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EE 4G external antenna upload speeds

Wildcat
Skilled Contributor
Skilled Contributor

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_DATETIME_ZONEDOWNLOAD_MEGABITSUPLOAD_MEGABITSLATENCY_MSSERVER_NAMEDISTANCE_MILESCONNECTION_MODESERVER_COUNTNotes 
09/24/2022 15:40GMT40.855.3549London0multi42 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 15:39GMT40.845.1449London0multi42 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 15:08GMT35.95.5644London0multi42 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 14:50GMT38.886.3849London0multi42 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 14:43GMT35.295.9349London0multi42 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 14:42GMT39.67649London0multi42 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 14:40GMT38.226.0459London0multi42 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 14:39GMT39.095.9158London0multi42 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2Old Poynting Ant
09/24/2022 13:46GMT51.142.6550London0multi41 ext ant cable B in 1EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:43GMT12.24.4648London0multi41 ext ant cable A in 1EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:39GMT42.670.5259London0multi42 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 - note UL is v reducedEE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:38GMT48.141.1649London0multi41 ext ant cable B in 1EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:29GMT56.61.6549London0multi42 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:23GMT59.562.349London0multi42 ext ant cables swapped over B in 1 and A in 2EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:22GMT49.091.8649London0multi41 ext ant cable B in 1EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:20GMT23.245.9648London0multi41 ext ant cable A in 1EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:19GMT45.430.4759London0multi42 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 - note UL is v reducedEE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:18GMT23.386.0449London0multi41 ext ant cable A in 1EE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:16GMT18.365.1647London0multi4no ext ant cables connectedEE ext ant
09/24/2022 13:13GMT19.545.0657London0multi4no ext ant cables connectedEE ext ant
09/22/2022 22:43GMT47.330.3449London0multi42 ext ant cables A in 1 and B in 2 - note UL is v reducedEE ext ant
2 REPLIES 2
EssexBoyEE
Ace Contributor
Ace Contributor

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

Wildcat
Skilled Contributor
Skilled Contributor

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.