Patchy Signal for past month

[Col33]

I live in rural Norfolk and after several failures to get FTTP I left my old provider to try Three's mobile broadband in Feb 2022.

When I received the MiFi my speed increased from an average of 5mb to 12mb. I then purchased a Tp-Link router and external antenna which increased the speed to between 25 and 30mb. 

For 8 to 9 months I have had no issues but the past 4+ weeks the signal has been poor. Some days I get no or 1 bar on the router for hours. I have called twice, the first time they confirmed no issues in the area, same as the web page, got me to re-boot, which I had already done, and then passed me on to technical team that remotely affected my router. During this process I got 3 bars and 25+mb download again. However the next day the same issue although it was a bit drizzly! 

Since then no matter if its sunny, foggy, icy, raining or stormy I will either get 3 bars or 1or none for extended periods. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Col

P.S. I have re-booted and checked the router and its working fine, I have also put the sim back into the MiFi and that just shows red signal light. 

[crypt0ninja]

Hi @Col33 

With the change in signal going from 3 bars to 1/0, has there been any change in the bands that your router usually connects to and/or are you being connected to a different cell than compared to when the signal+speeds were better?

Can you post a screenshot of the cellular stats page via your router admin portal?

Also which external antenna do you have? If its the enclosure type it might be worth checking it for water ingress (not uncommon have seen this a few times now with some Poynting external antennas so worth checking).

Cheers

[Col33]

Hi crypt0ninja

Not sure if this is what you are asking for. Signal strengh went from 25% when I logged in to 100% when I took the screen shot.

When I spoke to the technical team, they confirmed I was pointing at the only mast in my area. I use the Poynting XPOL-1 V2 5G 3dBi Omni-Directional Cross Polarised LTE 2x2 MIMO Outdoor Antenna which is under the roof line so is partly shielded by the rain. Got a stronger signal under the roof line than above!

[crypt0ninja]

Apologies @Col33 I made an assumption that you understood the network bands etc.

Three use the following frequency bands in general (however not all masts have every band available, seems to vary by location and infrastructure upgrades etc.):

B1
B3
B20
B28
B32 (This is a download only band, doesn't provide upload)
N78 (This is the 5G band)

Location dependant, some bands can provide better/worse signal than others.

Even though you have the antenna directed at the only mast in your area I'm wondering if its switching bands at the times that you notice the signal levels drop, might be worth keeping an eye on the cellular stats as it happens to see what changes...

Also what TP link router model do you have?

I cant see your image atm as it needs approval so hopefully one of the mods can approve your image soon so I can see it and try and help you figure out what's going on.

[Col33]

I use the TP-LINK AC1200 4G+ Cat6 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router although its technically the MR600.

According to the Advanced page it only says Band 1. 

[crypt0ninja]

Does it show the CELL ID that its connected to? does the CELL ID and/or band change at the times the signal is dropping?

or does it stay connected to the same CELL ID and band but the signal levels just worsen at the times the signal is dropping?

[Col33]

I don't see anything relating to Cell ID.

This is the router info under 3G/4G :-

3G/4G
SIM Card Status: SIM card prepared.
Signal Strength: 100%
ISP: Three
Network Type: WCDMA
Data: 2588.174GB (Total Used)
Upload speed: 1.403KB/S
Down speed: 2.787KB/S

Under advanced I get:-

3G/4G
ISP Three
Network type: WCDMA
Band: 1
Data: 2588.175GB (Total Used)
Upload speed: 518Bytes/S
Download speed: 481Bytes/S
SIM Card Status: SIM card prepared.
Signal Strength: 100%
RSSI: -78dBm

[Col33]

I also found a Band option that is set to Auto. If I select manual I get the following options with Band 3 selected.

Band 3(Three)
Band 7
Band 8
Band 20
Band 28(Three)
Band 40
To enable a specific 4G+ carrier aggregation, select the corresponding bands.

[JonathanB]

Hey @Col33,

It looks like that "WCDMA" part is indicating you're on 3G rather than 4G, not sure if that's possibly why your connection quality has went down lately.

How does the network look for Coverage and Network Status on our checkers? I'm assuming you were getting 4G before these issues started, does that reflect on the coverage, and is there any fault/maintenance showing on the status?

Thanks,
JonathanB

[Col33]

Network status always shows no issues. The coverage map shows 4G for external only. I did notice that it was showing 3G, I will check next time I get 30mb to see if it's shows 4G. Let's hope 4G improves before they turn off 3G.