ms, I'm near a mast and have a roof aerial on a Huawei B535. Usually 4G+ occasionally down to 4G (I switch it to 3G as a backup if disaster strikes - no 5G here yet sadly).

There are some odd things happening traffic management wise with them I believe (I'm not started a conspiracy though!). Sometimes during peaktimes I get faster speeds on a VPN, very strange and kind of eliminates contention on the mast being the issue. I'm not hating on Three before anyone jumps on me, they are cheap and they are fine most of the time - just sharing what helped me improve performance.
 
Hi everyone,

Sorry to hijack this thread a little - but I'm having very similar issues. I have a Three 5G broadband hub and I'm right on the edge of their 5G catchment zone, and technically not quite in it.

We're getting highly variable speeds (with the 5G light occasionally on), we can hit 200-400mbps at times (with decent ping and upload) but towards peak times (5pm+) and in the morning/random times in the day, the speed drops to 30-40mbps and even as low as <10mbps with a higher ping. We tend to be playing online around peak times (7-10pm), or streaming which is when we "need" it most leading to occasional lag/latency issues or stream quality drops (more so than would expect).

Question: Do you think an omni-directional antenna help us to maintain the high speeds (Poynting XPOL-1 5G) at the peak times we need them? Or does this suggest it's more to do with the back end technology/over usage of the mast? I think the best solution is to try it, but you're all so knowledgeable I thought I might as well post here first.

A bit more on our set up:
Technically, I'm not quite covered on their map but we went for 5G anyway (very good offer, better hub and I hoped it meant higher 4G speeds anyway). We do however get 5G signal here, with speed tests up to ~450 mbps but the 5G light on the router drops on and off. We do always seem to be connected to the same cell (eNB ID 362) which seemingly supports the 5G. We're a few stories up, as is the cell tower and we can see the cell directly from our balcony. The drop offs tend to come in a block i.e. it'll speed test 200+ all afternoon then drop to circa ~30 mbps - which I'm surmising is a loss of 5G signal.
I can post additional set up info, speed test results etc. if useful
Today's signal stats when getting fast speeds:
5G RSRQ-11.0dB
5G RSRP-83dBm
5G SINR11dB

Thanks for reading this and to all the regulars on this forum. I've been a silent reader of all your posts for the last few weeks, but this forum is one of the best resources on the entire internet for understanding and improving mobile broadband.
 
Last edited:
Update: I've noticed that I have now jumped onto cell ID 298240..and that my speeds are consistently 100Mbps+ on this mast.

Unfortunately my ping is still hovering around the 70-90 mark but this could be due to use of MW as previously suggested. I'm going to try get some pics tomorrow of the masts. If anyone can identify the location of the new mast (298240) that would be appreciated and I will include it in my search.

Thanks
 
That's still the same mast - a cell ID identifies a specific sector for a specific frequency band. The previous one was one of Three's Band 1 cells, and this one is one of their band 3 cells. Your router only reports the primary cell connection, so if you are in a 4G+ (carrier aggregation) situation then you can't tell which other bands you are aggregating with. The same applies for 5G at the moment as it is non-standalone (NSA) and it needs a 4G primary for its anchor.

There shouldn't really be any noticable difference in speeds regardless of which cell of the mast you're connected to if you also have 5G as I'd expect the 5G bearer to take most of the traffic. Latency should be identical too, since it's passing through all the same hardware.
 
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