EE Broadband Performance significantly worse than with BT

[rjs6]

Hi all,

I've recently switched from BT broadband to EE broadband and received a new EE Smart Hub Plus as part of the switch. Since the switch, I've noticed Internet performance is significantly worse with EE than it was with BT.

Generally everything feels that little bit slower, but for some web sites, including sites like the BBC, Sky, even the EE site, the web sites will load very slowly or even timeout completely, then suddenly load and work perfectly. 

I work a lot from home, and everything on my work laptop, working via VPN, feels much slower, including logging in, copying files, accessing internal apps, etc.

Both my main home PC and work laptop use wired connections to the hub. Hub (SH31B) firmware version is r1.35.0-R-1138091-PROD-83002, downstream sync speed is 76.49 Mbps, upstream sync speed is 19.56 Mbps. Hub uptime was 2 days, 6 hours, and going by the log it restarted itself just after 3am in the morning (no idea why).

I've tried testing my broadband service via the Smart Hub, but it just seems to take me to my EE home page, and if I try to test via the EE app it tells me that, "Your home connection could be improved", but provides no detail. It suggests it's going to run further tests and restart my hub. The hub then restarts, but there doesn't appear to be any improvement in performance.

I think I might still be within my contract cooling off period so I'd be interested to hear from others if this experience is typical or if I might have some kind of fault on my service. Unfortunately I've already returned by BT Hub so I can switch that back in to determine whether or not the hub is the problem. Looks as if EE technical support is as bad as BT's so not very hopeful there, but I'm awaiting a call back from them anyway. Assuming I can still cancel my contract, I'm already wondering if I should consider switching to an alternative provider.

Would appreciate any feedback/thoughts.

[XRaySpeX]

Welcome to EE's Home Broadband Forum.

You are getting the expected sync speeds from an 80 Meg product.

1. Try a wired speedtest, using an Ethernet cable supplied with the router, here http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html . Click on the "Results Page" button at the bottom of the graph you first see and then copy to here just the "Link to this result:" link that you see below the next main graph.

2. What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker, not the Postcode Checker.

[rjs6]

Thanks for the reply.

I've no issue with the reported sync speeds, they are similar to what I saw with BT (equivalent product). My problem is that performance is significantly worse with my new service than it was with the old, which I appreciate is subjective, but completely obvious to me as the primary user.

[JimM11]

@rjs6 It's one of those, if you feel that you are not happy with everything then time to leave.

[rjs6]

Thanks for the reply Jim. I'm new to EE, but are you suggesting that this is something typical with EE, and generally goes unresolved? 

As I say, I think I'm currently in a position where I could change provider before my contract fully kicks in so that's essentially what I'm trying to establish.

[JimM11]

@rjs6 I can tell you now that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the EE Smarthub+, it's not the greatest or the worst ever out there, but it is a huge leap up from your BT Smarthub2 which is/was a good router also. And on wired ethernet connections if you are using then you should see no issues, apart from the slight delay getting off, The Ethernet port connection has a few quirks but its all up to you.

[XRaySpeX]

Hence my request for a speedtest & availability check, which you have not responded to.

Are you on Full Fibre (FTTP) or copper to the home (FTTC)?

[XRaySpeX]

No, speeds are not generally an issue with EE BB & its routers. It's other ancillary things that might be problematic.

[rjs6]

Thanks again Jim. 

I'm curious about your comment related to the ethernet port having a "slight delay getting off", can I ask you what you mean by that? As I mentioned, the most obvious performance issue is an initial slow loading time of web pages, which can initially time out entirely, before then working (mostly) as normal - would that relate to your comment at all? I guess I could try to compare wireless to wired and see if there's a difference.

For info, I'm not a network engineer, but I work in IT, and I would almost describe the behaviour I'm seeing as the result of some poorly performing upstream caching or filtering mechanism. As I said, I wish I'd kept the BT router longer to allow me to compare, but my gut feeling is that it's something upstream rather than the hub.

Again, I'm just days into my time with the new service/router, but given my contract cooling off time is limited, was just hoping to get a quick sense of whether or not this is typical or potentially resolvable.

[rjs6]

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@XRaySpeX wrote:

Hence my request for a speedtest & availability check, which you have not responded to.

Are you on Full Fibre (FTTP) or copper to the home (FTTC)?

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Sorry XRaySpeX, thought I'd made it clear that I didn't have an issue with the reported speeds, which seem mostly the same as my previous service (equivalent BT product). 

For info, it's FTTC. Speed test reports 63.3Mbps down (bursting to 66.2), 17.6 Mbps up (bursting to 20.9 Mbps), 50ms latency. 

Broadband Speed Test Results | thinkbroadband