Slower and slower speeds at peek times

[Mickhaw02023]

I’m one of those suckers that fell for trying the Three 5g home Broadband advertised at 150mbps average. They shipped me a ZTE Mc801A (The one with antenna connections that doesn’t come with antennas and pants WiFi signal) 🤷‍♂️ basically for the first few months I had a 100mbps connection consistently which was incredible compared to what we had before. Since then it’s got slower and slower. About one month ago it became unusable through the day, especially on evenings so I ran a network test. The test said that issues have been detected in my area and engineers are working hard to fix the problems and upgrade the network. This was supposedly fixed 4 days ago but mine is still rubbish. Just done a speed test now. 14/20

Unusable! Support have been about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Palming me off saying they have issued an investigation and it will take 7 days. 4 weeks later…  I’ve done a hard reset and nothing improves. I think it basically because more and more customers have been joining and the mast in my area is overloaded at peek times. Three can’t keep up with the demand and provide sufficient infrastructure to main the initial levels of service. Either that or I’m being throttled if I run the speed test at 1am it’s 100mbps again.. 🤷‍♂️. It’s just left me disappointed and wanting to cancel the contract. If anyone has any suggestions I’m all ears. Thanks Mick 

[Nyotengu]

Having the same issue starting a couple of weeks ago. Speed was amazing, didn’t fall below 120Mbps, now I get lucky if it reaches 45Mbps at all

[LDN]

This is classic Three, over subscribed network and can't supply what they have sold, there is NO support, they will just waste your life... I'm testing Voda via VOXI now. Will be happy to pay more for better, Three just isn't worth the bother.

[WifiNetSolution]

Hi, you might have already checked this but if you login to the router - 192.168.0.1 and enter the router password (on underside of the router) and have a look at the signal strength (bottom right of home screen) - if the signal strength is 'greater' than -100dBm your speed will fluctuate greatly. If you can move the router somewhere wher you get a reading of -90dBm to -95dBm , you will find that your higher speeds will stabilise. I am currently experimenting with internal and external antennae to improve mine. The higher the better and near a window. I run a small Wifi and networking business and have just started installing these routers for customers in Northants - it's worth experimenting - I am now getting constant speeds for £20 a month. Did you also know that you can plug a landline phone in the back and use this on the Sim's mobile number. regards, Steve 

[Mickhaw02023]

Hi Steve, Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm was looking into getting some sort of antenna although there is very little support on the ZTE Mc801A online.  It has x2 Ts9 ports but are they for the Wi-Fi connection in your house or the connection to the Three mast, its not clear? The ZTE Mc801A does seem very basic. The Wi-Fi is also rubbish on the ZTE, seems to fall over a lot if you have more than 10 devices connected.  In regards to the Ts9 ports I've even logged a support ticket with ZTE and they say its not designed to work that way with external antennas. I've ended up putting it into bridge mode and then just connected to an Aruba instant on Wifi6 AP via a Gig port, which is much better internally for all our devices. I'm at work at the moment but i will look into Bm readings and have a mess. 

This might me an option..  TS9 to SMA 5G antenna port modification for ZTE MC801A 5G router by Router-Mods.co.uk - YouTube lol

Thanks Mick

[AX]

I had excellent service, speed and a reliable 5G connection for well over a year until 3-4 weeks ago.  Since then its been virtually unusable especially trying to connect to work VPN.  Every time I contact support I'm told 'it will be resolved in a few days'.

[Mickhaw02023]

Yeh, same here. I've found that Three's customer services network team have to go round the houses to actually get any feedback from the field engineers. They can offer little to no information about potential problems or upgrade work that maybe going off. Its strange they you have said 3-4 weeks though as that's roughly when my problems started. At peek times I cant even resolve some web pages and my Echo Dot cant even stream music. Its terrible. I keep having to reboot the ZTE too. Its like there is a DNS issue or something.  They've offered me a free cancelation now but have asked me for more time until another investigation takes place. I'm giving them 1 more week then in going back to Plusnet. haha!   

[DCc]

Yup that’s about right ..I’m now at 7 weeks unusable internet so as soon as I get back to UK I’m done ,so only one more 2 hr useless phone call to go !

[NewbieHere]

I had excellent service for about 8 months but my 5g broadband became virtually unusable when Three started maintenance on a local mast. Unfortunately this work took an inordinate time to complete & Three let me out of my contract without penalty & stopped selling Broadband in my postcode.

The work has now been completed, Three are selling Broadband in my postcode again & I’ve taken out a new contract with which I’m very happy. That said, I don’t rely on 5g for internet at my normal residence but find it very useful as backup at home & as a simple solution to providing secure access when travelling to  areas with decent 4/5g signal

[sc1999]

The reason I left EE was 100meg at 6am and 1meg by 10 am. EE blamed my phone and ignored me when I showed identical results from another phone.

I agree with you and believe that the networks have been too successful in selling home broadband that they cannot keep up. I do not know if 3 are having to replace Chinese kit and if this is slowing capacity increase. Locally Vodafone are the only network whose performance has remained constant, not good but at 15meg it's 3 times what 3 can supply. 3 have admitted that there is no hope of improvement so have given me a generous discount for the duration of my contract.  I use 3 and Vodafone for phone but have 150meg fttp from BT.