Mobile Broadband - Slow to Unusable

[petematthws]

Hi,

For the past couple of weeks I have been experiencing very slow to unusable mobile broadband speeds on my Vodafone UK mobile broadband connection. At first I thought it could be issues with my laptop, drivers or connection software I was using but I've tried different combinations of these all to no avail. When I use my T-Mobile sim everything works perfectly so it appears the issues I'm experiencing are with the Vodafone network. I am experiencing these issues at post codes E14 4HD (Canary Wharf, London) and in SE1 6BB, where at both locations I have full bars on a HSPA connection and both are reported as having 3G coverage on the Vodafone website.

Laptop: Dell XPS 1640
Connection: Vodafone 3G Pay Monthly via a Dell 5530 internal 3G card
Software: Dell's connection manager (I've tried a few versions of the VMC software but they all say no device can be found. I also experience the same issues connecting directly through Windows 7)

Are there mobile broadband problems reported in my area? Is this just high network load being central London? DNS issues? I've noticed that it can be hit and miss at times but more so miss. Pages do occasionally load but they never seem to finish loading (page loading icon keeps working away) and when they do it feels like I'm on a 56k modem again. I also get a lot of 'Webpage is not available' messages and lose my connection to the Exchange server even though the reception never drops and the connection remains as HSPA. As I said at the start, this hasn't always been the case.

Any help with this issue would be greatly appeciated.

Regards,

Peter

[clc]

My internet has been un-useable now for two weeks and i live in Kensington in London! What is going on!????????

I can't use a service I am paying for!

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hi Peter,

It does look like there is an issue with the 3G site 1606 in the E14 area, which appears to be congested and dropping connections.

In SE1 it's a similar story with site 1616 which was showing a high percentage of connection failures for data. This had already tripped our automatic alarms a couple of days ago, and an engineer was on site and resolved the issue as of approximately an hour ago today, so that area at least should now be clear of problems

We'll need to raise a case for the other site, however, so an email is on its way to your registered address asking for a few details. Please reply to this, and we'll alert our Faults Team as soon as possible

Jon

eForum Team