Customers of EE’s 1.6Gbps UK Broadband Package Suffer Sharp Speed Loss

Some customers of mobile and broadband ISP EE (BT), specifically those on their top 1.6Gbps speed full fibre (FTTP) package via Openreach’s national network, appear to have spent the weekend suffering from a significant reduction in download speed (some down to c.50-70Mbps), connectivity problems and a lack of effective support.

At present, EE’s premium 1.6Gbps speed broadband package (includes 120Mbps uploads) doesn’t have a huge number of subscribers, but some of those who are taking the service started complaining to ISPreview on Saturday morning about a significant loss of download speed. A few have also seen their upload speeds reduced to c.20Mbps, while others have found that the issue only impacts downloads.

In addition, a number of customers on the same 1.6Gbps package have also complained about problems getting connected to the service (PPPoE cannot authorise), although it’s unclear if this is directly related to the wider problems with service speed or merely an unrelated incident. But it’s hard to ignore the proximity of both events.

“EE are aware (I have just spoken to support on the phone), but they have yet to update their status page … I am meant to be on the 1600/120 profile, but currently seem to be limited by a 80/20 profile,” said Jim, one of ISPreview’s readers. “Since Saturday evening, there have been an issue with EE’s flagship 1.6Gbps product. Some users have no connection with CHAP related errors in logs, others appear ‘stuck’ at 70 Mbps (myself included),” added Chris, another impacted customer and reader.

Various related complaints can also be found on EE’s Community Forum (here and here), which echo the same problems and raise concerns about EE’s current lack of an official response. Customers who have contacted EE’s support department have allegedly been told that the issues should be resolved by the end of today, while others have been told it may take longer. One person was also informed that the speed issue related to a “software defect” of some kind, which sounds plausible.

ISPreview has already contacted EE for a comment, and we will report back when one arrives. Sadly, it’s not unusual for support teams, even at major ISPs, to be somewhat less effective at responding to such issues when they occur over a weekend (especially so around school holidays).