Huawei B311 on Three Mobile Broadband

We've had a fault on our landline this weekend which meant we've been tethering all sorts of devices to my Three phone instead. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my 4Gb tethered data limit had been quietly removed! And the entire family are pleasantly surprised that they're getting speeds in the 20-60Mbps range rather than maxing out at 11.5Mbps on our exchange only landline.

I can see from other threads here that people have been junking their landlines and moving to just using the Three tethering instead. This wouldn't be a sensible solution for us as a family since I'd like my mobile phone to stay mobile, there still needs to be internet at home when I'm out, and there looks to be a ten device limit on using it as a hotspot, but it is making me seriously think about the HomeFi offering from Three. I had thought this was way too expensive but the 24-month contract for Unlimited Data at £22/month is very tempting.

I can see that there are some restrictions on the Huawei B311 from Three and wanted to know if these would affect us. I am hoping someone can help me decipher whether these are going to be a problem for us.

At the moment we download around 300Gb/month.
I can count up 23 devices that regularly use the wifi (that's before guests and little used devices get added in occasionally) and I've probably missed some things out.
We have a separate wifi router from our ADSL modem to better deal with our big house with thick stone walls.

LTE Cat 4: 150/50Mbps (FDD)@ 20M BW Data service, LTE DL 2*2 MIMO CSFB, VoIP or VoLTE(2rd release) � DISABLED � this device does not support VOIP when connected to a phone via CAT 5 cable Does this just mean we can't use a normal phone with it? That's fine. Does it mean we can use VOIP calls by other means? In the short term at least we'd probably keep the landline for voice calls anyway (presuming that the fault on the line gets fixed.) Do the other bits mean anything that I ought to be aware of?

Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n I understand this bit at least!
Up to 32 simultaneous users/devices A little limiting but I think we could cope - but how would it interact with an external wifi router? Or would it not allow us to use an external wifi router? [Edited to add: "bridge mode" is the term I was forgetting here. Can I use this router in bridge mode so a separate router does all the wifi stuff instead?]
1 POTS 1 GE What does this mean please?
1 SMA external antenna optional. I presume this is just to ensure better 4G connection?

Also edited to add: or can I use the Three HomeFi SIM in a different 4G router that will meet our needs better? I don't mind buying decent hardware.

Thanks for any insight you can give!

Edited by kadi (Mon 04-Feb-19 11:18:10)

Why not just join in with the already active thread? As it's all answered there for you anyway.

In reply to a post by kadi:

Also edited to add: or can I use the Three HomeFi SIM in a different 4G router that will meet our needs better? I don't mind buying decent hardware.

Yes, but you have a choice. See how well the 32 connection limit works for you, as I assume that means simultaneous, not "total ever", or if you prefer to use some other MiFi router just get the £20 "phone SIM" instead which will work in anything.

Thanks. Which thread? I've read through tons of stuff and not yet found the exact answers I was after.

I'd recommend the Huawei B525 4G router (see here: Huawei B525s-65a on eBay [this is the best version, the 65a variant covers more LTE band frequencies and they throw in 2 "bunny ear" antennae, you can always install an outdoor 4G antenna to connect to router to boost signal further]). This is a Cat6 router (better than B311), has 4 ethernet ports (instead of 1), and also allows up to 64 devices to connect. You can pair it with the £20 per month unlimited SIM (if that's still on offer). Or just use in in place of the B311.

All details in previous threads below.

If you go for the £22 per month (24 month) deal, I'd try the B311 first - if it doesn't meet your needs, then I'd recommend the B525, and just use the SIM in that instead. Good Luck!

EDIT: you can use the RJ11 phone port on B525 (& presumably B311?) to connect a phone, you can either use it in VOIP mode, or use any minutes on the SIM card (but may have to configure router's network mode to "3G/4G Auto" instead of "4G Only", as B525 is not officially supported by Three for VoLTE [Voice Over LTE/4G], so has to drop from 4G to 3G to make & receive calls - I also found I had to turn off Three voicemail by dialling ##002# from phone connected to RJ11 otherwise it would kick-in before I could answer phone). You could even use both SIM minutes and VOIP, but to do that you connect one phone to router's RJ11 to use SIM minutes, and you'd have to use a VOIP adapter box (e.g.: Grandstream HT802 2 Port VoIP Analogue Telephone Adaptor) to connect to RJ45 ethernet port & connect phone to VOIP adapter.
You may need a BT-to-RJ11 adapter to connect a phone (e.g. BT-to-RJ11) to either router or VOIP adapter - depending on if your phone handset or base station uses RJ11 already, or the older BT-style connectors. Hope this helps.

Edited by AdamInTheSticks (Mon 04-Feb-19 12:37:36)

Thanks, that's super useful at pointing me in the right direction. I'm now thinking I might just pick up a 4G router and try it with the SIM from my phone. I'm already on Three Unlimited Data, at only £17/month somehow, though I'm a bit wary of using it for something it wasn't sold for. That would let me test out the connection under our regular load before committing to another 24-month contract.

In reply to a post by kadi:

I'm already on Three Unlimited Data, at only £17/month somehow, though I'm a bit wary of using it for something it wasn't sold for.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/bulletin...

Thank you! That's good to know!

If the B311 is like the previous B310 that Three used to sell then you can set a DMZ connection from the output of the Three router to the WAN port of another router,

This acts like a bridge with the small overhead of double NAT but allows port forwarding to work.

I have mine plugged into a Asus RT-AC87U. It also means you can take advantage of the better features and wireless range of the Asus router, it also meant I had nothing to change in the configuration of my internal network so no-one noticed any change apart from the much faster speed.

I just disabled the wireless on the Three router as I don't use it.

Edited by onthenet (Mon 04-Feb-19 17:11:50)

In reply to a post by kadi:

We've had a fault on our landline this weekend which meant we've been tethering all sorts of devices to my Three phone instead. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my 4Gb tethered data limit had been quietly removed! And the entire family are pleasantly surprised that they're getting speeds in the 20-60Mbps range rather than maxing out at 11.5Mbps on our exchange only landline.

I can see from other threads here that people have been junking their landlines and moving to just using the Three tethering instead. This wouldn't be a sensible solution for us as a family since I'd like my mobile phone to stay mobile, there still needs to be internet at home when I'm out, and there looks to be a ten device limit on using it as a hotspot, but it is making me seriously think about the HomeFi offering from Three. I had thought this was way too expensive but the 24-month contract for Unlimited Data at £22/month is very tempting.

I can see that there are some restrictions on the Huawei B311 from Three and wanted to know if these would affect us. I am hoping someone can help me decipher whether these are going to be a problem for us.

At the moment we download around 300Gb/month.
I can count up 23 devices that regularly use the wifi (that's before guests and little used devices get added in occasionally) and I've probably missed some things out.
We have a separate wifi router from our ADSL modem to better deal with our big house with thick stone walls.

LTE Cat 4: 150/50Mbps (FDD)@ 20M BW Data service, LTE DL 2*2 MIMO CSFB, VoIP or VoLTE(2rd release) � DISABLED � this device does not support VOIP when connected to a phone via CAT 5 cable Does this just mean we can't use a normal phone with it? That's fine. Does it mean we can use VOIP calls by other means? In the short term at least we'd probably keep the landline for voice calls anyway (presuming that the fault on the line gets fixed.) Do the other bits mean anything that I ought to be aware of?

Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n I understand this bit at least!
Up to 32 simultaneous users/devices A little limiting but I think we could cope - but how would it interact with an external wifi router? Or would it not allow us to use an external wifi router? [Edited to add: "bridge mode" is the term I was forgetting here. Can I use this router in bridge mode so a separate router does all the wifi stuff instead?]
1 POTS 1 GE What does this mean please?
1 SMA external antenna optional. I presume this is just to ensure better 4G connection?

Also edited to add: or can I use the Three HomeFi SIM in a different 4G router that will meet our needs better? I don't mind buying decent hardware.

Thanks for any insight you can give!

Leech away like crazy been leeching over 200gb each month since 2017 not even one word from three took out another sim contract AYCE for £11 home broadband only using 600gb + no issues cancel your home broadband.

Someone is claiming they have done 3.8TB in a month - not sure if that's true - it's more than I do on a 400mbps cable line.

In reply to a post by 23Prince:

Someone is claiming they have done 3.8TB in a month - not sure if that's true - it's more than I do on a 400mbps cable line.

I done over 5tb since November 2018 black friday sim my router TPLINK says 5.3tb data total usage.

Aye but this is per month - not in total

Still impressive

I've just seen a full page ad in my paper for the Three HomeFi at £22. In the small print at the bottom it says, (as someone recently posted in one of the three threads), that this is the 100GB plan with Unlimited Data add-on. So that is definite.

As far as I'm aware there isn't and wasn't any such statement about the £20 SIM only deal, which appears to be the (currently not showing) £27 Unlimited one discounted.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 07-Feb-19 17:04:40)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I've just seen a full page ad in my paper for the Three HomeFi at £22. In the small print at the bottom it says, (as someone recently posted in one of the three threads), that this is the 100GB plan with Unlimited Data add-on. So that is definite.

As far as I'm aware there isn't and wasn't any such statement about the £20 SIM only deal, which appears to be the (currently not showing) £27 Unlimited one discounted.

I took a sim deal for £27 haggled the prices down to £11 after 1 day using the 14 days cooling period ended up with 200minutes AYCE Unlimited text unlimited hotspot using the three complaint link on Google.

It's possible depends how good your haggling skills are some people got it even lower like £8

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I've just seen a full page ad in my paper for the Three HomeFi at £22. In the small print at the bottom it says, (as someone recently posted in one of the three threads), that this is the 100GB plan with Unlimited Data add-on. So that is definite.

As far as I'm aware there isn't and wasn't any such statement about the £20 SIM only deal, which appears to be the (currently not showing) £27 Unlimited one discounted.

It might have been me who pointed that out - but here is the screenshot taken from my account indeed confirming this.

https://i.postimg.cc/HLrzMT9V/Screenshot-2019-02-08-...

My allowance also started to go down before they whacked it on which was a day or so later

Edit: My speed isn't great but I have no complaints. It's running the downloads on a SkyQ box via ethernet quite happily - and the wifi signal goes all over my house - even the SH3 couldn't do that and I had to have a power line repeater in the living room

https://www.speedtest.net/result/8023998997

Edited by deleted (Fri 08-Feb-19 12:45:44)

Interesting

i wonder why it is like that

i mean is it a legal thing or "industry" trick.

I guess Mobile Broadband is different to handset data and needs an addon? Probably a trick as the system isn't set up for it and so one needs to be added.

It's working in either case - The router seems stable although I do turn if off when I don't need it on - no idea why just a habit. it takes about 12 seconds from power to online so not bad.

I had to cancel under 14 days - annoying but they had capacity issues at the mast, despite notifying me and doing capacity upgrades the speed is even worse - it's a shame but I can't even consider an unlimited sim with 3 or any 3 MVNO as I only have the 1 mast in my area to bounce off ( I've checked and that's true believe it or not) downside of the countryside!

Can't fault 3 in their communication.. nor in the call centre who were very polite and sorted it right away.

66GB used - most of it painfully slow.

The search for a decent backup continues....

Edited by deleted (Wed 13-Feb-19 15:48:24)

One part of my first Three bill claimed I'd used 2.2TB in the month. Another part reckoned 1.2TB. Three's metering/billing systems are not good...

My data says I used ~1TB.

Good thing it's unlimited then

Yes it does not seem right - My bill that I had generated a few days ago said something like 38GB but I had had 66 go through the router - so how do they figure?

What department did you contact to get them to drop the prices, I might try a 4g home connection now whilst I wait for the contract on my TT broadband contact to end.

Some excellent advice in this thread, thank you everyone. I'm seriously considering the 3 network £22 per month unlimited mobile broadband. Just to add, I have noticed the Huawei B311 uses a full sized sim card, so if anyone (like me) is thinking of upgrading to the Huawei B525 please be aware it uses a micro sized sim. So you won't be able to swap across the sim to the B525 - it won't fit. (unless you have the sim type that snaps out from a full to a micro sized one) I've read in forums that 3 network charge for a replacement sim. I will ask for a free micro size sim when I phone 3 network for the deal. Hopefully they'll ab liege. Thank you again for the info everyone.

All Three sims are multi-format - they include the cutouts for nano, micro and mini.

So you'll use the mini for the B311 and in future if you ever buy a B525 - you can then just push the micro part from that.

In reply to a post by laserenvy:

uses a full sized sim card, so if anyone (like me) is thinking of upgrading to the Huawei B525 please be aware it uses a micro sized sim. So you won't be able to swap across the sim to the B525 - it won't fit. (unless you have the sim type that snaps out from a full to a micro sized one)

Careful of SIM size terminology.

1FF = 1st Form Factor = Full Size SIM, exactly the same as a credit card (with chip!)
2FF = 2nd Form Factor = Mini SIM, as used in most phones from around 1994 onwards
3FF = 3rd Form Factor = Micro SIM, most phones since 2000/2002 era
4FF = 4th Form Factor = nano SIM, current Google Pixel, Samsung, Apple devices

This picture shows the smaller three.
https://i.imgur.com/m5Am5UH.jpg

Edited by jchamier (Sat 06-Apr-19 11:09:28)

Although you are technically correct after working with O2, EE (inc T-Mobile & Orange) and 3, the front line advisors call the "Mini" sim a full sized sim. In fact the last time I heard anyone reference a full size credit card sim was around 2002 when working with Genie and BT Cellnet process alignment.

Also, I don't remeber micro sims being available in 2002/2003 at all. From memory it was many years after this, in fact i am sure it was for either the iPhone or iPad when o2 started stocking micro sims in anything other than small amounts.

Edited by gary333 (Sat 06-Apr-19 22:18:54)

I think the iPhone 4 + iPad 1 were the first wide-release device that used the micro sim format - which puts it in mid-2010.

I've also signed upto this deal in the last week, and opted straight for a B525. I've managed to find a way of flashing different firmware to it and so I've now been able to enable a lot of additional pages - and also the Bridge mode function. It does require opening the unit.
Very happy with the network so far. I can now switch bands on the B525 too, confirmation I can connect to B20 - it's allowed by the network. Modded B525 correctly picks up the correct 3 APN for MBB (3internet).

B311 is still sat, sealed, in it's box!

In reply to a post by gary333:

Although you are technically correct after working with O2, EE (inc T-Mobile & Orange) and 3, the front line advisors call the "Mini" sim a full sized sim. In fact the last time I heard anyone reference a full size credit card sim was around 2002 when working with Genie and BT Cellnet process alignment.

Well "front line advisors" (ie, call centre staff) are the last to know anything technical !

Full size / credit card size - was the cards used by one2one at launch (1993) and the Motorola phones Orange launched with (1994). http://regmedia.co.uk/2012/11/09/phones_28.jpg

Also, I don't remeber micro sims being available in 2002/2003 at all. From memory it was many years after this, in fact i am sure it was for either the iPhone or iPad when o2 started stocking micro sims in anything other than small amounts.

Working from memory failed me, as the other poster says around 2010.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by gary333:

Although you are technically correct after working with O2, EE (inc T-Mobile & Orange) and 3, the front line advisors call the "Mini" sim a full sized sim. In fact the last time I heard anyone reference a full size credit card sim was around 2002 when working with Genie and BT Cellnet process alignment.

Well "front line advisors" (ie, call centre staff) are the last to know anything technical !

Full size / credit card size - was the cards used by one2one at launch (1993) and the Motorola phones Orange launched with (1994). http://regmedia.co.uk/2012/11/09/phones_28.jpg

Also, I don't remeber micro sims being available in 2002/2003 at all. From memory it was many years after this, in fact i am sure it was for either the iPhone or iPad when o2 started stocking micro sims in anything other than small amounts.

Working from memory failed me, as the other poster says around 2010.

The point being when ordering a full size sim you will be asking front line advisors for it to be sent out, so they will know fully well what you mean by full sized sim. Most will never have seen a full sized credit card sim in use or even know they ever existed.

In reply to a post by gary333:

The point being when ordering a full size sim you will be asking front line advisors for it to be sent out, so they will know fully well what you mean by full sized sim. Most will never have seen a full sized credit card sim in use or even know they ever existed.

Thankfully all the operators now issue one plastic card with press out parts for each size. So it doesn't matter thankfully.

Its a shame such helpdesk operators are so badly trained! These things are ISO standards.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by gary333:

The point being when ordering a full size sim you will be asking front line advisors for it to be sent out, so they will know fully well what you mean by full sized sim. Most will never have seen a full sized credit card sim in use or even know they ever existed.

Thankfully all the operators now issue one plastic card with press out parts for each size. So it doesn't matter thankfully.

Its a shame such helpdesk operators are so badly trained! These things are ISO standards.

Don�t think it matters, the full size sim hasn�t been common for 20 years and it�s common language for customers to call it a full sized SIM so no point correcting the customer when everyone knows what they mean.