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

[HairyBald1]

I've been tolerating this problem on the zte router since last year but now it appears the 2.4ghz isn't working either with all my smart home devices (from multiple manufacturers) unable to reconnect. When the 5 and 2.4ghz are split into 2 SSID's the 2.4ghz only briefly appears as a  WIFi option on my phone then either won't connect or disappears.

[CeAr]

Been having this exact issue for a month, just bothered finally googling it. Now I know I've been gaslit by Three customer service. 

I'll ask for a new router. If they refuse, would anyone be interested in a joint complaint to the Ombudsman? If they offer faulty devices and refuse to acknowledge the circumstance, well, I predict quite the fine.

[Mckowski]

Yeah,  I just upgraded from Three's 4g to 5G ZTE model a couple of weeks back. Hit pretty much the same issues. Drops out during the day, so my wife is telling me and on two occasions getting home from work, the signal is down altogether.  No LEDs are on and I have to unplug/re-plug the power lead to get it back. I had no probs with the Huawei 4G model. Only difference is that I haven't bought additional antenna's like I did for the Huawei as the signal strength looks good. Maybe I'll get them anyway from amazon, not sure if its the drop in signal from the antenna mast that would be causing all leds (including power) to go out ?

[parkodrive]

Update on my own issues with the ZTE MC801A:

Last night I spent another 75 minutes on the phone with Three after I never recieed the callback from the complaints teamI was promised the previous day. Initially the tech team tried to get me to run through the troubleshooting (yet again) and after I repeatedly insited there is no known fix as we all know and even Three had admitted (begrudgingly) I was put through to complaints to try and get a replacement Zyxel for the ZTE.

They insisted they are unable to do such a thing due to system limitations and offered to cancel my contract penalty free. I've taken them up on this and gone in store an hour ago to get my hands on a new rolling contract with the Zyxel router. I will post back in a couple days with my experience and if it does indeed resolve the myriad of issues we've all faced on the ZTE units.

[ashleyj]

This is how I resolved my issue with Three. Complain, go through their processes to try and fix the issues. Accept a ZTE replacement, call back to explain the same thing is happening (actually my replacement ZTE was even worse, probably someone elses return), go through their processes again and then accept a cancellation of your contract without a fee. Several seconds later, I went online and ordered the Zyxel, which came next day. Oh, and 3 months free. 

[feersum_endjinn]

After waiting 9+ months for Three to fix this I finally took the advise given by others on this thread. This is what I did:

1. Called three customer support (CS) and asked to be transferred to complaints department. Which they did, immediately. 
2. Explained my situation, they said they cannot swap my router but suggested the following solution - I sign-up for a new contract which would come with a different router and try it for 2 weeks, if I'm happy I return the old router and they cancel my old contract.
3. They transferred me to Sales, spent 1+ hours getting the new contract setup.
4. Sales said I would be getting a Huawei router, but today I received the Zyxsel (nr5103e) router.
5. Side note: I ordered a second SIM for a family member. Three sent both SIMs in the package, without any way to tell which SIM goes in the router! 😤 So I had to put one in, go to the SMS feature on the Zyxsel, send myself an SMS to find out which SIM goes where. Wasted 30 minutes doing this. FFS.
6. It's been a few hours since setting up the Zyxsel and so far it seems to be stable. 
7. I will return the old router in a couple of weeks if all goes well. NOTE - despite what the Complaints department said I have not been sent a bag to return the old router so I suspect another call if/when I'm ready to return the old router. 🤦

[Neil]

I'm too currently trying to fight this issue which I've been suffering since late last year - I've gone through their support (terrible as it is) and each time you're asked to do the same things, reset, take SIM out, is your internet working now? Yes, sir it's fixed now...

Until the next day when it sticks and there's no download activity even though the router thinks it's still connected.

I'm waiting for their 2nd level to get back to me and in the meantime I sent a complaint too, I got three auto responses but no human contact yet.

I just want to be able to work from home without worrying it's going to drop in the middle of a meeting...

[stevekn]

you'll eventually get through to the man in India who tells you its work on your local mast.

( that doesn't hinder the %G signal and magically connects when I restart my ZTE modem)

[feersum_endjinn]

2+ weeks without a single restart since I switched to the Zyxel and the only way to get this is by signing up for a new contract (as mentioned by two others below this post). If I were you I wouldn't waste time with tech support. There's really no point.

[WCAT-15]

>> I switched to the Zyxel and the only way to get this is by signing up for a new contract <<

The other way is to buy your own Zyxel (eg. on Ebay from £100) which is what I did.
27 days without a dropout. Then 49 dropouts in 2 days (mostly lasting a minute or so) -- none of which I noticed as by chance we were not using internet at those times.  And then 17 days since with no dropouts.  Three support really should pay attention and sort out the firmware on the ZTE (which does have very good technical reviews in general).