Three (UK) Home Signal

Sorry you guys are having issues. I was on Three for 2 years and I was loving their 3G speeds with the iPhone 5 (consistently 10+ in the east midlands - was hitting between 12-18 most nights).

Signal was really poor indoors and where I really needed it as well as randomly dropping out in supermarkets. I switched to O2 and have had no problems at all - signal has been brilliant allowing for more consistent but slower 3G speeds.

3 is awesome in the North though. In and around Manchester, I had brilliant signal. Its just that I'm in the midlands for most of the year and signal isn't the best in the places I usually am.

In areas where 3 believe they have great coverage, they have completely dropped 2G back up.

Where I use to live, I never had any signal whatsoever where as my other half had 4 bars of 2G with T-Mobile.

It took months, but I eventually got my contract revoked and got out without penalty.

Now im in the East Midlands, the signal is good everywhere on T Mobile except for work. Which is annoying. Ive had to take out a seperate sim only deal just for work.

Been really happy with Three so far.

Was gutted at first because the first weekend I was back at home I was getting 1 bar and no service despite their signal checker saying it was 'very good' in my area.

Anyway, came back home last week and I was shocked to see I've been getting consistent 3-4 bars in all rooms of my house; with 3G speeds of 17mbps+ consistently. Pretty neat. One assumes they must have been doing maintenance on the mast when I was there as I was pretty stumped as they piggy back on the T-Mobile Mast which was my previous carrier and had no issues at home with them.

Back at uni it's even better. I have 5 bars despite being on the 7th floor of a big modern student accommodation block. Speeds of at least 10mbps+. Likewise I haven't seen my network connection drop below 4 bars once whilst in Newcastle.

Edit: Though I do think that Three no longer use Orange's 2G network. I've never yet seen Three with an edge logo or the little dot on my iPhone. It's either 3G or for the rare cases, just no service.

I will admit that they do not have the same coverage range as T-Mobile and Orange [EE], but I would expect that given they're now by far the biggest carrier after merging their networks together, for example with EE I could get 3G even in the lift shaft or in a deep basement etc, however their 3G is definitely worse and patchier. Nonetheless signal has never been an issue for me with Three.

I managed to get Three to send me a Home Signal. I played the ignorant one on the phone and showed great surprise when the guy mentioned the home signal box )

I'll be here on Monday.

As for 2G, I think they should request Ofcom to be allowed to use 2G. Same happened in Spain a while ago, first when everything was 900mhz GSM there were just two carriers, Vodafone and Telefonica Movistar, then came Amena (now Orange) who was assigned the 1800mhz GSM band. A few years later they allowed Orange to operate in the 900mhz band as well.

Then Yoigo only had licence for 3G UMTS but was later allowed to use GSM on their alloted frequencies, and all 900mhz carreiers were allowed to use that frequence for 3G as well.

Just like Ofcom allowed EE to use their 3G frequencies for LTE, they should allow Three to have some sort of baseline 2G network. But i'm nto sure they would be at all interested, of course.

jmmo20 said:

I managed to get Three to send me a Home Signal. I played the ignorant one on the phone and showed great surprise when the guy mentioned the home signal box )

I'll be here on Monday.

As for 2G, I think they should request Ofcom to be allowed to use 2G. Same happened in Spain a while ago, first when everything was 900mhz GSM there were just two carriers, Vodafone and Telefonica Movistar, then came Amena (now Orange) who was assigned the 1800mhz GSM band. A few years later they allowed Orange to operate in the 900mhz band as well.

Then Yoigo only had licence for 3G UMTS but was later allowed to use GSM on their alloted frequencies, and all 900mhz carreiers were allowed to use that frequence for 3G as well.

Just like Ofcom allowed EE to use their 3G frequencies for LTE, they should allow Three to have some sort of baseline 2G network. But i'm nto sure they would be at all interested, of course.

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I'm curious whether it would be worthwhile for Three to pay for the licensing to get the 2G though; Three have notoriously not made much profit. I think the first time sinch launch they turned over a profit was in 2011.

With the rise of internet browsing and their LTE rolling out in Sept 2013, I'd expect that to change. The problem with Three is that the whole "internet data" was irrelevant when they first launched. It's only really late 2009 where it has really started to take off. Coincidentally this is the start of the other major networks cutting back on their unlimited data plans and beginning to block tethering. Three are in a perfect place to take advantage of this IMO.

PVisitors said:

I'm curious whether it would be worthwhile for Three to pay for the licensing to get the 2G though; Three have notoriously not made much profit. I think the first time sinch launch they turned over a profit was in 2011.

With the rise of internet browsing and their LTE rolling out in Sept 2013, I'd expect that to change. The problem with Three is that the whole "internet data" was irrelevant when they first launched. It's only really late 2009 where it has really started to take off. Coincidentally this is the start of the other major networks cutting back on their unlimited data plans and beginning to block tethering. Three are in a perfect place to take advantage of this IMO.

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I agree!!
I wasn't aware Three was planning LTE roll out.. their 3G network really is fast enough as far as I'm concerned. I was getting 15mbps speeds last night inside a cinema where O2, Voda, and EE only get 1 bar on 2G.

but their 3G network still needs to improve as LTE still requires the 3G infrastructure for calls and sms.

I've just switched from O2 to 3. I travel around a lot and found with O2 that as soon as you leave urban areas their 3G coverage is terrible. At home I had at best 2 bars on 2G only, no 3G. Switched to three and at home I get 3 bar on 3G at between 8 and 15mbps. When travelling around I have 3G signal just about all the time. Couldn't be happier.

I think they must have done something on the mast near my home.
Whereas I had no signal at all at the ground level, now after all the calls and being offered the Home Signal Box, i'm perplexed to see 3 bars of signal where before there was none.
I suspect it's 2G though, as there's no internet access, just phone calls (iphone doesn't show anything, no GPRS dot, edge E, 3G or anything else).

Update: ok, forget it, it's now gone back to "no signal" now.

I switched to 3 from Orange (now EE) for the unlimited data on the iPhone 5. I live just outside Portsmouth and the 3G signal is great, much quicker than Orange, who i've been with for 4 years. I take my little boy to football alot around Hampshire & the signal is good wherever we go.Been to Cobham, Surrey a few times, again great signal. Travelled up to Doncaster by train 2 weeks ago and had a brilliant signal everywhere, bar the usual dropouts you get on a train journey. For ME 3 has been top notch

Got my Home Signal box today and after setting it up I still see no change.
Green light is meant to stop flashing when connected but it's still flashing away after several hours and numerous resets.

I've heard I may need to open ports on my router, not got a clue what that means!

Grayburn said:

Got my Home Signal box today and after setting it up I still see no change.
Green light is meant to stop flashing when connected but it's still flashing away after several hours and numerous resets.

I've heard I may need to open ports on my router, not got a clue what that means!

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did you fix your problem? I just received my home signal box and it's doing the same.. flashing quickly for 20+ minutes :/

jmmo20 said:

did you fix your problem? I just received my home signal box and it's doing the same.. flashing quickly for 20+ minutes :/

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I had to open up various ports in my router settings. But, after doing this it still didn't work so i phoned Three and they said that there is a problem and it might not be fixed for 72 hours, this was on Saturday evening.

I reset the box before going to bed last night and i noticed that once in bed that i had 5 bars. I went to check it and the light was on and not flashing which means it's connected.

Grayburn said:

I had to open up various ports in my router settings. But, after doing this it still didn't work so i phoned Three and they said that there is a problem and it might not be fixed for 72 hours, this was on Saturday evening.

I reset the box before going to bed last night and i noticed that once in bed that i had 5 bars. I went to check it and the light was on and not flashing which means it's connected.

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whta number did you call??

jmmo20 said:

whta number did you call??

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0800 358 4828

Grayburn said:

0800 358 4828

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thanks

jmmo20 said:

thanks

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No probs mate, hope you get it sorted.

Grayburn said:

No probs mate, hope you get it sorted.

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Should have had a look at the guide it shows the number.
Anyways I gave them a call and the problem was that the box had NOT been activated on my account. The guy did activate it and asked me to reset the unit. The startup was very fast and got the solid green light during the call.

I'm now amazed at the full bar coverage on my iphone 5

Sound quality on calls seems to be exactly the same than when you use standard three coverage... it'd now be interesting to see how is the quality affected when my adsl is being heavily used.

I think these boxes are gonna wind me up more then do any good. My one was offline this morning for some reason or other

A relevant update

I know this is an old thread but, having just got my Home Signal box, there are some changes that might help.

I was on The One Plan (one month) at £25 per month on my iPhone 5 and, due to recent changes that mean I am at home more now, was frustrated by the indoor signal - weak at best & prone to dropping out. I phoned Three yesterday to ask if I qualified for a Home Signal box and, initially, was told no and would need a 24 month plan. OK says I - I'm sure one of the other providers will give me one. After being put on hold I was given the option of a 12 month contract (same plan) for £15 per month + a HS box at £50 + two extra SIM cards for family use included in the plan.

It arrived today and I had the same problems with setup mentioned elsewhere - flashing green light for ages. A call to the 0800 number provided uncovered the fact that it had not been activated on my account so with the exchange of lots of numbers (EMEI & SIM card) followed by a reset I now have 5 bars when near the box & 4 in the adjacent rooms - such a difference! Using my 'extra' SIM cards for wife's phone and a spare for me - which I can also register for the HS box.

All in all an extremely positive experience - I assume they would eventually have told me my plan had been cut in price - wouldn't they ;-)

Just to halt the negative vibes aimed at three, I am on three and it is fantastic. Their 3G coverage is superb, their data rates excellent and they've sorted out their poor call centres.

Furthermore, they always seem very willing to assist me (when my phone was stolen they sent loads of documents to my insurance company) and also didn't charge me any fees on the one month I couldn't pay my phone bill.

Great value and definitely the best network in the UK

This thread has convinced me that I will switch to three once my o2 contract is up. O2 is ok but their 3g is very slow.

Three user here too.

Been with them on the sim only One Plan for nearly a year now.

To keep it brief, things started off great with Three, apart from a few underground shopping centres and supermarkets where signal can be non existent, the coverage was generally excellent.

I took this plan out specifically for unlimited data PLUS tethering! as we had no broadband setup at home and as others have mentioned I was seeing speeds of 19mbps! tethered to my macbook, kids ipods and an iPad. This gave me reason not to even bother looking at getting home broadband! or at least had me dragging my feet.

However, about two months ago it all started to go wrong the once normal 4 bars I would see at home turned to frequent 'no signal' called up numerous times, only to be given excuse after excuse of.. faulty local mast, then it was congestion in the area, then they said no fault can be found, then it was internet services were being upgraded, then they blamed it on the heatwave the UK enjoyed back in June/July. I started to give up on them, and since I am on a monthly rolling contract I threatened to leave, it was only then they offered me the home signal booster free, but as I had no home broadband it would be useless! plus the irony, that the only reason I was with Three was because of the tethering!

Anyway, so where I'm at today, well sod's law, I've now reluctantly taken out a contract with Sky BB! and guess who decides to call me the day after ordering? you guessed it Three; saying there is indeed a fault with the local mast and that a repair is scheduled on 6 Sept... my response.. *sigh* "really now..."


Needless to say I'm on the lookout for another phone provider, its just a shame, as currently Three are the only cell company that provide unlimited tethering.

I've now stopped using Three and have gone back on my O2 line after being lied to for months on end since beginning a new contract last November.

The problem was the signal where i work in The City, London Bridge/Monument area to be exact. I was getting below 1Mbps download speeds and that didn't improve when Ultra Fast was introduced. I was told a date every month since December when the congestion ,which they said was the culprit, would be fixed but that was always moved back a month and then finally they said a couple of months ago that it wouldn't be fixed until September when 3 new masts would be introduced, i've not hung about to find out if the service has improved.

I was shocked that they would let the service be that bad in the main financial area of London and they really didn't seem to care.

With regards to the Home Signal boxes i've seen several on ebay for sale from £75 and upwards. I know these cant be sold on and need a smart card registered to your number before it can be used. I stated this to a few sellers and they had no clue about them, bang out of order i think seeing as the buyers might get stung when Three are not really obliged to help seeing as they got the box from elsewhere.

I've been with Three for a year and get a good signal at home, where the Vodafone signal is almost non-existent.

I've also never had a problem with a Three signal when out and about.

Parkin Pig said:

I've been with Three for a year and get a good signal at home, where the Vodafone signal is almost non-existent.

I've also never had a problem with a Three signal when out and about.

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Yeah i do think Three are good when your in an area thats covered well, i wasn't where i lived and where i worked, that couldn't carry on.

I do rate Three for what they do with regards to the AYCE data and not charging for 4G, they just need more masts.