PO18 Chichester - Recent drop in 4G speeds

[dexa]

Filled out the template but essentially the issue is a noticeable drop in download speeds from an average around 40-50Mbps down to an average of 10-15Mbps.

I believe I am connecting to the mast at location 50°51'19.1"N 0°47'17.2"W  - have any faults occurred or work been carried out on that mast that might have caused the drop?

Thanks

1) Does the issue happen in just one location? If so, how far do you have to travel to regain service?

Yes in one general location. 

2) What is the full postcode (e.g. ST1 1AA) of where the issue occurs? If you don't want this showing on the Community, add it to your profile here.

 Full Postcode in my profile

3) Does the issue occur if you try your SIM card in a different phone?

Yes, tried 2 different LTE Routers, iPhone 12 and Nokia 7.2

4) What errors are seen or heard when the issue occurs?

Noticeable drop in data download speed from 40-50Mbps to 10-15Mbps

5) Does this happen on 2G, 3G, 4G or all?

    4G

6) When did you first notice this issue?

 Week starting 7th Feb 22

7) Is the issue permanent or intermittent? If intermittent, are there certain times of the day when it occurs?

Permanent.

[Evie]

Hey there @dexa - I understand how important it is to have a stable connection, especially now. I've checked your postcode and local mast (No. 46552) in our network status checker and internal systems. I can't see any outages reported or maintenance planned so I'd like to get this looked into further.

Could you please drop us a DM with a link back to this forum post and your postcode? See here for how to drop us a message on social media.

[AndyStubbs]

I have noticed a very similar drop in speeds in the SE6 area of London. In my case speeds drops from over 100Mbps down to between 20 to 40Mbps in the last month.
I believe this is a direct result of Virgin Mobile moving its customers over to the vodafone network and reducing available bandwidth for vodafones existing customers.

[AndyStubbs]

This speed drop has got so bad now that I am looking for alternatives. I used to get rock solid speeds of over 100Mbps (I have a samknows whitebox connected to the router to back that claim up). However since the beginning of January which I believe was the time that Virgin mobile customers were migrated to Vodafone that speed has plummeted so now I am lucky to hit 20Mbps in the evenings.

[MarkD]

Hi @AndyStubbs, we've had a quick look at the SE6 postcode and we do have some work going on in parts area. Could you please tell us the full postcode or add this to your Community profile? Once we have this, we'll be able to check what mast you're connected to and if anything is happening on the mobile network. 

[AndyStubbs]

Hi, Full postcode is SE6 1HG but I could see nothing on the vodafone network status page indicating any work on local masts

[Evie]

Thank you for confirming your postcode @AndyStubbs - On our network status checker if you zoom out you'll see a maintenance symbol close by, even though this is further out it can effect your services if your connected to that specific mast.

From looking at our internal systems your connected to a different mast (No. 87808) which is up and running as normal. Could you help us out by letting us know the results of our initial network checks please and posting them on this thread?

[AndyStubbs]

1) Does the issue happen in just one location? If so, how far do you have to travel to regain service?

 Unable to test in other locations however happens at home with both my phone using a vodafone sim card and my 4g router using a Voxi sim card.

2) What is the full postcode 

SE6 1HG

3) Does the issue occur if you try your SIM card in a different phone?

Yes, issue is repeatable using vodafone sim in my phone or 4g router and also when using a voxi sim (vodafone network) in either device.

4) What errors are seen or heard when the issue occurs?

Speed drops drastically from mid day onwards. 4am Is usually around 130Mbps, right now at 4pm its down to 16.6 Mbps

5) Does this happen on 2G, 3G, 4G or all?

4G

6) When did you first notice this issue?

Around 1 month ago - previously it was pretty rock solid at over 100Mbps all day long

7) Is the issue permanent or intermittent? If intermittent, are there certain times of the day when it occurs?

Predictably intermittent - happens every day from midday onwards - spped takes a massive nose dive and only recovers very early in the morning

[Mark]

Thanks for providing this information @AndyStubbs. I've taken a look into the postcode provided and we've no issues in your area at this time, the mast serving you (76228), is working as expected and has experienced no recent outages. If the drop in speeds happens at the same time every day, it could be down to a drastic increase in usage on the network at this time, or some form of outside interference that occurs during these hours each day. I've checked the expected data speeds for your location and as the 16.6Mbps your receiving falls in between the 3.8 - 60.0Mbps download and 0.9 - 23.2Mbps upload speeds we forecast for this location, we wouldn't raise a case to get this looked into by our Network team. With regards to your speed increasing during the night, this is more than likely to be the case as our network will be handling much less traffic at 4am than it is during the day. 

You can take a look into the coverage and expected data speeds in yours and any other location in the UK with our Network Status Checker.

[dexa]

Hey all

After being asked to earlier in the thread, I reached out via DM to the Vodafone twitter account and the agent informed me there were issues at my postcode. They told me to keep an eye on the checker site for updates but I can't see the issue on the actual website.

They told me  "As soon as you enter the post code, you'll be able to see location symbol in between just click on that. Please do not zoom in or zoom out"  I am obviously missing something because clicking on the location symbol does nothing on my browser. 

Any ideas?

Thanks