Appallingly slow Internet

[mlclark]

So my Internet comes in via an EE 4GEE router, complete with external antenna. There are normally occasional glitches, but nothing too bad.

Over the last couple of months the performance has become noticeably worse, especially after 4 or 5pm... sometimes I have to give up working altogether. The last few days it's been barely usable. Apparently it's being "Worked on" and will be fixed "eventually".

This isn't good enough. 4G internet is marketed as an alternative to wired and an adequate and reliable service needs to be provided. I have had enough of being unable to do my job because EE cannot provide the service for which I am paying.

[Chris_B]

@mlclark  So you have a slow internet connection at peek times.   That sounds like the local mast is being heavy used.  EE can not stop people using their devices to keep other customers happy.   If the mast is having issues also this will obviously effect users usage in peek times.     No network can or will guarantee a perfect signal 24/7 as issues can and do happen. 

[bristolian]

Hi @mlclark 

Do you have an EE mobile, and if so, is that similarly affected by slow speeds? That would be a good test of this being a network issue.

Unfortunately slow speeds are not, of themselves, a fault, and you've not said what sort of speeds you're classing as being barely usable?

Does the coverage & status checker report any issues in your locality? Select "check network" on that page to access the faults & issues lookup. If nothing's showing, you can click to "report a problem"

[mikeliuk]

Hi @mlclark ,

Do you know whether the external antenna is directional or omni-directional?

The most recent similar report I am aware of turned out to be caused by a directional antenna no longer pointing in the optimal direction, perhaps due to cell tower changes.

Would it be possible to disable the external antenna to test the internal one, in addition to the suggestion of trying in a phone?

Just out of interest, what does bad mean here in terms of fast.com and speedtest.net output, and can the SNR parameter be checked on the router, searching online to check how to do this?

Does a simple restart of radios or reboot of the router improve performance when the badness occurs?