| Pros | Cons |
| Very fast for 4G | Fibre can still be faster |
| Supports up to 64 devices | |
| 5G-ready |
Three 4G Broadband is as good as a 4G home broadband service and router can get, and it’s 5G-ready too. The only question is whether you want a mobile broadband router, or if fibre would be a better option for you.
Three 4G Broadband is the network’s 4G home broadband service, and if you sign up for this you’re getting both a monthly data allowance and a Three 5G Ready Hub router, so it’s both the device and the service that we’ll be reviewing here.
We’ll also be looking at 4G home broadband as a whole, so you can get a clearer idea of whether it’s right for you, or whether you’d be better off with 5G home broadband or fibre.
| Download speeds (average) | 150Mbps (on 5G) |
|---|---|
| Latency | TBC |
| Supported speeds | 4G and 5G |
| Router | Three 5G Ready Hub |
| Coverage | More than 99% UK. Check coverage |
| Contract lengths | 12 and 24-month plans |
| Price | From £22 a month |
Three 4G Broadband – like all 4G home broadband – is powered by the same 4G networks as you access on smartphones, but rather than your phone receiving a 4G signal, a router in your home does, and it then beams that signal out to all your other devices as a Wi-Fi network.
So, as with fibre broadband you have a router that broadcasts a Wi-Fi network, but the difference is simply in how the router itself receives a signal. With fibre, it’s carried through wires, whereas with 4G home broadband (and 5G home broadband) it’s carried wirelessly from the nearest mast.
| Three 4G Broadband | Fibre broadband |
|---|---|
| Very affordable | Can be a lot more expensive |
| Get up and running the very next day | Could be waiting weeks for an install |
| Plug and play | Will likely need an engineer to install it |
| Portable (as long as you have access to a socket) | Only useable in one place |
| Widely available | Widely available |
| Decent speeds | Great speeds, but depends on plan |
| Higher latency | Lower latency |
Three 4G Broadband and 4G home broadband in general have a lot of advantages over fibre broadband, but they also come with some downsides, so it’s worth working out which option is best for you.
The positives of Three 4G Broadband include extremely affordable pricing, which undercuts most fibre plans.
Three 4G Broadband is also very simple and fast to get up and running with. The network offers next day delivery of the Three 5G Ready Hub, and once it arrives you can easily set it up yourself, as you need to do little more than plug it in. This is in stark contrast to fibre broadband, where an engineer typically needs to set it up for you, and the wait for an appointment can be weeks.
Because Three 4G Broadband is plug and play (with no need for an engineer or a landline), you can also easily take it with you when you move home, or even bring it with you on holiday or anywhere else where you have access to a socket. Fibre broadband meanwhile can only be used in the place it’s installed – you can often transfer your plan to a new home (assuming the company provides broadband there), but you’ll likely need to arrange another engineer visit.
One general benefit of 4G home broadband is that it’s also in some cases available on short-term 30 day plans, making it a great temporary solution. However, at the time of writing Three 4G Broadband is only available on 12 and 24-month plans, so that doesn’t apply to this specific service.
Three 4G Broadband is widely available too, but so is fibre broadband. On the more negative side, the average speeds on Three 4G Broadband aren’t a match for fibre, especially if you’re limited to a 4G connection (rather than 5G). We’ll cover this more below, but Three claims average speeds on 5G are 150Mbps, with 4G of course being a fair bit slower. For fibre, speeds vary a lot depending on your plan, but with full fibre you can get up to around 1Gbps, so it can be a lot faster.
Latency tends to be lower on fibre too, making it better for online gaming. Note that both speeds and latency are better with 5G broadband than 4G broadband, but even then full fibre is typically better still.
If you’ve set up a 4G router before then you’ll be in familiar territory here, and if not, you should still have no issues, as the ease of setup is one of the selling points of 4G routers, as you don’t need a landline (meaning you can also save money) and you don’t need an engineer to come out and hook your property up to the internet.
Instead, it’s designed to be plug and play, but we’ll run you through the full process below, along with what you’ll find in the box.
The main thing in the box is – unsurprisingly – the actual router. Beyond that you just get a SIM card (which you need to put in it), a quick start guide, and a power cable.
Step 1: Remove the SIM card from its packaging and insert it into the slot on the bottom of the router, pushing it gently until it clicks into place.
Step 2: Connect the power cable to the router and a socket and switch it on at the wall.
Step 3: Wait for the lights to stop blinking.
Step 4: You’re now ready to connect devices to the internet using the Three 4G Home Broadband Hub. You can use the supplied network name and password for this, or change them to something of your choosing (the latter generally being more secure). See the quick start guide for assistance with this.
Like most 4G home broadband routers, the Three 5G Ready Hub (which is actually a rebranded Greenpacket E5-250MA) is rather plain.
It’s basically a black cylinder, with a circle of lights a third of the way up, and the ports near the bottom.
The Three 5G Ready Hub comes in at 221 x 116 x 116mm, which means it’s reasonably compact overall, though it stands taller than some. Still, stick it on a table or a shelf and it will quickly fade into the background, as any good router should.
One feature of note here is the two Ethernet ports. We’re fans of having these, so you can plug devices into it for a potentially even faster and more stable connection.
Speaking of the connection, there are also external antenna ports, which can be leveraged to boost your signal if you’re struggling to get a decent one from the Three 5G Ready Hub on its own.
Other features of the Three 5G Ready Hub include the ability to get up to 64 devices online at once (which is a common spec, but should be plenty), and support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands, which again is fairly standard, but some older 4G routers only support 2.4GHz, so it’s nice to see.
| Average | Maximum | Minimum | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Download Speeds | 35.9Mbps | 39.1Mbps | 27.6Mbps |
| Upload Speeds | 5.1Mbps | 6.1Mbps | 3.6Mbps |
| Latency | 29.5 ms | 36 ms | 23 ms |
The Three 5G Ready Hub is extremely fast on paper, supporting download speeds of up to 3Gbps – though that would require a 5G connection and even then isn’t realistic on current networks.
In practice, Three claims its 5G speeds with this average 150Mbps, while on 4G you’ll likely be looking at more in the region of 50Mbps in most cases, though it will depend on what the coverage in your area is like.
Those sorts of speeds are good enough for web browsing and many other basic online tasks, but are less good for 4K streaming and online gaming.
For comparison, Three’s 5G Broadband service delivered average download speeds of 445Mbps in our tests.
Fibre broadband meanwhile offers speeds that range between roughly 30Mbps and over 1Gbps. So 4G broadband is a little faster than the slowest fibre plans, but far slower than the fastest – and you typically get lower latencies of around 20ms on a fixed-line fibre connection.
Of course, getting fast fibre plans can cost a lot more than Three 4G Broadband, and while both fibre and 4G broadband are widely available, there will be places – particularly some rural areas – where 4G broadband is the faster option.
Three 4G Broadband is an excellent 4G home broadband option, beating most 4G rivals for speed, with temptingly low prices and a decent selection of ports.
The only real mark against it is that unless you’re in a rural location that’s unlikely to get 5G for a long time, then the days of 4G broadband being the best wireless option will be numbered for most people, and it’s also a lot slower than full fibre. It’s also no cheaper than Three’s 5G home broadband. But then the latest router available with Three 4G Broadband is 5G-ready anyway.
And not everyone needs the speed of 5G broadband or the expense of full fibre, as 4G is still fast enough for many use cases.
| Three 4G Broadband | Three 5G Broadband | EE Smart 5G Hub 7 Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model Number | Greenpacket E5-250MA | ZTE MC888 | Askey HH72C |
| Download Speeds | Up to 3Gbps | Up to 3.8Gbps | Averages 40Mbps on 4G / 146Mbps on 5G |
| Upload Speeds | Up to 250Mbps | Up to 250Mbps | TBC |
| Maximum Connected devices | 64 | 64 | Over 100 |
| Wi-Fi | Dual Band 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) (2.4GHz and 5GHz) | Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (Wi-Fi 6) 2 x 2 MIMO (2.4GHz and 5GHz) | Dual Band 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) (2.4GHz and 5GHz) |
| Ethernet Ports | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| External Antenna | Yes (sold separately) | No | Yes (sold separately) |
| Power | Mains Power | Mains Power | Mains Power |
| Other Features | |||
| - | Three 5G Broadband review | - |
If you’re looking for home broadband on Three then there’s only one real alternative at the time of writing – Three 5G Broadband. That’s potentially faster (if you have 5G coverage), with theoretical download speeds of up to 3.8Gbps (though real-world speeds will be much lower than that, averaging 445Mbps in our tests, and topping out at 1Gbps on Three’s current network).
Like the Three 5G Ready Hub, the 5G Hub provided with this supports up to 64 simultaneous connections, and has two Ethernet ports. So if you have a 5G signal in your home then it’s definitely going to be the better option, especially as it’s priced the same as Three’s 4G home broadband.
And if you don’t have a 5G signal in your home or only have a weak one, then you might want to consider the Three 5G Outdoor Hub, which is installed outside rather than indoors, so that the signal won’t be blocked by walls or windows.
If you’re not set on Three then there are other alternatives too, notably the EE Smart 5G Hub 7 Plus. This offers average speeds of 40Mbps on EE’s 4G network and 146Mbps on its 5G service, along with having support for over 100 simultaneous connections, and coming with two Ethernet ports. It’s largely a comparable device, so it’s worth considering if you have better coverage with EE than Three, though it's also a lot more expensive.
Outside of 4G and 5G home broadband, there’s also fibre to consider of course. Three 4G Broadband can match or beat the slowest fibre plans for speed, even when paired with just a 4G connection, but many homes will have access to significantly faster fibre options, with full fibre topping out at over 1Gbps – albeit often at a high price.
And if you’d rather have a battery-powered device that you can use anywhere, consider the Three 4G MiFi, which is designed to bring Wi-Fi to your gadgets when out and about, but isn’t quite as capable when used as an always-on home broadband solution.
