Different 5G Devices Connect At 4G LTE Speeds Only

[kiteflyer01]

Hi.

I'm about 400 metres from a 3 mast near Blackrock in Cork city.  I have tried three different 5G broadband devices (a 5G Fritzbox, a Zyxel BE7000 5G & a GL-XE3000 Puli AX) with a pay as you go SIM but none of them connect at 5G speeds. I only get a 4G LTE connection. My old iPhone 12 does connect at 5G speeds to the same mast in the same location.

All the broadband routers are new and working fine.  I have tried explaining to support agents on the 3 chat but they don't seem to understand the difference in connection speeds.

Is there a reason why I never get 5G connection via broadband?

[Three_Niall]

Hey @kiteflyer01 thanks for posting here, as these aren't Three Ireland I wouldn't be able to advise on these however they may potentially need to have 5G configured in the settings of the device itself.

Have you tried your phone sim in the router to see if you are getting the same 5G connection you are getting on the phone?

[kiteflyer01]

Hi @Three_Niall - thanks for coming back.  I thought the settings would have been preconfigured on the SIM as it is only ever going to connect to the 3 network?

The settings on the GLI device are screenshot below and there is not much to configure. It's the same on the other two devices I tried.  They are connecting at "LTE FDD" which is not 5G. The expectation is that any of these devices should connect at full 5G speeds but there seems to be something on the 3 mast side not allowing that.  The service is being advertised as 5G so I'm wondering why it does not connect at 5G?  All 3 of these devices are capable of connecting at full 5G speeds and they broadcast Wifi7 speeds internally in the house so I don't think these three devices are the issue.

[Three_Niall]

Thanks @kiteflyer01 thanks for the above, the reason that I am asking the above is because some devices may have the option to set your network selection to 5G or 4G only which would force the device to use a 5G connection however as these aren't Three Devices I wouldn't have the knowledge to confirm this. 

I'd be happy to check out the account to see if there is anything there, pop through to me here on PM along with your full name, mobile number, address and date of birth and I can check the account here for you.