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SMARTY Unlimited Service suddenly dropped in speed

DJBenz

Member
Hello all,

I have a Zyxel NR5103EV2 with a SMARTY unlimited data SIM and an external 5G antenna for my home broadband. I can't get a decent landline service above 2Mbps so mobile 5G is my only option.

I've been getting decent speeds for three months now. Occasional hiccups in service, which I've come to expect, but fairly stable at around 150-200Mbps which is more than enough for my needs.

Trying to watch BBC iPlayer last night and it was buffering and dropping out like a mad thing, a 60 minute programme took almost 2 hours to watch.

Checking speeds today I'm shocked that it has dropped to around 5Mbps. No amount of rebooting the router or tweaking settings seems to have worked.

I was using the three.co.uk Cellular APN but changed to mob.asm.net - no improvement
I have Cellular bands N78 and B28 only selected to try and stick to higher speed connections - again, no improvement.

I'm about half a mile from the cell tower, and although I don't have line of sight the connection has been stable up to now. Standing in the same place as the antenna I can get around 50Mpbs on my phone (iPhone 13) on a GiffGaff SIM.

Any suggestions to improve this? Have Smarty started throttling connections and I'm suffering the consequences?
 
Hello all,

I have a Zyxel NR5103EV2 with a SMARTY unlimited data SIM and an external 5G antenna for my home broadband. I can't get a decent landline service above 2Mbps so mobile 5G is my only option.

I've been getting decent speeds for three months now. Occasional hiccups in service, which I've come to expect, but fairly stable at around 150-200Mbps which is more than enough for my needs.

Trying to watch BBC iPlayer last night and it was buffering and dropping out like a mad thing, a 60 minute programme took almost 2 hours to watch.

Checking speeds today I'm shocked that it has dropped to around 5Mbps. No amount of rebooting the router or tweaking settings seems to have worked.

I was using the three.co.uk Cellular APN but changed to mob.asm.net - no improvement
I have Cellular bands N78 and B28 only selected to try and stick to higher speed connections - again, no improvement.

I'm about half a mile from the cell tower, and although I don't have line of sight the connection has been stable up to now. Standing in the same place as the antenna I can get around 50Mpbs on my phone (iPhone 13) on a GiffGaff SIM.

Any suggestions to improve this? Have Smarty started throttling connections and I'm suffering the consequences?
Have you tried band locking to n28?

Could just be a local mast issue, checking the EE coverage status checker may give a more accurate response if there are issues via shared mast (commonly shared with Three).
 
Hello all,

I have a Zyxel NR5103EV2 with a SMARTY unlimited data SIM and an external 5G antenna for my home broadband. I can't get a decent landline service above 2Mbps so mobile 5G is my only option.

I've been getting decent speeds for three months now. Occasional hiccups in service, which I've come to expect, but fairly stable at around 150-200Mbps which is more than enough for my needs.

Trying to watch BBC iPlayer last night and it was buffering and dropping out like a mad thing, a 60 minute programme took almost 2 hours to watch.

Checking speeds today I'm shocked that it has dropped to around 5Mbps. No amount of rebooting the router or tweaking settings seems to have worked.

I was using the three.co.uk Cellular APN but changed to mob.asm.net - no improvement
I have Cellular bands N78 and B28 only selected to try and stick to higher speed connections - again, no improvement.

I'm about half a mile from the cell tower, and although I don't have line of sight the connection has been stable up to now. Standing in the same place as the antenna I can get around 50Mpbs on my phone (iPhone 13) on a GiffGaff SIM.

Any suggestions to improve this? Have Smarty started throttling connections and I'm suffering the consequences?
take the sim out and put it in the phone. Download the cellmapper app and check from which mast are you getting signal. Im pretty sure theres some temporary issue with your current mast
 
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Hello all,

I have a Zyxel NR5103EV2 with a SMARTY unlimited data SIM and an external 5G antenna for my home broadband. I can't get a decent landline service above 2Mbps so mobile 5G is my only option.

I've been getting decent speeds for three months now. Occasional hiccups in service, which I've come to expect, but fairly stable at around 150-200Mbps which is more than enough for my needs.

Trying to watch BBC iPlayer last night and it was buffering and dropping out like a mad thing, a 60 minute programme took almost 2 hours to watch.

Checking speeds today I'm shocked that it has dropped to around 5Mbps. No amount of rebooting the router or tweaking settings seems to have worked.

I was using the three.co.uk Cellular APN but changed to mob.asm.net - no improvement
I have Cellular bands N78 and B28 only selected to try and stick to higher speed connections - again, no improvement.

I'm about half a mile from the cell tower, and although I don't have line of sight the connection has been stable up to now. Standing in the same place as the antenna I can get around 50Mpbs on my phone (iPhone 13) on a GiffGaff SIM.

Any suggestions to improve this? Have Smarty started throttling connections and I'm suffering the consequences?

I have a very similar setup to you and band locked to b28 and n78 on Smarty unlimited. I've noticed no change. Unfortunately with the5103 router you can't cell lock. I mitigate this issue by using a directional external antenna. Is yours directional or omni?

You can find out what cell / tower you are using by looking at the CELL ID within the Cellular Info box area on the admin page of the Router. Plug in the CELL ID into the following calculator and out will pop the mast id:

 
Have you tried band locking to n28?

Could just be a local mast issue, checking the EE coverage status checker may give a more accurate response if there are issues via shared mast (commonly shared with Three).
Did you mean n78? I've tried that in the past but it seems to connect to nothing at all if I leave out B28.
take the sim out and put it in the phone. Download the cellmapper app and check from which mast are you getting signal. Im pretty sure theres some temporary issue with your current mast
I thought about that, but it's micro SIM in the router and nano in my phones so I don't want to mess it up! I think you might be right on the temp issue though as it seems to have returned to normal-ish after a couple of days.
I have a very similar setup to you and band locked to b28 and n78 on Smarty unlimited. I've noticed no change. Unfortunately with the5103 router you can't cell lock. I mitigate this issue by using a directional external antenna. Is yours directional or omni?

You can find out what cell / tower you are using by looking at the CELL ID within the Cellular Info box area on the admin page of the Router. Plug in the CELL ID into the following calculator and out will pop the mast id:

It's a Bluespot directional antenna, pointed at my nearest mast that I found via Celllmapper. I did the calculator and it chucked me a bunch of numbers I don't understand. It seems to have righted itself for the moment, but stuff like this is useful to know for future.
 

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  • Screenshot 2024-11-22 112658.webp
    Screenshot 2024-11-22 112658.webp
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Did you mean n78? I've tried that in the past but it seems to connect to nothing at all if I leave out B28.

I thought about that, but it's micro SIM in the router and nano in my phones so I don't want to mess it up! I think you might be right on the temp issue though as it seems to have returned to normal-ish after a couple of days.

It's a Bluespot directional antenna, pointed at my nearest mast that I found via Celllmapper. I did the calculator and it chucked me a bunch of numbers I don't understand. It seems to have righted itself for the moment, but stuff like this is useful to know for future.
No, n28 is longer reaching. Not sure three uses n28 but only b28.

Removing n78 might help your cause.

I remove it with my EE sim, while it is fast 700+, it acts weird at times resulting in no connectivity.

Fixing to EE n28 gives me a solid 100-200meg down, 100 up with no issues.
 
So eNB ID is the cell number you need. Seen here on cellmapper:

1000054645.webp


Agreed Three don't use n28 (5G band), but do use b28(700MHz LTE Band) which I use for upload because of the better penetration due to no line of sight.
 
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So eNB ID is the cell number you need. Seen here on cellmapper:

View attachment 21160

Agreed Three don't use n28 (5G band), but do use b28(700MHz LTE Band) which I use for upload because of the better penetration due to no line of sight.
Wow, that is insane, that tower is miles from my location, why would I be linking to that?

I'm where the red circle is in the attached pic. I've got my antenna pointed at Tower 11461.
Screenshot 2024-11-22 130852 (1).webp
 
..possibly because it has a greater signal? that is possible due to obstructions, reflections and also the antenna you have, even though it is directional is a panel antenna which tend to have a reasonably wide "field of view". Just to note though the CELL ID only reports the 4G/LTE location, with 5G NSA, you could be receiving your 5G bands from a different mast location.
 
..possibly because it has a greater signal? that is possible due to obstructions, reflections and also the antenna you have, even though it is directional is a panel antenna which tend to have a reasonably wide "field of view". Just to note though the CELL ID only reports the 4G/LTE location, with 5G NSA, you could be receiving your 5G bands from a different mast location.
Sounds feasible. The path to 11461 has the landscape rising then falling (so effectively there's a hill in the way). To 50541 it's a valley down towards the river then it raises up on the other side. Maybe I should turn the antenna to face 50541!
 
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