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Broadband Related => Mobile broadband => Topic started by: Jon21 on October 21, 2021, 07:26:47 PM

Title: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 21, 2021, 07:26:47 PM
Not sure if this is the correct place for this but just looking for some advice. Since I joined Vodafone back in July on a SIM only plan, I've had poor download speeds. This seems to be a localised issue as it's fine when I, for example, go to my dads, 5 miles away. The network checker suggests that I should expect anywhere between 3.8-60Mbps on the download. I'm lucky if I get between 1-2Mbps, unless it's the early hours of the morning where I can achieve up to around 50Mbps. I've been going back and forth with their Twitter team for the past 3 weeks, providing numerous screenshots of speedtests at various times of the day. They did raise a case, which was passed to their "Optimisation Team". This supposedly resulted in the cells on the mast having there positions tweaked. I'm not quite sure how that would of improved the speeds as I have no issue with signal strength (pretty much always a full signal). They asked me to provide another screenshot of a speedtest after this was done, which I did, showing that the speeds hadn't improved at all. After providing another 3 screenshots, they've now raised another case with all the previous evidence and the most recent, to their network team. They seem to think it is down to congestion, which I would of thought would of been one of the first things to check? It has also been suggested that the "Optimisation Team" might of done all that they can and what I'm getting is all that it is going to be. Getting another update, if there is one, on Monday.

As I'm not achieving the minimum of the speeds that are expected, would I be able to ask to exit the contract early? I expect this may have to result in an email to the CEO, if I was to go down that route.

Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: burakkucat on October 21, 2021, 07:58:28 PM
As I'm not achieving the minimum of the speeds that are expected, would I be able to ask to exit the contract early?

Was a minimum speed guaranteed when you entered into the contract? If yes, then just tell Vodafone you will be leaving, without any penalty, due to their inability to honour the contract. If no, then you will need to negotiate your exit via the CEO route. (No business would enjoy adverse publicity.)
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 21, 2021, 08:18:06 PM
Was a minimum speed guaranteed when you entered into the contract? If yes, then just tell Vodafone you will be leaving, without any penalty, due to their inability to honour the contract. If no, then you will need to negotiate your exit via the CEO route. (No business would enjoy adverse publicity.)
I don’t remember seeing any guarantees with regards to speed. Is that something mobile providers do?
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: burakkucat on October 21, 2021, 08:33:30 PM
I don’t remember seeing any guarantees with regards to speed. Is that something mobile providers do?

Never having used a mobile provider, that is not something I can answer.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: mofa2020 on October 21, 2021, 08:55:03 PM
Although I am not from UK but Vodafone seems to struggle in 4G(+) speeds, like 5-10 Mbps in my location with some open places as low as 0.xx Mbps with full bar signal  :shrug2:
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: g3uiss on October 21, 2021, 09:51:27 PM
4g is extremely variable and there are no guarantees.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: meritez on October 21, 2021, 11:31:26 PM
This supposedly resulted in the cells on the mast having there positions tweaked.

 :shrug2:

What mobile phone are you using and where's your nearest mast?
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 21, 2021, 11:33:11 PM
Interestingly, just seen that a 5G mast is in planning, that would be around 200 meters away. CK Hutchinson, which I think is Three? I've got a freebie PAYG 3 SIM which I think has 200MB of data on it, that I've tried in my phone. Get a reasonable 4G signal but doesn't appear to allow any data throughput. Do they have to be activated? Info online seems to suggest that they are pre-activated?

Might be an option if I can exit the contract.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 21, 2021, 11:36:05 PM
:shrug2:

What mobile phone are you using and where's your nearest mast?

iPhone 12

I think this is the nearest mast: https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=234&MNC=15&type=LTE&latitude=52.764241909438624&longitude=-2.377702108221748&zoom=15.13205575867227&showTowers=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=true&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=Last&showHex=false&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap (6868)
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Weaver on October 21, 2021, 11:51:57 PM
I would have thought that possibly you’re actually using 3G somehow, but I don’t know how that could happen. Is there a way you can monitor that? I have good 4G but in my stone house I get shadows when say my iPad is well away from the windows, so it switches down to 3G sometimes, for some reason (shown in an indicator at the top right). That’s using AA/AQL/Three.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 22, 2021, 12:05:01 AM
I guess it’s a possibility but the phone always shows 4G in the top right. Unless I’m in a area with 5G, which is rare. I don’t have an option for 3G in the mobile data section in settings, just 5G On, 5G Auto and 4G.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: meritez on October 22, 2021, 12:33:03 AM
iPhone 12

I think this is the nearest mast: https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=234&MNC=15&type=LTE&latitude=52.764241909438624&longitude=-2.377702108221748&zoom=15.13205575867227&showTowers=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=true&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=Last&showHex=false&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap (6868)

The 200mb three sim needs to be registered.

Vodafone looks to be coming from a shared mast with O2, both seem to only have Band 20 800mhz which is suitable for VoLTE aka 4G Voice, which is only 10 Mhz bandwidth.

The 3 Mast is an MBNL mast shared with EE, offering both Band 3 and Band 20, so carrier aggregation would be possible.
EE also have a band 3 mast in the centre of Newport.

How long is the sim only contract, if you are paying for unlimited data you may have a just reason to break contract.

Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 22, 2021, 12:56:55 AM
The 200mb three sim needs to be registered.

Vodafone looks to be coming from a shared mast with O2, both seem to only have Band 20 800mhz which is suitable for VoLTE aka 4G Voice, which is only 10 Mhz bandwidth.

The 3 Mast is an MBNL mast shared with EE, offering both Band 3 and Band 20, so carrier aggregation would be possible.
EE also have a band 3 mast in the centre of Newport.

How long is the sim only contract, if you are paying for unlimited data you may have a just reason to break contract.
Thank you for the info 🙂

The contract is for 18 months. I actually have 2 SIMs on the account both 100GB plans (more than I’d ever need but it worked out pretty cheap with cashback). One is in my mums iPhone. The speeds on that SIM are also poor, due to being connected to the same mast. Perhaps that may give more leverage to break the contract?
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: tubaman on October 22, 2021, 07:33:34 AM
The fact that you can get 50Mbps in the early hours does point to congestion to me. If that's the case then I don't think there's anything more you can do.  :(
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 22, 2021, 10:19:18 AM
I think I’ll wait and see if there is an update on Monday and then take it from there. Then go down the CEO route if nothing more can be done by the network team.

I’ll get the three SIM activated, should have enough data for one or two speedtests.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 25, 2021, 04:56:08 PM
No update today, Twitter team are hoping to have more news tomorrow.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on October 26, 2021, 11:49:14 AM
Update from the Vodafone twitter team.
Quote
Thank you for your patience Jonathan. We've received an update on our end and our engineers have stated the mast you'll be connected to is particularly congested most days between 10 am and 10pm. Our Network Team have already performed changes to the serving site to assist with coverage, however, additional equipment and upgrades will be required to reduce the congestion on the network. Our Team have checked for upcoming upgrades which should improve 4G performance and have stated there is some schedule but no exact date is available as of yet, however, this is currently predicted to occur over the next 3 months.

At least something is going to get done about the 4G performance.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Jon21 on December 19, 2021, 05:18:55 PM
Not sure if something has been done with regards to upgrades or whether there’s less congestion now (possibly due to the local student population returning home?), but getting some decent download speed now.
Title: Re: Poor speeds with Vodafone
Post by: Alex Atkin UK on December 19, 2021, 08:50:06 PM
Sadly there is no one good network due to the nature of mobile, congestion comes and goes for the reasons you describe, upgrades, people only being there during certain times of year, moving to other networks, etc

I was consistently getting 120Mbit off Vodafone for months, then it halved (still decent granted).  I'm right next to the mast however so its WAY more reliable than Three 5G where I can get anywhere between 500-700Mbit but has periods of packet loss (likely down to poor 4G performance which is uses for uploads) which is just not stable enough to use my VPNs.

Basically you have to be very lucky for mobile to get close to the reliability of fixed-line broadband.  Which is I why I have VDSL as my primary connection with both Vodafone 4G and Three 5G for bulk downloads/backup.  I've tried using only say Three 5G on my desktop but as expected, it can be quite rough during peak hours even when there appears to be plenty of bandwidth.