Poor and inconsistent 4G data speeds

[BRR]

I'm a new Vodafone customer with an Unlimited Max SIM only plan. 

My understanding from reading through the Vodafone website is that the Unlimited Max plan does not throttle data connection speed. 

The Vodafone coverage checker indicates I am located in an area with strong indoor and outdoor 4G signal.

Can someone representing Vodafone please explain why my 4G data speed (tested via the Speedtest app) is fluctuating between 2Mbps during the day up to 18/20Mbps later at night around c.midnight? 

Regards, 

A dissapointed new Vodafone customer. 

[TJ]

Hi @BRR, thanks for getting in touch; we'd be happy to take a look into your data speeds for you. Please have a check through some of our troubleshooting steps here first - if you're still having issues, please complete the template at the bottom of the page and post your answers here.

[BRR]

Hi TJ, thank for getting back to me. 

1) Location - the inconsistent speeds are recorded in the only area in my property where I get a strong indoor signal, to get this signal I have to attach my phone to an external window with a suction car phone mount.  Your coverage checker shows my property as being in an area with "Good indoors and outdoors" 4G coverage which unfortunately does not appear to be the case. 

2) There are no network status issues reported in my area. 

3) I've followed the update connection instructions, there is no improvement. 

4) I don't think that testing my SIM in another phone is valid test in these circumstances.  At off-peak times my data speeds are good (18-20Mbps), only during peak hours do they suffer (1-2Mpbs) and this does not point to a phone issue for me. 

5) I can't find any other threads related to an issue in my locality. 

What do you think I should do next here TJ?  My assumption is that the slow speeds during peak hours, but not later at night/off peak times, point to either an overload of the network in my area or throttling of the speed by Vodafone - neither of these scenarios are acceptable when I have chosen the Unlimited Max plan and expect a fast and stable data connection.  I sincerely hope you can help me resolve this so that I can see significantly faster data speeds, unfortunately if this is not possible I will be seeking to terminate my agreement with you. 

Rgds, Ben

[BRR]

FYI attached an image of a Speedtest I just carried out, the results of which are obviously well below what I would expect.  I will run another test later this evening to show the contrast between peak and off-peak speeds I'm experiencing. 

[BRR]

Speedtest run this evening at 23:13 to show contrast in speeds between peak and off-peak hours.

TJ are you able to help? 

[TJ]

Thanks for providing those speed tests @BRR - I think the best thing to do would be for one of our advisers to raise a network case with our Engineers. It could be that additional traffic through the mast is causing some issues and may be something that they could look into.

So one of our team can do this for you, please get in touch via Facebook, or contact us on Twitter. You can find more information on doing this here. Please also provide a link to this thread, along with your username; so you won't have to explain yourself again.