5G Broadband dropouts

[MacDavidson]

Hi folks,

So I got Three’s 5G broadband and get great speeds, with great coverage around the house. But at various times each day (for no apparent reason), it just disappears from being available as a wifi device for around 10 minutes, or until reset. The Mac connected by CAT7 cable is unaffected, and all lights remain as they should.

I’ve positioned the router in various places, tried changing the APN from 3internet to three.co.uk, and reset several times. 

Am I doing something wrong? Should I have 2.4 and 5 GHz on at the same time? 2.4 GHz is slower, but I need that for the smart gadgets in the house, but speed is what it’s all about…

Thanks in advance for your time

[henryshelley]

Hi there, I'm about to call three to swap the ZTE router for the zyxel. Are you still having issues or are they resolved with the new zyxel router? Tks

[Grum]

Hi, all working fine now with the new one

[Sythiri]

Just want to add my two cents to this topic. I've had the ZTE MC801a router since around August last year and it was working well up until the October firmware update. However, since then I've been dealing with several issues. I run the ZTE hub with wifi turned off, and in bridged mode to my existing TP-Link Archer wifi router. The two main issues that have been plaguing me for the last 3 months are as follows:

The connection completely drops out on the WAN port randomly and my TP-Link router reports that it cannot connect to the internet and I cannot even reach the hub web interface. This can sometimes happen 5x or more in one day but then be completely fine the next day. I've found that restarting the hub, unplugging and reconnecting the cable from the back of the device, or going into my TP-Link router settings and releasing/renewing the IP, all temporarily resolve the issue. I assume that this is related to the problems with connection dropouts that the OP and others are having as it could be on the routing side of the hub.

The hub will also randomly swap from one 5G N78 PCI at -90db to another at -110db, cutting the bandwidth from ~450-500mbps to 20-30mbps. If the bandwidth is maxed out on the weak signal like by watching a youtube video, the latency goes through the roof up to ~3000ms from 40ms and seriously interferes with multiplayer gaming. This is also completely unpredictable and happens multiple times per hour, and I have so far not found a resolution to this.

I have tried locking the hub to different combinations of 4G and 5G bands to see if any would be more stable but so far I haven't found any that don't swap between a strong and weak PCI on the N78 band. Sometimes, the N78 band will drop out completely and leave only "5G" from combining the 1+3 4G bands.

I called up support today and they stated that it was due to the network signal in my area not being very good, and that the mast was over capacity. I asked if they could send me a Zyxel hub instead, even just to test, and they refused, offering to just cancel my contract instead. I'm not sure I believe that it's a capacity issue because the PCI switching happens even in the small hours of the morning. When it is connected to the PCI with the strong signal, everything works perfectly fine and I just wish it would stay connected to that.

[bathugeo]

If they refuse to send you a hub, maybe first try again - you may have more luck with a different person especially if you talk nicely to them. If that fails, ask to cancel your contract at no cost, which you have a legal right to do as they've not delivered the promised service.  Then you can go to a Three shop and after signing a new contract walk out with a new one. 

[Masasamoht]

I have this exact issue and have been following this thread since it all started back in October. Having seen that some of you are getting the a new router I tried phoning three support this afternoon..

Wow it was terrible. Guy just wanted me to reset my router (despite referring to this thread, explaining the issue is connected to the firmware update etc) and then - to make it even worse - at the end of the call he put me through to sales to sell me more contracts! After I just complained that my existing service isn't working!

When it works the service is great - speed, latency etc are more than brilliant. For the first 6 months of the contract I had no complaints at all; even convinced by neighbour to join Three. But since this firmware update I, like everyone else here, have suffered drop outs every 4 - 12 hours (as does my neighbour now)

Does anyone know the secret to getting hold of someone at Three who understands the issue?

[James99x]

Ask to be put through to complaints department and tell them you want to replace the device with not the current one. They will do it. 

[krixon]

I had the same experience with support. Didn't want to listen to what I was saying, just wanted to go through the script and tell me it's because I've got too many devices connected to WiFi. In the end I was put through to the complaints dept who immediately agreed to send me the Zyxel the next day, and I've had no issues since. I would definitely go straight to the complaints dept if you can. It's crazy that tech support seem to be totally unaware of this problem.

[WhimsyWidget]

@JonathanB Like everyone else, I've been very patient with this situation, and tried to be as helpful as possible in finding the issue. Still no resolution. How can I go about getting my box replaced with the Zyxel? Customer service have been not at all helpful on the phone or live chat and just say to restart the box. It's way beyond that.

[WhimsyWidget]

Just spent over an hour on customer service live chat for complaints. None of the reps understand or comprehend what you try to tell them. When I explained and asked for a Zyxel router got told, ok, I'll send you to my colleague to do that. The rep sent me to sales. Wanted me to cancel my current contract and take out a new one to get the Zyxel router. Absolutely ridiculous. Got sent back to support, then said systems down. Can't login to My3, says that down.

Does anything at 3 actually work properly? Good grief. Time to cancel, I guess. Had enough now. 

[bethanrex]

I did the same today, called up and spent about half an hour repeating myself to the various stages of tech support before they tried to transfer me to 'a colleague in sales to talk about an upgrade'. I said thank you but absolutely not and insisted to be transfered to complaints. The complaints guy was very nice and understood my issue at least but after putting me on hold told me that as I only have a short time left on my contract they won't be able to send me a different router... So I'll be cancelling once my contract is up! Which is a shame but they also said there is an issue with the mast in my area causing slow speeds so maybe it's for the best.