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5G Broadband Drastic Speed Drop & Throttling to 120mbps after Settings Changed by customer service!

Mattyk66
Active

I have replied to other peoples posts multiple times about this but thought I would start another post as well to keep up the pressure on Three as they are refusing to admit they are throttling connections, yet multiple users have posted on the community site about this and stating they can now only hit 120mbps download when they used to hit much higher, these are different people in different parts of the country, being impacted exactly the same.  

I live right next to the 5G mast in my area, literally 30meters away. When I first went with three 5G broadband in October 2022 and up until November 2023, I was hitting anything from 600 to 900mbps download, all the time, even peak hours, I still have all the results recorded on my Ookla speed test app/account on my mobile phone.

In November, Disney plus stopped loading on my TV stating I was out of region, nothing I did/changed could get it to load so contacted three to see what was going on, they advised they could fix the issue by making some changes to my account settings and to restart my router and try and open Disney Plus again on my TV. Sure enough Disney loaded after the they messed with the settings, but from that exact point on (14/11/23) my download speed is stuck at 120mbps, won't go any higher. It jumps sometimes to around 400mbps when the speed test initially starts and then immediately and dramatically drops down to 120mbps with a second or two and stays there, clearly this is throttling and limiting the download speed. 

I contacted them on multiple occasions over the next few months and they were giving me all sorts of excuses and said they had changed settings and to try again, and another said they were working in the area but it would be back to normal in a month. I ran a speed test every week and nothing has changed, stuck on 120. I have had a month refunded and a month half price but all this time they are still claiming they do not limit the download speeds which is obviously absolute rubbish.

As someone else has mentioned on the community site, when I do a speed test on my phone when I am not connected to the Home broadband, and I'm also with three for my mobile contract, I still hit the usual 500mbps+ and nothing has changed with the speeds on my phone, just my broadband from November onwards. 

At the time I googled and couldn't find any posts on this so thought it was just an issue in my area, but after a speed test earlier, stuck on my 120, I googled and found this. Now I know this is happening to others I am going to contact them again and keep up the fight! Since I originally posted this only a month or so ago I can see there are new posts popping up weekly from people experiencing the exact same issue, so it seems to me Three and rolling out this download throttling across the country now. 

For those that want to leave three, due to the speed decreases, who are stuck in contract, they agreed with me that I could leave with no charges due to the change in service. When you first sign up, you get 14 days no quibble trial to see how it works and what speeds you get and you can send back if you not happy. So, if the speeds you are getting now, do not match the ones when you first got it, you can argue this and say you want to leave without a charge!

A further update to this - I made three send me out a brand new replacement router only 2 weeks ago at the start of Feb 24, so I could rule out that being an issue. I have a brand new replacement router (Zyxel NR5103), brand new sim card, and nothing changed. exactly the same and stuck at 120mbps. I have attached screenshots of speeds tests below and you can clearly see the moment they made the changes at their end on the 14/11/23, and from this point on my speed has been throttled to 120mbps, when the speed only 3 days before that was 544mbps.  I have also added screenshots of speed tests from Feb 2023, compared to speed tests from Feb 2024 and the differences are striking. My speed used to vary, as non throttled speeds should, between 400mbps up to 900mbps depending on the time of day/load on the network, as you would expect. Now, my download speeds have no variation at all, 7pm on Saturday evening at peak times, 120mpbs, 3am on a Sunday at the quietest time possible, still 120mbps. If speeds were not being throttled there would be a variation to the speeds I could hit. When I do the same speed tests on the Three mobile network when not connected to the home broadband, I get much quicker speeds, as previously mentioned, and I get the expected variation depending on the time of day. As I am about to post this, at 1:15am on a Sunday, I have ran a speed test on the 5G Mobile network and just hit 656mbps download, and then the speed test when connected to my home broadband, 119mbps, five and a half times slower!! Admittedly the upload speed was the opposite way around hitting 30.3mbps on mobile and 63.3mbps on the home broadband, but this again just shows that the speeds are being controlled and throttled. And again, I have attached the screenshot of this test below. 

I would like someone from Three technical support team to respond and finally admit that they are throttling speeds on the home broadband now, may be they are doing this as the network is getting busier as more people have joined over the last 12 months, but they need to admit this and stop the lies. 

 

Speed Test Results showing change in speeds on 14/11/23 immediately after Three changed the settings their end - 

Mattyk66_0-1708304117772.jpeg

 

Three Home Broadband Speed Test Results Feb 23

Mattyk66_1-1708304117793.jpeg

Three Home Broadband Speed Test Results Jan/Feb 24

Mattyk66_2-1708304117794.jpeg

Speed Test Comparison Three Mobile 5G to Three Home Broadband 5G

Mattyk66_3-1708305556613.png

 

 

67 REPLIES 67
rky
Involved

I used to get 1200 mbps and after 3 months it was like 100mbps so I cancelled the contract and switched to other ISP

Alexdil71
Fledgling

I have a 3 hub which initially was providing speeds of 400+, I sit here tonight with 20 mb on my pc and 316mb to my mobile phone...? I have no big pc things running so why is it so bad ?

 

KateS
Community Support Team
Community Support Team

Hey Alex,

I'm sorry to hear you've had such a drastic drop in speeds and appreciate this would be frustrating.

Have you checked out our Network Status Checker? This would show any reported faults or potential work ongoing in your area that could be causing this.

If this doesn't provide any information or reasoning for the drop, I'd suggest reaching out to our Home Broadband Support team who can access your account and run some further testing on the router.

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks,
Kate



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bulldog555
Involved

@Mattyk66Three are indeed throttling at 120Mbps Max. There is no longer uncapped speed up to 1.5Gbps anymore. I believe it blamed on Vodafone to restricted Three.

Mattyk66
Active

Hi there - There was an issue where the speeds were being limited to 120mbps for many users but after liaising with @JonathanB this issue was rectified by the team and it was due to some legacy settings in the background. Since the fix I have not had an issue with my speed and am getting anything from 500-900mbps. The issue you are having might be a different one, but I would advise you to reply back to @JonathanB who I'm sure will do his best to rectify the issue as he did with myself.

JonathanB
Community Moderator
Community Moderator

Hi @bulldog555,

The issue @Mattyk66 raised was fixed a couple of months ago. Are you experiencing speeds limiting to 120 Mbps personally?

Thanks,
Jonathan



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Bazowl
Regular

I'm in my 1st month on the 5G network I'm 100m direct line of sight of the mast until tonight everything was fine, now strangely as my trial period runs out tomorrow I've gone from 4k to 320p over night. I'm furious as I suspect they are throttling the speed. I will cancel tomorrow if it's the same, I don't care that I have  2 years on the contract if they are not supplying what I was sold then I refuse to pay for this service. 

Mattyk66
Active

I would give them a ring see if there are any issues with the mast or service in the area if you are still having issues as you should be getting decent speeds being so close to the mast. Restarting the router might help, otherwise reach out to the technical team on this forum who will do their best to help out. There was an issue with speeds being limited to 120mbps for a number of users and it was to do with some legacy configurations which shouldn't have been there and once they had sorted this, my speeds have been at 500-900mbps ever since. 

asranjan
Fledgling

@JonathanB , same issue for me.  I was getting 500mbps since yesterday.  Last evening, it came down to 20mbps and has remained the same since.  Reading all this, I changed the APN to three.co.uk, but still went up slightly to 50mbps, nowhere near the 500mbps I was getting when I started 1 month ago.  It is very crucial for my business and my Teams call keep disconnecting.  
I have a 3 sim phone too, but that gives 500mbps perfectly.

What I noticed is when the speed is good, and I search who is my isp, it gives Hutchison 3G (with IP address starting with 92), but when it went slow to 20mbps, it was showing as IONOS SE (with IP address starting with 77).  That is strange.  But now with three.co.uk APN, it is Hutchison 3G, but only little faster.

Really surprised, as you mentioned, such throttling should not happen for anyone now.  Are you sure?  Perhaps I have to raise a complaint and go through the process?  Or can you check for me?