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

[UnGodly]

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.

[Lapwing1]

Hi 

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? 

[Matt_124]

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.

[UnGodly]

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.