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Three Oversubscribed Areas Alert! (And What Action Has Three Taken)

I've found Three awful in that part of the world. Similar (or worse) results are common in Portsmouth, too many sites with just B1+B3.

VF are by far the best on the south coast in my experience. O2? Forget about it. EE are hit or miss.

No idea if it's congestion but in Hampshire I tested Three and it's 0.3Mbps, I stole my friend's phone and similar on EE. O2 and Vodafone both around 20.
 
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No idea if it's congestion but in Hampshire I tested Three and it's 0.3Mbps, I stole my friend's phone and similar on EE. O2 and Vodafone both around
Very likely congestion. The road in hampshire that goes from Romsey (A3057) to Kings Somborne is a dead spot for MBNL operators. Cornerstone is slightly better as they have a (not SRN but should) pole near Timsbury where they are a few local pubs, small business park and some houses having to choose vodafone or o2 as their only options.
 
News reports say that Three store staff in central London are being switched to giffgaff goodybags due to oversubscription of their own network.

(joke)
1000042928.webp
 
I don't think my area is congested, but I see massive packet loss at peak times, I am in between sectors, but the issue goes away after midnight, been the same way since at least 2021
I've never actually thought about packet loss, I'm in between sectors too by the looks of it (signal is not great, unable to pick up n78 when I probably would be able to if I wasn't in between sectors) but my packets seem to be fine?

I wish speedtest had some filters
 
I've never actually thought about packet loss, I'm in between sectors too by the looks of it (signal is not great, unable to pick up n78 when I probably would be able to if I wasn't in between sectors) but my packets seem to be fine?

I wish speedtest had some filters
yeah, its a strange and annoying issue, im also sandwiched inbetween 2 sites providing a similar signal level, and dreadfull performance, packet loss of 3-10%, pings that swing from 32ms upto 400ms SNR values that are always in the minus figure unless the device is placed in a specific, odd location or its after midnight. The issues go after peak time, and the issues also vanish if one of the sites go down!
 
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I've never actually thought about packet loss, I'm in between sectors too by the looks of it (signal is not great, unable to pick up n78 when I probably would be able to if I wasn't in between sectors) but my packets seem to be fine?

I wish speedtest had some filters
Untitled.jpg
this is the best it gets for me on 3, at 2am, been this way for years. its why i now use Vodafone in my phone. RSRQ is over 15 in the day, SNR is -5 or so regularly
 
yeah, its a strange and annoying issue, im also sandwiched inbetween 2 sites providing a similar signal level, and dreadfull performance, packet loss of 3-10%, pings that swing from 32ms upto 400ms SNR values that are always in the minus figure unless the device is placed in a specific, odd location or its after midnight. The issues go after peak time, and the issues also vanish if one of the sites go down!
Exactly the same scenario here, I'm technically not sandwiched in between two sites but the B3+B20 signal from the telephone exchange site is sometimes stronger than the B1+3+20+28+32+n78 signals closer to me

Three is unusable as soon as the PoW goes down anyways. Vodafone was when my local mast does occasionally too, although O2 was almost fine (probably because I had two carriers of B40 helping me, just no uplink). Local mast has been down on EE for a while (giving me poor signal) and I don't think it really has impacted performance that much (other than swapping to B20 sites more).

How the hell has Three got a B20 only site in your area? Looks decently populated
 
Exactly the same scenario here, I'm technically not sandwiched in between two sites but the B3+B20 signal from the telephone exchange site is sometimes stronger than the B1+3+20+28+32+n78 signals closer to me

Three is unusable as soon as the PoW goes down anyways. Vodafone was when my local mast does occasionally too, although O2 was almost fine (probably because I had two carriers of B40 helping me, just no uplink). Local mast has been down on EE for a while (giving me poor signal) and I don't think it really has impacted performance that much (other than swapping to B20 sites more).

How the hell has Three got a B20 only site in your area? Looks decently populated
they actually have 2 B20 only sites in the area, both shared with EE, no idea why they havent been given more capacity, especially with all the new housing going up!
Would love for 3 to install a POW, little chance it would get approved in these parts though
 
If anyone has been to these locations on Three after 19/6 can you please confirm if they are still oversubbed this month, thanks

South Tyneside 19/6



Entire South East of County Fermanagh 19/6



Tytherington, Macclesfield 19/6



Sunderland 19/6



Leichester square 19/6



Newcastle 19/6
 
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Has Three always been oversubscribed in Londons busy areas or did it just gradually gotten worse in recent years?

1000015713.webp
 
Wantage is now getting the "There is, at times, heavy usage in this local area" treatment 😵‍💫

I was in east Oxford area a couple of days ago and noticed that I was on band 20 from my home mast in Wantage and when in Abingdon I occasionally connected to band 28 from my home mast in Wantage. There are two poles of wonder in Abingdon that are only providing the A34 with "blazing fast 5G" and they've deleted the Abingdon coverage from the map after a few years of proudly listing it as one of the first areas for 5G.

B28 is the devil as far as I'm concerned I can get textbook radio readings at home so on paper it is amazing but the reality is somewhat different. Robbing us of B1 and then not doing any work to make 5G happen means that N1 is not accessed fully owing to required signal level negotiation when accessing 5G ran.

At home I am now using a Zyxel NR5103E and have to keep B28 and 5G off to use B3, B32, B20 so when I'm asleep it's amazing and when I'm awake and want to use it with everyone else it's spotty shall we say. The fibre rush we experienced is now over with Openreach work drying up to almost zero and the signup offers all expiring with no signs of any more work for the foreseeable 😢.

Still, I one should look for the treasure in the trash and I now get above 5Mbps upload most of the time. Granted, I had to buy a new router but it's better than before!

What I have also noticed is that 13025280 only aggregates B20 intermittently so the majority of the time it's using B3 + B32.

13025286 when I toggle 5G on uses B20 + B32 + N1 and is unusable between 08:00 and 23:00 but while sleeping can deliver 300 down and 60 up. Go back to 4G and this cell also aggregates the uplink using B20 + B32 + B3 with the same timing situation. The aggregated upload and download bandwidth is the same for 5G and 4G. Would be good if 13025280 also aggregated uplink on 4G but hey ho.
 
Last edited:
Sunderland 19/6

Taken just now from a location where you would usually see download speeds in the single digits it's an improvement. Nothing blisteringly fast but a huge step up from what it was.

I'll have to test again later in the day when things get busier and see how it holds up.

Taking a look at the cell tower, it's no longer quite so wonky and leaning to one side as it had been for the past year. Presumably they've had people out and done some work.

Wonky.webp


No that isn't Google's Street View cameras messing with the stitching of the photos. It really was leaning over that far!
 
Wantage is now getting the "There is, at times, heavy usage in this local area" treatment 😵‍💫

I was in east Oxford area a couple of days ago and noticed that I was on band 20 from my home mast in Wantage and when in Abingdon I occasionally connected to band 28 from my home mast in Wantage. There are two poles of wonder in Abingdon that are only providing the A34 with "blazing fast 5G" and they've deleted the Abingdon coverage from the map after a few years of proudly listing it as one of the first areas for 5G.

B28 is the devil as far as I'm concerned I can get textbook radio readings at home so on paper it is amazing but the reality is somewhat different. Robbing us of B1 and then not doing any work to make 5G happen means that N1 is not accessed fully owing to required signal level negotiation when accessing 5G ran.

At home I am now using a Zyxel NR5103E and have to keep B28 and 5G off to use B3, B32, B20 so when I'm asleep it's amazing and when I'm awake and want to use it with everyone else it's spotty shall we say. The fibre rush we experienced is now over with Openreach work drying up to almost zero and the signup offers all expiring with no signs of any more work for the foreseeable 😢.

Still, I one should look for the treasure in the trash and I now get above 5Mbps upload most of the time. Granted, I had to buy a new router but it's better than before!

What I have also noticed is that 13025280 only aggregates B20 intermittently so the majority of the time it's using B3 + B32.

13025286 when I toggle 5G on uses B20 + B32 + N1 and is unusable between 08:00 and 23:00 but while sleeping can deliver 300 down and 60 up. Go back to 4G and this cell also aggregates the uplink using B20 + B32 + B3 with the same timing situation. The aggregated upload and download bandwidth is the same for 5G and 4G. Would be good if 13025280 also aggregated uplink on 4G but hey ho.
13025280 and 13025286 are the same mast - eNB 50880 (Chain Hill, Wantage). The first number is sector 0 (band 3) and the other is sector 6 (band 20). Not sure what the specific config will be for that mast but it looks like there's some pretty awful signal nearby so that could be using all the mast's resources.

Edit: you can ignore the above, I somehow got the impression you thought the two cells were from different masts. Not sure why!
 
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Wantage is now getting the "There is, at times, heavy usage in this local area" treatment 😵‍💫

I was in east Oxford area a couple of days ago and noticed that I was on band 20 from my home mast in Wantage and when in Abingdon I occasionally connected to band 28 from my home mast in Wantage. There are two poles of wonder in Abingdon that are only providing the A34 with "blazing fast 5G" and they've deleted the Abingdon coverage from the map after a few years of proudly listing it as one of the first areas for 5G.

B28 is the devil as far as I'm concerned I can get textbook radio readings at home so on paper it is amazing but the reality is somewhat different. Robbing us of B1 and then not doing any work to make 5G happen means that N1 is not accessed fully owing to required signal level negotiation when accessing 5G ran.

At home I am now using a Zyxel NR5103E and have to keep B28 and 5G off to use B3, B32, B20 so when I'm asleep it's amazing and when I'm awake and want to use it with everyone else it's spotty shall we say. The fibre rush we experienced is now over with Openreach work drying up to almost zero and the signup offers all expiring with no signs of any more work for the foreseeable 😢.

Still, I one should look for the treasure in the trash and I now get above 5Mbps upload most of the time. Granted, I had to buy a new router but it's better than before!

What I have also noticed is that 13025280 only aggregates B20 intermittently so the majority of the time it's using B3 + B32.

13025286 when I toggle 5G on uses B20 + B32 + N1 and is unusable between 08:00 and 23:00 but while sleeping can deliver 300 down and 60 up. Go back to 4G and this cell also aggregates the uplink using B20 + B32 + B3 with the same timing situation. The aggregated upload and download bandwidth is the same for 5G and 4G. Would be good if 13025280 also aggregated uplink on 4G but hey ho.
Went and stood in front of it earlier to try and get some more concise information about the mast. I noticed that phones are allowed to use B3 as primary and aggregate the N1 where as I can't get the router doing the same. Obviously when in a field with zero obstruction and proximity the metrics were very good and speeds were good but the site is massively overloaded.

Where I can only access the NSA using B20 it nobbles me somewhat but I am now leaning towards getting the Iskra p-62's to boost B32 and B3 and future proof for time actual 5G arrives?!
 

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Update on ST7 Church Lawton, its been 2 months now and still during the day there's no data flowing.

I can't give speed results as speed tests fail. During the early morning and late evenings though you can get up to 30mb download on 4G.

EE and Vodafone now have rather decent 5G in the area, 3 is really lacking.

Good news is they let me out of my 2 year home broadband contract really easily to be fair to them. They did a search on the postcode and said "yea our service is going to struggle there" and allowed me to cancel with immediate effect or have 3months free to see if it improves as he said capacity work was expected in the area.

I was actually taken back how helpful they were and didn't want cancel but I already had Sky fibre installed as I need a reliable connection for working from home.
 
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