Consistent Mast Fault

[daviesryan35]

I am wiring this forum on behalf of a friend because I know a bit about telecommunications.

My friend has tried reporting the mast to the fault checker on the EE website and also tried calling customer service twice. He was scheduled a call back, which he never received.

It looks like a backhaul issue or maybe a defective MHA (Mast Head Amplifier) because the speeds fluctuate all through the day (between 0.5 to 40mbps) and calls fail to connect and drop mid way though a call. The latency is also effected and will jump from 40ms to 100-200 (and sometimes 1-10k ms).

I am concerned this might be effecting crucial emergency services calls and equipment and have a serious effect on people in the area and nothing has been done about it.

Multiple people in the area have noticed the problem and complained to others about it (and I think they reported it on the EE Fault Checker aswell).

I've seen somebody else with a nearly identical issue and nothing was ever done: @Mick_R "Network Latency EE 4G Broadband since a month ago."

Site Location: NTL, Wick Site Albert Street Wick Caithness KW1 5BQ
Cell ID (iOS): 4449536
Site Ref: 16538
eNB ID: 17381
OSGRID: ND366500

Notes: 
1. Mast seems to be backhauled off of Rumster Forest transmitter. (Maybe the microwave link was knock off alignment? Could have happened during the upgrades EE carried out to that mast.)
2. Fault is mainly effecting one sector but the other two sectors do become very slow (1-10mbps at sometimes but don't tend to drop calls as often.)
3. The mast was last upgraded around 2016 (I think).

I will attach supporting images below. Please note as I said before, I am writing this on behalf of someone and am looking to see if anybody has any advice or if this can be raised to EE Management or if I should raise it with the local council so they can contact EE directly.

[bristolian]

I admire your persistence!

A MW dish out of alignment would likely cause loss-of-service to the whole site, not just one sector. Radios or MHA are possible, so fault could either be at ground-level or at height.

Does the issue affect all RATs? The site carries 4G on Bands 3 & Band 20

[bristolian]

I admire your persistence!

A MW dish out of alignment would likely cause loss-of-service to the whole site, not just one sector. Radios or MHA are possible, so fault could either be at ground-level or at height.

Does the issue affect all RATs? The site carries 4G on Bands 3 & Band 20

[daviesryan35]

It mainly effects only one sector, but the other sectors can become quite slow which might be due to the amount of coverage the mast provides and only having a single B3 carrier.

I also forgot the mention, that one sector will also intermittently reboot and go offline for a few minutes or even a hour.

I am just quite concerned this isn't showing up on EEs Management System (NEST).

[bristolian]

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@daviesryan35 wrote:

only having a single B3 carrier.

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The site has a B3 carrier on EARFCN-1617 and a B20 carrier on EARFCN-6225.

The two techs will be rigged differently, identifying if both are affected may help troubleshooting.

[daviesryan35]

1617 and 6225 performance are both degraded. When the sector goes offline, all the bands disappear including 2G and the phone will connect to another sector (Typically 2G EDGE) or just stay on No Service.

A test on 6225 from further away showed a total of 37-95% packet loss on a Ookla test (Which I expect is what is causing calls to drop and fail to connect).

[James_B]

Did you friend receive a response to the fault report, @daviesryan35?

James

[daviesryan35]

Yes, he rang EE a few hours ago and they said "they’re going to investigate". Lets hope something good happens!

[Mick_R]

It does sound similar to the issue that I had, but the only difference it seems is that I did find that the speeds worked as they should at "off peak" times, and the issue only presented itself at peak times.

The conclusion after many many calls to different departments, emails back and forwards, and getting the run around for around 8 weeks was that the mast was over subscribed, and there was no plans to upgrade it as because we were a rural area it didn't make economic sense from a business point of view.

I have since moved to Starlink, and now get decent speeds 24/7 and a network latency of around 23-32ms.

I hope they manage to sort your problem. I'm still extremely disappointed with EE's attitude towards my problem that I had, so I hope you have better luck

Best wishes

Mick

[daviesryan35]

@Mick_R 
I can completely agree with you, personally I have had a amazing experience with EE and they have never let me down but I am willing to help people with the knowledge I have.

I looked at your forum, although its "over subscribed", that means there is plenty money to justify a upgrade of the mast. EE will likely upgrade it at some point this year, defiantly will when people start leaving.

[daviesryan35]

Him and a friend called support twice and they said "they will look into it" and its been about 2 weeks now and no news or improvement.

Is there any way to contact (or raise this) to a higher up department at EE without going via Customer Service?