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Drawing a blank on mobile broadband

Martydibergi

Casual Member
Having tried all 4 providers my 4g speeds are, for want of a better word, shite. The strange thing is that on first trying a speed test with 3 I got about 20mb/s before it just settled back to between 2 and 5mb/s on each subsequent test.

Today I had high hopes with EE. On putting the SIM in I got 30 mb/s (at 17.45) and then it wouldn't connect at all. Following the usual wait to speak to someone and looking online at my account they had credited my account with £10 but wouldn't allow me to use data. Anyhow when that got fixed at 20.30 my download speeds were between 3 and 5 mb/s.

The only thing I can think of was that the phone was connecting to a different mast today (is that possible?) I was hoping to get a 4g modem but can't really see the point now.

Has anyone got any ideas? All I am looking for is to be able to stream 4k stuff from Amazon.
 
Not all 4G signals are equal. They have what are called Bands and these have pros and cons. Three for example have a good coverage using Band 20, it travels well but is congested and very limited on speed. My local Band 20 only gets about 2-5Mbps like you mentioned above. The higher speed is probably Band 3. Band 3 doesn't travel very well and either needs you to be close to the mast or have "good lines of sight".

So I would suggest you try and find where your local mast is located and run some tests to see if you can improve the signal. Sometimes it can be as simple as using your phone in a certain upstairs window. CellMapper can be a good tool, if there are contributors in your area.
 
If you are in an area where 3 only have Bands 3 and 20 and its congested its worth trying 3G, I can get 20+Meg from DC-HSPA 3G
 
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