EE Router speed drops enquiry

kulike96 — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:58:50 GMT

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well.

I wanted to ask about my 2020 EE 5G router, the EE-branded Zyxel NR5103. Despite the EE signal checker map showing my area as having a strong 5G connection, I've been facing consistent signal/speed issues. On a good day, I get about 60Mbps download speed, but it is quite inconsistent. I frequently experience speed drops, sometimes as low as 0.2Mbps, rendering my internet unusable. Though a simple restart temporarily resolves the issue, it's frustrating to have to do this almost hourly. My router settings always show it to be connected to "5G" with a signal strength between 3 and 4 bars.

I've spent countless hours trying to get assistance from various levels of EE's technical team, all providing the same basic troubleshooting tips which did nothing. After logging a formal complaint and going back and forth with EE, they informed me that despite what their map shows, I'm not in a 5G zone and thus cannot expect high speeds. They attributed the speed drop issue to my router switching between masts, which I would understand if not for what their own website claims as fact.

After that was revealed I contacted their sales team as a "prospective customer" and after asking about connectivity, they assured me that I was within the 5G zone. It seems that EE may be falsely advertising their connection range, but they have not acknowledged this concern and have directed me to complain to a regulator. I plan to do so, as I believe this issue needs to be addressed appropriately.

In the meantime, I'm still bound by my contract with EE, and I'm wondering if there's a possible solution to improve my signal. I live in a top-floor rented property and am considering getting an external antenna to hang just outside my window. However, I'm unsure if this would make a significant difference since my current router is already located by that window. If I do go ahead with this, I'd need an antenna that's stronger than what's inside the router, but finding a proper datasheet of the router for comparison has proven difficult.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your help.

Re: EE Router speed drops enquiry

Christopher_G — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 16:39:36 GMT

Hi @kulike96

Welcome to the community. I'm sorry to hear of your experience.

The EE Coverage checker is an estimate of coverage, this is what it says on there:

'These results are only a guide and not a guarantee of service availability in a particular location. Coverage may be affected by a number of factors, such as building materials, tree cover and weather conditions and how many other people are using the network too. Results are based on computer prediction to a high confidence but are not error free.'

If you take the router outside, does the connection improve?

Chris

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EE Router speed drops enquiry

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