ZTE MC801A slow speeds and dropouts

[B-ri]

Hi,

I've been with three for around 8 months and chose it because at the new property i don't have the option of high speed which I'm used to, but I was impressed how good it was to begin but for around 4 months, its been really slow and we've worked around that (low quality movies and patience), but its just getting worse to the point where everything we stream now buffers. Whenever I'm hardwired and do a speed test, i seem to get a massive upload speed but a lower download speed than i do on wifi - the test i just did came back with 53ms Latency, 11.7 Mbps Download & 254.7 Mbps upload which was hardwired at 16:12. Now my speeds aren't usually that high and in the evenings it drops to between 4 & 8 Mbps and my tv services are now solely streaming (no sky or cable to cut costs) and no TV aerial, so now I'm often using my mobile hotspot to stream via my 4g vodafone network (and their mast isn't local or 5g), the next test i did was on wifi and got 65ms/ 35.1Mbps D / 319.8 Mbps (this was after changing the APN so will keep an eye on how it performs tonight.

We live about 80 yards from the mast and coverage in our area shows 5g excellent indoor & out, we have an ZTE MC801A on software version BD_UKH3GMC801AV1.0.0B12 and currently -79 dBm signal strength ( i saw a comment from customer services on another post which said -100 is a good strength and would be the issue).

The other big issue is working from home, I usually only do this once a month and have been aware this is a problem from the outset. But I've been working from home for the last 4 weeks and I lose connection to my works VPN every minute sometimes twice a minute (no exceptions) it reconnects within about 10 seconds but every minute I'm without network for around 15 seconds. This has always been the case (I just don't tell my boss or I wouldn't be allowed), however i can connect by using my voda mobile as a hotspot and i don't get this problem at all.

There's just 2 in our household and usually watch things together, so its not because of multiple devices, in fact we both drop from wifi (on our phones) to unburden the load . But we just want it solving as my wife is supposed to be permanently working from home in the coming weeks and although i can manage, her job is different and she won't be able to manage. We're not getting the service that we are in contract for.

The contract we have is 100Mbps and at first we would get speeds of there abouts and over, but now we can sometimes get around 30Mbps if we're lucky (usually when everyone in the neighbourhood is at work), but its like it can't maintain that speed and just declines.

Here are a few things I've tried

1) moving the router to a better location (even facing the mast at the back of the house didn't improve signal strength of any worth.

2) turned off single SSID and setup a 5g SSID, no noticeable difference.

3) changed the APN to three.co.uk - this one as i mentioned before seems to have made a slight difference so i will keep an eye on this.

4) should be number 1, but left router unplugged for 30 mins and never noticed any difference

5) reset router by holding a pin, got the same results after a reset

[TS]

Surely somebody ‘up top’ knows now about these problems and will speak with ZTE or China about the reliability issues before the merger with Vodafone? I will try the ceoemail website and try to get the CEO’s email address.

[TS]

Good Morning Mr Finnegan

Sorry to bother you with this, it’s just that it is letting your company down something awful.

I have just, after about 9 months into my 2 year contract, has some issues with the ZTE MC801A 5G router that you supplied to me; I could not access my online banking at any of my 5 accounts, the JVC TV would not work properly as the wifi connection continually ‘dropped out’, especially when my wife was watching ‘Master Chef’ on BBC IPlayer.

I spoke with about 6 per in your team, including technical people, and eventually they swapped it out. Unfortunately, the replacement router is exactly the same make  as the original one and last night, although I was able to access my online Bank accounts, just, the wifi continued to ‘drop out’.

There are a number of complaints on the Three community website and I wasn’t sure if this had been brought to your attention before you get too involved with Vodafone?

New supplier? Preferably NOT China although this will be difficult.

Kind regards

Ted Shaw

[TS]

All I can say is that whatever you do, DO NOT accept a 5G ZTE MC801A router, I am now on my second one and it still keeps dropping out of wifi connection as before, plays havoc with my Smart JVC TV.

[Gagandeep]

Unfortunately this sounds like you have the same B12 firmware bug a lot of us have with this router

Unfortunately the B12 update was pushed around October time and causes the exact symptoms you describe

Three do not appear to believe/acknowledge that this issue exists. I have tried multiple times to get acknowledgment of this problem via this forum, but have had no success.

Would recommend calling customer services and trying to get out of contract and taking a service that works to support your WFH setup

[B-ri]

Thanks for your advice 👍.  Probably explains the lack of response from customer services. If they can't fix it, i have no alternative 

[B-ri]

Just an update to anyone reading this, the three website has always said that there is no known issue in this area, but when speaking with customer services (and she was informative/helpful) she said that there is a known issue, but she can't see how long this has been ongoing but i will receive a text message in 7 days with an update and a bill credit (but only from the time i reported it) so roughly a fiver, so anyone in the same boat its worth calling sooner rather than later.