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ZTE MC888 not connecting to 5G network (Three)

Kimo

Pro Member
Hello everyone,
I have a ZTE MC888 5g (Three branded) modem I've been using on a Three 5G SIM, and lately the modem doesn't seemt o connect to the 5G network. I can get 5G connection on my phone and a second 5g modem (EE5G modem), but I can't do that on the ZTE.
When I try to look for the 5G network manually, I can only see the three 4g one, while EE and Vodafone 5G are on the list (see attachment).

There's a band lock and cell lock feature in the advanced setting, is there a way to force it to connect to the 5G network?

Thanks!
 

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Here's the connection status page from the EE5g mode, although it has limited information. It is connected to 5G and I'm getting very good speed from it.
55EG.webp
 
Hello everyone,
I have a ZTE MC888 5g (Three branded) modem I've been using on a Three 5G SIM, and lately the modem doesn't seemt o connect to the 5G network. I can get 5G connection on my phone and a second 5g modem (EE5G modem), but I can't do that on the ZTE.
When I try to look for the 5G network manually, I can only see the three 4g one, while EE and Vodafone 5G are on the list (see attachment).

There's a band lock and cell lock feature in the advanced setting, is there a way to force it to connect to the 5G network?

Thanks!

why don't you have a band n75? mc888 and pro support band N75! What firmware do you have on it?
 
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why don't you have a band n75? mc888 and pro support band N75! What firmware do you have on it?
This this the firmware version, I guess it's pretty old. Is it possible to update the Three UK model? the update page isn't showing any new updates.


Screenshot 2024-04-19 124035.webp
 
Hello everyone,
I have a ZTE MC888 5g (Three branded) modem I've been using on a Three 5G SIM, and lately the modem doesn't seemt o connect to the 5G network. I can get 5G connection on my phone and a second 5g modem (EE5G modem), but I can't do that on the ZTE.
When I try to look for the 5G network manually, I can only see the three 4g one, while EE and Vodafone 5G are on the list (see attachment).

There's a band lock and cell lock feature in the advanced setting, is there a way to force it to connect to the 5G network?

Thanks!
Try


OK UK No Support n75 Other Firmware
 
Today I tried moving the router outside, but it still can't connect to the Three 5G network. It is able to detect Vodafone and EE 5g network, but not the Three UK one.
Any ideas? Is there a chance Three moved to a band that is not compatible with the modem? Or possibly they banned the router on the 5G network in my area?

Thanks
 
Today I tried moving the router outside, but it still can't connect to the Three 5G network. It is able to detect Vodafone and EE 5g network, but not the Three UK one.
Any ideas? Is there a chance Three moved to a band that is not compatible with the modem? Or possibly they banned the router on the 5G network in my area?

Thanks
Hi Kimo,

I have exactly the same issue, it started last week. I'm on 3 5g with the ZT MC888 with the same firmware as you. Did you manage to get a fix for this?

Factory resetting the device was a temporary fix for mine, about 30 minutes after the reset my 5g finally kicked in, the top 2 lights on the router weren't lit up though, this kicked in and top lights lit up after around an hour, as soon as this happed I was back locked on 4g.

Really frustrating!
 
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Hi Kimo,

I have exactly the same issue, it started last week. I'm on 3 5g with the ZT MC888 with the same firmware as you. Did you manage to get a fix for this?

Factory resetting the device was a temporary fix for mine, about 30 minutes after the reset my 5g finally kicked in, the top 2 lights on the router weren't lit up though, this kicked in and top lights lit up after around an hour, as soon as this happed I was back locked on 4g.

Really frustrating!
Hi,
Unfortunately not, I can't get any 5G connection from Three.
I tried moving the router and even take it outside closer to the tower, but nothing worked.
Even a factory reset didn't help.

I wonder if this requires a new firmware update from Three. But I don't have the patience to contact customer service, it will take hours just to get to someone knowledgeable.
Let me know if you find anything useful.
 
Hi,
Unfortunately not, I can't get any 5G connection from Three.
I tried moving the router and even take it outside closer to the tower, but nothing worked.
Even a factory reset didn't help.

I wonder if this requires a new firmware update from Three. But I don't have the patience to contact customer service, it will take hours just to get to someone knowledgeable.
Let me know if you find anything useful.
I don't think this is a signal issue, if I move it into the garden I usually get a minimum of 600mb, it's just stuck on 4g even in the garden.

I've stuck another SIM card in the router and that's stuck on 4g too, I've also put the SIM out of my router and put it in my mobile phone and I get an instant 5g connection.

Unfortunately, I did another factory reset again and it never went to 5g this time.

I've wasted over 3 hours with their support, it's not worth the hassle. I plan on going into their local store over the weekend, see if they can test the device in there, I imagine they'll tell me they can't do anything in the store and I'll have to call support, again!

I was hoping there would be a custom firmware that could be used but I'm still in contract with them and don't want to break my terms and they disconnect me completely!

When I get it resolved I'll let you know.
 
I don't think this is a signal issue, if I move it into the garden I usually get a minimum of 600mb, it's just stuck on 4g even in the garden.

I've stuck another SIM card in the router and that's stuck on 4g too, I've also put the SIM out of my router and put it in my mobile phone and I get an instant 5g connection.

Unfortunately, I did another factory reset again and it never went to 5g this time.

I've wasted over 3 hours with their support, it's not worth the hassle. I plan on going into their local store over the weekend, see if they can test the device in there, I imagine they'll tell me they can't do anything in the store and I'll have to call support, again!

I was hoping there would be a custom firmware that could be used but I'm still in contract with them and don't want to break my terms and they disconnect me completely!

When I get it resolved I'll let you know.
I see what you mean.
I don't have a contract for the modem with Three so that's why I'm not trying that much to contact support. But if you have one then they should at least explain to you why this is happening.
You said you tried another sim, is it from another carrier? The router should be unlocked, so it would be a good idea to see if a sim from another carrier gets any 5g signal. I only have a Lebara (Vodafone) sim and we have poor 5g reception in our area, but I'll try that anyway.

I really hope they'll release a new firmware to fix this issue. I could easily get 800+mbps when it did connect to 5g network.
 
My other SIM was a Smarty SIM which is on the same network, I was just testing if it was the 3 SIM in the router that was at fault, I did put a Vodafone SIM in but I can't get 5g in this area so a worthless test. Although if I do a manual connection search I can see 5g connections for other providers just not 3.

If you're not on contract have you gone down the route of looking to manually update the firmware to an official ZTE one instead of 3s own? I disabled auto updates on my router when I first got it, I've done an auto search and it says no new updates, been stuck on the same firmware since I got it.
 
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I had the same issue with my ZTE MU5001 (vodafone branded) when using with a Three SIM last year. I had been using it on 5G for months and months with no issues, then I noticed some engineers working on the mast nearby. A few days later it stopped connecting to 5G and would only connect with 4G, despite the same SIM working flawlessly on 5G in my phone.

I spent weeks trying to get it sorted by troubleshooting, contacted both three and zte support, but they blamed each other and were essentially useless.

I ended up buying a new router (Zyxel NR5103E) and that worked perfectly on 5G, up until a few months ago that is. I've recently been having numerous issues with websites timing out, connection closed errors, etc.

So anyway, I thought I'd try the ZTE modem again as it had been about a year since I'd last tried it. Plugged it in and it connected to 5G at full speed straight away. Whatever compatibility issue I'd been facing before seems to have been fixed now.

Sounds like a similar thing is now happening with the ZTE MC888, sorry no solution (Unless you class sticking it in a drawer for 12 moths a solution...), just thought I'd let you know my experience.
 
My other SIM was a Smarty SIM which is on the same network, I was just testing if it was the 3 SIM in the router that was at fault, I did put a Vodafone SIM in but I can't get 5g in this area so a worthless test. Although if I do a manual connection search I can see 5g connections for other providers just not 3.

If you're not on contract have you gone down the route of looking to manually update the firmware to an official ZTE one instead of 3s own? I disabled auto updates on my router when I first got it, I've done an auto search and it says no new updates, been stuck on the same firmware since I got it.
I couldn't find any zte firmware, and I read somewhere you can't install a non-Three firmware on these branded ones.
I'll test my Lebara sim and see if it connects to 5g. I can see Vodafone 5g in the latest of the available networks too.
 
Hi Kimo,

I have exactly the same issue, it started last week. I'm on 3 5g with the ZT MC888 with the same firmware as you. Did you manage to get a fix for this?

Factory resetting the device was a temporary fix for mine, about 30 minutes after the reset my 5g finally kicked in, the top 2 lights on the router weren't lit up though, this kicked in and top lights lit up after around an hour, as soon as this happed I was back locked on 4g.

Really frustrating!
Have you got the same firmware version?
 
Some months ago I noticed an issue on my friends zte mc7010 where it stopped connecting to 5g all of a sudden. I narrowed it down to not being able to connect to 5g when the 4g was connected to a particular cell (this cell worked with 5g before). The same cell gave me 5g on my s22ultra which was even stranger.

I got around it by cell-locking him to a different cell. No idea why this peculiarity exists but something to consider.
 
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Some months ago I noticed an issue on my friends zte mc7010 where it stopped connecting to 5g all of a sudden. I narrowed it down to not being able to connect to 5g when the 4g was connected to a particular cell (this cell worked with 5g before). The same cell gave me 5g on my s22ultra which was even stranger.

I got around it by band-locking him to a different cell. No idea why this peculiarity exists but something to consider.
That's very interesting.
Did you do that using one of the hack scripts?
Here's one I'm currently using:
https://www.lteforum.at/mobilfunk/script-fuer-zte-router.20462/

How did you know to which cell to lock?
 
Yeah I used one similar to that. I made notes of the cells available and connected to them one by one until 5g popped up (you can use cellmapper and use the values of your closest transmitter too). It was an accidental discovery as I was messing around with cell locking and never expected it to bring back 5g, I just thought that as he was on the fringe reception of 5g that's the reason why he lost it.

Every so often I'll try him back on the original/closer cell/tower and it'll only ever connect to 4G when I'm able to connect to 5G with my phone still. Its odd and I've only had it happen to this one connection.
 
I couldn't find any zte firmware, and I read somewhere you can't install a non-Three firmware on these branded ones.
I'll test my Lebara sim and see if it connects to 5g. I can see Vodafone 5g in the latest of the available networks too.
Hi Kimo, thought I'd give you an update as I've just got back from my local 3 store.

I've managed to resolve the issue, I took the device to their store and they plugged it in, still wasn't getting 5g, we did a load of tests but none of them worked. Everything pointed to the device being faulty and they were reluctant to swap it for a new one at first. They did end up swapping the device and we tested it in store with the same SIM and it instantly got 5g, was getting 1000mbs from a speed test.

Just got home and plugged it in and I'm back on 5g. Unfortunately, your device may be faulty.
 
Yeah I used one similar to that. I made notes of the cells available and connected to them one by one until 5g popped up (you can use cellmapper and use the values of your closest transmitter too). It was an accidental discovery as I was messing around with cell locking and never expected it to bring back 5g, I just thought that as he was on the fringe reception of 5g that's the reason why he lost it.

Every so often I'll try him back on the original/closer cell/tower and it'll only ever connect to 4G when I'm able to connect to 5G with my phone still. Its odd and I've only had it happen to this one connection.
Thanks.
When you mean cell lock, do you mean 4G or 5G lock?
This is the cell lock feature found in the Advanced settings of my router:
 

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