3 Mobile Broadband for Home - Tech vs. Self Install

radooo

Based in Dublin, considering Three mobile broadband for my home and deciding whether tech install is a better and more reliable option over self install in the long run. Working from home quite a lot and heavy data usage. Mast very close. Thanks.

smuggler.ie

Still the same price .

Perhaps the difference could be 14d cool-of , not sure

Fat_Fingers

Hey, has anyone actually tried using 5G at home? I was thinking about it, but a friend who already has it said the advertised speeds are kinda misleading. Supposed to be up to 500Mb, but most of the time he's stuck at 10Mb during busy hours, and the best he gets late at night is around 80Mb. Anybody else experiencing this?

shmeee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121592663#Comment_121592663

The Three internet speeds depends on the usage in the area at any on time along with how close you are to a Three mast. During peak hours your sharing the connection with everyone else who is using the Three network. It's never going to be stable 24/7. Have a look at the Midband forum here for loads of info on mobile internet.

Lewis_Benson

Tech install for a mobile connection.....

Just plug in the router and off you go.

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121638526#Comment_121638526

Tech install only suggested/offered to subs where ZTE MC7010 is provided - external modem that need to be mounted externally (in most cases), pointed to nearest mast and potentially configured(in bridge) to work in tandem with internal router T3000. Not every user can do this on their own.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121640628#Comment_121640628

Ah I see.

I wasn't aware three were offering an external antenna.

I have an eir 4g home broadband connection, using a Huawei B818 router, I get a great connection upto 200mbps on same days, I am thinking about an ext antenna.

Shoog

To be honest the 3mobile broadband is kind of ****. Ours is just 4g but it goes from 16mb/s off peak to 2mb/s at peak. It's highly variable and highly congested. The only thing going for it is that you can run it off a pay as you go sim at €20 per 28 days. We will be going fibre soon.

5g is going to have the same variability issues.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121644550#Comment_121644550

Find where your nearest mast is. Get an external antenna pointing to the mast and watch the speeds zoom up.

I've a poynting antenna. It's simply glued to the eaves (reached out a window) and I bring the connection in through the ventilation vent of a home office room and attach it to the modem.

My speeds used to be 2mb-10mb, now it rarely drops under 10mb and goes to 50+

I'm about 800m from the mast and just about have line of sight from where the antenna is

adm

I have had it for a year but it is now acting up and I haven't got 5G for days.

And worryingly their coverage map now shows 5G is not available in my area!

The tech installer said at the time that they would not install it unless they could get a minimum speed of 100mb - don't know if that's still true.

I had a couple of friends get a tech install and when they could not get 100mb they actually did not install it.

All that being said - I live in the middle of nowhere and have few options.

If you are in Dublin and can get proper broadband - get proper bloody broadband.

I wish I could!

selephonic

I've had the 5g Gold Broadband from 3 for 2 years now. Speed is okay, ranges from 70 to 250mb usually, although we're close to at least 2 masts in the Dublin suburbs. Only major issue for me is that due to the way ip addressing is handled, external access via ddns isn't possible.

I'm now at the end of my contract and I want to be able to access my home network remotely so I'm switching to a fibre option instead. We had the 5g installed because at the time, fibre wasn't available on our road. If fibre was still unavailable, I'd probably stick with three5g.

Should also note that I don't really game online but things like Netflix, WFH, and other general use is fine