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Drop in 3 (Three) network signal

Dafaddu

Casual Member
Good morning

For the past one and a half years, we have been using a 4G antenna / Router as our main source of internet. Fixed line broadband is currently 0.2mbps and Openreach want £76,000 to connect us to fibre but that's another story.

Technically 4G shouldn't work here because the network coverage checker says there is no coverage but it has... until last week.

Three sent me a new sim card but this hasn't resolved the issue. Out of interest, I placed my EE sim card in the router and this has picked up a signal and provided an internet connection but not as fast as the Three connection.

Having used Cellmapper, I have deduced that the same cell tower provides Three and EE coverage which begs the question why am I receiving EE signal but not Three??

My Three unlimited data contract is due for renewal in a few days time but I'm reluctant to renew if I can't get a signal. I intend to play around with the antenna position when the weather improves but was just wondering if anyone else had experienced any similar issues and whether or not they had found a solution??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Good morning

For the past one and a half years, we have been using a 4G antenna / Router as our main source of internet. Fixed line broadband is currently 0.2mbps and Openreach want £76,000 to connect us to fibre but that's another story.

Technically 4G shouldn't work here because the network coverage checker says there is no coverage but it has... until last week.

Three sent me a new sim card but this hasn't resolved the issue. Out of interest, I placed my EE sim card in the router and this has picked up a signal and provided an internet connection but not as fast as the Three connection.

Having used Cellmapper, I have deduced that the same cell tower provides Three and EE coverage which begs the question why am I receiving EE signal but not Three??

My Three unlimited data contract is due for renewal in a few days time but I'm reluctant to renew if I can't get a signal. I intend to play around with the antenna position when the weather improves but was just wondering if anyone else had experienced any similar issues and whether or not they had found a solution??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Is there any issues logged in the EE coverage status checker? Might be worth checking there.

Does the Three sim pick up a signal in your phone at all? Could be an update for the router that's impacted your router and changed the metrics.

Lastly, have you trialled other networks such as Vodafone/O2 to see if they're any better? Lebara and Lyca respectively, can have some decent unlimited tariffs.
 
Is there any issues logged in the EE coverage status checker? Might be worth checking there.

Does the Three sim pick up a signal in your phone at all? Could be an update for the router that's impacted your router and changed the metrics.

Lastly, have you trialled other networks such as Vodafone/O2 to see if they're any better? Lebara and Lyca respectively, can have some decent unlimited tariffs.
Thanks for your response.

Just checked the EE status and no problems detected.

I've had the Three sim card in my phone but it doesn't pick up a signal.

Other providers give no signal whatsoever.

I updated my routers firmware yesterday but that didn't make a difference either
 
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If you know where the cell tower is located its possibly worth a trip to see/take some photos and share here - there might have been recent works on it whereby hardware was replaced and the replacements are now at different azimuths and/or tilts causing a reduction in the signal levels in your location which are now too weak to attach to.

Where abouts are you - is there a nearby (<300m, though you sound fairly rural!) pub/shop that you can share the postcode of?
 
Similar happened to me after a tower 'upgrade', band 3 became unusable but luckily band 20 stayed good and I could add band 32 to get the download speed back to where it had been on band 3. For 10 days after the upgrade I got Band 3 plus 32 and the speeds were excellent. Three just do not know how to run a data heavy mobile service.
 
If you know where the cell tower is located its possibly worth a trip to see/take some photos and share here - there might have been recent works on it whereby hardware was replaced and the replacements are now at different azimuths and/or tilts causing a reduction in the signal levels in your location which are now too weak to attach to.

Where abouts are you - is there a nearby (<300m, though you sound fairly rural!) pub/shop that you can share the postcode of?
Thanks... I might do that today as I will be passing the mast later on. Nearest property I know the postcode of is a friends house LL51 9HZ. This is approxiamtely 350 / 400 meters from the mast. I am LL51 9AX which is in the middle of nowhere and with a large rock face between me and the mast. Amazed to be getting any signal to be honest.
 
Update:
Stopped by the cell tower to take photos as suggested by Gavin Ashford. No point taking pictures because it's just a green pole with cabinets on either side. As it happens, there was a chap there who worked for Three and EE. He'd been given an instruction to go and fix a fault. He didn't know when the fault had occurred but he thought it might have gone wrong more recently than last week. He did tell me that Three are replacing Samsung hardware with Ericcson. Don't think this info will make a difference to me but thought I'd let you know in case someone is interested? I'll post an update if my network returns tonight / tomorrow
 
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Thanks... I might do that today as I will be passing the mast later on. Nearest property I know the postcode of is a friends house LL51 9HZ. This is approxiamtely 350 / 400 meters from the mast. I am LL51 9AX which is in the middle of nowhere and with a large rock face between me and the mast. Amazed to be getting any signal to be honest.
Wow, really reliant on multi-path reflections then! Any earthquakes recently that have shifted the topology?!!

I assume you're sure that that the site near LL51 9HZ is the one you're connected to? A black 10m Phase 5 monopole? Cellmapper suggests its a B20 only site for Three - your throughput speeds cant be all that high? (though presumably higher than your fixed line can offer?!)

Was the guy just fixing the current fault or were they doing the vendor upgrade there and then? If the vendor upgrade was going in today then you might perhaps get more spectrum available to you than the current B20 5Mhz - it'd be a bit odd for them to just re-deploy the same spectrum, I'd think at the very least they'd put B28 too.
 
Wow, really reliant on multi-path reflections then! Any earthquakes recently that have shifted the topology?!!

I assume you're sure that that the site near LL51 9HZ is the one you're connected to? A black 10m Phase 5 monopole? Cellmapper suggests its a B20 only site for Three - your throughput speeds cant be all that high? (though presumably higher than your fixed line can offer?!)

Was the guy just fixing the current fault or were they doing the vendor upgrade there and then? If the vendor upgrade was going in today then you might perhaps get more spectrum available to you than the current B20 5Mhz - it'd be a bit odd for them to just re-deploy the same spectrum, I'd think at the very least they'd put B28 too.
Earthquakes... I wish!!

I can't be 100% sure it was that particular mast that I was getting the Three signal from but according to an app (Network Cell Info Lite) I downloaded it was that mast that I was getting the EE signal from so I made an assumption.

As for the guy at the pole, I think he was just fixing a fault. I did a quick network status check on the Three website after leaving him and it said no network issues reported. I tried the new Three sim card in my router earlier... Still not working!

As for download speeds, I was getting on average 7-9 mbps during peak hours but a pretty decent 15-18 mbps off peak. Compared to my guarantedd fixed lines broadband of 0.4 mbps, this is lightning quick. The EE isn't great to be honest. Max 4 mbps which is ok for working from home but rubbish for the kids and their games consoles.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on my hardware. Poynting Xpol A0001 Omni and a Teltonika Rut240. I have been thinking of upgrading my equipment in the hope it would pick up a stronger signal but its a lot of money to spend as an experiment.
 
As for the guy at the pole, I think he was just fixing a fault. I did a quick network status check on the Three website after leaving him and it said no network issues reported.
In my experience Three NEVER update their network status tool. It's as useful as an ashtray on a motor bike going at 160mph.

I also noticed a drop in service to a static antenna set-up (Mikrotik dish pointing directly at the mast) back in January 2022, literally over night the "noise" on Band 3 made my speeds drop like a stone. This summer, I was out in a field (which is about the same level of my antenna) and noticed I was getting speeds averaging about 40mbps on a 5G phone, yet was only getting 2-4 via the Mikrotik. I then purchased a Huawei 5G Outdoor CPE and get same 40mbps on it, same height and fixed location. It is connected to the same cell Primary: Band 3 CA : Band 20 as before, just getting better speeds from some reason. There is no 5G anywhere near me either.

I really don't know what Three are playing at or how the 5G router can get better speeds than my 4G equipment. I tested a Huawei B535 (came with my contract), Mikrotik LHGG LTE6 and a Teltonika RUT 950 all of them have dropped to 2-4mbps.

Another odd thing is that on the 4G equipment my uploads were constantly in the region of 20-30mbps, yet using the 5G router I can never get past 10mbps. You can see from my Speedtest results when I swapped to the 5G router!

Screenshot 2022-10-05 at 22-29-56 Results Speedtest by Ookla.jpg
 
Earthquakes... I wish!!

I can't be 100% sure it was that particular mast that I was getting the Three signal from but according to an app (Network Cell Info Lite) I downloaded it was that mast that I was getting the EE signal from so I made an assumption.

As for the guy at the pole, I think he was just fixing a fault. I did a quick network status check on the Three website after leaving him and it said no network issues reported. I tried the new Three sim card in my router earlier... Still not working!

As for download speeds, I was getting on average 7-9 mbps during peak hours but a pretty decent 15-18 mbps off peak. Compared to my guarantedd fixed lines broadband of 0.4 mbps, this is lightning quick. The EE isn't great to be honest. Max 4 mbps which is ok for working from home but rubbish for the kids and their games consoles.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on my hardware. Poynting Xpol A0001 Omni and a Teltonika Rut240. I have been thinking of upgrading my equipment in the hope it would pick up a stronger signal but its a lot of money to spend as an experiment.
Poynting Xpol A0001 Omni: great

Teltonika Rut240: cat4 no carrier aggregation, worth replacing with cat12 as a minimum to see if you get a better service.
 
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In my experience Three NEVER update their network status tool. It's as useful as an ashtray on a motor bike going at 160mph.

I also noticed a drop in service to a static antenna set-up (Mikrotik dish pointing directly at the mast) back in January 2022, literally over night the "noise" on Band 3 made my speeds drop like a stone. This summer, I was out in a field (which is about the same level of my antenna) and noticed I was getting speeds averaging about 40mbps on a 5G phone, yet was only getting 2-4 via the Mikrotik. I then purchased a Huawei 5G Outdoor CPE and get same 40mbps on it, same height and fixed location. It is connected to the same cell Primary: Band 3 CA : Band 20 as before, just getting better speeds from some reason. There is no 5G anywhere near me either.

I really don't know what Three are playing at or how the 5G router can get better speeds than my 4G equipment. I tested a Huawei B535 (came with my contract), Mikrotik LHGG LTE6 and a Teltonika RUT 950 all of them have dropped to 2-4mbps.

Another odd thing is that on the 4G equipment my uploads were constantly in the region of 20-30mbps, yet using the 5G router I can never get past 10mbps. You can see from my Speedtest results when I swapped to the 5G router!

View attachment 3648
Thanks for this... What model was your 5G router as it seems there are a few
 
Definitely going to look into updating my router!! Thank you
Until the Ericsson vendor swap happens it won't likely gain you anything - there are no more bands available from the site you connect to to aggregate with! When it does happen you should first investigate which bands have been deployed and then find a device that can take full advantage - not all devices can aggregate bands equally, especially low band B20+B28 which I feel would be most likely to be installed, given its location and primary function (serving the road)
 
Until the Ericsson vendor swap happens it won't likely gain you anything - there are no more bands available from the site you connect to to aggregate with! When it does happen you should first investigate which bands have been deployed and then find a device that can take full advantage - not all devices can aggregate bands equally, especially low band B20+B28 which I feel would be most likely to be installed, given its location and primary function (serving the road)
Thanks Gavin. I have decided to go for an unlocked Huawei 5G Pro router and just got a decent deal on ebay (£263). Hoping it will improve the EE speed as was Clivejo's experience but even if it doesn't I can always sell it.
 
Thanks for this... What model was your 5G router as it seems there are a few
It's a N5368X If you did go for this model and it is to be installed outside, make sure it comes with the outdoor mounting and weather proof kit.
 
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Thanks Gavin. I have decided to go for an unlocked Huawei 5G Pro router and just got a decent deal on ebay (£263). Hoping it will improve the EE speed as was Clivejo's experience but even if it doesn't I can always sell it.
If that's the original H112-370 model, I'm afraid to say that might not be a great choice for you. While it's good spec in itself, it's external antenna connections are for high frequency ~3500MHz (used for n78 5G in the UK) only so you'll be reliant solely on its internal 4G antennas to get signal (unless you modify it to add extra external antenna connections).

Additionally, I'm also assuming that your XPOL-1 is the non-5G version and so isn't designed/tuned for covering those higher frequencies either.
 
If that's the original H112-370 model, I'm afraid to say that might not be a great choice for you. While it's good spec in itself, it's external antenna connections are for high frequency ~3500MHz (used for n78 5G in the UK) only so you'll be reliant solely on its internal 4G antennas to get signal (unless you modify it to add extra external antenna connections).

Additionally, I'm also assuming that your XPOL-1 is the non-5G version and so isn't designed/tuned for covering those higher frequencies either.
Thanks Gavin. After ordering it I found a post from 2020 where you stated it won't work with external 4G antenna. I have since contacted the seller and have cancelled the order. Now looking at the 4G Pro version
 
When tried with EE, do you know what the Cell ID your current RUT router connects to, if it reports that in the information details somewhere?
 
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