24-09-2022 04:10 PM
Hi all, back in 2020 I requested an external antenna from EE at a cost of £100 supplied and fitted. I was previously using a Poynting Omnidirectional antenna which seemed to work OK, but needed a more stable connection, so I was recommended by EE to have one of their external antennas.
All was OK to begin with, but recently (last 12 months or so) I've noticed the upload speeds have dropped off considerably, so today I decided to do some testing to find out what the issue was.
The results (in table below) show that my upload speeds go from 0.5mbps to 5mbps when I completely disconnect the external antenna! The downside is download speed is compromised, going from 59mbps to 15mbps.
I labelled the antenna cables A and B and the ports on the router are A (main) and B (the other one).
TEST_DATE | TIME_ZONE | DOWNLOAD_MEGABITS | UPLOAD_MEGABITS | LATENCY_MS | SERVER_NAME | DISTANCE_MILES | CONNECTION_MODE | SERVER_COUNT | Notes | |
09/24/2022 15:40 | GMT | 40.85 | 5.35 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 15:39 | GMT | 40.84 | 5.14 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 15:08 | GMT | 35.9 | 5.56 | 44 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 14:50 | GMT | 38.88 | 6.38 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 14:43 | GMT | 35.29 | 5.93 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 14:42 | GMT | 39.67 | 6 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 14:40 | GMT | 38.22 | 6.04 | 59 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 14:39 | GMT | 39.09 | 5.91 | 58 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 | Old Poynting Ant |
09/24/2022 13:46 | GMT | 51.14 | 2.65 | 50 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 1 ext ant cable B in 1 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:43 | GMT | 12.2 | 4.46 | 48 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 1 ext ant cable A in 1 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:39 | GMT | 42.67 | 0.52 | 59 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 - note UL is v reduced | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:38 | GMT | 48.14 | 1.16 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 1 ext ant cable B in 1 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:29 | GMT | 56.6 | 1.65 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:23 | GMT | 59.56 | 2.3 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:22 | GMT | 49.09 | 1.86 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 1 ext ant cable B in 1 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:20 | GMT | 23.24 | 5.96 | 48 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 1 ext ant cable A in 1 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:19 | GMT | 45.43 | 0.47 | 59 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 - note UL is v reduced | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:18 | GMT | 23.38 | 6.04 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 1 ext ant cable A in 1 | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:16 | GMT | 18.36 | 5.16 | 47 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | no ext ant cables connected | EE ext ant |
09/24/2022 13:13 | GMT | 19.54 | 5.06 | 57 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | no ext ant cables connected | EE ext ant |
09/22/2022 22:43 | GMT | 47.33 | 0.34 | 49 | London | 0 | multi | 4 | 2 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 - note UL is v reduced | EE ext ant |
24-09-2022 04:32 PM - edited 24-09-2022 04:43 PM
What's the Make and Model Number of the Router?
You need both of the Antennas Ports to be plugged in to the Router in order to receive 2x2 Mimo Speeds (Unless its a Huawei).
Could be the Antenna has degraded over time or a simple case of your are using different Cell Masts or different Carrier Aggregation configuration when switching between Internal and External Antennas.
Can you get Cell Info, ie, Cell ID or EnBID info, plus Signal Info RSRP and SNIR
24-09-2022 06:17 PM - edited 24-09-2022 06:23 PM
Hi @EssexBoyEE thanks for your reply. I'm not technical, so here goes, I'm using a Huawei B535-235. I did have an EE 4GEE Home router (model HH70VB) which I tried to get EE to update the firmware for (as the Community confirmed my firmware was out of date and needed the update) but EE support just wouldn't accept it and gave me a choice of buying the new (then it was recently launched) EE 4G home router 2. I decided against it and purchased the Huawei instead.
There really is only one cell mast that I can connect to here, so that pretty much rules that out. The mast or cell id is eNB ID 23381 - LTE
Edit - incidentally, it was the slow upload speeds that prompted me to ask EE to update my 4gee home router firmware as I'd read somewhere that this was often a cause for slow upload speeds. As EE were adamant that I had the latest software, they simply didn't give me much of an option, I either had to buy a new antenna and/or buy a new home router 2.