West Sussex coverage of 4G is awful - anyone else having issues April-July 2026?

3MenannaGreg · ‎15-07-2026

We have 2 x EE SIMs on our phones, another on the router, but via Unitecom because for whatver reason they're undercutting EEs price for unlimited at the time of purchase. I learnt early on that all of these people throttle routers once they ascertain that this is what you are using it for; the argument of how long is the hostpot's piece of string has been going on since 'unlimited data' was a product.

Is anybody in West Sussex (we're RH13) having an appalling time with EE just now or is it just me? It's literally 1.3MB on the router just now, sometimes gets up to 20, which is worse than before we switched. With a VPN I can triple it but my phone is saying 80-120 and remember this is the same network. It's infuriating.

I should add in case anyone in here tech-minded wants to offer the help; the router is an older Orbi and as I understand it not totally straightforward to apply a VPN at the source, otherwise the throttling might have been mitigated.

bristolian · ‎15-07-2026

@3MenannaGreg wrote:
It's literally 1.3MB on the router just now, sometimes gets up to 20, which is worse than before we switched. With a VPN I can triple it but my phone is saying 80-120 and remember this is the same network.

If your EE phone is getting faster speeds than your router, this doesn't appear to be an EE network restriction.

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bristolian · ‎15-07-2026

@3MenannaGreg wrote:
It's literally 1.3MB on the router just now, sometimes gets up to 20, which is worse than before we switched. With a VPN I can triple it but my phone is saying 80-120 and remember this is the same network.

If your EE phone is getting faster speeds than your router, this doesn't appear to be an EE network restriction.

3MenannaGreg · ‎27-07-2026

I hear what you're saying and that does make (limited) sense, however I have read in many places - and a cursory google backs this up with pages of relevant links to examples of this behaviour - that network IS completely throttled once the provider discerns that you have a SIM router.

It is, I presume, to do with allowing unlimited hotspot and canny wording of service aggreements. So whilst the network may ultimately not be 'at fault' the providers (and it's not limited to EE) certainly are.

That's why I described my situation in some detail, I was possibly not clear about my assumptions.

bristolian · ‎27-07-2026

@3MenannaGreg wrote:
a cursory google backs this up with pages of relevant links to examples of this behaviour - that network IS completely throttled once the provider discerns that you have a SIM router.

Can you post some of those links please?