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Author Topic: Three 4G broadband experience  (Read 26063 times)

re0

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #45 on: March 11, 2019, 09:00:10 PM »

I understand the confusion as many sites suggest that is 3G only.  This mast was built AFTER 4G launched, is it possible they are reusing that frequency on 4G now?
I was under the impression that O2 had 10 MHz of 2100 MHz for 4G LTE. Not sure how widely deployed 4G is on 2100 MHz with O2. But re-farming 2100 MHz from 3G is certainly happening in mobile telecommunications.

Tried a different app and that too says I'm on LTE on both SIM cards which is even more confusing when everything I read suggested the S10 can only connect to LTE on one SIM at a time.
It's possible that the S10 supports dual active SIM with LTE since sources are telling me that it supports dual VoLTE (which means data service would need to be active on both SIMs).

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TheKeymeister

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #46 on: March 11, 2019, 09:01:57 PM »

So glad to have stumbled upon this thread!

I'm currently using Plusnet FTTC, but the cab I'm connected to is right at the other end of the village (approx 1km D side length). On a good day I could get around 25mb, but that has been in rapid decline in the last few months and its around 10mb now.  Because the cab feeds most of the village, crosstalk and peak loading seem to be big problems in addition to the excessive length.  There's another cab less than 100m away, but alas it doesn't feed me, and the chances of any copper rearrangement or FTTP are probably about nil, all the really remote places round here are getting FTTP but we fall into the category of "crap, but not crap enough" speeds.

What we do have at this end of the village though, is a Three mast in line of sight, it was even upgraded last year! I've been a customer of theirs for a while, so might even get a deal out of them. The 4G signal at home on my phone is excellent and I often turn the WiFi off when browsing on my phone and revert to 4G for a bit of speed.  Only got 2 months left on my contract, so assuming the product still exists then, I'll have it  ;D 

Working from home and IPTV will be once again possible hopefully (my fault for moving from a city to the country!)
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re0

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #47 on: March 11, 2019, 09:24:50 PM »

So glad to have stumbled upon this thread!
So glad the contributions by members here are helpful for you.

What we do have at this end of the village though, is a Three mast in line of sight, it was even upgraded last year! I've been a customer of theirs for a while, so might even get a deal out of them. The 4G signal at home on my phone is excellent and I often turn the WiFi off when browsing on my phone and revert to 4G for a bit of speed.
Looks like you may be in an excellent position to benefit from using Three 4G for your broadband. Being in a rural area, hopefully the mast has a decent enough backhaul. Judging from the experience you've had, it is pretty good. What sort of speeds do you get?

Only got 2 months left on my contract, so assuming the product still exists then, I'll have it  ;D 
Looks like the price for unlimited data phone SIM is now back to the regular £27/m. :( You might be able to negotiate the price down when your contract ends if you want unlimited for tethering or for use in a router. Or if you can find a reason to complain, they might try and reimburse you with credit and/or reduce the price to keep you "happy".

The other option is to take out a 24 month unlimited HomeFi plan at £22/m. No upfront fees, included B311 (decent enough for starters). Don't forget £55 TCB/Quidco cashback if you want a few bob back (not guranteed but cashback from one of my contracts has been successful).
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #48 on: March 12, 2019, 10:58:48 AM »

I was under the impression that O2 had 10 MHz of 2100 MHz for 4G LTE. Not sure how widely deployed 4G is on 2100 MHz with O2. But re-farming 2100 MHz from 3G is certainly happening in mobile telecommunications.
It's possible that the S10 supports dual active SIM with LTE since sources are telling me that it supports dual VoLTE (which means data service would need to be active on both SIMs).

Yes, I wonder if what they meant was you can only actively USE one LTE band at a time while both will remain connected while idle.

So basically if I was using VoLTE on O2 I wouldn't have data on Three during a call.

I was pleased to see VoLTE and WiFi calling as options, my Note 4 was "supposed" to support these but even flashing the Three firmware never enabled it.  Of course then I switched back to O2 due to the masts proximity and they don't support it on PAYG anyway.

The statistics I'm getting:
« Last Edit: March 12, 2019, 11:07:55 AM by Alex Atkin UK »
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aesmith

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #49 on: March 12, 2019, 11:07:56 AM »

Something else I noticed, the specification for the Three router says it supports up to 32 devices.   Has anyone seen whether this is a hard limit, and if so does it apply at the Ethernet level for example number of learned MAC addresses, or IP (max arp ARP or NAT limits)?   Or does it just apply to the wireless?
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re0

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #50 on: March 12, 2019, 07:48:11 PM »

Something else I noticed, the specification for the Three router says it supports up to 32 devices.   Has anyone seen whether this is a hard limit, and if so does it apply at the Ethernet level for example number of learned MAC addresses, or IP (max arp ARP or NAT limits)?   Or does it just apply to the wireless?
Going by the manual for the B311, the device supports a maximum of 32 connected stations. It does go on to say:
Quote
A maximum of 32 devices can be connected to the WLAN in theory; the actual number of devices that can be connected and served depends on actual conditions.
No mention of how it is limited. Though I imagine that the limitation is only affecting WiFi devices, as with other routers - I see no sufficient evidence that would suggest otherwise.
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #51 on: March 12, 2019, 11:17:06 PM »

Makes sense, NAT entries is down to active connections rather than actual clients.  You can theoretically have one client max out the NAT table and 100s of clients never do so.  It all depends on what kind of traffic you are doing.

Just running Bittorrent used to be able to max out old routers, these days I'd be surprised if you hit the NAT table limit as routers have far more RAM.
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re0

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #52 on: March 13, 2019, 01:25:00 AM »

Alex, the fact you have tried different mobile providers has got me interested in trying a few different ones myself since I do actually have 4G coverage from the big players: EE, O2 and Vodafone alongside Three. Though it would be a little bit costly since I'd have to top up the SIMs enough to cover testing. :( Also, seems a bit of a waste since I'd not actually be switching or have any other use for the credit. Maybe I'll give it a try if I ever win the lottery. ;D
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #53 on: March 14, 2019, 12:30:03 AM »

Alex, the fact you have tried different mobile providers has got me interested in trying a few different ones myself since I do actually have 4G coverage from the big players: EE, O2 and Vodafone alongside Three. Though it would be a little bit costly since I'd have to top up the SIMs enough to cover testing. :( Also, seems a bit of a waste since I'd not actually be switching or have any other use for the credit. Maybe I'll give it a try if I ever win the lottery. ;D

Apparently it cost me over £2 just to do that single speedtest on O2.

Its a given that the ones that have tighter data allowances are less likely to have slow down. ;)
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re0

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #54 on: March 14, 2019, 01:00:03 AM »

Apparently it cost me over £2 just to do that single speedtest on O2.
Classic PAYG? Might have been better off purchasing one of their "Big Bundles" since £10 gives you 2GB of data (alongside 500 minutes and 5000 texts, though not important the purpose you intended). Otherwise you are paying 1p per MB, lasting half the time.

£2 sounds about a bit more than expected, though speedtest.net will use more data on faster connections so it is possible. The most my Three connection used was about 120-130 MB, and those tests were approx 65/20 Mbps. You can see data usage on the mobile app, but the website doesn't show... I think.

Its a given that the ones that have tighter data allowances are less likely to have slow down. ;)
I thought the same thing many times. Three users have basically, for as long a I can remember, consumed more data due to generous data allowances. I wonder how sustainable it is for them to run such a network, since before there was the forced mass exodus of people from the old One Plan. I think even 1TB fair use is generous given the nature of the connection, and the price people are paying.
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aesmith

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #55 on: March 16, 2019, 11:05:06 AM »

Sorry, another question.  Does anyone know whether the Three "Unlimited Everything" SIM will work in a router?  It's £29/month but only a one month contract, so would be a good way of trialling without committing to a 24 month contract.   My testing so far has used up my 200meg free initial allowance, but I've proved function using my Billion router and a borrowed Huawei E3372 "dongle".  Presumably performance would be better in a dedicated 4G router even just using a 2.2dBi aerial.
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re0

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #56 on: March 16, 2019, 12:19:35 PM »

Sorry, another question.  Does anyone know whether the Three "Unlimited Everything" SIM will work in a router?
Yes, absolutely. I said about it in my opening post. ;D It's what I do.

It's £29/month but only a one month contract, so would be a good way of trialling without committing to a 24 month contract.
Normal phone SIMs only have 1 and 12 month contracts - 24 month contract is only applicable to HomeFi unlimited data package. Worth noting that if you're on a phone SIM, you would have to take out a new plan if you wanted to switch to a HomeFi SIM since they are different products, though you'd probably be better off continuing using the phone SIM because otherwise you would lose your inclusive calls and texts (which you may want to keep if you setup your router for them or use the SIM in a handset) and you'd have to wait 24 months as opposed to 12 with the phone SIM before potentially negotiating a better price.

My testing so far has used up my 200meg free initial allowance, but I've proved function using my Billion router and a borrowed Huawei E3372 "dongle".  Presumably performance would be better in a dedicated 4G router even just using a 2.2dBi aerial.
Presumably the Billion router is using USB 2.0, and so the theoretical bus speed should not be a limitation to performance when using a USB modem. Of course, many factors involved, but what's important is to have a device that has a good 4G chipset with decent internal antennas, or external antenna connectors if you want to use an external antenna of course... That'll give you the opportunity place/position better, which may be faster if your mast/local network is not congested.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2019, 12:57:41 PM by re0 »
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re0

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #57 on: March 16, 2019, 12:32:14 PM »

Before I forget, Quidco and TopCashBack does good amounts of cashback for taking 12 month unlimited phone SIM (£70 at the moment). Cashback is not a given, but in most cases as long as you read and abide by the terms you should get it without issue.

Also should add, as I mentioned in my opening post, that taking a 12 month phone contract is not too risky since you have the right to cancel within 14 days (paying only for what you have consumed). Even after this period, it is possible that they may release you from contract if you are not happy and can give a decent enough reason to why. Happened to me before when the 4G signal was worse than predicted, so I got released less than a month in (and still got cashback).
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #58 on: March 16, 2019, 09:06:17 PM »

I wouldn't assume a dedicated 4G router is better than a dongle, especially if said dongle has an external antenna port.  I've been quite surprised that my Galaxy S10 has WAY better reception than the MiFi that Three provided, bonus its dual-SIM so I still have PAYG for calls on O2.

Like all routers these things are built down to a cost, the most high-end routers that support 4G tend to do so via a dongle I believe.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2019, 05:27:23 PM by Alex Atkin UK »
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aesmith

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Re: Three 4G broadband experience
« Reply #59 on: March 17, 2019, 09:58:34 AM »

Not sure what to conclude so far.  First test with the SIM in the phone gave me 20meg download from upstairs.  Using the Billion router with E3372 dongle gives only just under/over 6/5meg (down/up) in the same room.   Sticking it back in the phone to double check and it gives 25/5.  There don't seem to be any detailed settings or statistics available from the dongle.  Dongle directly in the laptop gives 7 down and 5 up.  #

The dongle just shows a default profile, do you think I should be filling in the APN stuff specifically?   See screenshots ..
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