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Cellmapper Questions - Does my Tower have 5G?

Thanks, that makes sense. The first thing I filtered for was Three masts for 5G and got nothing, anywhere!
It's worth noting that if you check Vodafone UK and EE, you do see the gNB locations mapped, at least near London.
 
It's worth noting that if you check Vodafone UK and EE, you do see the gNB locations mapped, at least near London.
That will be SA 5G
 
That will be SA 5G
In addition to 5G radio access technology, the connection must be made to a 5G Core to be 5G SA (hence SA, otherwise 4G Core and NSA). As Vodafone is doing 5G SA trials, they must have a 5G Core with test customers connecting.

I'm not sure if my network provider EE is allowing customer connections to their 5G Core yet, assuming they've stood one up.
 
All of them have got 5G cores in testing. The gNBs you're seeing on cellmapper aren't necessarily because people have been able to use SA, just able to log/map it - there is a difference - people can sometimes force it to connect enough to log the gNB but without being authorised it's not able to be used (no data throughput/calls)
 
This is probably a silly question, but when 5G SA appears, will I need a new phone to take advantage? It sounds like what I've got at present is basically 4G with a 5G layer on top, and "real" 5G is a completely new thing. I use a Redmi Note 10 5G at present, so a fairly low-end 5G device.
 
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This is probably a silly question, but when 5G SA appears, will I need a new phone to take advantage? It sounds like what I've got at present is basically 4G with a 5G layer on top, and "real" 5G is a completely new thing. I use a Redmi Note 10 5G at present, so a fairly low-end 5G device.
Technically speaking, the Dimensity chip in that phone is compatible with SA 5G (as are most 5G phones), but only time will tell if it'll need any software updates to make it SA compatible with carriers here.

It may be similar to VoLTE where a bunch of devices support SA, but won't work with it out of the box.
 
I feel the only 'advantage' that people might feel when 5G SA does go live will be a small amount of additional coverage gained in n28 (700MHz) as it no-longer relies upon a 4G anchor from a higher frequency (and B20+n28 is fairly rare in devices).

Throughput speeds will be lower if only a single band (no 4G to booster the 5G, and NR-CA is only just being added in device software updates recently). Latency might be a bit lower, but it depends where upon the current data path latency is the 'bottleneck'.
 
Quick update. Spent the weekend getting another Cat6 cable from my loft to the 'network cupboard' so I can get some more height on the Huawei modem. Annoyingly it was favouring the closer but slower mast in town, so I've band locked it so that it picks up 6202 out of town. The signal seems to be spot on (not sure about all the graphs, but the simplified bar charts are at full). I'm getting over 200 down now. Upload still isn't great and I'm still not 100% sure what the 5G connection is giving me as I'm using load balancing with my FTTC connection at the moment. Any other tweaks I can make to get more performance out of this device?

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Quick update. Spent the weekend getting another Cat6 cable from my loft to the 'network cupboard' so I can get some more height on the Huawei modem. Annoyingly it was favouring the closer but slower mast in town, so I've band locked it so that it picks up 6202 out of town. The signal seems to be spot on (not sure about all the graphs, but the simplified bar charts are at full). I'm getting over 200 down now. Upload still isn't great and I'm still not 100% sure what the 5G connection is giving me as I'm using load balancing with my FTTC connection at the moment. Any other tweaks I can make to get more performance out of this device?

View attachment 6352
RSRQ is fair to poor and I feel the SINR fluctuates too much: https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/Mobile_Signal_Strength_Recommendations

If the connection is usable, the best thing is to do nothing.

If latency sensitive applications are unstable, you might wish to consider an external antenna. You would want to balance the cost of the antenna compared to the cost of the Huawei device as equipment should be balanced as to their capabilities, and equipment which is poorly performing (e.g. a bad antenna) is not worth having at all (on the other hand, a low-end device can hold back a good antenna).
 
I've borrowed a CPE Pro 2 from a friend to do some testing before I commit. I've placed it in the front bedroom window pointing vaguely between the Phase 5 pole in town and the one SE of Shefford. I'm getting speeds of 300-400Mbps down which I'm happy with, but the upload barely pushes 3Mbps. Browsing also seems slugish, though I guess I should expect that a little with increased latency on 4G/5G over FTTC.

I've downloaded the app mentioned on another thread. It looks like its latching on to the tower SE of Shefford (eNB ID 6602). Is there anything I can do to improve upload speed?

View attachment 6025
How are you getting n48 i didnt know three even had that band
 
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How are you getting n48 i didnt know three even had that band
n48 is a (US) sub-set of n78 (which itself is a sub-set of n77) - its just what the developer of the software has configured it to show when connected to a frequency within the range - just a bit annoying
 
RSRQ is fair to poor and I feel the SINR fluctuates too much: https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/Mobile_Signal_Strength_Recommendations

If the connection is usable, the best thing is to do nothing.

If latency sensitive applications are unstable, you might wish to consider an external antenna. You would want to balance the cost of the antenna compared to the cost of the Huawei device as equipment should be balanced as to their capabilities, and equipment which is poorly performing (e.g. a bad antenna) is not worth having at all (on the other hand, a low-end device can hold back a good antenna).
Thanks, I'll keep an eye on the performance. I'm not in to low latency gaming or VoIP (other than Teams calls, which seem to work on the most basic connections). I'm borrowing a modem that doesn't have external antenna ports, so if I do go down the antenna route I'll also need a new modem.
 
n48 is a (US) sub-set of n78 (which itself is a sub-set of n77) - its just what the developer of the software has configured it to show when connected to a frequency within the range - just a bit annoying
Fairly sure I read somewhere that the Look Up Channels are hidden somewhere in the System Installation Files, could be as simple as a Ini or Text File somewhere, so maybe some possibility to change or modify them to read correctly perhaps, Ive never really looked into it as although as you say annoying, we just read n48 as n78.

Similar thing on some of the Android LTE Signal Apps, ie, G-Mon Pro and Signal Check Pro etc, although most of the 5G Android based Phones the NR Freq or Band doesn't show, but they do on 5G Huawei Phones using the NR Balong Chipset, but again would show up as n48 or n77.
 
Hope this is ok to bring my old thread back to the surface. My 5G router in the loft has been working great since I first asked for help. In the last week or so though, I'm facing problems.

First of all in the middle of last week my router (according to the LTE-H application) decided to connect to the cell that (in my opinion only) is further away and less line-of-sight-y. This is eNB 3977. While it was connected to this the 4G and 5G bars on the app were all over the place, which then caused havoc for my families streaming habits! To ease this I changed the band locking so it connected to the 4G only tower in the middle of town.

This week I thought I'd have another go at locking on to the 'good' 5G tower outside of town eNB 6602 (sector 73) and it did! For a few minutes, then it connected back to the other one eNB 3977, but both with better signal (according to the simple signal bar graphics at least). It then continues to swap between the two 5G towers every few minutes. In doing so, this again affects streaming sites as the signal drops, fails over to my FTTC connection, then transfers back to the 5G. IS this normal behaviour and is there anything I can do? I'm wishing I hadn't bought the Huawei modem from a friend now and got a ZTE that can do full band and cell locking.

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I don't understand how it's able to lock to another tower if you've cell locked? Get an mc801a from eBay (plenty on FB marketplace too, I managed to get one for £70) - they're not too expensive and cell lock works reliably.
 
The basic rule has to be though that cell or band locking may only work for a period of time and may only be applicable in a fixed location near the mast or in very rural where you want to be directional.

Mast maintenance, power reduction, reconfiguration or network policies can change at any time and a router may be fighting against what the network wants to do (following the UE capability) which may result in drops and reconnections instead of moving smoothly from say 5G NSA to 4G and back again when you are not using high data or the quality of the signal fluctuates around the thresholds or other depending on your position from the surrounding masts.

My local masts (all providers) have gone through a period of change but have settled down again, for now. The odd blip isn't really a problem.

The important thing for me is a consistent connection and not constantly renegotiating with the mast during which you may not have one. So its a balance being too restrictive or allowing the modem/network options.
 
I don't understand how it's able to lock to another tower if you've cell locked? Get an mc801a from eBay (plenty on FB marketplace too, I managed to get one for £70) - they're not too expensive and cell lock works reliably.
The Huawei CPE Pro 2 can only do band locking rather than cell locking annoyingly. This kinda worked in my favour a few months back as the 5G tower had Band 1 and the 4G tower in town didn't so I band locked it to Band 1, but now its fighting with the other tower the other end of town which I thought I was out of reach of (slightly further away and in a dip, in comparison with the other one that's on a hill.
 
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The basic rule has to be though that cell or band locking may only work for a period of time and may only be applicable in a fixed location near the mast or in very rural where you want to be directional.

Mast maintenance, power reduction, reconfiguration or network policies can change at any time and a router may be fighting against the what the network wants to do (following the UE capability) which may result in drops and reconnections instead of moving smoothly from say 5G NSA to 4G and back again when you are not using high data or the quality of the signal fluctuates around the thresholds or other depending on your position from the surrounding masts.

My local masts (all providers) have gone through a period of change but have settled down again, for now. The odd blip isn't really a problem.
So maybe sit it out and hope things calm down? I asked on another thread about maintenance work but the link I was given said nothing is currently going on with any of the towers near me.
 
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