Three 4G broadband, poor speeds since before lockdown

ACitizenErased

Hello.
I've had Three 4G broadband for 2, nearly 3 years now and average 15-20Mbps. A few weeks before we went into lockdown speeds dropped considerably. It now averages 2-4Mbps during the day, and can go way lower during the evening. Upload speeds fluctuate heavily too. There were times when the router was even showing 0bps download and required a reset to fix. I contacted 3 support and they told me the average 4G speed was 1.5Mbps. Yes, that's what they said. I don't know what to do anymore. I've attached my signal information, as, from what I know, I'm fairly close to the mast. The Router shows full 4G+ signal.

RSRQ
-14.0dB
RSRP
-90dBm
SINR
-4dB

babelfish1990

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Hello.
I've had Three 4G broadband for 2, nearly 3 years now and average 15-20Mbps. A few weeks before we went into lockdown speeds dropped considerably. It now averages 2-4Mbps during the day, and can go way lower during the evening. Upload speeds fluctuate heavily too. There were times when the router was even showing 0bps download and required a reset to fix. I contacted 3 support and they told me the average 4G speed was 1.5Mbps. Yes, that's what they said. I don't know what to do anymore. I've attached my signal information, as, from what I know, I'm fairly close to the mast. The Router shows full 4G+ signal.

RSRQ
-14.0dB
RSRP
-90dBm
SINR
-4dB

It is a mistake to confuse signal strength with download speed. You can have perfect coverage and signal strength, and still have poor download speeds due to congestion. Mobile operators should be rationing their limited capacity by reducing and enforcing caps during the lockdown. Three don't seem to get this. Eir Mobile & Vodafone Mobile are more disciplined, and hence they are not suffering as much. At least, Three are probably being honest in admitting that their average 4G speed is 1.5Mbps. There may be exceptions in some remote areas, but most users are likely to find this completely unusable for services like video.

The lockdown is likely to be extended, and even after the restrictions are relaxed it is probable that all but essential activities will have to take place online for the next year or two, until a vaccine is developed and the population immunized. If you can get proper broadband based on a fixed-line service, you should do so. Otherwise, you might benefit slightly by moving to Eir or Vodafone mobile.

ACitizenErased

babelfish1990 wrote: »

It is a mistake to confuse signal strength with download speed. You can have perfect coverage and signal strength, and still have poor download speeds due to congestion. Mobile operators should be rationing their limited capacity by reducing and enforcing caps during the lockdown. Three don't seem to get this. Eir Mobile & Vodafone Mobile are more disciplined, and hence they are not suffering as much. At least, Three are probably being honest in admitting that their average 4G speed is 1.5Mbps. There may be exceptions in some remote areas, but most users are likely to find this completely unusable for services like video.

The lockdown is likely to be extended, and even after the restrictions are relaxed it is probable that all but essential activities will have to take place online for the next year or two, until a vaccine is developed and the population immunized. If you can get proper broadband based on a fixed-line service, you should do so. Otherwise, you might benefit slightly by moving to Eir or Vodafone mobile.

I'm in a NBP area. I live in Cork City like so I'd expect decent mobile speeds. I've ordered Eir and Vodafone PAYG sims to test the speeds.

babelfish1990

ACitizenErased wrote: »

I'm in a NBP area. I live in Cork City like so I'd expect decent mobile speeds. I've ordered Eir and Vodafone PAYG sims to test the speeds.

Just because you are in an urban area doesn't mean you are guaranteed decent mobile speeds. There are 1 Million kids at home, and in urban areas a significant proportion may be trying to watch Netflix or other video. You might be better off in a rural area, where a smaller number of users are fed off the base station. You are very unfortunate to be dependent on the NBP. Elon Musks Starlink satellites are due to start offering services in the next year, and will probably reach you quicker than the NBP, and while not fibre speeds, they should certainly be better than mobile.

ED E

Three have 60 odd percent of all the phones in the country on their network, its a busy place.

ACitizenErased

ED E wrote: »

Three have 60 odd percent of all the phones in the country on their network, its a busy place.

Is it fair to suggest that Eir/Vodafone will provide a boost based on the fact that the ComReg map shows Eir/Vodafone signal as 'good' compared to 'fair' with three?

ED E

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Is it fair to suggest that Eir/Vodafone will provide a boost based on the fact that the ComReg map shows Eir/Vodafone signal as 'good' compared to 'fair' with three?

That comreg map is fictional.


Vodafone might be better, Eir have a very small footprint of 4G towers so their load tends to be highish.

smuggler.ie

Personally i wouldn't be disregarding stats completely.
Where is most likely congestion plays major role in DL speed you getting, i'd still try to get SINR to positive values by relocating router itself. It might not be huge, but might get you few extra Mbps.
As alternative, switch to 3G only mode and see results there.

Elysium1

My 3 4G reception has been terrible since the lockdown too.



I have Eir on my phone however and it's far more consistent. If I read it right, Eir has a prepay €20 plan that has unlimited data.


That said, given that we could be couped up for a while I'm looking into fibre broadband...no more sideroutes and gadgets for me now. :pac:

Same here, Carlow Town Area, 5 k out, Benekerry mast, three internet at night practically unusable and have to reboot the modem several time daily.

I had to install an external 4G Antenna on a 10 foot pole on the roof to get decent signal.

Before lock down it had deteriorated, funny enough it was better before they upgraded to 4G +.

Last night I was lucky to get 1 Mbs.

Strangely, last night tethering from my mobile to laptop actually worked better even though tesco mobile use 3 network and the signal was much worse.

I used to be able to get 50-70 Mbps around 1 year ago but it's got worse and worse.

Having said that, now I'm getting 30-35 Mbps fastest I've seen it in a while even during the day, tonight will be a real test.

Sad thing is that when I first got this internet from 3 it was 70 Euro pm for 250 Gb now it's 29 pm for 750 Gb so the potential is there for a really decent service if only they keep upgrading.

I complained to three via boards here and they sorted out issues before in my area but now since they don't use boards.ie any more it's very hard to get them to do anything, no point calling them up.

anthony4335

Yes three have gone to ****, I have been a mobile customer with three for nearly 8 years straight this time. Got Mobile broadband off them 2 years ago, as I was very limited in my options and they were the best. At the start it was very good, it degraded over the first 6 months from 20+mb midday to 6-7mb midday before the lock down.
Since the lock down though it has gone to pot altogether. My signal strength always say 4-5 bars, but the towers I am connected to these days are "new".
I used only connect to 2 different towers pre lock down and one was better than the other and it was only a matter of moving the router. But now it constantly lock onto one tower with the speeds at 0.2mb at best.
I contacted 3 support and they were not very accommodating, wanted me to stick the router onto 3g only. I kept explaining that the issue was the "new" masts and not my 4g/router, told me the tower was partially down (would not explain what that meant), this is as far as customer support went. So I will be probably be looking for an alternative now.
I did manage to block the worst tower by locating the tower on a map and physically using a metal tray placed between the direction of the tower and the router

Contacting 3 is a waste of time and probably most other providers, times like this with the virus really highlight how bad broadband is and it can't meet demand but the virus is a great excuse, in fact, no internet provider is obliged to provide any speed at all, if you're getting 56 K dialup speeds they can just say "it's contention, have a nice day"

Sad thing is that if you're in a contract you can't get out without any provider sending debt collectors after you and they will take you to court. Scum. More needs to be done to protect the consumer in Ireland and not the companies.

Dagon

anthony4335 wrote: »

Yes three have gone to ****, I have been a mobile customer with three for nearly 8 years straight this time. Got Mobile broadband off them 2 years ago, as I was very limited in my options and they were the best. At the start it was very good, it degraded over the first 6 months from 20+mb midday to 6-7mb midday before the lock down.
Since the lock down though it has gone to pot altogether. My signal strength always say 4-5 bars, but the towers I am connected to these days are "new".
I used only connect to 2 different towers pre lock down and one was better than the other and it was only a matter of moving the router. But now it constantly lock onto one tower with the speeds at 0.2mb at best.
I contacted 3 support and they were not very accommodating, wanted me to stick the router onto 3g only. I kept explaining that the issue was the "new" masts and not my 4g/router, told me the tower was partially down (would not explain what that meant), this is as far as customer support went. So I will be probably be looking for an alternative now.
I did manage to block the worst tower by locating the tower on a map and physically using a metal tray placed between the direction of the tower and the router

Try GoMo, they're not bad at all!

Dagon

Dagon wrote: »

Try GoMo, they're not bad at all!

Do they use the 3 network ? if so then then it will be much the same problem.

Cork981

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Do they use the 3 network ? if so then then it will be much the same problem.

GoMo = Eir. Not even a true MVNO. Same speeds and coverage except missing services like WiFi calling and 5G.

Cork981

Cork981 wrote: »

GoMo = Eir. Not even a true MVNO. Same speeds and coverage except missing services like WiFi calling and 5G.

Not sure what Eir is like in my area they might not appreciate the sim being used for broadband only + do they have broadband modems ?

orm0nd

For those using 3 mobile broadband try setting the router to 3G only.

Not an ideal solution but we're getting more stable service on 3G lately.

orm0nd

orm0nd wrote: »

For those using 3 mobile broadband try setting the router to 3G only.

Not an ideal solution but we're getting more stable service on 3G lately.

I'll give it a try later. this morning it's not so bad 20 Mbs down.

What helped me a lot in the beginning was getting an external 4G booster antenna and installing it on a 10 foot pole on the chimney, they brought me from 1-2 bars to max and significantly improved speed, that is until 3 went to Sh1t again. But worth trying for anyone with a low signal.

It's the regular rebooting of the modem that gets me.

orm0nd

orm0nd wrote: »

For those using 3 mobile broadband try setting the router to 3G only.

Not an ideal solution but we're getting more stable service on 3G lately.

Thanks for the tip, it's been working fine all day no rebooting modem.

14 Mbs now not so bad.

One think I noticed with 3G is that the upload is down from around 12-20 Mbs on 4G.

So much for progress, 4G me arse!

The same with 5G, it will be the best thing ever until it's not!

orm0nd

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks for the tip, it's been working fine all day no rebooting modem.

14 Mbs now not so bad.

One think I noticed with 3G is that the upload is down from around 12-20 Mbs on 4G.

So much for progress, 4G me arse!

The same with 5G, it will be the best thing ever until it's not!

I'm using these &find them fairly good,

https://www.wimo.com/en/60072

fennor72

Deleted User wrote:

What helped me a lot in the beginning was getting an external 4G booster antenna and installing it on a 10 foot pole on the chimney, they brought me from 1-2 bars to max and significantly improved speed, that is until 3 went to Sh1t again. But worth trying for anyone with a low signal.

I did the same last summer, boosting my speed to 6 - 10 mbps (beforehand it was under 1 mbps) but gradually its gone back to crap again. Im sick of lodging tickets with 3, and getting no reply.
It was so bad that my wife had to take out a separate broadband package with eir to work from home. We still have 1 year left on our 3 contract but are in a broadband blackspot so have very little options.

fennor72

fennor72 wrote: »

I did the same last summer, boosting my speed to 6 - 10 mbps (beforehand it was under 1 mbps) but gradually its gone back to crap again. Im sick of lodging tickets with 3, and getting no reply.
It was so bad that my wife had to take out a separate broadband package with eir to work from home. We still have 1 year left on our 3 contract but are in a broadband blackspot so have very little options.

I was lucky for a good while, wen't from 1-3 Mbs to 40-70 Mbs on 4G but even before the Lockdown it had gone to sh!t but the last few weeks gone really bad but seemingly changing to 3G made a difference as per orm0nds tip earlier, at least I haven't had to reboot the modem this morning compared to several times a day and with the Missus working from home it causes a bit of a stir

It just goes to show how bad broadband is in rural Ireland.

Aptus has stupid daily limits and I don't know much about regional broadband or whether they have coverage in the Carlow area the last thing I want to do is sign up to a 50 pm contract, at least 3 is 29 a month for 750 Gb.

fennor72

Deleted User wrote:

Aptus has stupid daily limits and I don't know much about regional broadband or whether they have coverage in the Carlow area the last thing I want to do is sign up to a 50 pm contract, at least 3 is 29 a month for 750 Gb.

I've just switched to the 3g signal hopefully it will help, what's really been frustrating is at any time of the day the signal completely drops for 5 or 6 mins.
Eir for us speed wise, is not great but at least its consistent for my wife's work.
Our only other provider is imagine which are new to the area, but they are 60 pm.

Switching to 3G really made a difference, don't have to reboot the modem 2 or 3 times a day.

8-12 Mbs down and around 2-3 up.

rajqo

is anybody here on EIR fibre registering intermittent connection outage? Started on saturday and still continuing today... what happens is that internet goes off and it will transfer you to router sign-in page... connection gets back within 10 minutes after it reconnects to the network. Never happened before, no settings changed, router switched off from electricity completely but doesn't seems to be solving the problem... just to verify if problem is widespread or just myself experiencing this... Location for me is Dundalk, Co. Louth

rajqo

rajqo wrote: »

is anybody here on EIR fibre registering intermittent connection outage? Started on saturday and still continuing today... what happens is that internet goes off and it will transfer you to router sign-in page... connection gets back within 10 minutes after it reconnects to the network. Never happened before, no settings changed, router switched off from electricity completely but doesn't seems to be solving the problem... just to verify if problem is widespread or just myself experiencing this... Location for me is Dundalk, Co. Louth

I think you'd have a better chance of response if you created a new thread it will get a lot more attention than in a 4G thread.