Three dongle - 3g connects 4g doesn't

I have finally received my 4g dongle and installed the software on my PC. 3g works but only get about 14mbps on the dongle on 3g and 25 in my 3g phone. But when I change network to LTE only it says 4g but "service restricted". I have checked the settings many times and tried the dongle on my Asus router (get about 14mbps down on that).

Any ideas what could be wrong? Is it a dongle problem or a three problem. I have topped up the SIM with 2gb of data and My3 is show 1988mb remaining.

Can you give us a link to what dongle you have bought please? It's just as relevant as "which modem or router" on landline.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 23-Sep-20 00:28:18)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4G-LTE-WiFi-Router-Wirele...

I am using 3g now but 4g no go.

That is likely to be highly directional (in all three-dimensional orientations) and very sensitive to location in the house in relation to the location of the mast. Both my 4G phones and my 5G one, and my Three router are. See all the discussions of how to improve reception using external antennae in this forum, and how tricky it is to optimise reception.

No doubt you already know about how moving or rotating kit by just a few centimetres/degrees can make a huge difference to normal wifi between router and computer or phone. The same applies to mobile data connections.

Upstairs is usually best, and on the same side of the house as the mast. How to check the connection stats, as in several posts in this thread, on a Windows machine or the SIM in a Windows phone I don't know. All the signal analysers seem to be for Android or iOS, with Windows ones all looking to be about detecting attacks.

And Tim! Yikes! Completely unbranded? Plugged into your computer and software installed from it? Even a top class internet security suite won't know where it (its firmware) might talk to. As for the internal components quality, who knows!

Did you by any chance look at the seller's link on the right? Registered as a business seller on eBay in May (but has 12 months of weird ratings) and sells all sorts of stuff. An address that shows in Google Maps as in the middle of the University of East London campus.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 23-Sep-20 01:40:13)

I think you're off base with the directional thing as I get 5 bars on signal strength. I think this is SIM related. See pic.

https://ibb.co/8mz9Ckm

Its not for long term use if I get good speeds (if I get a working one) I will buy a 3 router.

You mean buy an equivalent router elsewhere? Then stay on PAYG?

That "Service is restricted" message is very odd. Nobody has ever reported that since I got into "landline ditching".

I wonder what band(s) that dongle can use. Plus, whether it is even UK spec.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I wonder what band(s) that dongle can use. Plus, whether it is even UK spec.

Frequency band: B1, B3,FDD,3G

https://forum.xda-developers.com/android-auto/androi...

Found this thread, Post #10.

In reply to a post by Banger:

Any ideas what could be wrong? Is it a dongle problem or a three problem. I have topped up the SIM with 2gb of data and My3 is show 1988mb remaining.

eBay is a problem place to buy mobile communications technology, as anything can be sold. The "service is restricted" is at a guess, because your dongle doesn't support Band 20, which might be the preferred signal you are getting indoors. It appears to be designed for the Asia region, not designed for European use (might work in USA) with those limited bands. My ancient Vodafone dongle supports more 4G (LTE) bands than this does.

It could also be that Three have blocked its use, they can identify the make etc from their end.

All Three SIM's have always allowed 4G from the day they launched 4G.

Does it have to be a dongle via USB ? Dongles are "old hat" in the industry, and a Category 3 150 Mbps device is going to be very slow at any speeds you might get. Forget the "branding" speed in the real world (like WiFi).

Anything needs support for the European bands, B1, B3, B20 (all FDD), and B32 (SDL) for Three today in 2020.

If you want top speeds, you're going to have to pay quite a bit more I'm afraid.

Edited by jchamier (Wed 23-Sep-20 07:40:17)