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Will Three address mast contention? Lets find out!

Well apparently (more thanks to OFCOM) if you get less than 10Mbps down and 1Mbps up you can request a free FTTP upgrade!

But only as long as you can't get 4G and it don't cost more than £3400 to install! So even then you're screwed.

So whilst 30Mbps is "superfast", 10Mbps is unacceptable.

Shoot me now.
I'm not sure who told you that you can get a free FTTP upgrade. That isn't true. There is a limited USO for places that get under 10mbps internet, but in no way is that a "free FTTP upgrade" I'm afraid.
 

So you're in the 20/2 range - which is more than people on ADSL2+ can get typically, so you're not as hard done by as you make out.

I've got customers with 0.5mbps ADSL - and no 3G or 4G coverage. Those people are the ones with totally unusable internet. Sure you might not be able to do some of the more "nice" things like 4K streaming but those speeds are good enough to get general usage.
 
So you're in the 20/2 range - which is more than people on ADSL2+ can get typically, so you're not as hard done by as you make out.
Maybe three could use that as their marketing tag-line for they're home broadband "You're not as hard done by as you make out!"

Would fit the product perfectly.
 
Maybe three could use that as their marketing tag-line for they're home broadband "You're not as hard done by as you make out!"

Would fit the product perfectly.

Did 3 promise you'd get gigabit speeds? Or that the home broadband would be some magical speed? Nope.

Those speeds are perfectly usable, and around or better than what many people got for "home broadband"... I mean three say "Our 4G Broadband with Unlimited data is great for everyday home broadband. It's quick and easy to set up – just plug and play."

"everyday home broadband" - I'd say the speeds you're getting demonstrate "everyday home broadband" - they're not stonkingly fast, but they're not unusably slow for everyday purposes. Perhaps you need to consider that your expectations are too high for what is realistically achievable where you are. I'm sure you would like greater speeds - you're hardly alone there, but you're making out that the service you do get is far worse than it is from the speeds you posted.

I suspect the reason you're not getting anywhere getting three to "fix" your service is that your service isn't "faulty" to begin with. What do you think they'll do? Come out and install transmission equipment next door to you just for you? I'm not sure what it is you want 3 to do for you.
 
I'm not making out the service I get is far worse than the speeds I posted.

Firstly at 2am I can get nearly 200Mbps, by 6am its down to 100Mbps, by lunchtime its down to 40Mbps, by 3pm its 20-25Mbps and at tea time its normally sub 10Mbps. Sunday night, I can forget bothering with the internet at all.

I'm aware from the speeds I get when my mast isn't contended, exactly what speed I am capable of getting at my location are. I as a customer am not the problem, the problem is Three is incapable of providing my contended mast with more bandwidth.
 
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I'm not making out the service I get is far worse than the speeds I posted.

Firstly at 2am I can get nearly 200Mbps, by 6am its down to 100Mbps, by lunchtime its down to 40Mbps, by 3pm its 20-25Mbps and at tea time its normally sub 10Mbps. Sunday night, I can forget bothering with the internet at all.

I'm aware from the speeds I get when my mast isn't contended, exactly what speed I am capable of getting at my location are. I as a customer am not the problem, the problem is Three is incapable of providing my contended mast with more bandwidth.

If you're getting 200mbps+ at certain times then the capacity is there, but it is being used, there is a finite amount of bandwidth you can deliver for a given amount of radio spectrum, and they may simply have no more spectrum available to use there. Radio spectrum is finite.
 
I'm not making out the service I get is far worse than the speeds I posted.

Firstly at 2am I can get nearly 200Mbps, by 6am its down to 100Mbps, by lunchtime its down to 40Mbps, by 3pm its 20-25Mbps and at tea time its normally sub 10Mbps. Sunday night, I can forget bothering with the internet at all.

I'm aware from the speeds I get when my mast isn't contended, exactly what speed I am capable of getting at my location are. I as a customer am not the problem, the problem is Three is incapable of providing my contended mast with more bandwidth.
You say you can forget bothering with the internet at all.

What is it you actually want to do with more than 10mbps speeds? Forums, web browsing, Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, everything should work with that speed, though not 4K but you may get away with HD quality on most services.

try dropping to 3G. My three sim loves to be on 3G at the moment and most of the time it’s 20mbps or slightly higher.
 
I'm using the B535-232, which I got over 200Mbps all day when i first joined Three (with no rabbit ears, just the internal antenna), which lasted 4 months before the downward spiral which its never recovered from.

I've messed around with the bands and 1 and 3 together seems the best overall. Its slightly faster with just band 3, but when contention strikes bands 1 and 3 together perform better.

The problems arise when using it for 4K streaming and the console which is totally unusable without 50Mbps+ speeds (ie:put disc in, 80gb update required etc). HD isn't even possible some evenings (and always Saturday and Sunday), when this happens it drops to 480p on you tube or hangs 30seconds plus every time an advert comes on.
 
I'm using the B535-232, which I got over 200Mbps all day when i first joined Three (with no rabbit ears, just the internal antenna), which lasted 4 months before the downward spiral which its never recovered from.

I've messed around with the bands and 1 and 3 together seems the best overall. Its slightly faster with just band 3, but when contention strikes bands 1 and 3 together perform better.

The problems arise when using it for 4K streaming and the console which is totally unusable without 50Mbps+ speeds (ie:put disc in, 80gb update required etc). HD isn't even possible some evenings (and always Saturday and Sunday), when this happens it drops to 480p on you tube or hangs 30seconds plus every time an advert comes on.
You must long for band 32 your way then 😅
 
I'm suprised you got 200mbps from the B535 but its possible obviously, the think is that the B535 is only capable of utilising 64QAM modulation on radio bands and now the networks are using 256QAM and 4x4.


To be honest that sort of usage isn't classed as 'everyday' and the issue with Youtube dropping to 480p is actually fairly usual even on stable superfast fixed line broadband, I beleive due to a configuration thats still in place on Europe servers to reduce broadband infrstructure impact during lockdowns.

Getting B32 will make a difference but not so much for using the B535 as its going to limit the use of upgrades if I'm honest, so looking at othert options is going to be key.

I was using a CAT4 Huawei modem recently for a test with Vodafone in my area, using the CAT4 barely produced above 20mbps and that was on Band's 1, 7 and 20 (7 being the best), when testing back in my phones the speeds increase to 150-400mbps on 4G (3CA)

Not as surprised as I was initially! But I still see it often in the early hours if the xbox does an update. Can they configure radio gear on mast sites remotely to enable Band 32? It can aggregate with bands 1 and 3, so its possible it may help I suppose (especially if no one else is using that band, I guess!)

I've considered getting a newer higher CAT router, but I've pretty much accepted that I'll be begrudgingly going back to Virgin in the next few months. Ideally anyone with a console or anyone treading into 4K streaming needs a stable 100Mbps connection, so it'll be a breath of fresh air hopefully. I just hope they bill me correctly this time!
 
Well it's time to close this thread. Today I left three broadband. It took over an hour on the phone to three different people in India, but I managed to cancel without penalty because whilst they were aware of the mast contention there was no date it would be resolved by.

My time with three broadband started very well, but over time the quality of connection really took a hit it never recovered from. I guess this is indicative of what happens when you join the cheapest home broadband provider out there and everyone else jumps on the same mast. It also raises the spectre of 24 month contracts and whether they are viable for LTE services.
 
So where are you getting your internet connection now?
 
I suggest you open a new thread by now:

"Will Virgin address contention? Let's find out!"

;-)
"Will Virgin customer support answer"

"Will Virgin put my price down? Let's find out!"

"Will Virgin fix the latency issues?"

"Will Brexit make my passport expire?"

Maybe not the last one ;)

Good luck, mate :)
 
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