Broadband performing very poorly at peak times

[Jbond89]

For the last 1 to 2 months my 5g broadband has started performing very poorly during peak hours. By that I mean evenings and weekends. Outside of these peak times, the performance remains good.

Essentially during these peak hours, we are unable to watch streaming services due to regular buffering and poor picture quality.

To put some figures against that. In peak hours download speed averages 7mbs with significant packet loss. In none peak hours download speeds average 250mbs and there is no packet loss.

The router in use is the standard zte mc8010a. 

I have been a Three customer since Feb 2022 on an initial 12 month contract. Performance was great during this contract so I renewed for 24 months in Feb 2023. Until now I have always defended and been positive about 5G broadband from Three.

My concern now is that I am tied into Three until Feb 2025 with a service that is no longer fit for purpose. Can any of the moderating team offer any support here or help with contacting further support?

I contacted the support team for the first time on Sunday 24th September via online chat. It was a mildy frustrating experience. After about 1 hour 15 minutes we had verified my account, reset the router and the agent claimed some settings had been sent to the router which should make an improvement in 7 days. I was sceptical of this claim but wanted to show good faith from my side and agreed to contact support again if no improvement. I plan to do this tomorrow but wanted to create this forum post owing to my initial support experience 

To me it seems pretty clear there is an issue with the Three network at peak times in my area.

Other things I have tried include using a spare router, checking performance on Ethernet cable connection, checking performance with only one device connected to the router and ensuring signal remains good at all times

Thanks for reading!

[sc1999]

If it only happens at peak times yhere can be a number of reasons. Contention ratio meaning too many people are registering on your cell. There could be a partial failure of equipment on the tower, another tower may be down so traffic is be diverted to your tower. 

Putting your sim in a phone will only show phone data speeds not  broadband speeds.

Have a chat with the social media, not the normal chat.

[Jbond89]

I have sent UK support a DM on Twitter

[Jbond89]

They just directed me back to online support in the end

[JonathanB]

Hi @Jbond89,

I think @sc1999 is correct here about contention, and as he says this could be affecting more than one mast if the date given for improvement hasn't been met, then there could be an overlap of more than one issue.

I've sent you a PM earlier that may help you make contact with the social chat team, assuming you haven't already spoke to them. They'll be best placed to advise you further as they can check your individual connection and the local network info.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Threlly]

IMPORTANT!!!
This will not be resolved.
Three will not invest to reduce contention.
Your bills will remain the same, your service will deteriorate.

Luckily, you have them bang to rights, they have failed to honour the contract to provide a minimum of service.
Establish a waiver of any costs, stick to your guns, and look elsewhere.
Even bog-standard 67MBps ADSL is better than this.

[sc1999]

You need to read the ts&cs. If you joined jan 2023 then these apply:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.three.co.uk/content/...

Para 5.1.

There is a link somewhere if you joined before Jan 2023. So there only 2 things in life you can rely on, taxes and death.

[Sargentdel]

I’ve got the same experience. Been a customer for over 3 years now - has been great but the past week seems to be so awful in the evenings. 

[JohnSheffield]

My experience is identical.  I was one of the first people in my block of flats to get 5G broadband with Three and the speeds were absolutely excellent.  Always in the region of 400 Mb/s.  I had come from a Vodafone 4G connection, which although good was maxed out around 70 Mb/s, but pretty stable all day long, and also unlimited.

Fast forward to this year.  I now get around 60 - 70 Mb/s during the day,  10-30 Mb/s in the evening,  yet still get 120-200  Mb/s in the dead of night say 1am - 5am.    This means in the evening I cannot stream 4K films and if I want to download a big game on my PS5 I have to set it into standby mode as I go to bed.

Its that bad in the evening, I am considering getting a voxi sim to put in my old router, plugged directly into my TV for streaming.

My Three local status checker has reported they are working on masts in my area for about 4 or 5 months now.  So I don't know if that's a lie, as what could take that long?