Sponsored Links

Three broadband issue

fbrj

Member
I have lurked on this helpful site many times while setting up my Huawei 4G B535 router but have now signed up to post about a very recent problem.

By way of background, I ditched Virgin after many years for a 4G set up with Three. Instead of the Virgin box I now have a Manhattan T3-R. Both the T3-R and my LG smart tv are connected to the B535 router with ethernet cables, as is my desk top pc. Various Powerline adaptors provide wifi around other parts of the house. I also have an external Poynting XPol aerial.

I ran Virgin and the above set up for about 2 months in parallel, to ensure acceptable performance, before finally pulling the plug on Virgin about 6 months ago.

The B535 would fix on one of two masts, one about 600yds away (Band 3 only) and the other about 1000yds away (Bands 1, 3 and 20) in the town centre. After much experimenting using the HuaCtrl app I found the nearby Band 3 only provided better download speeds than CA (Bands 1 and 3) on the mast further away. DL speeds were around 20-30mbps depending on the time of day (4 lights on router signal strength bar). Acceptable for my needs.

Around the end of October there was a noticeable improvement in speeds (without any action on my part!). Again, I found Band 3 only (nearest mast) was faster and I was getting consistently DL faster speeds than before of between of 40-50mbps (UL 25-30mbps) - 5 lights now showing on router signal strength bar.

Until.......first thing in the morning of NYE I noticed the router signal bar was only showing 2 lights, rather than the usual 5. The night before, streaming Netflix etc had not presented any issues.

Sure enough, I was now connected to a completely different mast a mile and a half away (Bands 1 and 3 only). I am getting CA but DL is not much better than 1mbps (yes, one mbps!!) (even less without CA) - ie completely unusable!! I've obviously done plenty of rebooting, factory resets, different band combinations using the HuaCtrl app etc etc. All to no avail, although occasionally fixing on other masts (equally poor result). I cannot get any connection to the masts I mentioned previously, which provided acceptable/good performance.

I also have an old mobile phone with a Three sim card, which I used when initially setting up to test mast signal strength. That used to fix on the same masts as my router. That too has now switched to the poor signal mast (see below eNB ID 3063).
.
I can provide from Cellmapper details of the various masts mentioned - maybe relevant if others in the area have the same experience?

I live on the outskirts of Camberley (GU15 area) town centre. The masts providing reasonable/good service eNB ID 12577 ( Band 3 only) and eNB ID 3167 (Bands 1, 3 and 20).

Current (hopeless) connection eNB ID 3063 (Bands 1 and 3). Occasional (also hopeless) connection eNB ID 11326 (Bands 1, 3 and 20).

My real concern is that this is some new Three planned permanent change, rather than some technical failure that can be rectified. How do I find out?

My limited CS experience with Three has been dreadful and other comments elsewhere confirm plenty of fobbing off and nothing happening. I had expected to read that there had been some massive Three outage....but apparently not.

Grateful for any thoughts. Apologies for length of post!
 
I am on a shared Three/EE mast and the EE checker is a lot more accurate on Network issues than the Three one. Even though I do not have an EE sim card I have registered as far as I can on their website without a contract and also signed up for service updates on my postcode and this works well with sms messages telling me when its down and estimates of how long for.
 
Sponsored Links

EE often share masts with Three, use their checker as three would rather not mention works/downtime/bad service because it's all they'd ever do. (if they cared less.)
Thanks so much for your swift reply!

I did as you suggested and sure enough EE confirmed there was a service problem in my area (specific postcode). Also had text update saying it was taking longer than expected to resolve (not surprising with N Year and w/end!). I then checked other postcodes nearby - within a mile or so), some had problem, others OK which confirms a very localised issue.

Great tip - thanks again.

In the meantime back to hotspotting off my O2 mobile......
 
Three's network checker website page for the site postcode (GU15 2JB) does say that they're 'working on fixing an issue', obviously I don't know if it said that when you originally posted this...

Edit: also, hello neighbour - I'm over the A30 in GU17 Blackwater
 
Last edited:
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules