Obvious Hardware Throttling

[PeterRuralComms]

We install LTE receivers for our clients in very rural areas and have recently come across several installations using EE SIMs where the download speed is not matching the signal strength. 

The speedtests at the router wired are peaking up to 40Mbps for around 0.5 seconds, so barely noticeable before consistently dropping back to and averaging at 10Mbps across the board. LTE receiver houses the SIM card and shows RSSI, RSRP, SINR and RSRQ. The evidence of hardware based throttling is coming from the exact same SIM being placed in to an adroind handset and tested at the same position as the receiver and shows the sames stats for the signal readings but avaerages above 30Mbps only 2-3 minutes apart in the time it takes to remove and replace the SIM card. I have tried with IMEI number changing and different cell locks but nothing is changing on the LTE receiver.

OfCom have ruled that UK network providers cannot apply restrictions to connections based on hardware and Three and Vodafone had their knuckles rapped in 2016 on that. Can i get an explanation on how this clear lack of being hardware agnostic can be removed or remedied. It would be appreciated to hear from EE(BT) themselves on this as well as the wealth of knowledge contained in the forum members. 

Thanks

[bristolian]

I'm unclear what you mean by "download speed not matching the signal strength", as the two are different concepts. The signal strength is a measure of the quality of RX. Download speeds are dictated by the amount of spectrum available - in essence, the carriers deployed on the serving cell.

What make & model of router are you using? I'm not aware of any hardware restrictions, only limits with particular plans.

[PeterRuralComms]

Hi Bristolian, 

Thanks for the speedy response.

The comparison of signal strength to download speed was across hardware. The Rx signal reading was the the same on the Mikrotik LHG-LTE6 fully patched as the Pixel 7 Pro handset. In fact the readings of RSSI, RSRP, and RSRQ matched on both devices with the SINR being slightly lower on the pixel, which is most likely due to the difference in antenna gain. 

The issue with seeing the near identical readings is the disparity in average speeds achieved. 10Mbps on the Mikrotik compared to 32 Mbps on the pixel. 

[bristolian]

Are you able to identify the specific carriers (EARFCN) in use on the router?

And by extension, compare with the phone?

[PeterRuralComms]

Router is showing 6225 and 1617 with Carrier Aggregation. 

On the phone it was the 1617 as primary. Couldn't tell if CA was on but doubt it as 4G+ wasn't on the status bar. This is from the phone screen grabs as the dish is installed at a very remote client.