Very poor evening speeds off the Cullen mast

[swac3]

Per the title, 

From a history of very good speeds over the last few years the evening performance from the Cullen 4g has tanked TBB speed tests show on average a reduction in speed in  from 30 to 60  down to maybe 1  or 2  and at times less.

Nothings changed my end  so it leaves me wondering if its that the mast is  over subscribed in the evenings and or the bandwidth of the backhaul isn't sufficient  or if there is an actual fault. I guess its also possible that the configuration of antennas or something was changed and its that.

One thought was its possibly the forestry plantations growing over the years  but as we dont know where the mast is located physically we cant really try and see if that might expalin it.

I really don't know who or where to ask, The service has been great for years now but for the last 6 months its been poor. 

We are  in a very patchy area, coverage/signal is actually  dire in Cullen itself , but until recently the 4G internet solutions has been a game changer for us out on the Farm.  I guess I could try a couple of other operators in the router as its years since we settled on EE , other than that the only option would be starlink.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful,   I'd assume if it was bandwidth either in backhaul or mast then EE would already know theres issues.

Thanks 

Gary

[Peter_W]

Good morning @swac3.

Welcome back to the EE Community!

If you're struggling to get the most from your connection at the moment, I'd definitely recommend checking our our network status checker. 

Once you pop in your postcode this will give an overview of general coverage in the area, and also highlight if there are any ongoing incidents we're aware of too.

Peter

[bristolian]

4G service is operated across multiple frequency bands, with different radio configurations.

Are you able to identify which bands or carrier-ID (EARFCN is the technical term) you're connecting to before/after? That's the ideal way of establishing potential causes.

Edited to add Cullen is served from two sites outside the town - to the east with a single B3 & B20 carrier (25Mhz bandwidth in total), and west with a single B1, dual-B3 & single B20 carrier (60Mhz total)

Otherwise, follow the network checker router mentioned above.

[swac3]

Hi,

Thanks,

Band 3, its always been 3.  The only real change i can see in the signal graphs is that the SINR Is lower than previous and unstable, there used to be very little fluctuation around the 19 dB mark. now its up and down constantly, 

Looking around last night , I see theres a firmware update for my Microtik LTE6   not sure whats in the release but i'm going to flash the unit and see if theres any change, as a year or so ago EE changed stuff and lots of Microtic users including myself totally lost the LTE connection  until the modem card was updated, shrug  cant hurt. 

Gary

edit found this , looks like the right one

[swac3]

Well lots of  speed checking , nothing else i can do from my end,  speeds during the day are generally down falling to pretty unusable after the schools and work finish then throughout the evening. 

Not really sure theres anything i can do, reported it on the EE site  and when i hit submit  just got a red triangle with a this isn't working try later message.

EE must monitor their mast stats so they would know if its a mast bandwidth issue or not but getting anyone to actually look into it seems unlikely, even if they do  or have I cant see them spending anything on a small town rural mast or backhaul, there wouldnt be the return on ot.

My wifes been googling for starlink options.  Sure more expensive but where as 4g was our only option a couple of years go seems its had its day.

[swac3]

Hi, Same for us up in Cullen its degraded  from what it was  daytimes, but in the evening its dire, even sky downloads  fail nevermind streaming.   its been the same for months now, after years of really good service, Like you no idea if its a mast fault or mast load or backhaul,  I doubt you'll get anything from EE  all ive seen is try the checker which says  its fine.

Gary

[bristolian]

All capacity adds are traffic-driven but need to be commercially viable.

This particular case would have a few dependencies. To add B3 would require wideband antennas covering high & low-bands - a B20-only site may have low-band antennas fitted.

Backhaul could be an issue, some rural B20-only sites have satellite connectivity.