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4G - Understanding Cellmapper data - Mast identifiers (cellID and eNB Id)

BFG

Regular Member
I'm investigating problems with my local mast.

I have a directional antenna pointed at the closest mast, but my speeds suffered a sudden drop in Apr (details in separate thread).

In 2016 when adding my antenna, I had access to mastdata, which helped when lining things up. But I'm trying to use cellmapper today.

LTE H-Monitor seems to tell me that I am not connected to my nearest mast, I'm connected to one in a town behind it, a further two miles away.

What's making diagnosis hard are two things.
The tower I intend to connect to is not on cellmapper at all, there is no listing (and I can't find a way to add it). So I can't find an identifier for it.

The mast LTE H-Monitor tells me I'm connected to appears twice on cellmapper.
Same CellID, same geo location, but two different eNB Ids

LTE H-Monitor uses the same IDs as cellmapper, but it's not clear if these are "official" numbers reported as meta-data via the SIM card and actual network, or of LTE H-Monitor is performing a lookup somehow from cellmapper.

Presumably the eNB ID refers to different kit on the same physical tower?
I'd like to find specific numbers that I can quote to Three. Please can anyone advise which numbers would be best to use. :)


I'd prefer not to share specific locations, apologies.
 
I know I am connected to my local mast but the mast ID reported by the router is for a mast further away and at 90 degrees to where my direction antenna is aimed. When I do have issues with my local mast it is confirmed by both EE and Three network check screens (its a shared mast). So I think in my local area at least the data on Cellmapper and Mastdata is wrong with Mastdata being worse than Cellmapper. So use the LTE H monitor ID's when speaking to the networks plus your postcode.
 
Have you tried sticking the SIM into an Android phone and installing Opensignal to see what mast location info that returns?
 
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Cellmapper works. Install the app on your phone and select the network sim you wish to see the coverage of (dual sim handset here). I have uploaded for an area that was previously not mapped and the mast not shown on the map. It appeared fairly soon afterwards but it had been "seen" before so maybe it's removed if no recent uploads showing it?
You can even see where I've walked the dog.
My closest mast is 2 miles away but I'm blind to it at this house so my router connects to another one 24 miles away over water (max 60Mbps at times). Just checked just now at 14:04 and it peaked at 50mbps. Painting the fascia soon so will find if it's seen from height and may invest in or make an aerial. Amateur radio and a working life in electronic systems engineering stuff does come in handy at times.
 
@kommando828 That's a reasonable suggestion, but I'm really hoping to evidence which mast I am actually connected to, rather than rely on Three's opinion / systems.

I'll check out those other suggestion - Thanks!
 
I'm investigating problems with my local mast.

I have a directional antenna pointed at the closest mast, but my speeds suffered a sudden drop in Apr (details in separate thread).

In 2016 when adding my antenna, I had access to mastdata, which helped when lining things up. But I'm trying to use cellmapper today.

LTE H-Monitor seems to tell me that I am not connected to my nearest mast, I'm connected to one in a town behind it, a further two miles away.

What's making diagnosis hard are two things.
The tower I intend to connect to is not on cellmapper at all, there is no listing (and I can't find a way to add it). So I can't find an identifier for it.

The mast LTE H-Monitor tells me I'm connected to appears twice on cellmapper.
Same CellID, same geo location, but two different eNB Ids

LTE H-Monitor uses the same IDs as cellmapper, but it's not clear if these are "official" numbers reported as meta-data via the SIM card and actual network, or of LTE H-Monitor is performing a lookup somehow from cellmapper.

Presumably the eNB ID refers to different kit on the same physical tower?
I'd like to find specific numbers that I can quote to Three. Please can anyone advise which numbers would be best to use. :)


I'd prefer not to share specific locations, apologies.
The cellIDs and eNBs reported by apps, software and router UIs are the ones you're connected to at that moment in time. The IDs are broadcast by the radio hardware installed on the mast within the metadata of the connection.

If cellmapper is reporting a cellID is used by multiple eNBs is there an old 'last seen' date against one of the eNBs? Cellids and eNBs can get reused in some cases.

If the mast you were connected (in 2016) to no-longer exists that's entirely feasible too. The MBNL mast share between EE and Three may have meant that the Three mast was decommissioned and something installed in an EE mast elsewhere.
 
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The IDs are broadcast by the radio hardware installed on the mast within the metadata of the connection.

(y):) Knowing that makes such a difference to my diagnostics.

For instance, my "directional" antenna is picking a mast at 80deg off its centre-line, and is skipping two much closer 4G masts in doing so. I recently discovered that cellmapper auto-harvests info and is prone to position errors, and where LTE H-monitor is quoting mast numbers, its lookup on cellmapper uses the cell IDs. So many things and steps in the process to go wrong. It seemed like the data must be wrong.

Knowing the cellID is meta-data in the connection tell me my antenna is probably faulty, given that I have direct line-of-sight to several masts.
 
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(y):) Knowing that makes such a difference to my diagnostics.

For instance, my "directional" antenna is picking a mast at 80deg off its centre-line, and is skipping two much closer 4G masts in doing so. I recently discovered that cellmapper auto-harvests info and is prone to position errors, and where LTE H-monitor is quoting mast numbers, its lookup on cellmapper uses the cell IDs. So many things and steps in the process to go wrong. It seemed like the data must be wrong.

Knowing the cellID is meta-data in the connection tell me my antenna is probably faulty, given that I have direct line-of-sight to several masts.
Cellmapper is crowdsourced data and the mast positions are either approximated from the collected data or if a user knows the masts and where they are they may manually move/position them

Edit: I think 80degrees is quite far off axis(?) for a directional antenna, I'm surprised by that. Are the closer masts definitely hosting Three and do you happen to know which way their antennas face? If they're not pointed towards you and so you're on the cell boundary between two of their cells then their signal would be lower which may make the further mast be the one you connect to
 
I've been playing with a Three and a EE sim, and much time spent rotating the antenna and watching LTE H-Monitor. SINR is all over the place, mostly single figures. Can't get RSRP any closer to 0 that -100.

I have a Solwise Outdoor 3G/4G LTE 9dBi Cross Polarised Panel Antenna which is 4 years old and wall mounted.
I've replaced my router, got new SIM cards, performed a thousand tests. Tried VPN to eliminate traffic shaping.

In Apr my bandwidth suddenly changed from 50-80Mbps, down to 5-25Mbps overnight and has never returned. Rate never gets above 25Mbps, even at 4am.

It's not yet conclusive if the limit is with both three and EE, or if there's a problem my end.

My next suspect is to change the antenna, because it really should be behaving more directionally than it is.
 
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