Sudden Drop in 5G signal and performance

[Gagandeep]

Cross post from broadband forum as affecting all my devices.

Hi all,

Looking for some advice. I have a ZTE home router and a few 5G enabled mobiles. Recently, the performance on all of them has fallen. Typically I used to get over 300/25 via my home router and similar, if not faster on my mobile, but now this performance has dramatically fallen, with typical speeds of 60/5, and now 40/2. The placement test on the ZTE has gone from "excellent" to "poor" without any change in its position. My 5G phones all never report the same speeds they used to

Looking at Cellmapper, I am connecting to a mast that is around 300m away (straight line distance) I am not sure if this is the mast I used to connect to, but I would be surprised if it was not. I think there is a mast further away that the devices sometimes flip to that then causes performance to dramatically increase. There are apparently working going on in that location.

My suspicion is that the mast is now oversubscribed and this is why my performance has dropped so significantly. I have also noted on cellmapper that the coverage fields projected from the mast now no longer cover my road. I think they used to before. Finally, my router now only seems to connect to a 4G network:

4G Frequency: 99
4G Connected Band10.0MHz@2100(B1) + 20.0MHz@ + 15.0MHz@1800(B3)
4G Signal Strength-99 dBm
4G ECIO/SINR2.6 dB
4G PCI4
4G Cell ID784967

All fields relating to 5G are blank.

Seeing as I am stuck in a contract that is now not delivering, is there anything that I can do to try and restore performance before I look into potentially having it out with Three. I have already submitted a complaints form. Any other ideas are welcomed

[sc1999]

Go and check the network status checker to see if you have an issue. The NSC is not always accurate and the information is negligible. You can try calling customer services but they rarely have any more info. I would not be surprised if you are oversubscribed but try and check in the early hours. I was on EE, 100meg at 6am down to 1 by 10am.

[Gagandeep]

I've checked the network status and in my area there is no problem identified. In adjacent areas though, there are works ongoing. How long these works have been going on for is unknown.

Is there a way to see how congested a mast is?

[sc1999]

By adjacent areas do you mean other postcodes? Unless you have multiple masts in your area I would expect surrounding postcodes to be affected. Only 3 can tell how congested, or oversubscribed, you local mast is but is a way to try and work out if it is the case. I was with EE and I got 100 meg at 6am and it was down to 1 by 10 am. An engineer, really they give that title to anyone these days, blamed my phone. When I emailed him near identical numbers from another phone he did not respond. So if you wake up during the night run a speed test and repeat it during the day. If ping and speeds vary a lot then it may indicate that your nearest tower is heavily used.

[condyk]

Be interested in what you do next. I have had abysmal speeds and reliability last two months. I renewed the contract kinda against my better judgement as offered a great deal including a new/latest router replacement. At Christmas, I installed an external arial setup and the mild unreliability I had experienced over the previous contract disappeared and I was regularly getting 200+ reliably through the day. One month of blissful, zero fuss connection followed. Now it's an average 3-5, tho in the early morning, I can get 20-30. Response from the online network checker is work has been going on with masts. When I contact support chat, it's always the same response; check your router positioning and turn the router off and on. Then nothing after that. They have no response to my questions about over-subscribed access to local signals. With work ongoing, there are too many people IMO and the Three solution is constantly offer minimal signal and switch people off and on again. My pattern is the same daily. OK signal (tho still low compared to previously) early morning, then 8.30ish on very unreliable and meager speed. Pixelated TV and constant in-and-out music streaming. Awful uploads and downloads via Google and One Drive. Have stopped my DD. Anyone else done that? What was the result? Doubt anything will happen to improve.

[Gagandeep]

Phoned up 3 and explained all of the above. Has been escalated to a Level 2 network team. Am expecting a callback in 7 days or less to discuss options.

[sc1999]

Very interested in what the long term issues of stopping your DD will be. When I check my credit report it shows that all of my payments are ontime so will your credit rating be affected by nonpayment?

[condyk]

The complaints form won't accept my Three sim number. Asks for an account number before proceeding. I can find no account number. Even a Three search turns up no account number help listing. Is the account number the same as the SIM number? It is on everything else. Why is there an account number need rather than the SIM number on the complaints form? Also, I'd expect to see an account number on my invoices, but the site says, 'we are working on this' when I try to access bills to find an account number. Shambles.

[sc1999]

Go to My3 app and log in. Go to Bills, most recent bill, view bill as PDF and the account number is at the top of the bill. You can also log into your account online and access a bill.

[condyk]

Appreciated, but the site says, 'we're working on this' when I try to access my bills from the correct link. Can't access bills.