Awful variation in 4g download speeds

[Rob195]

I live on an island with four masts.  Speeds from one are excellent (65-1105 d 25-45 u)  but the other three are very poor  usually 5-8d and 0u.  More often than not one of the three poor masts fails on speedtest completely.  I keep reporting and keep getting told that there is not a problem and it may be a one off........I have three weeks of speed test results now all consistently showing the same.  I moved back to EE after a breif time away to take advantage of a good value 40gb deal but I cant use it.  Very frustrated.  Incidentally the signal from each mast is usually excellent and making calls is not a problem - all masts give me a 3/4 bar 4g but I can park under two of them and get 8mbps at best.

[bristolian]

Ah, Castlebay - one of my favourite spots in the outer Hebrides even though I've only seen it from the back of the Lochboisdale ferry when the triangular route was in-service back in May.

I've a feeling the cells there are omni-directional and aren't sectored, in which case quoting the eNB ID to EE Tech should be sufficient for a fault ticket to be logged for no/slow-upload if all else fails. It may just be down to excess load on that site, but without visibility of the traffic stats, I have no evidence for that.

You may need to be be escalated through to a second-line agent and be specific about the cell-ID, but this should be sufficient info. That, or keep logging reports via the online status checker in the hope they eventually get picked up.

[Rob195]

Hi Bristo;ian

How did you know it was Castlebay?  What can you deduce from all those numbers?  For about three weeks I reported a fault at that location every time I went to the shop (co-op is maybe 200 metres from mast) and every time the reply was to the effect "can not find a fault, perhaps it was a one off. Trying turning your phone off and back on again"

Ggrrrrrrrrrrrr

Rob

[bristolian]

The eNB is a unique identifier that locates any individual 4G radio site. Use that in conjunction with the appropriate mapping tool 😉

[Rob195]

I've just parked 50 yards away from the other slow mast - halfway bewteen home and Castlebay

EE 4G .LTE 1800

CI 4472321

eNb 17470

CID 1

TAC 25821

PCI 156

EARFCN 1617

RSSI -63 dBm

RSRP -85dBm

RSRQ -5dB (red triangle down)

SNR 3.4dB (green triangle up)

CQI 15

TA 13 (1.0k)

Speedtest 7.73 D 3.61 U Ping 480 Jitter 108 3

Can you see anything in the numbers for both slow masts to indicate why.  Incidentally the up from this mast this morning was zero

[bristolian]

Nothing in those figures gives any reason to believe these issues are caused by your coverage levels.

This is looking like an issue of congestion somewhere that will need EE networks to investigate.

[Rob195]

Thanks for all your help.  Tomorrow when I'm out and about I'll get the info from the two (very fast by comparison) other masts.  In your opinon are the speedtest results "normal" or "typical"?  What I find frustrating about the whole thing is that a mast that was as slow as the two above before Monday is now very fast with apps working very slickly.  I've tried to stream video and the slow ones - hopeless.

Rob

[Rob195]

Hi

These  numbers from one of the "fast" masts just now:-

EE 4G .LTE-A 1800

CI 4472066

eNb17469

CID 2

TAC 11692

PCI 174

EARFCN 1617

RSSI -60dBm

RSRP -86 dBm

RSRQ -5dB

SNR 23 dB

CQI 15

TA 17 (1.3k)

102.64  down 46.07 up Ping 38 Jitter 4.86

Can you see anything in these numbers to suggest why it is so fast compared to the others?

Cheers

Rob

[bristolian]

Nothing in those figures gives any reason to believe these issues are caused by your coverage levels.

The site you're connected to appears to be well away (as much as you can be on these islands, anyway!!) from Castlebay.

[Rob195]

Hi

Yes this "fast" mast is about 6 miles (by road) from Castlebay.  In fact if I walk up the road  100 yards to the point where the pin drops in the map when I enter my postcode I can see it- and use it but at home I can neither see it or use it.  However I can see the second of the "slow" masts right now.  It's about 3/4 mile away on top of a hill.

I'm going to grit my teeth and phone the tekky department and give them the details.  If it cant be resolved I'll ask to revert to my previous package ( with very little data) 

Once again thanks for all your help.

Rob

[Rob195]

Hi

here are the numbers for the other "fast" mast:-

EE 4G .LTE-A 1800

CI 4472066

eNb 17469

CID 2

TAC 11692

PCI 174

EARFCN 1617

RSSI -60dBM

RSRP -86 dBm

RSRQ -5dBM

SNR 23dB

CQI 15

TA 17 (1.3k)

down 71.94 up 28.62 ping 29 jitter 8.89

Yesterday I was able to stream BBC Sounds fro both slow masts which is a first but back to normal today.