Network throttling
I know SMARTY says they do not network but could THREE be doing this? I have been using a data dongle and I was getting 200 MB plus speed. This has now dropped to 20 MB. I have another identical device on the same network on the same windowsill and got the 200 MB plus. I am a network engineer so I decided to do a test of swapping and spoofing the MAC address (this is the machines unique identifier) between the two devices Machine A becomes machine B and machine B becomes machine A. et cetera. But the physical device stays the same. I also did tests where the Sims are swapped as well. It is clear from the results that the device (the MAC address that had a quite high data throughput 100Gb in 3 weeks) was immediately dropped to 20 MB and the other unused device was out over 200 MB. I then swapped it again for a new MAC address for a third device that I have and both devices went up to 200MB. This clearly demonstrates to me that throttling does occur and what SMARTY are saying is untrue. I have an MSc in digital forensics and have been a network IT Manager for over 20 years so would love to speak to someone from their legal team to say how this can possibly happen without throttling.
Network Throttling?
Smarty's Policy on Network Policy states they don't do Network Throttling or Data Shaping. However, I've been having an issue very similar to what this user described last year. Between 1am-8am approximately, the connection is fine. By 8am, the Download speed has suddenly dropped to ~4mbps, and by 5pm it's down to 1-2mbps. Upload is unaffected. I've been a Smarty User for over 5 years, and I've never had any contact or warnings about Network Usage. My Dashboard info shows a fairly consistent monthly useage of (+/-) ~500Gbs for the last year. (I'm on Unlimited). The device is in the same position at the various hours I'm attempting this - with a consistent signal strength, and no variation in the hardware/software that's in use. The timing of the 'throttling' is very consistent. Can anyone offer any information / ideas on what the cause is, and how I can fix this?