5G speed drop, never returned to to decent speeds, yet mobile provider that uses 3 networks is fine!

[tigan]

Currently a year + few months into my 5G broadband contract, was getting download speed of up to 500 (usually 300-400), then after exactly 1 year was up, instantly went to around 80-100 (max) - like something was switched overnight, and has been like that since.

Tried going through everything with the "tech guy", which made no difference. A month later another "tech guy" said we couldn't even get 5G here (in which case why were we sold a 5G broadband package).

Now iv'e currently moved my mobile phone provider to ID Mobile, this uses the same network as 3, yet my download speeds are 300+ on this device. So what gives, i just don't understand. The router is the ZTE one, and can only be the problem as my phone gets a 5G signal fine.

Iv'e now come to the conclusion that they ARE throttling connections, there's no other explanation for it.

Was happy with the 300-500 download speed, but ill be ending the contract once its up.

[westlondon]

Phones and routers can be very different in what they supported. The differences include:

- Bands /frequencies - as an example most routers don't support Band 32 (1400Mhz) even though the three network supports it

- Carrier Aggregation - in which multiple bands / frequencies are aggregated to maximise download and uploads. Cheaper routers tend to not have this at all, or only support it on some frequencies. 

So phones and router speeds will be different - generally speaking the more expensive routers are closer to 5G phones in the upload / download speeds - but will almost always be slower than the latest phones.

[Mattyk66]

Just to say that I'm with three for mobile broadband and phone contract, my phone, a Samsung s23 ultra, was always slightly slower with the download and upload speeds than the three broadband router, up until the problems I have had since November which I have posted about below. Now my router can't get more than the magical 120mbps they seem to be throttling everyone at now. Someone else has mentioned they think it's an issue with the routers themselves so I'm on to three tomorrow to get a replacement router for sure.