5G Home Broadband - Worse than using hotspot

[H4MZ4]

I’m making this thread as a call for support and a review on my experience on using the 5G Home Broadband setup for gaming.

Absolutely terrible! I can’t complain about the download speeds, but my main issue is the ping is so inconsistent and is worse on the 5G Hub than it is if I was using my own 4G iPhone as a hotspot.

When using the 5G Hub (either wireless or wired) with my PS5 (using COD as an example), I get horrible latency issues, the ping varies from 120ms to 200ms, with occasional spikes up to 500ms that make it literally unplayable as you notice the lag spike every 45 seconds. 

Whereas if if I am using my iPhone as a hotspot (which is using 4G), the ping massive improves to 80ms without much variation, say 80-90ms and is much more stable. 

The same issues are evident when running a ping test on both 5G Hub, and my phone’s 4G network.

5G Hub ping test: https://i.ibb.co/d2nyymB/0911-B0-A5-E4-F7-4277-88-BF-00-F78601-BEF1.png 

4G Mobile Network ping test:

https://i.ibb.co/nMwHDdW/C02-D2922-C2-A1-4-CA5-9-FC9-2282649-C3-AD1.png 

as shown in the ping tests above, the 5G hub jitters from 100ms to 200ms, and the occasional 300ms+ spike that I feel in game.

if anyone has any way for me to fix this, it’d be appreciated, because right now I’m thinking why am I wasting money on the 5G hub if it performs worse than my iPhone on the same network!

[H4MZ4]

Another update.

I took it up with customer service, had a very hard time trying to explain the difference between internet speeds and latency speeds. They opened an investigation, couple weeks later turned around and told me it’s a poor 5G signal issue despite showing full bars. 

Their resolution was either to cancel the contract without charge, or offer me 7 days airtime credit if I chose to stay with Three and pay for a 5G Service that I can’t even use for the rest of the 18 months 🤣

[H4MZ4]

After doing some more playing about, I noticed at one point the router was in 4G mode though while gaming my ping time was significantly better. While in 4G it was averaging around 60-80ms with almost little to non stuttering. A day later back on 5G, and it was back to the usual 120ms minimum ping time and occasional 300/400s ping.

The issue seems to be with the 5G connection being worse for ping than 4G, if that’s the case then firstly there’s no way for me to disable 5G, so how am I meant to force it to 4G only? Secondly why should I even be paying more for 5G when 4G is clearly a smoother connection?

now I know what the issue seems to be, I’ll probably have to take it up with customer service because it doesn’t feel fair to be paying for a upgraded connection that performs worse.

[Fox]

 

[Fox]

Get the above results on speed check , huge variation minute to minute .

[TheWoanderer]

I chose the 5G deal because thier advert said 'near flawless gaming' and whilst I've recorded between 150mbps and 198mbps. I enabled UPnP on the account so that I can switch my Xbox on remotely and since this I keep getting completely dropped from the network. When the service is working fine it works well enough but when it does not it is absolutely terrible. Hoping I am not going to regret signing a 2 year contract.

Not sure how to help you with your issue but I do hope someone helps as I do feel your frustration.

[H4MZ4]

Yeah it feels almost useless for gaming. I don’t fancy spending an hour on the phone to someone who won’t understand ping/latency and try run me through some troubleshooting such as resetting it defaults which I’ve already done.

[crypt0ninja]

Which hub are you referring to? The ZTE or the Zyxel?

[H4MZ4]

Postcode is BD8

Also I’m sure a couple of months back when I first got it, I never had any of these lag spike issues, but I’m not too sure if it’s only because I’ve started doing more gaming recently that I’ve noticed.

The difference in 5G hubs is also what’s confusing me, reading about the forum most people have those 2 models you listed, ZTE and Zyxel. However I don’t seem to have either of them, I was given a HUAWEI CPE Pro 2.

[Scoobysteve]

You aren’t alone. For about 2 months I had a fantastically strong connection. Great download speeds and ping. All of a sudden it’s all gone to pot. I know they are doing work in the area but it’s been going on for months literally. I too tether my phone and works brilliantly! Very frustrating. I feel the pain.