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4G Download Speeds Much Lower Than Upload - Huawei B535

Patty

Member
Hi,

I've just newly received a 4g broadband service. I'm using an EE unlimited sim and a Huawei B535-232 router. I am also using a Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 Omni-Directionak Antenna as the signal indoors is very poor.

When using the external antenna inside on the window sill I get 3, maybe 4 bars. This brings an average speed of around 25-30Mbps download and 4-5Mbps upload. However if I mount the antenna outside I get a signal of 5 bars 4G+. However my download speed drops to around 8Mbps and Upload rockets up to 35-40Mbps.

Does anyone have any experience with this issue? I've reported it to EE who aren't too sure what the problem is and they're taking quite a while in getting back to me after sending their requested speedtest examples.

Is there anything obvious I'm missing here settings wise or something?

Thanks very much folks!
 
So this is one of the "fun" problems with mobile connectivity, where sometimes you can get a better signal only to end up connecting via a more congested band (i.e. slower speeds). At least that's one example and I cover this problem a little bit here:


As always the best way to know for sure is to keep an eye on what bands and cell sites your antenna - in both positions - is actually using, as that may help you to understand precisely what has changed. Mobile is.. quirky.
 
When I get that result I know I am close to getting it right, try a few degrees either side and check the speeds and the antenna info as the highest figures may not give the best downloads. Work to theory first, when that fails try the opposite, this seems to work with 4G. Also get software to control the bands, you do not want band 20 to be the main download band, you want band 3.
 
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Thanks very much guys.

I've got LTEInspecteur up. Is this the band 3 that I need to choose? I notice it says UL Band: 3, DL BW: 10 MHz 2110Mhz, ULBW 10MHz 1920Mhz. Is that what I need? Signal isn't great in my flat and I'm using the Poyntang omni directional antenna. Currently got it inside as the 4 bars inside gives a bettern speed (20Mbps) than the 5 bars (9Mbps) when I'm holding it outside.

LTE-Inspectuer.jpg
 
I suspect when you are holding it outside then you are either getting a different mast or band than inside.

This is my band 3 data from Three

UL: 1729.2 MHhz (band 3)
DL: 1824.2 MHhz (band 3)

EE will not use the same frequencies exactly to stop interference but it should still be centred on 1800mhz and they use 20mhz of bandwidth on Band 3 not the 10mhz you are getting. So something odd is going on.

This is Band 3

Identifier​

1800

Uplink (MHz)​

1710 - 1785

Downlink (MHz)​

1805 -1880

I would try LTE-H monitor, works a lot better than LTEInspecteur.

 
Thanks very much. I’ll give LTE H-Monitor a look see when I get home tonight. I found a space inside where I was getting 4 bars of signal and download of 30+Mbps and a good Upload speed too. That’s download speed is at least 3x better than I’ve ever had through my FTTC service. So at least I have that to fall back on hopefully if that’s the best I end up getting.
 
I suspect when you are holding it outside then you are either getting a different mast or band than inside.

This is my band 3 data from Three

UL: 1729.2 MHhz (band 3)
DL: 1824.2 MHhz (band 3)

EE will not use the same frequencies exactly to stop interference but it should still be centred on 1800mhz and they use 20mhz of bandwidth on Band 3 not the 10mhz you are getting. So something odd is going on.

This is Band 3

Identifier​

1800

Uplink (MHz)​

1710 - 1785

Downlink (MHz)​

1805 -1880

I would try LTE-H monitor, works a lot better than LTEInspecteur.

EE's 20mhz carrier in B3 is EARFCN 1617, on some masts they also deploy a 2nd carrier. They use EARFCN 1761 for their 10mhz wide B3 2nd carrier.

Other EARFCN's in B3 that EE do use for, instead of 1761, are 1788 (15mhz) and 1815 (20mhz).

The existence of a second carrier in B3 for EE should allow for carrier aggregation for both B3 carriers (at least 30mhz total width), as long as the device supports contiguous B3 aggregation - as far as I'm aware, the B535 can do this.
 
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Found this in Central Glasgow, EE mast

Cell Identifier2977029
System SubtypeLTE
PCI439 (146/1)
EARFCN1811
Maximum Signal (RSRP)-73 dBm
DirectionNW (299°)
First SeenTue, 3 Jul 2018
Last SeenFri, 4 Jan 2019
Bandwidth*10 MHz
NotesSecond Carrier
Uplink Frequency1771.1 MHz
Downlink Frequency1866.1 MHz
Frequency BandDCS (B3 FDD)

and a Band 1

Cell Identifier2977044
System SubtypeLTE
PCI339 (113/0)
EARFCN547
Maximum Signal (RSRP)-72 dBm
DirectionNW (302°)
First SeenFri, 4 Jan 2019
Last SeenFri, 4 Jan 2019
Bandwidth*15 MHz
Uplink Frequency1974.7 MHz
Downlink Frequency2164.7 MHz
Frequency BandIMT (B1 FDD)

The band 1 freq is closer to what Patty is locking onto than the band 3 2nd carrier on this mast on Glasgow Queen St Station.
 
I've got a signal and speed I'm quite happy with. However my next problem is that I'm wanting to use this in Bridge Mode and use my old Asus RT-3200. I've set it up and whatnot but when I turn on Bridge Mode on the Huawei B535-232 I can't seem to access the internet. Is there any settings I'm missing out on that I need to change?

Sorry for turning this into the beginner corner. I've never really had to set this up before as I had quite good speeds in my last flat through convential Fibre To The Cab broadband.
 
When you turn on bridge mode the Huawei router just acts like a dumb box and passes the IP address assigned by EE to what ever is connected to it that accepts dynamic IP's. So you need to set the Asus router up to pull a dynamic IP address from its wan port and connect the Asus wan port to a lan port (normally No1) on the Huawei. To see what's going on with the Huawei then connect a PC to the Lan port with the lan port on the PC set to take a DCHP IP address, the IP address it picks up should be the EE one.
 
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