Poor internet signal and EE support- What are my rights?

[Littlesorn]

We live in a rural location and we took out a 2 year broadband deal with EE  in Sep 23. We were given a basic 5G router and we have had pretty unreliable service with download speeds varying from 2-50 Mbps depending on time of day and upload speeds of 0.5 Mbps. (We get 5G EE mobile signal at home) 
Typically signal drops out a lot roughly at the same times each day ~10:30  and 15:30. (Typically when you are on an important teams call!) 

We have had several calls with EE tech help desk and we were told to do a hard reboot as there  was nothing else they could do. They advised they couldn’t provide us with a better router or external aerial, and in not so many words, just have to live with the issue! 

Does anyone have any advice as to what we should do next? 
Cut and run or should EE be supporting us more ? 

thanks 

[Rach_H]

Hi @Littlesorn 

Welcome to the Community!

We know how important it is for you to be able to stay connected, so it's disappointing to hear about the trouble you've been having, and I'd love to see what options we have available. 

Were the team able to look into moving you to a fibre broadband plan, or is this not available in your area?

Rach

[bristolian]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by the signal "dropping out"?

Do you mean that your devices lose coverage completely? Or that they have coverage displayed, but data isn't usable?

Do your devices fallback to 4G when there's a problem with 5G?

[Chris_B]

@Littlesorn have you tried to relocate the router to elsewhere within your property ?  

[Littlesorn]

We are very rural and fibre isn’t available, that’s why we took mobile broadband. 

tech support team suggested the problem was with the router having a poor aerial in it compared to a mobile phone. 

When broadband drops, phone still has a functioning connection 

[Littlesorn]

Broadband router drops signal completely, no 4 or 5G signal at alll. Phone with is also EE (iPhone 15) remains connected and works perfectly well. 

drops out fairly regularly, 6 times Wednesday and more on Thursday. I work from home via a VPN and it’s massively frustrating. It’s just for a few seconds but due to the VPN it takes a couple of minutes to get back on line. 

[Littlesorn]

Moved it several times, doesn’t seem to make any difference at all. 

[bristolian]

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@Littlesorn wrote:

Broadband router drops signal completely, no 4 or 5G signal at alll. Phone with is also EE (iPhone 15) remains connected and works perfectly well.

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Is the router otherwise in "fringe" coverage?

Can you put the phone & router antenna in the same location, and compare?

[Littlesorn]

Even in the same place, the router will be showing no signal ( no light or red light) but the phone works flawlessly 

[Ali_A]

Hi @Littlesorn 

Have you tried testing your router SIM in your mobile, and vice versa?  This would help rule out any SIM card/account issues (if the signal still persists on the router only). 

It's worth asking the Customer Service tech team if they can tell you the approximate location of your best suited mast, which may help you with router placement in the home. 

If the router is dropping out completely intermittently, there is the slight possibility the router is trying to connect to a non-ideal mast, where as your mobile is sticking to the one with best signal. 

(The other way to test this would have been to take it near a mast- easy with a mobile phone, no so much with a router!) 

Ali