Sponsored Links

Weather impact on 4G

Hi,

I know humidity and in particular precipitation will degrade a cellular signal. In real terms, how much? I ask because I am trying out mobile broadband and want to understand the likely impact of heavy rain. I am getting 4 bars out of 5 so I expect I might loose some speed but unlikely to crap out completely. What is other people's experience?

I am on 4G Vfe but not sure which frequncy - guessing 800Mhz but not sure?

C
 
The size of the raindrops has to match the wavelength before rain has much effect. It used to cause 2G sites linked by microwave dishes a problem, because the wavelength of a microwave point to point line is much closer to raindrop size, but I doubt many sites aren’t served by fibre links now. We’re talking frequencies up around 30-40GHz.

I used to be an engineer with Orange, they used to track weather fronts by the radio sites dropping off the network and coming back online after the front passed.
 
The size of the raindrops has to match the wavelength before rain has much effect. It used to cause 2G sites linked by microwave dishes a problem, because the wavelength of a microwave point to point line is much closer to raindrop size, but I doubt many sites aren’t served by fibre links now. We’re talking frequencies up around 30-40GHz.

I used to be an engineer with Orange, they used to track weather fronts by the radio sites dropping off the network and coming back online after the front passed.

Cool, thanks for that info, sounds like it is not going to cause too much of an issue then. Just so happens my current broadband provider is down today and I am working from home - the mobile broadband is paying of already....
 
Sponsored Links
I have been suffering with low cloud recently and that has knocked the B525 1800 Band 3 down from 3 bars to zero but it was still downloading. Changing to 800 band 20 got 3 bars back but bandwidth is limited on Three.
 
While the headline signal strength is usually a good indicator of how fast your service will run, its not always the case. What is really important is the SINR value (ratio of signal to interference and noise), if you can find this reading in your router pages, try moving things and changing things to improve this. I've been on 4G only for 3 years now, we are deep rural with low signal strength but also low background noise. In my experience, most noise and interference originates from your own home! Try turning stuff off. To answer your original question, rain and fog don't seem to make much difference. The seasons do though, when the trees lose their leaves we typically pick up 3dB signal strength. We did get a big boost in signal strength after the snow last year, the following day was crystal clear and our speed doubled while the snow still lay on the ground, I have no idea why..
 
"our speed doubled while the snow still lay on the ground, I have no idea why.. "
It's a Black Art, they say. It's hard to test marginal performance here as there's always 100% signal strength. I was, some years ago, reduced to dangling a USB dongle out of the window for a weak 3G signal, almost everything affected it, slightest movement, rain, phase of the moon, 'R' in the month, etc.
 
While the headline signal strength is usually a good indicator of how fast your service will run, its not always the case. What is really important is the SINR value (ratio of signal to interference and noise), if you can find this reading in your router pages, try moving things and changing things to improve this. I've been on 4G only for 3 years now, we are deep rural with low signal strength but also low background noise. In my experience, most noise and interference originates from your own home! Try turning stuff off. To answer your original question, rain and fog don't seem to make much difference. The seasons do though, when the trees lose their leaves we typically pick up 3dB signal strength. We did get a big boost in signal strength after the snow last year, the following day was crystal clear and our speed doubled while the snow still lay on the ground, I have no idea why..

Lying snow would be more reflective than bare ground, so rather than the ground absorbing energy a lot more would be reflected back
 
Sponsored Links
Since my post of Aug 2 I have moved from an external Yagi array to a parabolic dish, the 3 bars is now a solid bars even in rain and fog. 4km away from the mast and getting an SINR of 14db just now. The SINR does drop in rain and fog but not enough for any bars to be lost.
 
I'm currently in a good signal strength area close to the mast, so nothing much varied during the recent rainstorms, including the B311 signal stats.

However, the rain seems to have washed away 'something' - D/L speeds were 48 mb/s over the last month, this morning they're suddenly up to 75.

A 'Black Art', to be sure. :)
 
I'm currently in a good signal strength area close to the mast, so nothing much varied during the recent rainstorms, including the B311 signal stats.

However, the rain seems to have washed away 'something' - D/L speeds were 48 mb/s over the last month, this morning they're suddenly up to 75.

A 'Black Art', to be sure. :)

My speeds increase late at night / early morning when there is less usage of the network, but fall during busy times like lunch time.
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5470)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2524)
  4. Openreach (2290)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2234)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

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