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If you’re considering 4G home broadband on Three then you only really have one option when it comes to a router: the Three 5G Ready Hub.
But if you’ve read about a Three 4G Hub in the past, that probably wasn’t this, as the network has upgraded the hardware, replacing the old model (a rebranded ZTE MF286D) with a new one (a rebranded Greenpacket E5-250MA).
We won’t dwell too much on the differences here, but in short the new model is a clear improvement, offering higher maximum speeds and even supporting 5G.
What we will look at though is how well it stands up to rival home broadband devices on other networks, so you can make an informed choice on whether to get Three 4G broadband.
Design
The Three 5G Ready Hub is a black cylinder, with a ring of lights around a third of the way up.
Coming in at 221 x 116 x 116mm, the Three 5G Ready Hub doesn’t take up too much room, though its design means that it’s tall rather than wide, which might or might not work well for your space.
Overall we’d give it a visual edge over many other 4G home broadband routers, such as the even plainer EE Smart 4G Hub, but that’s subjective, and neither device is overly stylish.
Setup
If you’ve ever had conventional broadband – such as fibre – installed then you’ll probably be familiar with what a headache that can sometimes be. It tends to involve a long wait followed by an engineer visit, but with the Three 5G Ready Hub there’s none of that.
Once you receive the Hub (with free next working day delivery offered) it’s a plug-and-play device – in other words, it’s basically good to go as soon as you switch it on.
You may – especially if you don’t get it from Three – need to insert a SIM card first, and there are additional aspects of setup that you can carry out, such as changing the network name and security settings in the admin panel, but this is all straightforward.
In terms of just getting your devices online, that can be achieved almost instantly, and with no technical knowledge required. And of course, no engineer visit.
It’s worth noting however that the ease of setup here isn’t unique to the Three 5G Ready Hub – this is a selling point of all 4G (and 5G) home broadband routers.
Performance and speeds
The Three 5G Ready Hub is a speedy little device, supporting maximum download speeds of 3Gbps, though typical download speeds are more in the region of 50-100Mbps on 4G and 150Mbps on 5G.
Still, that’s in line with many fibre broadband connections, and the top speed is far higher than some other 4G home broadband devices, such as the discontinued EE 4GEE Home Router 2 and the Vodafone GigaCube 4G, both of which top out at just 300Mbps.
The Three 5G Ready Hub also supports upload speeds of up to 250Mbps – though again, real world speeds will be a lot lower than that.
The Three 5G Ready Hub also supports up to 64 simultaneous connections, which should be plenty for any home, and it includes support for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands.
Features and software
The features found on the Three 5G Ready Hub are fairly standard, but worth mentioning nonetheless. For a start, you get two Ethernet ports here. So these can be used to plug things in for a wired connection, if they don’t support Wi-Fi, or if you just want the greater speeds and reliability that a wired connection can bring.
Beyond that, it not only obviously has an internal antenna, but also external antenna ports, so that you can optionally attach an external antenna. This could boost the performance of the router, so it’s a useful option to have.
Alternatives
There are a number of alternatives to the Three 5G Ready Hub, but if you’re signing up for home broadband directly with a mobile network (rather than buying a router separately and then finding a SIM-only plan for it) then the EE Smart 5G Hub 7 Plus is the main alternative.
This is a 5G home broadband device rather than a 4G one, though since Three’s 4G broadband plans are supplied with a 5G-ready device, they’re still comparable.
With EE’s device you’ll get average speeds of 146Mbps on 5G or 40Mbps on 4G, and it can connect over 100 devices. However, it also costs more – we’ll look at Three’s broadband plans below.
Plans
You can get Three 4G broadband on two plans at the time of writing – a 24-month plan for £22 per month and a 12-month one for £24 per month. Both come with unlimited data and no upfront cost, but at the time of writing the 24-month plan is sold at half price for the first six months, so initially you’d just pay £11 per month.
Those are impressively low prices compared to much of the competition, especially considering that these plans come with unlimited data.
You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee. Of course, while all of this was accurate at the time of writing, it’s possible that the plans and prices will have changed by the time you read this, so double check before buying.
Conclusion
The Three 5G Ready Hub that you get with Three’s 4G broadband is one of the top 4G (and 5G) home broadband router options that you can get direct from a network at the time of writing, and that’s before you factor in Three’s palatable pricing.
So if you have decent Three 4G coverage where you are then this would be our number one choice in the category, and if you have Three 5G coverage it becomes even better.
