Home Broadband Query

[23588]

Just a bit of a query with regarding threes Home Broadband.

1)  If someone takes out a 5G contract (say 24 month) and the service under performs after three stated it should work in your property, can you cancel the service, if so how long do we have?

2) If you do indeed remain in contract does the router become your customers property, or does it need to be returned to three if you completed the full term of your contract and decided not to renew 24 months later?

3) Is the current modem / router that is supplied with the 24 month contract a ZTE MC888 or a ZTE MC888 Pro?

4) Does anyone know the difference between the ZTE MC888 or a ZTE MC888 Pro?

5) Does the supplied router support modem only mode?

6) Would their be any issues self hosting your own homelab services of any kind over Threes 5G service or does the 5G service operate pretty much the same way any conventional broadband service which all currently allow you to self host stuff at home, like your own cloud server, ftp, home security CCTV etc?

7) What sort of upload speed can you expect to get in an area with a good 5g signal, is it the same up as it is down?

😎 Does three put any bandwidth limitations on the home broadband service?

9) Do you receive a static or dynamic IP?

10) Is the home broadband service (package) SIM restricted to use in the supplied router or are you allowed to remove the sim from your router and insert it in a Tablet for example?

11) Is the Home Broadband service usable outside of your homes area.  Can you put it in your tablet and still use your package anywhere you can get Threes 5G service in the UK?

12) What is currently the best known 5G router that everyone is having the best experience with performance wise on Threes 5G Home Broadband service.

13) Has anyone got any troubling issues they'd like to report regarding Threes Home Broadband service that they want to let me know before I turn off my StarLink and commit to using Three?

14) If i took out the 24 month contract now for £24 a month Unlimited Service with 6 months half price am I right in thinking the following with regards to what i would actually pay?  See Below:

2024

Months 1 - 6 = £72

1)September =£12
2)October      =£12
3)November  =£12
4)December  =£12

2025
5)January      =£12
6)February    =£12

MONTH 7-12 = £154

2025
7)March          =£24
8)April             =£26 (£2 Price increase a month)
9)May             =£26
10)June          =£26
11)July            =£26
12)August       =£26

• ABOVE IS 1st YEAR

  MONTH 13-24 = £322

  
  2025
  13)September  =£26
  14)October       =£26
  15)November   =£26
  16)December   =£26

  17)January       =£26
  18)February      =£26
  19)March          =£26 

  20)April             =£28 (Another £2 price increase again?)
  21)May              =£28
  22)June             =£28
  23)July               =£28
  24)August          =£28

  Grand Total £548 for 24 Months Three Home Broadband / £274 per year.

  Or am I misunderstanding that whole £2 price increase each April?

  Regard

  Elon 😉

[JonathanB]

Hi there,

Welcome to the Three Community. I'll do my best to clarify everything I can in the order asked.

1. We offer a 30 day return period, which includes any reason including simply changing your mind about the agreement. If there's a service issue outside the first 30 days we'll handle this on a case by case basis.
2. Our 5G devices are not purchased as part of the agreement, we consider this equipment on loan from Three, and if the agreement is ended we'd expect a return of the hardware unless otherwise specified.
3. The agreement isn't for a specific 5G router, we send these based on our stock availability but we're currently supplying ZTE MC888 and Zyxel NR50103e V2 devices. If we estimate you only have outdoor coverage, you may also be offered an Outdoor router instead.
4. You may find helpful info on ZTE's site, or there's options to get in touch with them there too.
5. The 5G routers we supply should work in Bridge or IP passthrough mode as a modem only.
6. We can't guarantee an absolutely fault free service, or that every product or service will be compatible. If you do encounter any issues please let us know and we'll do our best to help.
7. Connections are not parallel Up/Down, we don't have a guaranteed minimum upload speed. 
8. Typical limitations are simply in terms of signal availability and contention with other users. We don't apply speed limits.
9. All IPs are dynamic, we don't offer static IPs
10. The SIM is fine to use in any compatible device. If you pop this in a phone please bear in mind that the plan doesn't include Voice minutes, or Texts.
11. Likewise, other than coverage availability there's no restrictions to where you access services.
12. I think that's more a question for the Community rather than Three. Hopefully others will add their thoughts.
13. As above, but you may consider keeping both connections in parallel to give ours a try.
14. Yeah that looks almost spot on. There's only one thing I need to add which is that the very first bill is usually pro-rata as it can take a few days for billing profiles to establish on our systems. So the initial bill is typically covering 35 days at around £14 for a £12 plan. In terms of the price rise what you've described looks correct.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[23588]

With regards to your reply:

• 1) Cool, thanks.
• 2) What is the method for Three to recover their model / router at the end of service contract and does that process involve any kind of cost to the customer?
• 3)You stated the agreement isn't for a specific 5G modem router but during the contract setup process Three superficially shows an Image of a specific router which could be deemed a bit misleading. I guess its fine if your customer ends up with a superior one but probably not best practice to display something that the customer at a glance might think they're getting when they might not actually get what was displayed.
• 4) I will contact ZTE, thanks.
• 5) Good, because id prefer to continue to use my own Pfsense device.
• 6) I'm aware that very few or no ISP provider offer a 100% fault free service particularly with residential services. I was more enquiring as to whether I can open ports and share my personal server services with the outside world to myself via Threes 5G home broadband service the way we currently can with every other conventional residential home broadband provider, like using my own cloud server etc.  I guess I'm trying to establish whether three blocks or puts on any restrictions to prevent that from being possible?
• 7) That's worrying, particularly as I have CCTV at home that i'd like to be able to view in real time.
• 😎 That's fine.  I have a 5G mast approximately 114.78 meters / 377ft line of site to my property hopefully that will achieve a reasonably good signal and speed then. (Hopefully).
• 9) Dynamic IP is fine.
• 10) Being able to put the sim in other devices is good news. Lets say i put it in my 5G tablet for whatever reason and never give anyone the number, but someone (like spam) sends you an SMS without your consent as you haven't given out the number, if you haven't sent any SMS and someone sends you one would you then be charged to receive that SMS?  I expect to be charged to send them, but im unsure if three will charge if I received one.
• 11) That's good to know.
• 12) Would 100% be interested to know which of the three supplied modem routers perform the best
• 13) Fair enough... 
• 14) Cool.

One last one do all of the modem routers ship with at least one RJ45 LAN port?

Appreciate the replies, it helps.

Regards

23588