topic Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming in Gaming

EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

UnGodly — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 21:11:06 GMT

Hi All,

I not too recently swapped back over to EE for my 5G WiFi due to my previous provider just suddenly removing 5G service in my area without telling me, unfortunately it meant I had to go back to EE.

The service I received from a previous provider was superb and much cheaper, better speeds and now I am paying £50 a month for Unlimited Data and significantly worse speeds, however I am not here to bash EE on this.

What I want help with is why on earth the jitter is insanely bad in comparison with EE, to the point where I cannot play online games without having insane packet loss and jitter causing me to teleport in whatever game I may be playing, when on the previous provider I had no such issue, this is half the reason I have the WiFi in the first place and before anyone asks, no I do not have the option for broadband.

I understand 5G WiFi isn't perfect for gaming and it's not at all why I made this post, however I am on a wired ethernet connection to my PC and it is still insanely poor. EE market it as being able to be used for streaming, gaming etc. but it is far from capable of being used for gaming and it's really frustrating me, I have made so many changes, trying to just use a 5G connection but my Smart Hub just will not connect even though I get perfect 5G signal with full bars, my download speeds are anywhere from 140mbps up to 270mbps and upload between 30-45mbps, ping is usually consistently between 25-40, yet still have insane jitter and packet loss every couple of minutes when I play any online game.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can mitigate this or make it useable as I am on the verge of just paying to cancel the contract and using anyone but EE, I don't understand how another service provider can be the complete opposite in that respect when it was a 5G router too.

I have put a Bufferbloat test screenshot on this post to show had badly rated it is, achieving the lowest score possible - F. I don't believe when I am paying such a high price that I should be receiving such poor service from someone as renowned as EE, it's unbelievable how bad it is and I genuinely could get better internet speeds tethering to my mobile device with another network provider, this is a router that is meant to be designed for online gaming as their advertisements claim and if nothing can be done then someone needs to rethink those advertisements as it's completely false.

Any suggestions would be appreciated and I hope someone has something that can help, thank you in advance.

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

Lesley_W — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 09:12:24 GMT

Hi @UnGodly

Thanks for coming to our community.

I'm sorry you are having trouble with your 5G Hub. Has this been consistently like this since you first started using it?

Lesley

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

Lapwing1 — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 19:20:42 GMT

Have you checked if the issue is to do with IPv6, which seems to be a problem for EE Smart Hubs?

If your profile is currently IPv4v6 then change it to IPv4 only and see if that helps.

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

KManton — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:16:17 GMT

Hi, I am having the exact same issue speeds seem to be fine I have even tried change to pv4 I have tried just 4g, 4g and 5g I have tried everything. Any suggestions? Otherwise I will need to return it however I am now locked into a 12 month contract

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

KManton — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:17:53 GMT

I am having the same issues any fix for this ? I tried the pv4 method still no success insane spikes and high packet loss latency in an area with apparently good 4g/5g

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

Ali_A — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 10:12:46 GMT

@KManton

Has this issue happened since the start or something that only began recently?
You can check coverage and network status at Check mobile coverage to see if there is anything going on in the area that could be affecting your connection.

If you're still struggling with jitter, I'd recommend giving Customer Service a call where the technical team can look into your connection issues that you are facing. They may just need to refresh your SIM card connection.

Ali

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

KManton — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:48:33 GMT

Hi, thankyou for coming back to me i have tried the mobile coverage and it shows great coverage on 5g and excellent coverage on 4g but both have consistent packet loss and spikes in ping it is an issue i have had since i bought the device.

I will call the team tonight to get the sim reset

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

UnGodly — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 13:04:36 GMT

Hi Lesley,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you, yes this has been an issue since I have had the device, although a few weeks ago it seemed to be working fine, now I am back to the exact same issue and it's constantly happening every day I use the device.

I don't understand how you can claim that EE's 5G network is built for gaming when it is this poor, to get a buffer bloat score of F is an incredibly poor score.

Nothing I have tried will fix it, reset the hub to factory settings, restarted it several times, changed to IPV4 in the settings and that did nothing, I have taken the sim card out and cleaned it and put it back in the device.

Bearing in mind I am using ethernet and not WiFi I can't even imagine how bad it would be through WiFi.

Thanks

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

UnGodly — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 13:07:59 GMT

Hi Lapwing1,

Yes I have tried IPV4 and it's done nothing to solve the problem, as KManton has stated I have tried to change to just 5G, just 4G etc. and it's done nothing but make it 10X worse.

This ridiculous for the cost of it, I was with 3 Network before and never had this issue with their 5G network for gaming, if they hadn't of removed their 5G coverage from my area without even telling me I would have never swapped back to EE.

I don't know how much you know about networking but to get a buffer bloat score of F is incredibly poor, this network is not designed for gaming as much as EE claim it is, I don't mean to offend EE with that statement but it is factual at this point.

I am getting a near perfect connection from the hub having almost full signal bars and still experiencing ping spikes, packet loss, network jitter etc.

Thanks

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

UnGodly — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 13:10:54 GMT

Hi KManton,

Did this fix the issue for you or are you still experiencing it? I had it stop for a few weeks, but just before I went on holiday it came back again and has been constant ever since, I am at a loss and to be honest when my contract runs out will likely cancel it.

The cost of it is ridiculous, as I said before they claim their network is built for gaming but it is not in any way or shape built for it, buffer bloat score just proves it.

When I was with 3 network I never had this issue at all, the only issue I had was when they suddenly removed my 5G coverage in my area without even telling me, hence why I swapped back to EE.

Thanks

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

Lapwing1 — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 13:34:49 GMT

I did a bufferbloat test and like you have come away with an F.

The issue for our connection lies with the upload. I had noticed that when I ran Speedtest.net while having a ping running at the same time, during the upload part of the speed test the latency on the ping numbers shot up into >1,000. And that was the case with the bufferbloat test. Download was within acceptable parameters but the upload latency was through the roof.

The issue - according to Waveform - lies with the router. And that is definitely the case with EE's - it's substandard to BT's yet it seems it's the EE router that BT/EE now foists onto customers. I've read elsewhere that EE was impacted by the Huawei 5G ban and it looks like they've opted for a poor substitute.

But I presume we're tied to the EE router, just as it was/is with BT?

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

Matt_124 — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 13:50:29 GMT

The issue does not lie exclusively with the router, but can be mitigated by a router than incorporates QoS and is more sensitive and intelligent to dealing with bufferfloat and incorporates SQM, it is more to do with using a mobile connection as opposed to fixed-line.

The Waveform site makes no reference to mobile connections, does not recommend mobile routers and assumes fixed-line in most cases and as such places the blame solely on the router as opposed to other factors such as congestion or signal strength on the network side which all factor in.

With fixed line connections there is a steady flow of data, as opposed to mobile networks in which this can vary.

Performance in areas with 5G Standalone may see improvements to this, but it will never rival a fixed-line connection in these metrics.

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

UnGodly — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:28:52 GMT

Hi Matt,

Whilst a lot of what you say is correct, you are wrong on the last aspect.

When I was with Three who had essentially the same thing, a 5G router that had Ethernet ports, the download speeds were faster than some fixed line connections that people I know have. I paid a fraction of the cost of fixed line broadband and what EE offer, I had to pay extra from EE just to get speeds over 100mbps, thinking it would ensure I had a smooth experience when gaming, boy was I wrong and all they have done is mugged me in broad daylight, it is laughable!

With Three I was getting 350-500mbps download speed, 40-50mbps upload speed, ping sat at 23ms consistently and most importantly ZERO packet loss, ZERO ping spikes, ZERO net jitter.

Id also like to point out that there shouldn’t be congestion for my connection, I paid extra just to ensure I got prioritised connection which is what the sales person told me would be better for gaming, all to get more money out of me, there’s several options when purchasing now so they can get more money from you, I chose to pay more to have prioritised connection which is stupid and a scam within itself, no other network provider does this as far as I know.

I am going to find a way to get this cancelled with EE because its not what i expected and paid for, after numerous attempts to hold off and hope it would fix itself or something would be done, reporting it to be told there is no issue etc. EE are the biggest scams when it comes to mobile broadband and their claims of it working great for gaming are nothing short of a lie.

This will be the last time I ever even attempt to have 5G broadband from EE, if I could have fixed line broadband we wouldn’t even be having this conversation so no offence but pointing out the obvious isn’t helpful as much as you are trying to be.

Re: EE 5G Smart Hub, insanely poor jitter and not fit for gaming

Royalwithcheese — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 10:35:34 GMT

Same false advertising..I've mentioned this to service operators.. one bad jitter and lag and buffer and disconnections..no good for gaming online.. download speeds on the whole even on 4g full bars (not 5g) go above 200mps usually and 50 to 100+ upload so thats never been a major problem . On 5g it has gone to 400+ ..but for gaming jitter/latency/ lag work from home ( vnc ,remote desktop ) you prob wont get the job as your bufferbloat score (which alot of remote companies test for think)will not allow you to work consistantly and as I've seen in the past you won't pass the job interview broadband test stages...shame as I've many many a problem with the staff on the end of the line explaining techinal things most of them don't even realise is a problem or that its even an issue.(cgnat etc.... ) yet they do have friendly ppl ,speak well and try their best to fix the situation ..which is prob why im still paying EE for this useless hub service.. but won't be for long.. when I get a true home fibre connection .. 🤞