Rural Gigacube Woeful Performance

[goosegogphone]

Hi guys. I live in a semi-rural location, Newdigate, Surrey and my landline internet service was terrible, supplying at best 15 Mbps. 1 mile away in the centre of the village is a Vodafone 4G mast and I get great speed to my mobile phone when I'm nearby. As a result, I took out a Vodafone contract, put a directional 4G antenna on my TV aerial, pointed it at the mast, plugged it into the Gigacube and a reliable 25 - 30 Mbps was mine. I was happy enough as this was double the speed I was used to! I said goodbye to my landline and ISP. This was 2 months ago...

Fast-forward to now, and my service has become almost unusable. If I log in to the Gigacube, it's showing 5 (ot of 5) bars signal connection to the mast. Devices in my house show a strong Wi-Fi signal, but speed has dropped to between 1 and 4 Mbps. I have contacted Vodafone via the online chat to India and also the call centre in Egypt and they say they "reset the service" and it will be very good. It's not very good though!

My best guess would be too many users connected to the mast at the same time and we're all slowing each other down. That said, if I place my mobile on the window ledge and turn on the hotspot, as I have done to post this message, I get better, more reliable coverage. 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Do I leave and rerurn to land-line internet?

Many thanks, Fergus.

[Tash]

I'd like to check the area for you to see if we're aware of any recent changes @goosegogphone. Please can you pop back with the affected postcode for me? If you'd prefer not to share this on the thread, you can add this to your profile under 'Current postcode'.  

[TheDentist]

I have exactly the same problem.  Up until Saturday 7th March 2020 we could rely on 20-25mbps from the brand spanking new Gigacube.  Suddenly the speed has gone down to 7mbps if we are lucky.  We also gave up BT Broadband and landline for this service and we are now not getting what was supposed to be  better option.  I will be contacting Ofcom to complain.  Nobody at Vodafone wants to have anything to do with it.  SHAMEFUL.

[Tash]

@TheDentist I'd be happy to take a closer look into what may be causing this. Please can you let me know the postcode you're using the Gigacube in? I'll then be able to check the area for you to see why there's been a change in your speeds.

[TheDentist]

I am not posting my post code in an open forum.

[TheDentist]

I sent you a private message as i do not give out my post code on an open forum - and received this - so thanks for nothing.

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[goosegogphone]

Hi there. I live a mile from the sole mast in Newdigate. Anyway, I visited the Vodafone store in Dorking and the guy said I should not have been sold a Gigacube and contract as the service in my area is inadequate. As a result of this, he left a note on my file. I called the cancellation dept, they read my file note and terminated my contract for a full refund. I went back to the store and took-out a landline broadband contract for £19.95 a month including free router and line connection. @thedentist maybe give this a go as it would seem we're in a similarly frustrating position. Best of luck!

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@TheDentist 

[TheDentist]

Thank you will give it a go.  

[TheDentist]

@goosegogphone

Thanks for your advice.  I have been to my local (18 miles away) Vodafone shop - they immediately cancelled my contract for mobile broadband with Gigacube with them.  Long story short - no more mobile broadband from Vodafone. Glad that saga is over. 

[Tash]

@TheDentist If you'd prefer not to share your postcode on the thread, you can add this to your profile settings.