Forum Discussion
Three Network is "Throttling us all" [My Opinion]
I have only been a Smarty user for about six or so months. I do like the service they offer and would like to continue using them..
The problem for me is that the 3 (Three) Network is very unreliable during daylight hours.
Every day from about 07:30 the speed drops from about 20 MB per second [overnight speed] to about 530 Kb to 1Mb per second. This service remains like this for the majority of the day until after midnight when it reverts to approximately 20 Gb per second.
I find this unacceptable and unworkable and wish to ask in open forum what others are experiencing. I do understand that I may be doing something wrong which is inhibiting my internet access speed. But I just don't get the difference between the daytime rubbish speeds when others are using the Three network and nighttime half-reasonable speed when mass access to the web drops away.
I have included a few Screenies to show my point.
Please "Three" STOP Throttling me ...
Regards
Tony
19 Replies
Smarty has no fair usage policies or anything to that affect so it shouldn't be slowed. I have a pretty decent phone and it's on three and I have a SIM in a router as a backup for our unreliable fibre connection. I actually get better speeds on the cheap router than I do on my phone. I live in a congested area three have admitted that and I have no slowing or anything of my smarty service. During the day I get 10-20 Mbps on the smarty SIM where as my phone is around 5mbps. During the evening they are pretty level pegging. All networks are congested where I am so there isn't much option of who to choose I just go for the best value for unlimited. On both Sims I've consumed well over 500gb in a month and no problem and I do regular tests as I find it quite interesting. Essentially what you are paying three for is the customer service side of things more than anything.
This is easy why Tony is not getting a decent signal, like we're all at the will of other people grabbing onto phone masts and taking the effective bandwidth in this case the mobile signal strength. So Tony's problem is exactly that, it gets better at night so his available signal strength is hampered in the day. What he'd be best doing is downloading an app so he can see where he nearest mast is BUT this is got one serious caveat that screws all this, he's hooking a laptop up to this network and they never go well, the Sims are designed for a mobile phone, do he's best using a dongle on some way from a service that caters for it, that's my two peneth..
OMG ... If I had just half of that kind of service I would be very happy.
I failed to mention in my original post that I am using a Microsoft Surface laptop [Windows 10 + 8Gb Ram] hard-wired via RJ45 [not solely relying on Wi-Fi] connected to a TP Link AC1200 Dual Band Gigabit Router connected [hard-wired] to a roof mounted Poynting [690-3800 MHz] antenna.
I use a Smarty unlimited data only SIM.
Could I make some realistic improvements, all suggestions are very welcome.
I have looked at alternative networks such as EE and o2 but I prefer to stay with Smarty if I can resolve my signal difficulties.
All the best ...
I am by no means an expert on routers and antennas.
Do you have other devices connected to the router, such as a PlayStation, Firestick, etc, which would eat into the available bandwidth ?Hey JJP2 - No I don't have anything else connected to the router, its solely used to connect my laptop to provide me with an internet service.
In time - when I finally manage to get a stable, adequate service I would like to stream TV network services like Prime or Netflix, Catch Up TV and the like.
But hey ho ...
For now just an accessible and useable service would be cool ...
Cheers ...
Admittedly, that test is at 01.40 hours Saturday 29th July, but that is a superb speed to achieve on my iPhone 13 mini
Really ?
Not in my experience
Wow JJP2 - "Envy On" I can only dream of such service ... Thumbs Up
Have you been able to check what the signal is like (not just speed)?
I use Mastdata, and my signal strength (RSSI) is usually around -98dBm, and this runs true throughput the day.
I don't notice any drop off with data speed that available to me
Hi StevenW, thanks for your reply, I didn't know about the Mastdata signal checking site, I have just tried it for my postcode here are the results. By the way it took me 4 minutes to log into the Smarty website due to signal difficulties. That was at 22:40 this evening.
I am sure that its not a Smarty issue ...
Just re-ran speedtest at 00:20 hrs and hey ho increased speed ....
