4G Assure Dongle by BT

Hi All,

I'm in the process of moving home to a new build and unfortunately openreach are having some planning issues due to height restrictions on the copper over a public highway.

Prior to the move I had FTTP Ultrafast 2 Plus which included the option of a 4G device in the event of service failure. I'm moving to an FTTC product from BT retail and since Openreach sub contractor botched the install I'm left without broadband.

I enquired with retail about the 4G assure Dongle or the Mini hub but they refused stating I don't meet the criteria to have one. Essentially because my problem is a failed install and not a fault I can't have either.

This didn't deter me so I bought the 4G Assure Dongle by BT from Amazon. It came sealed with a BT sim. I followed the instructions and connected to the USB port at the rear of my new BT Smarthub 2. I get flashing blue LED which according to the documentation indicates the dongle is attempting to connect to BT's 4G infrastructure. It never gets any further so I wonder if there is a sim activation or provisioning issue. I then put a three data only sim in the dongle and got two flashes of green LED which indicates a stable connection to 4G network.

However, the Smarthub 2 doesn't seem to recognise that the dongle has successfully connected to the internet.

Anyone have any experience with this device. To be clear this is the dongle by BT and not the mini hub.

Thanks in advance.

For now, try sticking the Three SIM in a 4g-capable phone then either use it as a hotspot, which will definitely work or USB-tether it to the router and see if that works. Three specifically allow this.

I'm entirely on Three now and use both those techniques, though I have recently also bought the Three HomeFi so the internet is still active when I'm out with my phone.

Thanks but I already have three mifi which works okay. I'm really just trying to avoid to setting everything up twice. Three phones, two tablets, two macs, philips hue, ring doorbell, two fitbit watches, fitbit weighing scales, three tv's, two amazon sticks, sky q and sky q mini, echo dots, etc etc.

Also the 4G devices from Three only use 2.4Ghz which is not great with the size of my property.

Hence the reason for wanting to setup via the smart hub. I've managed to figure out that BT have carrier locked the the dongle which is some variant of the Huawei E3372. Tried several sources online but the unlock codes don't work. I've also rang BT retail but typically they're unable to help and can't/won't provide an unlock code.