Very slow data on unlimited sim

[anomander0108]

Hi

Wasn't sure to tag this onto another thread or start a new one but couldn't see the exact issue I'm facing so, here we are.

I recently bought a 5g unlimited plan as EE had the best coverage in my area. The speed checked shows excellent outdoor and good indoor. 

I am moving house in a few months and thought to go down this route to allow me to get online straight away wherever I next reside and avoid any potential issues that I might have if I took out a fixed line contract.

I use a TP Link Archer NX200 router. It throws out speeds of c.800mbs which is good enough for my needs.

I used a signal checker and it is showing between -32dbm to -40dbm RSSI so, placement is good.

However, I get between 0.40 mbs and 5mbs download speed and slightly more upload.

Faced with these atrocious speeds on 5g, I switched to 4g on the router yesterday and thought I had resolved my issues as I was getting between 70mbs and 120mbs download speed. 

With this breakthrough,  I downloaded a 40gb game on xbox and watched streaming tv for the first time in a while.

However, this morning the problem reappeared. Same very slow speeds on 5g, 4g anything I try.

What could be the reason for this? Could I be capped somehow on the amount of data I can use? I notice on my account is states I can gift 120gb but I have none left to gift. Seems suspicious to me if I have unlimited data.

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I have been trying to resolve this for a few weeks now

Thanks

[XRaySpeX]

Your router's data usage timescale with your EE billing month.

[anomander0108]

Ok, I understand. 

It was set to a default which didn't provide dates. If it's possible to get this info then I will need to dig through the manual to see where it is recorded.

However,  if I have had one day where I've been able to stream an episode of a tv show and download a game that was 40gb, with the rest of the time being a trickle service where I even struggle to load web pages, then I think it's safe to say there is no chance I could have exceeded 600gb. This sim has only ever been used in this router which I bought 2 days before I got the sim.

[bristolian]

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@anomander0108 wrote:

I used a signal checker and it is showing between -32dbm to -40dbm RSSI so, placement is good.

However, I get between 0.40 mbs and 5mbs download speed and slightly more upload.

Faced with these atrocious speeds on 5g, I switched to 4g on the router yesterday and thought I had resolved my issues as I was getting between 70mbs and 120mbs download speed. 

.....

However, this morning the problem reappeared. Same very slow speeds on 5g, 4g anything I try.

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What EARFCN (for 4G) or NRARFCN (5G) are you connecting to?

The behaviour you're reporting is broadly consistent with being on cell-edge for 5G but having better conditions for 4G. But speeds are primarily dictated by spectrum availability not signal strength - hence asking about carrier IDs.

[anomander0108]

Hi bristolian 

Just checked, had set it to 4g only on router at the EARFCN was 1617. I then flipped it to 5g only and the NRARFCN was 156510.

Honestly,  no idea what these mean so any advice you can offer would be appreciated. 

Thanks

[bristolian]

By means of explanation, 4G & 5G services are delivered over multiple frequency bands, each with their own characteristics. In very simple terms, low-bands provide wider area coverage while high-bands provider greater depth of coverage with more bandwidth/spectrum - you therefore need a combination of the two, depending on urban/rural and numerous other factors.

4G-EARFCN-1617 is the standard 20Mhz-wide carrier of 1800Mhz (mid-band).

5G-NRARFCN-156510 is a 10Mhz wide 700Mhz low-band carrier.

Generally speaking, low-bands (4G-800Mhz, 5G-700Mhz) are used as a coverage extension where mid or high-bands (1800Mhz, 2100Mhz, 2600Mhz or 3500Mhz) are not available,

Hence your experience is consistent with being towards the edge of 5G but with good underlying 4G.

[anomander0108]

Thanks for explaining clearly, I now understand