Sponsored Links

Three Slower than Smarty?

aesmith

Pro Member
Hi,
I've been using Smarty for over two years as our main Internet connection. Just switched to Three on a 12 month contract, the reason being to get a real IP address. I was fed up with applications not tolerating the second by second IP address changes on Smarty's CGNAT.

The downside is that I can no longer pretend that it is not significantly slower. I tried to convince myself that it was just random variations, but after a month it's perfectly clear.

For reference we receive only B20, RSRP is around -83dB and the mast is just over 6km.

Has anyone else found a speed difference? Either way.

Tony S
 
Hi,
I've been using Smarty for over two years as our main Internet connection. Just switched to Three on a 12 month contract, the reason being to get a real IP address. I was fed up with applications not tolerating the second by second IP address changes on Smarty's CGNAT.

The downside is that I can no longer pretend that it is not significantly slower. I tried to convince myself that it was just random variations, but after a month it's perfectly clear.

For reference we receive only B20, RSRP is around -83dB and the mast is just over 6km.

Has anyone else found a speed difference? Either way.

Tony S
If you could change your apn from three.co.uk to 3internet that should improve things, it certainly does for me.

Edit: on my Three sim I set to 3internet as three.co.uk was terrible.
 
Last edited:
@CarlO1460 I think that's what he did already in order to avoid the CGNAT frequent IP changes... It's possible the 3internet APN is slower in your case for whatever reasons (I've certainly read about this on the forum in the past).
 
Sponsored Links
Interestingly, 3internet APN works on smarty. Try it yourself
 
All APNs (three.co.uk. 3internet, mob.asm.net) worked on Smarty but didn't make any difference to the behaviour. I think I've seen it suggested that you can put anything you like and it still works.

On Three I'm using "3internet" as I think that's the only one that gives a real IP address. Changing to "three.co.uk" doesn't affect the speed.
 
I'm finding Three is running very bad last couple of days on certain groupings of masts....

By groupings, I mean....

Generally I've noticed that Three's own branded masts and monopoles have a 3 digit eNB and then MBNL/CellNex masts (shared with EE commonly) normally have 4 digit eNB's and then there is 5 digit eNB masts which speculate in my area tend to be masts that run off the 4 digital ones.

I've been finding last few days that service is impacted on Three's own masts (ones with 3 digit eNB's) even new 5G enabled masts are acting strange.

I tried changing from CGNAT APN (three.co.uk) to the IPv4 APN (3internet) and speeds drop lower though where more stable.

FYI: By slow I mean 1-2mbps as low as 0.1mbps on the 3 Internet APN.
three.co.uk
Screenshot_2021-08-18-08-33-53-947_org.zwanoo.android.speedtest.jpg


3internet
Screenshot_2021-08-18-08-35-05-202_org.zwanoo.android.speedtest.jpg

Mast eNB 342 in wilsden, West Yorkshire
 
Meanwhile in N London (3internet)

...
 

Attachments

  • Image1306456148003066466.jpg
    Image1306456148003066466.jpg
    60 KB · Views: 211
Sponsored Links
Screenshot_20210818-121854_SMARTY.jpg

Talking of Smarty, don't think I'm going to make it till the end of the month, quite looking forward to seeing if all data stops on the 1TB mark or if it's truly unlimited now.

What does everyone think? :unsure:

I'm plumping for a smacked bottom and no more data. :cry:
 
Sponsored Links
If they cut you off, how will we know?
Well you'll hear sweary words and lots of sobbing sounds.

I'll let you know if anything happens if I reach 1TB IgNG.
 
When I use LTEInspecteur it shows two IP address under the Network heading. When using 3internet both addresses are the same and are real addresses.
When using three.co.uk they are different, with one address 10.xx.xx.xx or 100.xx.xx.xx which I presume are both CGNat and the other a real address, currently 92.xx.xx.xx
I'm not sure what this means in terms of MIMO but using two different paths could conceivably improve performance.
Does anyone know what's going on?

Good luck TWB if you breach the 1TB
 
When I use LTEInspecteur it shows two IP address under the Network heading. When using 3internet both addresses are the same and are real addresses.
When using three.co.uk they are different, with one address 10.xx.xx.xx or 100.xx.xx.xx which I presume are both CGNat and the other a real address, currently 92.xx.xx.xx
I'm not sure what this means in terms of MIMO but using two different paths could conceivably improve performance.
Does anyone know what's going on?

Good luck TWB if you breach the 1TB
Thank you eccles. 🤞:giggle:
 
@TheWeeBear EEEK! That doesn't look fun. Let us know how it goes and ill probably be able to hear you sobbing from Bradford 🤣🤣
 
Sponsored Links
Seems to have recovered, so it was maybe a red herring. There have been periods where Smarty ran slow so it was maybe just a coincidence that this corresponded with swapping from Smarty to Three. Fingers crossed. Although I changed in order to get a real IP address, it would be a bummer to have been stuck with a significantly poorer throughput.
 
Seems to have recovered, so it was maybe a red herring. There have been periods where Smarty ran slow so it was maybe just a coincidence that this corresponded with swapping from Smarty to Three. Fingers crossed. Although I changed in order to get a real IP address, it would be a bummer to have been stuck with a significantly poorer throughput.
Three has priority over Smarty, this is easily identifiable generally where Three won’t sell you a 4G hub on thier website checker due to over saturation expect Smarty to perform nothing like a Three contract.

Obviously variations on base transmitters mimo etc & the hardware used by the end user make a difference, using numerous top spec QAM/Mimo hardware devices in saturated areas can show the real Smarty difference to Three contract sims.

You may also be in a saturated area if you cannot order a 4G Hub, but oversaturated areas defo do not allow a 4G Hub order.

Three U.K. (4G Hub) HOME BROADBAND postcode checker http://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadband
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5468)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2523)
  4. Openreach (2290)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2233)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules