EE PAYG 4G Mobile WiFi router on Smarty very slow?

[Lemon1092]

I have an EE PAYG 4G Mobile WiFi router, and have recently replaced the SIM with a Smarty SIM instead.

For the first day it seemed to be working perfectly fine, but since then has gotten very slow! According to Smarty, the network coverage in my area is very good. I also have full bars on the EE 4G Wifi site. 

Could this be something to do with the settings? Or is it more likely to be just a network issue with Smarty? 

[MSF]

@Lemon1092  Have you moved the router from the position on the first day? I'm wondering about signal interference in buildings.

I assume you changed the APN to mob.asm.net otherwise it probably would not work at all.

Can you check at different times of day? Are you in an area prone to network congestion at certain times?

[Lemon1092]

No it is in the same position. 

I also didn't change any settings such as APN as this worked without doing this. 

The signal is consistently pretty bad. Definitely not good enough for streaming live TV etc. My signal is apparently very good according to the network checker. And I've never had any issues at all with EE or O2. 

[MSF]

@Lemon1092  Do you think that the Smarty signal uses another mast maybe?

To be fair, Smarty do advise against using mobile data as a replacement for broadband as the signal stability cannot be guaranteed, even if you did get a good signal.

It may just turn out that the service won't meet your needs unfortunately.

[Lemon1092]

Hmmm I thought it piggybacks off 3, which also works fine here. I guess Smarty must just have poor signal compared to the main networks. 

I was wondering if the APN settings could potentially be a factor though? 

[MSF]

@Lemon1092  Yes, Smarty does piggyback off 3 - you didn't mention that you got a good signal from them also (only EE & O2). I think it reasonable to assume that 3 customers get priority over smarty customers though.

APN settings once set to mob.asm.net shouldn't matter as far as I know. I changed mine many moons ago to roam in EU and have never reverted them.