S10 - Sheffield - High latency

[kocz]

I should first clarify that I'm using a Lebara SIM - their website directs to Vodafone for issues with service and signal. Apologies if my complaint/query isn't welcome or relevant here.

Since yesterday evening, my latency has shot up from 25-35ms to >140ms. I'm connected to the same tower via 4G, with the same/similar signal stats. Speed seems mostly unaffected, though was quite a bit slower than usual last night when the issue first appeared. Today, the latency has gone from a steady (but poor) 140ms to a very volatile 30-120ms. I should also note this has been happening once or twice every month, and typically lasts from a few hours to a few days each time.

The issue is definitely occurring on the backend, as shown in this traceroute command:

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [151.101.0.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  homerouter.cpe [192.168.1.1]
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    36 ms    40 ms    38 ms  192.168.213.21
  4   135 ms   133 ms   110 ms  192.168.213.22
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7   123 ms   133 ms   139 ms  63.130.127.213
  8   121 ms   120 ms   119 ms  90.255.251.103
  9   135 ms   136 ms   146 ms  151.101.0.81

Template response:

1) Unable to test other locations as I am not within close vicinity of another mast.

2) S10 4LD, connected to eNB 501368

3) Not tested in another device, but see evidence further below.

4) No errors; receiving high latency >140ms instead of the typical 20-30ms.

5) Only able to test on 4G due to device constraints

6) Issue first occurred yesterday evening.

7) Intermittent, no observable correlations. Last night the high ping was consistent, this morning it was fine, now it's very volatile and changes almost every second (30-150ms).

[Amanda]

Good morning @kocz - thanks for getting in touch. I know how important it is to stay connected and how frustrating it can be when you're not getting the service you'd expect from us. 

I can see that we're currently working on some issues on another nearby mast closer to the city centre (site number 8570), it does mean that you may notice a higher than usual traffic on your mast whilst this one is brought back up to where it should be - resulting in the issues you've mentioned. 

You can register for updates via our Network Status Checker - just pop your postcode in and press the  ➖  symbol in the top right hand corner to zoom out. 

[kocz]

Issue appears to be resolved as of yesterday evening, however I'm sure it'll return again in a couple of weeks as per usual.

I don't believe your identification of the issue is correct; my local mast is very far out from the impacted one in the city centre, situated in a valley where the two signals could never possibly converge. As shown in the traceroute, the high ping times occur somewhere outside of the mast, as the first pingable node (hop 3) shows a perfectly good and typical 4G latency.

[Amanda]

Thanks for letting me know @kocz - if this does happen again, please get in touch as mentioned above so we can look into it further.