no ee 5g in my town but im on 5g (three tower)

[crunchy]

i have just upgraded to the sony xperia 1 iv and i use my smartphone as my internet access point via usb tethering to my pc. (i used a huawei p30 pro before)

i get a good strong 4g signal here so my internet is reliable and i was not so bothered by having 5g for now i just wanted a new shiny toy 😛

but i noticed my phone connects to a tower thats running three's 5g in my town, i checked a cell tower map and i use a cell tower singnal app to get a good signal

and im now getting 100mbps average download speeds ... not 4g speeds of 20 to 40mbps i was used to before.

so im curious is this normal that i can piggy back off of threes 5g service ? is this a feature or a bug ? 🤔  as i have begun to get some connection issues to the servers with a certain game infested with micro transactions in a snow storm "hint hint"

[Gareth43]

Where I am I regularly get over 100mbps download on EE 4g. So 4g is not limited to only speeds between 20-40mbps where I am.  As to piggy backing on other networks towers for 5g I’m not sure if that can be done or not

[bristolian]

Not all site-mapping apps are very reliable, for starters! Some of them have some pretty ropey mapping data.

If you have an EE phone, you will only be connecting to EE sites. While many network sites have equipment from multiple operators on them, you will only use EE's coverage.

[crunchy]

i understand that but my phone says 5g and did say 4g when connected to the normal tower i used with my p30 pro.

if im in the next town i can get high 4g speeds when my snr is -50db but at home im looking at low -90db hence 2 to 4 MBps.

[crunchy]

i used the ee coverage checker as well as a third party 5g map ... only three have 5g service in my town with 2 5g capable cell towers

i would of expected ee to have some indication on their website at least but i just hope i dont get charged extra for data ..... im downloading a 100gb game atm and i  watch a lot of video streaming too so my data usage is very high.

[Chris_B]

@crunchy   If it’s an EE sim in your phone your not picking up or using 3s network.   That’s just impossible. 

[bristolian]

The SNR figure you've mentioned is part of signal quality measurements, but those have nothing to do with data speeds - those are primarily governed by the spectrum & carriers that are available.

There are also many apps & websites that claim to offer site-mapping of the UK networks, but the majority of these have very questionable mapping data - you've not said which one you're using.

There are scenarios where the 5G indicator on your phone can merely mean 5G service is available, whilst you're connected to 4G.

[EssexBoyEE]

@crunchy wrote - i understand that but my phone says 5g and did say 4g when connected to the normal tower i used with my p30 pro.

Your doing comparisons with 5 and 4G but your comparing and testing on a 5G Phone (the New Sony) and a 4G Phone (the Huawei P30).