Sponsored Links

Severe throttling by Three

dazmatic

ULTIMATE Member
Sometimes I have to get the old drum out and give it a bang.

For a couple of weeks now I've been experiencing severe throttling by Three from the mast over in Great Barton, eNB 9583.

Prior to this, I'd hit 250Mbps down, 35-38Mbps up consistently without much deviation. Since however, it's barely tickled 160-180Mbps down and a damn near constant 18-20Mbps up - like REALLY consistent.

I noticed the tower went down for several hours and the issues appeared to begin after it came back up.
To diagnose I've tried swapping the RM500Q for the NL952, swapping sim cards etc and still, same speeds.

More worryingly, I drove out to the mast with my Xiaomi 11 lite NE and still experienced the same thing in the same sector on 4G. Switching out to 5G N78 however bearing in mind there's only 40Mhz bandwidth hit over 700Mbps down so that rules out backhaul.

Naturally, speaking to Three (even as a business customer) gets me the generic 'you've not got very good coverage' ********e (I swear that's all first line has access too, coverage checker).

Now, this is where it gets really weird. I've seen some weird stuff going on with signal stats - specifically only apparently on B3 where the SINR would jump around and I mean jump, suddenly, from say 24-26dB to 10dB, or to 14dB, for a few seconds and then back up seemingly at random.

Was sat watching it this morning and then suddenly it stopped and sat solid at 24-26dB

Band 1 appeared to be behaving fine.
 
Sponsored Links
1000099723.jpg


1000099727.jpg


No problem here in Leeds on iD
 
No problem here in Leeds on iD
That's leeds - hundreds of miles from here and not particularly helpful I'm afraid.
I'm talking specifically this cell tower and diagnosing what the issue might be.

I've set a few downloads off consuming all available bandwidth. Monitoring the throughput from the RBM33G WebFig and NL952, I can see a pattern to the throughput.

Approximately, every 30-40 seconds, the throughput drops to a seemingly restricted 160Mbps
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2024-02-13 105642.webp
    Screenshot 2024-02-13 105642.webp
    27.9 KB · Views: 62
Sponsored Links
Interestingly, during a wakeful morning today I ran a number of speed tests around 3AM.

What was very interesting is that once B32 had woken up, download was a consistent 250-270Mbps and upload tickling 37-38Mbps consistently.

In conclusion, I think it's fairly safe to say that Three are engaging active throttling on the 4G side of the mast here during day time hours.

It's still quick, just frustrating that the bandwidth is now suddenly throttled like that. Makes my parabolic antenna installation kind of pointless as I could achieve those figures with just a pair of LPDAs.

I've got an NR5103E on order from CEX to see if a known IMEI number might have an effect but it's unlikely.

Also hoping the NR5013E might respond better to 5G N78 or pick up N1 from an adjacent mast.
 
Last edited:
IMG_1767.png


Ok, add me to the list of people who think they throttle at 120mbps. I’ve been testing consistently after first reading this thread. I’m convinced now.

I used to get 200-300 fairly consistently for about a year after starting the contract. Never goes over about 120 after I renewed my contract (occasionally 130ish, but that could be due to some buffering etc). Heavy user. Have tried various routers, currently a 7010 mounted on my roof. Ok stats. APN changes make no difference.
 
I'm still not seeing the same thing. I would also arguably say that 120mbps is more than enough.


e9d14647-382e-49f3-95f1-49223fec4ab8.png
 
Sponsored Links
I'm still not seeing the same thing. I would also arguably say that 120mbps is more than enough.


e9d14647-382e-49f3-95f1-49223fec4ab8.png
Doesn't really seem relevant to the conversation though. People have been able to attain higher speeds then all of a sudden find they're restricted to 120Mbps with no admission from Three. Enough people have commented now for it to be known this isn't a blanket thing for all customers, but it doesn't give you much confidence in Three the fact this could happen to anyone and they're unwilling/unable to fix the issue.
 
Doesn't really seem relevant to the conversation though. People have been able to attain higher speeds then all of a sudden find they're restricted to 120Mbps with no admission from Three. Enough people have commented now for it to be known this isn't a blanket thing for all customers, but it doesn't give you much confidence in Three the fact this could happen to anyone and they're unwilling/unable to fix the issue.
I wouldn't even categorise it as an issue. You're getting excellent speeds which are more than enough to do anything you'd like.
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6027)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2440)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules