Three 4G Hub Unboxing & Review – ZTE 4G Broadband Router Speed Test

34 thoughts on “Three 4G Hub Unboxing & Review – ZTE 4G Broadband Router Speed Test”

1. Read our full review of the Three 4G Hub: https://broadbandsavvy.com/three-4g-hub-review/

2. how is ethernt such a big differance ti wifi, and would a mesh system be better added to it

   1. We did the WiFi test under less than ideal conditions, quite a long way away from the router. A mesh system might be a good idea, we didn’t try that.

3. hi mate decent vid that, my wired router coming from copper phone line is only reaching speeds of 40mbs the kids are screaming cos there gaming is pants, quick question ,im on ee (best reception by far in my area)4g contract on my phone n when I test the phones mobile broadband speed in a sweet spot in my living room I can get roughly 100mbs speeds if I buy a decent dual band LTE enabled mobile router and put a 4g ee sim init ,will It get better speeds than my mobile phone or will it be roughly the same,? if the speeds are decent my kids will be able to game better and I will cancel my broadband deal, any advice would be apreciated.

   1. @Broadband Savvy thank you for your reply. Picking one up today so will let the kids test it. Hopefully the ping is lower on the router than on my phone Internet. Its supposedly a decent router so we will see. Thanks again for your reply. 👌👍

   2. @Broadband Savvy yes mate got one . My wired broadband router was giving me 40 Mbs. With this minter I’m getting 100Mbs of download speed and im getting 35Mbs of upload speed. My ping is 38 on one test but on another online test the ping was 4 with 108Mbs download n 36 upload. The speeds are minted just hope the ping doesn’t effect my lads xboxes when they are gaming. Thanks for the advice mate really appreciated

   3. Where are u living guys ? Don’t know what speed will i get in my flat in London

   4. @Andreik’s Vlogs hi mate get an ee sim n test the speed in your phone. I tested the speed in mine and in a sweet spot in my house I got 100mb of speed. Bought the a decent mobile router found a better sweet spot in the attic. Got speeds of 160mbs . Rapid

   5. @Andreik’s Vlogs As Allan says, it depends a lot on where exactly you live and where the nearest 4G tower is. Doing a test with a Three phone on 4G is a good idea – the router should then be a bit faster.

4. What does the green flashing lift mean. Usually it’s blue. Help. I keep buffering

   1. That light is related to your signal strength. It might be worth moving the router somewhere else with better signal if possible.

5. Good review and it looks like an excellent product. The only thing that puts me off, is the fact that it’s a ZTE product.
   I believe that ZTE products have been blacklisted in the US. Because of this I’d be drawn to the 4G+ router for an extra few pounds per month. The 4G+ router is made in Taiwan which is better for peace of mind personally.
   Just a couple of questions. This router / sim deal is very cheap on 3, do you own the router or have to return it after the contract ends?
   Secondly, I’ve read some people say this is unlocked, have you had the opportunity to try it with different SIM’s?

   1. You own the router at the end of the contract, which is quite good. We are also under the impression that this router is unlocked, however we have not personally tested with a different SIM. It’s worth noting that the 5G Hub is locked, however.

6. just received one of these, totally expected the usb port to work like on the huawei, nope… port is just useless.

7. Hey! Bro I got a zte mf286d router and its working good. But when I connect to the media convert to a lan cable with it. WAN light wont turn on media convert. And it making it slow

   1. It might be worth trying a different cable, are you using the included one? Also be sure to test other devices. If it’s definitely a router problem, we’d recommend ringing Three.

8. Do u have any issues with the speed during the afternoon when the network is congested?

   1. I have this router and I am getting the same speeds throughout the day.. but I think it must depend if their is a high or low customer level in your area. You can get the router and you have fourteen days to try it out. Hope this helps you.

9. Hey do you use the 4g hub for gaming? And if so does it support Nat Type 1 or 2?

   1. We found it to be quite good for gaming as shown in the video, although we have very strong 4G signal. I’m not sure what Nat types are supported, we only tested using a PC.

10. Hi. I have one of these. The USB port seems to be useless … can it be used for anything?

    1. If nothing happens when plugging in a computer, the port is probably a legacy of the hardware design and is deactivated on this model.

    2. @Broadband Savvy I think you are right. It doesn’t have a battery either. That said it’s pretty fast .. and way better than the credit card size 3 modem we had before.

11. TIP: On my unit the MTU value was set too high for my system. Reducng the MTU size boosted the download speed from 40 MPBS to 60 MBPS.
    See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK2PHpKI9M4

12. Has anyone else noticed a huge increase in download speed over the last three months. I have been testing it a lot
    during this time and I was getting between 50 and 60 Mbs and now I am getting between 130 and 180 Mbs. No external or internal antenna, just sits on a upstairs window sill about 2 miles from the tower which is not in line of sight.

13. What is that annoying ticking sound on your video I have to go its doing my head in!!!!!!!!

    1. There’s no commentary, so you can mute the video if the audio annoys you.

14. I used to use sky broadband, my tv and hifi amplifier were connected to sky wifi device , im no longer with sky, will this device replace my sky wifi device without any connection issues ? My amplifier is connected thru wire connection to sky wifi device, wondering if this is anything different

    1. Is the Sky WiFi device you’re referring to a router, and is this the router you’re currently using? If you’re no longer with Sky, you should be fine, I’m assuming you’re using another router. The 4G Hub will replace your router.

15. I have this router and use the Ethernet cable supplied to go direct into my ps5 within a meter apart from each other!
    I get 60-100mbps down and 10-20mbps up with a ping of around 60
    However in game my latency I’d ridiculous and fluctuates between 90 and 999 making it near impossible to game on! We have strong 4g and full signal! I’ve even tried opening the ports used for cod but to no effects, any suggestions

    1. The first thing we would do is narrow down the problem, by testing your ping over Ethernet on other devices. For example, play some games on a PC or another console and see if the issue is the same. If you narrow down the issue to your PS5, then look into different settings you can change on the console or your router’s admin panel to try and fix the issue, or contact Three and see if this is a problem that they have fixed for other customers as well.

    2. @Broadband Savvy thank you for the reply! I live in a lodge on a holiday park in Northampton and went around each socket with the router and pc to find the best location to house the 4g broadband router! I’ve tried playing the ps5 wirelessly which does improve gaming somewhat until another device is activated. I’ve set up a static IP address for the ps5 and created port forwarding for the call of duty ports and also tried placing the ps5 in the DMZ but still fluctuates immensely! Maybe the antenna could work to get a better signal from the nearest mast……

    3. @Broadband Savvy I’ve also run a dns benchmark and found that open dns is best for my location which I have changed to accordingly

    4. @Aaron Webster Did you get similar issues when gaming on a PC in the same location?

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