Three 5G Hub Review | Is Three 5G Broadband Any Good?

Considering getting online with the Three 5G Hub?

In this article, we’ve reviewed Three 5G Home Broadband, to see if it’s any good.

We’ve done some speed tests with Three’s router, and assessed its WiFi performance. We’ve also explained the setup process, and what this router is like to use on a day-to-day basis.

Before we begin, make sure to visit the Three Home Broadband coverage checker, to find out if you can get the 5G Hub at your address, and to see what deals they’re offering at the moment.

Contents

• Three 5G Hub overview
• Three 5G Hub unboxing & setup
• Three 5G Hub speed tests
• Three 5G Hub Wi-Fi performance
• Three 5G Hub gaming test
• Three 5G Hub value for money
• Is Three 5G broadband worth buying? Our verdict
• Three 5G Hub alternatives
• Conclusion

Three 5G Hub overview

The Three 5G Hub is a 5G router and unlimited data SIM bundle, sold by Three in the UK.

When you buy Three 5G home broadband, they’ll send you a ZTE MC888 5G router in the mail (sometimes also a Zyxel NR5103E V2), as well as a Three SIM card.

Once you insert the SIM card into the router, and turn it on, it’ll connect to the 5G network to establish an internet connection, without needing to be plugged into a phone socket or broadband port.

Then, the router will create a Wi-Fi hotspot you can get online with, just like any other normal Wi-Fi router. There are also two LAN ports on the back of the router you can use to plug devices in directly.

The only requirement to get the Three 5G Hub is that you have good enough Three 5G signal at your address. You can check the signal in your area using the Three coverage map.

This router also works over 4G, if you can’t pick up 5G signal, meaning you can take it with you and use it on holiday inside the UK. But if you only have 4G signal at the address you put into their coverage checker, Three will direct you to their 4G router instead.

Also, Three have recently launched an outdoor version of their 5G Hub, which they might show you on their website if you have weaker 5G signal at your address.

It works just like the regular 5G Hub, except setup is a bit more involved – there is an antenna you put on the outside of your house, in order to pick up better mobile broadband signal.

Buying the 5G Hub

To buy Three home broadband, you can place an order online, after checking your postcode on the 5G Hub page on the Three website.

Once you make the order, Three will send you everything you need to get started in the mail. No engineer visit is necessary to get online – we’ve walked through the setup process in the next section.

Currently, you can buy the Three 5G Hub on a 24 month contract.

There is a 30 day money back guarantee, allowing you to set up and test the router at home and see how good its speeds and Wi-Fi are. If you’re not happy with its performance, you can send the router back to Three and exit the contract.

Three 5G Hub unboxing & setup

After placing the order online, our 5G Hub arrived in the mail in two business days.

Inside the box, you’ll find:

• The ZTE MC888 5G Hub router
• Your Three SIM card
• A power cable
• An Ethernet cable
• A quick start guide
• A router instruction manual from ZTE

Getting started with Three 5G broadband was an easy process. We were able to get up and running in about 15-20 minutes.

Essentially, all you need to do is insert the SIM card into the router, plug it in, and wait for it to initialise. After the router sets itself up, you can connect to Wi-Fi.

1. Insert the SIM card into the router

First, grab the SIM card packaging, and remove the SIM from its punch-out card.

You want the smallest SIM size – the nano SIM.

Then, open the SIM slot on the base of the router, and insert the SIM cut corner first, with the Three logo facing upwards relative to the text on the router. When it’s in position, the SIM card will click into place.

If you ever want to remove the SIM card, push down on it, and the SIM will pop out.

2. Plug in and turn on the router

Once you’ve inserted the SIM, you can plug the router into mains power.

Plug one end of the power cable into the power port on the back of the router, and the other into a power plug.

The router will then switch itself on – there is no power button – and then it will set itself up, which will take a few minutes.

Once the router has connected to 5G and created a Wi-Fi hotspot, its first four status lights on the front of the router will be illuminated white, as shown.

The top three lights indicate your 5G signal strength, from bottom to top. If the bottom of the first three lights is not illuminated, this means that the SIM card is not inserted properly.

3. Connect to Wi-Fi

At this stage, you can connect to Wi-Fi, and begin testing the router.

The Wi-Fi login details are printed on the base of the ZTE MC888.

4. Test the router in different positions

When using mobile broadband, the exact position of your router can make a big difference in determining the download and upload speeds you’ll receive.

For 5G internet, the best place to put your router is normally an upstairs windowsill, or somewhere else high up, on the edge of the property. This can help the router establish a better connection with the nearest 5G mast.

With the Three 5G Hub, we found it was worth experimenting with the router in a few different positions around the house, in order to maximise our download and upload speeds.

We also found that rotating the router to point in different directions affected the speeds we could receive.

In the router’s admin settings, ZTE offers a tool to help you find the best position of the router in a given room (remember you will need to keep the router plugged in when moving around, otherwise your connection will disconnect).

Eventually, we ended up putting the router on an upstairs bedroom windowsill, at the front of the house.

Three 5G Hub speed tests

Once we got the router in the right position, we ran a number of speed tests on the ZTE MC888, to assess its performance.

Wi-Fi speed test

• Download speed: 226.06 Mbps
• Upload speed: 18.70 Mbps
• Ping: 40ms

Ethernet speed test

• Download speed: 338.65 Mbps
• Upload speed: 17.93 Mbps
• Ping: 40ms

Speed test conclusion

We were very happy with the speeds and latency offered by the ZTE MC888 5G Hub router.

The upload speeds and ping were particularly impressive, for a 5G connection. 18-20 Mbps or so is quite a good upload speed for wireless broadband, and we think Three has improved this aspect of their network recently.

The download speeds were fast, much faster than the 150 Mbps average that Three advertises, and our measurements were very consistent. However, we have been able to get faster downloads of around 500 Mbps or so using older Three 5G Hub models, such as the Zyxel NR5103E V2.

It is possible that the Three network in our area isn’t performing at its best at the moment. Where you live, you might be able to get download speeds faster than 300 Mbps more consistently than we could.

In saying that though, given the monthly cost of the Three 5G Hub, 200-300 Mbps is a really good speed, and this is plenty of bandwidth for our needs.

You can use the Three network coverage map to get a better idea of what their 5G signal is like where you live. You want to see good indoor and outdoor 5G signal at your address, and ideally in the surrounding areas as well.

Three 5G Hub Wi-Fi performance

We tested the ZTE MC888 in a four-bedroom, two-storey house, and found it delivered good Wi-Fi signal throughout the property.

This router comes with WiFi 6, and we found that this helped it deliver strong signal, even though the router was not placed in a central location in the house. We didn’t feel the need to use mesh Wi-Fi with this 5G router.

We would typically get download speeds of 150-250 Mbps over Wi-Fi, similar to the result seen in the previous section, no matter where we were in the house.

The speeds would drop off a bit at long range, but only in the kitchen/garden, on the complete opposite side of the house from the router. In this case, we’d get a download speed of about 30-50 Mbps or so.

Three 5G Hub gaming test

One of the downsides to 4G or 5G broadband is often the latency you experience.

As you can see from the speed tests above, we normally recorded a ping of about 40ms, compared to the 10ms or so you can expect when using fibre broadband.

For most people, this isn’t an issue at all, but for online gamers, having a low ping can be important.

We tested the 5G Hub extensively playing a range of online games, including Rocket League, Battlefield, and a few other first-person shooters, and the gaming experience was generally very good.

When plugged into the router using an Ethernet cable, we typically experienced a ping of about 40-50ms in-game.

The games we tried, even quite ping-sensitive ones, were very playable. We never experienced any disconnections or lag spikes.

It was just like using a regular home broadband connection, except our ping was a bit higher than normal – as if we were further away from the server we were connected to.

The only thing we will say is, if you’re playing a very ping-sensitive game like Rocket League or Counter-Strike, it’s best to plug your computer or games console into one of the router’s LAN ports, instead of using a wireless connection to the router.

However, for most games, including EA FC, using Wi-Fi when gaming is fine most of the time.

Three 5G Hub value for money

One of the biggest strengths of Three 5G Home Broadband is its value for money.

With BT, if you want a 200-300 Mbps download speed like the 5G Hub offers, this will normally cost you about £35 per month, and they often charge an upfront fee.

On the other hand, the Three 5G Hub normally costs about £22-£24 per month (check current pricing here), with no upfront costs, and unlimited data.

If you bought a fibre broadband plan with the same monthly cost, it would probably only come with a download speed of 36-50 Mbps or so. The upload speed would also likely be slower than the 18-20 Mbps we typically receive with the ZTE MC888 on Three.

Given how easy it is to set up, the fact you can use it anywhere in the UK with at least 4G signal, and the download speeds it offers, the Three 5G Hub is really good value for money.

Is Three 5G broadband worth buying? Our verdict

We think that for most households, the Three 5G Hub is definitely worth considering.

• The 200-300 Mbps download speed it delivers offers plenty of bandwidth for video streaming, large file downloads, and more, even if multiple people get online at the same time.
• It offers probably the cheapest way of getting 200-300 Mbps or higher download speeds in the UK.
• The router is very easy to set up, even though you do have to spend a bit of time figuring out the best place to put it. It’s quite good not having to go through the hassle of booking an engineer visit.
• We found that the ZTE MC888 offered good Wi-Fi performance, even in a four-bedroom house.

The main downside to this 5G internet package is your latency will be higher compared to using fixed-line broadband. However, we found that the 5G Hub still performed really well when online gaming.

Also, your speeds will fluctuate a bit throughout the day. You won’t get 300 Mbps or 500 Mbps all the time. Fluctuations between 200-350 Mbps were quite normal for us.

Overall, we rate the Three 5G Hub 4.7 out of 5. Three 5G home broadband offers a cheap, fast, easy way of getting online at home, and it’s definitely worth trying if you have good Three 5G signal. If you set up the router and the speeds aren’t what you expect, you can always return it, as long as you do so within 30 days.

If you want to try the Three 5G Hub, put in your postcode on the Three Home Broadband page on their website, to see if you have strong enough 5G signal at your address.

Three 5G Hub alternatives

If you’re not quite sure about the Three 5G Hub, here are some alternative ways to get online at home using mobile broadband.

1. Three 5G MiFi

Just like the 5G Hub, this is a 5G broadband device, sold by Three with an unlimited data plan.

However, the ZTE U50 is a small, mobile Wi-Fi device, which comes with a battery, rather than a 5G router that needs to be plugged in all the time.

As a result, Three 5G MiFi is a much more portable option, making it a better choice if you’re always on the move. When it can’t connect to 5G, this MiFi device will pick up Three 4G instead.

The downside is, because it’s quite small, the Wi-Fi signal on offer from the ZTE U50 isn’t as good as what you get from a proper 5G router.

2. Three 4G Hub

If you put in your postcode on the Three website and don’t have strong enough 5G signal to use the 5G Hub, they’ll redirect you to their 4G Hub router instead.

Using this ZTE MF286D router, you can expect download speeds of about 30-40 Mbps – a lot lower than the 200-300 Mbps you get with the Three 5G Hub.

4G Hub deals work in much the same way as buying the 5G Hub – you still get unlimited data on a 24 month contract, and there are no upfront costs.

However, despite being slower, the 4G Hub is normally about the same cost as buying a Three 5G broadband plan. Therefore, the 5G Hub is better value, if you can get it where you live.

3. EE Smart 5G Hub

If you can’t get good Three 5G signal at your address, you might like to consider EE 5G Broadband instead.

They also offer 5G home broadband deals, and their router is a really good bit of kit – it comes with WiFi 7, rather than WiFi 6.

However, EE wireless broadband is a lot more expensive than buying from Three – often more than double the cost. It’s even more expensive if you want unlimited data, as many of their plans have monthly usage limits.

Conclusion

This is the end of our Three 5G Hub router review.

If you have any questions about Three Home Broadband, leave us a comment below, and we’ll get back to you.

About the author

Tyler Bevan

Tyler is the co-founder of Broadband Savvy. He has been helping people improve their broadband connectivity since 2018 by writing about fibre broadband and mobile broadband providers, as well as creating tutorials to help people improve their broadband speeds and Wi-Fi signal.

Tyler is responsible for the majority of buyer’s guides and broadband reviews published on Broadband Savvy. He has a wealth of experience testing and reviewing different broadband tariffs, including fibre internet plans, as well as 4G and 5G broadband deals. He is responsible for testing and evaluating Wi-Fi routers, performing speed and latency tests, and comparing the value for money of different broadband providers on the market in the UK.

Before co-founding Broadband Savvy, Tyler had a long history of tinkering with computers. He built his first PC at the age of 12, and since then, he’s become obsessed with all things networking and internet-related. He’s a massive gamer, loves Rocket League, and also plays Sunday League football.