Anyone using MikroTik devices with Three network?

Hi.

I’m in a similar position and came here looking for assistance. I have the LHG LTE6 installed on my house. Sometimes it works very well but connection frequently drops so suddenly and completely that I find I’m restarting it multiple times per day. On the whole, the experience seems to be worse than we had with the B525.

Came to see if anyone knows of a mikrotik expert or 4G/LTE engineer who might be available to review config.

Maybe we can put our heads together at least on what we have.

Ive worked with a few LHG LTE6 ones, the old type and new type, depending on what you want to do with it, they actually technically can be plug and play for Three.
Other providers are stricter on the APN being used, but the default internet app works with Three, however for Three, I normally change it to 3internet for the Three Broadband specific SIM cards.

After that, you can make changes such enabling or disabling bands etc, right now Band 1 is prob the best to use until it gets turned off in April or so, but the default of all bands should work OK.
I also normally change the default firewall, IP addresses etc, but none of that would effect the internet connection, so if you have an issue must be something else.


Having configured probably 20 MikroTik devices(they all use RouterOS even the cheapest access points), I would still say I am far afar away from being an expert with RouterOS as it is a deep deep rabbit hole.

Sorry for taking so long to come back to you. Thanks for writing.

brav wrote: »

When you say the connection drops out, does it come back on by itself?

It would come and go, yes, by itself apparently.

brav wrote: »

when the connection is out, are you able to log in to the device and check settings or what the log says?

Yes, full access to the router via the app on my phone, so no apparent problem with the network generally. I haven't set up logging on the traffic and signal quality specifically — partly because I've since disabled LTE/4G on the device and stability has greatly improved. See more below...

brav wrote: »

I assume you have it mounted outdoors, is it getting a good SINR, and what bands does it normally connect on?

It is mounted outdoors and pointing at the nearest site about 2.5 km away. The SINR has not been as good as I would like — varies from poor to good in a very inconsistent way. up and down all the time.

brav wrote: »

When it is connected, and if you do a speed test, does one off the bands like 20 drop out?

The LHG boosts the bands like 1 and 3, but does not do much for 20, so say it is connecting and dropping 20 but stays on 3, try just enabling band 3 or 1 or both etc.

Yes, I was aware of that from reading up here and there.

In the mean time, I came across this blog article by 'Editor Sean' which said:

Both Three and the former O2 network have 900MHz spectrum with extensive use of this band in rural areas. Like the 1800MHz 4G band, the 2100MHz 3G band offers greater capacity than the 900MHz 3G band. This makes it a great alternative to 4G in areas that have high contention.

As 2100MHz frequencies do not penetrate walls that easily, most people that use 3G end up on the 900MHz 3G band that tends to also be congested. With a good outdoor antenna, the router will generally use the 2100MHz band (if available) in 3G only mode. I know a few who manage to get 10-20Mbps peak time on 3G where they could barely get over 1Mbps on 4G.

Based on this information, I discovered that the mast near me supported this band and I tried switching off 4G to see how it goes. That was more than a week ago at this point and the whole system has seemed more stable. I would have had a few drops a day on zoom calls for work, and now I don't think I had a single one in the last week.

I'd be afraid to turn the 4G/LTE back on!

I have found using band 1 on 3G, and disabling GSM and LTE offers more stability when the incoming signal gets congested.

On a particular application we were unable to get 1mpbs with LTE (4G) however with 3G we are able to achieve 10+mbps.

This has been a very helpful thread, thank you.

For anyone looking for information on the LHG, I use it in rural fringe locations. What I have found is that the signal quality is the most important factor. Getting a high SINR gives you better speed, more important to have excellent quality than excellent strength.

I have also found that the best mast is not always the closest. I use a mast that is almost 10KM away and I have an SINR of 15db, speed only drops with contention, in periods of low contention I have seen download speeds of 105MB, I have the gigabit version, on Three. I have been using it reliably for over a year, without having to reboot, most evenings it will drop to around 25Mb.

I keep the firmware updated, that includes the modem firmware as well as the router firmware and OS version. I also lock the modem to B3, the best in my area, using LTE on B3 and B20 does display some of the symptoms you mention, speed drops after a while, but lock it on B3 and all is good.

Hope that helps someone...