Tethering and throttling

[ADAMCRA_2867053]

I have just swapped to smarty from 1p mobile.  The speeds are much better now as is coverage.  I tether my tablet to my phone sometimes, however when I run a speed test on both devices side by side whilst tethered, I may get 50mbps on my phone but less than 2mbps on the tablet.  I swapped to smarty because it says there is no throttling, however there clearly is.  I have turned both devices off and on again.  This was never an issue before with 1p mobile.  Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? I don't think so though as I've been doing this for years.  My port went through just today so maybe it takes a while?  I doubt this too because I tried it before porting and the same thing happened.

[MSF]

@ADAMCRA_2867053  I really do not believe that Smarty would put it in writing for all to see if it were not true: https://help.smarty.co.uk/en/articles/1155178-our-policy-on-data-shaping-and-network-throttling

Have you considered that it may be your device or wifi on the phone?

[ADAMCRA_2867053]

Nope... Definitely nothing my end... It's always been good on my last provider, the only thing that has changed is my network to smarty. I would need to find a solution as this is a big part of my usage.  I agree I doubt they would do this intentionally but as I said, the only difference is the sim card in my phone.

[DavidWh_2333140]

There is throttling or prioritisation. It happens multiple times to me but only in highly populated areas.even though it sometimes shows a couple of bars 4g I can’t get a data connection in my local town centre. The same happens in other areas where there is more people like retail parks etc. it’s not my phone because exactly the same happens to my son on his phone when he’s with me. 

[MSF]

@DavidWh_2333140 That's called congestion.

[DavidWh_2333140]

Thanks for your reply. 
I actually think it’s prioritisation bought on by congestion. My work mobile is on 3 and side by side that gets a data signal where my phone on Smarty doesn’t. 
But if you want to go down the congestion route let’s say that it appears that Smarty suffers more congestion than 3. 

[SmartyTrousers]

Are your work phone and personal phone the same make and model, though? If not, various other things could be coming into play which could affect data speeds. Your work phone could have a better radio or antenna inside, it could support frequency bands your personal phone doesn't, it could support aggregating frequency bands together that your personal phone doesn't.

When you've had worse results on your personal phone than your work phone, have you tried then swapping the SIMs over and repeating the test?

[DavidWh_2333140]

Work phone is cheap and nasty Samsung and my personal phone is an iPhone 16 promax

[SmartyTrousers]

In which case it's unlikely to be due to the frequency bands supported or carrier aggregation, but could be to do with the radio or antenna in the phone. Swap the SIMs over next time and repeat the test.