Alternative 5G routers with extenal antenna connections

[eku1s]

I've recently taken out a monthly rolling contract for Three home broadband as a stop gap between the end of my Virgin Media contract and Openreach installing FTTP in my area. The package included the ZTE MC888, which i'm very disappointed to discover has no external antenna connections, unlike previous ones Three has offered.

The signal in my area is patchy and indoor signal is just too unreliable, but improves drastically when outdoors, so having an external antenna is a must if I'm to go with this option. I notice Three used to provide ZyXEL routers which did have these connections. I'm guessing these are now gone, but I also notice they offer an 'outdoor hub'. Downside is, this only appears to be available on a 24-month contract, which is no good for me.

What options do I have? Can Three swap the router out for an outdoor hub, or provide me with an alternative, whilst remaining on the monthly rolling contract? Or will I have to buy my own hardware?

[JonathanB]

Hi @eku1s,

We can only advise on the products we do supply and the outdoor hub is only supplied on 24 month agreements, you would have 30 days to arrange a return if it turned out to not be suitable for you for any reason though.

In terms of using these external antennas with indoor routers, the feedback I've been given internally is that the antennas weren't seen as a viable solution, generally a lot of the 5G speed is lost between the antenna and the router although the signal is "stronger", so we've never supplied them directly although some of our routers have been compatible with the antennas.

From my position I can't direct you towards specific 3rd party hardware, but I'm sure it's worth having a search online and other Community members may have direct experience and opinions that could be helpful to you.

Thanks,
Jonathan