Unfortunately, this deal has expired 20 March 2022.
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30 Posted 17 February 2022
ZTE MC801A + unlimited 5G data SIM £25 p/m 12 months = £300 @ Three
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Rastafari
Joined in 2008
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About this deal
This deal is expired. Here are some options that might interest you:
This is the new ZTE MC801 with 5G, up to 2.8 Gbps (limited to 1 Gbps on Three), WiFi 6 etc..
These are going for around £350 on eBay.
This deal is £25 per month for 12 months = £300 total from Three which includes unlimited 5G data SIM.
No brainer. Essentially the 12 months unlimited 5G data SIM is free.
These are going for around £350 on eBay.
This deal is £25 per month for 12 months = £300 total from Three which includes unlimited 5G data SIM.
No brainer. Essentially the 12 months unlimited 5G data SIM is free.
More details at 
Community Updates
Edited by Rastafari, 22 February 2022
30 Comments
sorted byJust a reminder that if you're on our 5G service the broadband hub remains the property of Three Broadband. It will need to be returned when your contract ends to avoid any additional charges being made to your account. (edited)
Well it has bridge mode. I’m happy with the speed:
Link is here....myself and many others were accepted for this, I did it today just saying I was a sole trader..no other business info needed.
hotukdeals.com/dis…e=3
It's an MC801A.
The MC801 has 10Gbit ethernet ports and no antennae ports. The MC801A has gigabit ethernet and two antenna ports. At least the three one I have is MC801A.
If this happens all the time it is network congestion. This year has been my worse year with Three and I’ve been doing 5G for over two years now. It’s because of all these cheap unlimited data plans people are putting into their devices and they are not upgrading capacity.
You need a secondary router that has some sort of traffic management feature. Limit the upload to 10Mbps and your pings will be much better if it’s due to congestion.
SQM is an alternative traffic management feature on OpenWRT routers that prevent bufferbloat - this is where your 13ms ping turns to 600+ once you start using the whole connection downloading something. It will prioritise VoIP and Gaming over torrenting let’s say.
I typically use Cloudflare Warp to tunnel my connection and a HTTPS DNS resolver to prevent traffic management but that used to help but not anymore. There is not much you can do on your end but these small tips will help stabilise the connection. (edited)
Do you have a link for this please?
I’ve owned the 801 previously and flogged it on eBay for a Huawei CPE Pro 2.
The router suffers from bufferbloat as it’s poorly optimised. The Huawei also has the same issue but less prone. In reality it’s Three network as it’s heavily congested - well in my area anyway.
The issue is run a download test like a torrent and you’ll see the latencies ping to the thousands on the upload making gaming impossible.
I used OpenWRT on a Rpi4 and then QoS SQM cake script and limited my upload speeds to prevent it. (edited)
Will sticking this ZTE into bridge mode and getting a dedicated router solve the issue? or will the buffer issue still exist as passed through in modem mode?
That's a bit over my head, tbh. I was going to get a Huawei CPE Pro 2, but then I learned that the new firmware update has removed bridge mode, which I need as I will put the router behind a mesh WiFi system.
I'm currently using the MC801A, in bridge mode, and it seems to be working well. Although it did lose connection today and I had to power cycle to fix it.
I’ve got mine imported from Germany
I originally paid £180 before Brexit charges for the MC801 (not A) which included a 10Gbps port but it was never usable as it only supports NSA 5G not SA.
Later on I got the Huawei and paid around £290 after import charges. Though the German variant still includes the Bridge mode as I use it myself.
For the general user 5G is awesome, I’m an odd outlier that torrents 2TB a month over Three to my Plex NAS
As for the sim, get those Three Unlimited plans for businesses at £2.50/month for businesses or go with a redemption deal they usually are around £9/mo but remember to do the calendar bills. (edited)
I'm on vodafone and this is the worst pings I get when I max it out.
To me it's not a big deal. I am concerned that it's going to be useless if networks start moving to 5G SA. However considering I can't even get 5G NSA I'm not really concerned. To move to Huawei seems like it's going to cost a lot more and I don't think its worth it at the moment.
It seems like we both bought our routers at the same time from the same place perhaps as I paid around the same price.
My router came with the B04 A1 Austria firmware. It's been pretty stable over the year. With up to 200mbit downloads in the middle of the night, like now.
I've bought the Three business sim for £3 so I'll give that a go when I get it. And report back. However I'm not expecting much with that as Three don't even do LTE CA in my area. Just bog standard 1800. With very patchy 5G coverage.
There is a big difference between them so would be good to know
i would not recommend the ZTE router - its pretty limited, although it does work.
i suspect most of the 5G routers are archaic compared to a modern high end normal router.
i only use the ZTE MC801A to get the internet connection. The rest of the network is a ASUS Airmesh network.
Yes,me too 👀👀
MC801A
Yes I too would like to know if the ZTE model is any better than the Huawei one?
How do you get them?
Please help if you can mate, ive got the CPE Pro 2 anytime im gaming online (NAT Moderate) ps4 or 5 i get packet loss and very high pings 500-999. ive tried the changing apn details in the router didnt make much of a different. Please could you explain what this means "OpenWRT on a Rpi4 and then QoS SQM cake script and limited my upload speeds to prevent it." and if you know anything that will help me
Is your MC801A in bridge node supplied by three. Otherwise where did you buy it ?
What speeds / you get (edited)
Yes, it was supplied by Three. It has bridge mode. I have been getting in excess of 400 mb/s.
quote me the time. i can tell you at least on vodafone that as soon as 4am turns it drops out. So perhaps each network resets at various times.
Sorry if I am asking for too much
Can you check if
You can select bands
Activate external antenna from menu
When you click on 5g do you have SA as an option along nsa .. 4g etc.
Thx in advance.
Sorry, I have returned this unit to Three. Awaiting Vodafone MC5001U.