4G Mobile Broadband Dongle & 4G Tethering - Cutting out on regular noticable intervals

[FJVF]

Hi Community,

This is my first post so not too sure how to structure one of these. Forever, I've been experiencing issues with tethering 4G from my phone for a faster internet connection. I have a 20GB phone contract so I regularly use this to take advantage of the faster upload speeds for time sensitive tasks.

I've noticed that after 2GB of data usage (which I use in around 1.5 hours), every single time without fail the 4G will drop completely and I will not have any 4G signal at all without waiting at least 5 minutes. This happens regardless of device (tested on iPhone 7+, Samsung Galaxy S4, S6 and S8), and cuts out my active live connection to a server which really throws off operations.

As a (hopeful) solution, I decided to purchase a 50GB Mobile Broadband Dongle (Huawei K5160) from Vodafone hoping that this would resolve the issue and stop the disconnecting, but it doesn't and the same cut outs appear at the exact same times. This is annoying as I'm now forking out more money per month for something which I hoped would fix my issue and allow me to seamlessly work online.

I was just wondering, is anyone else experiencing this issue, and are there any solutions to this? I would love to solve this issue or I may switch to another provider for both my phone contract and my mobile broadband as this seems like a network issue as opposed to a device specific issue, unless there is a setting I'm completely missing!

Many thanks,

F

[FJVF]

Hi @Gemma, thank you for the reply. I'm puzzled as to what is going wrong then across different plans, different devices in different locations. Do you know if timeouts are a possibility? As in, how regularly do the frequencies change? How often does my IP address change as I know my device cannot get a fixed IP address? This usually happens for me between 1.5-2 hours of usage.

Tonight I will be testing tethering with EE and will let you know how I get on. If EE also disconnects, then there is something more to it that Vodafone can't answer and I will mark this as solved. If it doesn't and EE seamlessly lets me use data, then I'll let you know.

Thanks for your help so far,

F

[FJVF]

@Gemma, I have some bad news for you. EE worked flawlessly with no cut outs at all whilst tethering (4GB total this time). This rules out device related issues as this used the same iPhone I also used for testing Vodafone tethering, and pinpoints the issues on Vodafone itself. Speed tests with EE actually were worse in my area (despite still getting 4G, it was lower than Vodafone's DL/UL speeds).

At this point, I am now considering switching provider. Please could you escalate this to your third line networking staff to take a look into the issue? Whether it could be a timeout, IP renewal, security measure, or protection to stop customers using too much data in one sitting, there is definitely something which is causing this to happen across 2-3 different plans.

I have been a loyal Vodafone customer for quite a while and it would honestly be sad to part ways with a company I've believed in for a long time, but I believe this may now be the turning point.

[TJ]

@FJVF So we can investigate this further for you, I've sent you a private message with details on how to get in touch.

We'll get your issue forwarded to our Network Support team and see what they advise. We'll get back to you as soon as we hear anything.

[FJVF]

Hi @TJ

Unfortunately the link you have sent in the private message is an invalid link and sends me to a 404 page. Please could you re-send the correct link?

Many thanks,

F

[Alex]

@FJVF I've double checked the link sent and it did work for me. 

I've sent another private message to you, please give this one a go. If it doesn't work again, please try an alternate browser. 

[FJVF]

Thanks Alex, not sure what happened the first time but I can now access the page. I have submitted a form, fingers crossed this can be resolved soon.

[Alex]

@FJVF I've checked our email inbox and your message hasn't come through. 

Please clear your cache and cookies and try to submit this again in a different browser. Let us know when you've done this again and a member of the team can pick this up. 

[FJVF]

Hi Alex,

I'm going to assume that after a second submission you also didn't get that email too as I haven't heard anything?? I did this both at work and at home on completely different everything. IP, PC, Provider, Browser, Account.

[ToniCa]

There was mention in one thread of some bizarre problem affecting (I think) yahoo email addresses. If you aren't receiving an acknowledgement email with a reference number like #12345678, your message almost certainly isn't being accepted.

[FJVF]

Thanks for the clarification ToniCa. I think I'm just going to cancel at this point. Fed up of going round in circles.