Surprisingly slow 4G internet

[Bissetl]

Hello all, 

I'm trying to improve my 4G home internet which is very unreliable. Or at least make sense of why it is slow.

We have a Vodaphone unlimited data 4G sim that is capped at 10MB/s speed, however we often find that we don't have better than 2 MB/s, often too slow to stream video. Our router is a TP link MR 600 and it has a dedicated aerial (see attached image).

We also have a Google Pixel phone on Vodaphone that gets 45Mb/s download speeds in the exact same position as the aerial, so in theory the signal strength is ok. 

Given that the signal strength is ok, I would expect that we would get exactly 10MB/s pretty much all the time but as mentioned above, this isn't the case.

My question is this: If I pay for a better contract where the 10Mb/s speed limit is removed will I get better speeds overall?

Was wondering if anyone had had a similar experience. 

cheers!

[Evie]

Hey there @Bissetl - I appreciate how important it is to have a stable connection and best speed possible, especially during the current situation. If you do go for our Unlimited Max Plan you will get the best speeds available in your area - however if you're currently getting below 10mpbs on the Unlimited Plan, then it's possible you'd be getting the same speeds on the Unlimited Max.

Please check our network status checker for what speeds you should expect in your area.

If you try your data SIM in your Google Pixel, do you get the same speeds?

[Bissetl]

Hi Evie,

Thanks for the response,

The network coverage for our area is listed "Good indoors & outdoors"  for 4G so we should be fine.

We tried the unlimited data sim in the pixel and ran a few speed tests in the same place as before. In the four tests that we did, one maxed out at 10Mb/s, one was at 8Mb/s and two were around 2.3Mb/s (see attached image) . 

I feel like this indicates to me that there is a real slow down on the network side. Given that the phone was able to receive 45Mb/s on it's other sim in the same location, I can't see why it shouldn't be maxed out at 10Mb all the time. 

Is there any way I can trial the  Unlimited Max Plan and then go back to our 10Mb one if it doesn't help?

Best regards

Leon

[Mark]

Hi @Bissetl, If you're on our standard unlimited plan, your data speed will be limited to 10mbps. This will be why it goes no faster than this on your speed tests. You can speak to our online Sales team and ask to upgrade your tariff to our unlimited max plan. If this doesn't increase your speed, you'll have 14 days to request this to be switched back at no extra cost.