External antenna giving slower download speed than no antenna on 4G EE router

[remsta]

I got a 4G EE router for moving back home to rural Scotland in May as the copper lines to the house can only provide a pathetic 1-3mbps speed. There's decent EE coverage in the area.

The 4G router EE sent me lists itself as being a HV70VB-2BE8GB3 model with

Software version: HH70_E1_02.00_24
Modem version: HH70_E1_02.00_24

I bought a Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 Cross Polarised 4G Omni LTE Antenna off Amazon for £80 for it to boost the speed. Without the antenna I get about 15-18mbps download and about 3-4mbps upload and the router lists itself as having "one bar" of signal strength.
I just got the antenna fitted to the outside of the house on the corner where my phone reported the highest signal strength using the debug mode and now I'm getting max 8mbps download and about 18mbps upload yet it claims it has 3 bars signal.
I can't find any method of configuring the antenna in the 4G router's settings (seems to be the classic locked down type interface that these companies ship out to the general public).
I can't find any info on where the local masts are and no one I've spoken to knows where they are. The people in the big estate house nearby are reportedly getting about 35mbps +. I don't know how to find out where's better without getting the antenna taken down again, attach it to a big ass tripod of some kind with some SMA extensions and punt it about the garden until I find a good spot. Guessing it's a 3g/4g switching issue?
Can anyone please give me any tips/help? I live in a bungalow so "hanging out an upstairs window" to find the strongest signal isn't an option. Trying to avoid having to spend hundreds of pounds on a third party 4G router, if I'm going that route because EE's equipment is sub-par I may aswell sign up for Starlink later in the year. Is there a custom firmware available somewhere I could flash the router with which will let me configure the antenna?

Really really frustrated with this. I just want internet I can actually work with. 😞

[bristolian]

Hello @remsta 

By means of an instinctive reaction, this will be likely due to the 4G bandwidth & differing carriers that are available on each of your serving sites.

The location of EE's network sites isn't openly publicised but there some independent sites that use a crowdsourced method to provide a reliable resource - Google will be your friend, otherwise...

If your router software can show you either an eNB ID and/or EARFCN, this will likely provide an answer to your underlying query.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @remsta ,

An omni-directional antenna is best when you might connect to various towers around your location. These make a lot of sense when there's no particular tower or direction you prefer.

You may use cellmapper.net to identify the well-known towers in your area. opencellid.org is good to locate a particular tower which you know your device is connected to. The tower you are connected to may be further than you think.

I recommend to monitor the SINR value with and without the antenna (including various locations without the antenna within your property).

It's absolutely possible that the signal is better received with the multiple antenna in your device than from your external antenna which may be located in a position which is less favourable.

https://usatcorp.com/faqs/understanding-lte-signal-strength-values/

Making a note that at least one user found that antenna height made a huge difference. (25 Mbps down versus 100 Mbps down.)

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/4GEE-WiFi/4GEE-Router-HH70VB-with-external-LTE-antenna-gives-worse-sig...

I recall that is also the main factor advised by the manufacturer: https://poynting.tech/articles/antenna-faq/how-to-install-an-lte-antenna/

[inchlumpie]

Hi Remsta, If you still have a mast location problem try MastData app on an android phone. I had the same problem and stumbled into it I also live the middle of nowhere and with a poe external antenna targetted at a specific mast (it helps because the antenna has 5 led's that light one by one until max connection is achieved) If the mast is shared at all its by the very rare vehicle on a minor rural road so I get 'full whack' often around 220/120 mbps checked using speedtest.net. another useful tool is www.samknows.com where there are numerous search options.