5G Speeds Halved on EE

d3moliti0n · 22 Nov 2023 at 14:11

Hi there,

I upgraded my phone with EE back in February, it is a Sony Xperia 1 IV. I have unlimited data on 5G, and have the 'fastest speeds' (according to their marketing). The 5G mast is literally outside my flat, so I usually get 70-80MB/s download speeds.

For about two weeks now, my speeds overnight just suddenly dropped, down to 20-30MB/s. This has happened twice now, once, back in July, and it seemed to last a few weeks to a month, then they jumped back up again to 70-80MB/s. I spoke to EE back then, and I think there was some work going on with the mast.

But I've been speaking to them again since this happened again, and according to them, there are no issues with the mast at all at the moment. I've tried all of the technical tips and advice they have provided, to no avail. It has been raised to the level 2 technical team as a complaint, and they have provided no resolution either, sent another report to another department who have come back again saying there is no issue with the mast in my area.

I think this is now due to get passed on elsewhere within EE, back to some admin team or something, I'm not sure. But I'm still no further on with a resolution. I'm not using any kind of VPN or anything either.

I'm just a bit stumped as to why my speeds have been cut in half on two occasions, moreso this time, with no issues in my area. I realise the speeds I'm actually getting at the moment aren't inherently bad, it's just 30MB/s is a big difference from 80MB/s, and I use my phone as a hotspot on my PC for downloading games etc. as it is much, much faster than my home broadband connection.

Does anyone have any ideas, help or advice for what may be going on, and/or how I can resolve this please?

Thank you.

Orcvader · 22 Nov 2023 at 14:20

Are speeds still slow if you test after midnight? Could be congestion or something.

d3moliti0n · 22 Nov 2023 at 14:21

Orcvader said:
Are speeds still slow if you test after midnight? Could be congestion or something.

Yeah, they are still consistently slow if I test after midnight, too.

Journey · 22 Nov 2023 at 14:26

d3moliti0n said:
For about two weeks now, my speeds overnight just suddenly dropped, down to 20-30MB/s.

Could be a power saving exercise, they may be turning off or reducing power on certain bands, I know that they were trialling it earlier in the year

kona786 · 22 Nov 2023 at 14:31

Maybe they're throttling you as you've exceeded fair use policy.

If you can, Check using someone else's phone and sim to see if they get the same speeds.

Also use Mb units not MB.

d3moliti0n · 22 Nov 2023 at 14:36

kona786 said:
Maybe they're throttling you as you've exceeded fair use policy.

If you can, Check using someone else's phone and sim to see if they get the same speeds.

Also use Mb units not MB.

I've just looked up the fair use policy and it says there isn't one for unlimited data plans, as long as it's for personal use. And they've looked into that when I've contacted them about it, and they advised there are no restrictions/throttling on my account or usage.

kona786 · 22 Nov 2023 at 15:06

d3moliti0n said:
I've just looked up the fair use policy and it says there isn't one for unlimited data plans, as long as it's for personal use. And they've looked into that when I've contacted them about it, and they advised there are no restrictions/throttling on my account or usage.

Many times what they say and what they do are 2 different things.

silverblack · 22 Nov 2023 at 22:08

70-80 download speeds are pretty low for 5G.Are you sure your contract does not limit your speeds to 100mb? That's what I am on as it was good enough for what I use it for.

Rroff · 22 Nov 2023 at 22:19

d3moliti0n said:
I've just looked up the fair use policy and it says there isn't one for unlimited data plans, as long as it's for personal use. And they've looked into that when I've contacted them about it, and they advised there are no restrictions/throttling on my account or usage.

I've got a feeling they do put you on a lower priority if you use well into the 100s of GB a month, they've got a clause for at their discretion applying traffic management if they consider it non-personal use - people have reported it kicking in at over 300, 600 and 900GB in the past depending on package and how long ago it was.

Orcvader · 23 Nov 2023 at 11:56

I'm suspecting it to be traffic management as well, also on EE and just did a test, getting well over 150mb, but I'm a light user who only uses ~10gb a month.

SexyGreyFox · 23 Nov 2023 at 12:38

silverblack said:
70-80 download speeds are pretty low for 5G.Are you sure your contract does not limit your speeds to 100mb? That's what I am on as it was good enough for what I use it for.

I was thinking the same, at my Brothers I get 850mbps and at work I'm within 100 yards of the mast and I get above 900mbps.
This is on Smarty (Three) but I do have an EE (1p Mobile) sim also.

I tried a new EE contract last year and realised that contract was only on 30mbps but because it had been missold to me they cancelled it.

PishY · 23 Nov 2023 at 19:31

To be fair my speeds have dropped a little, will test them at midnight see what I get too, I thought it was to the volume of people using it at the same time to be fair

Rroff · 23 Nov 2023 at 19:38

My speeds on EE 4G seem down a little at the moment - getting ~50Mbit/s at this time of day when 70-80 is more usual but this time of day does tend to fluctuate more - will have to try overnight as well to compare.

I'm over 1.5 miles from the mast without line of sight so these kind of speeds are good going.

mrk · 25 Nov 2023 at 19:52

I'm on EE, down south here the speeds are always fantastic, went to o2 for one term because someone said they were amazing, went back to EE and got a full refund from o2 due to crap service, sub 8Mbps is what they called super fast lol, and no 5G available....

4G vs 5G just now:

My package is the 5G Essentials with unlimited data. Essential plans are locked to 100Mbps so naturally that's what I get and that's fine, nobody needs more than that on a phone really, and I use a lot of data each month

When I was on the old EE plan which you could unlock the speed by simply texting GOFASTER to EE at any time, was able to pull over 700Mbps. Only useful for speedtest ePeen points mind.

Pawnless Endgame · 25 Nov 2023 at 20:30

silverblack said:
70-80 download speeds are pretty low for 5G.Are you sure your contract does not limit your speeds to 100mb? That's what I am on as it was good enough for what I use it for.

SexyGreyFox said:
I was thinking the same, at my Brothers I get 850mbps and at work I'm within 100 yards of the mast and I get above 900mbps.
This is on Smarty (Three) but I do have an EE (1p Mobile) sim also.

I thought the same too. 80Mb is more like ADSL speeds. I've had 5G home broadband for a couple of years now on Three and I frequently get 450Mb and occasionally get 1.2Gb in the night time. I'm not sure where the nearest phone masts are, but probably on a tower block a couple of hundred metres away.