The past month, I've had the most frustrating experience with Three's technical support.
I've contacted them 4 times in total regarding my surprisingly low bandwidth (averaging 50mbps download speed, 15mbps upload speed), and the speed often dropped below that, and sometime even lower, below 10mbps. On top of that, the device kept disconnecting itself from the internet. That occurred at random intervals, usually multiple times a day.
I thought this could be something to do with the fact I live in a bungalow, so I invested in an external 5G antenna and installed it on my roof, where I can clearly see the 5G antenna from up there.
Speed was slightly better than the internal antenna, but overall, still sat below 100mbps.
On my last call, they asked me the usual thing that I had done multiple times during the past month: reboot device, factory reset device, remove and re-insert SIM card, move it around (and went the extra mile with the antenna). They did check on their ends, nothing flagged up. And as with every previous exchange with other technical agents, they were surprised I couldn't get better speed because I am in good reach of 5G. Toward the end of the call, the agent told me there were nothing they could do, and said that I could cancel if I wanted to. So I did.
I then purchased a 5G Hub from Vodafone. I got twice the speed than on the Three network. But I was curious what would happen if I insert the Three SIM card in that device. And here are the results:
Download speed: 550mbps
Upload speed: 100 mbps
Guys, my device is faulty. I cancelled but really wanted to make it work. I even told you in my chat with your technical support agent that I would be happy to try one last thing before cancelling, and that is to swap my hub with a new one. You refused to do so. Why?!
So now it is clear that I definitely are within the 5G range from my home. I know there is nothing wrong with your network. And I am now certain there is something wrong with the device you sent me.
Here are some test I made this morning. Same SIM card (Three), different Hub (Three, Vodafone), same external antenna.
Network: Three
Hub: Gigacube (Vodafone)
Antenna: External
Network: Three
Hub: NR5103E (Three)
Antenna: External
I am happy to remain on my plan with Three, but you need to admit that the device you have provided is faulty needs replacing.
And to anyone having surprisingly low speed, maybe your device is faulty too.
