Vodafone 4G dropping connection overnight

[kbrownuk]

Hi 

I am based in Devon and use 4G for working from home as the BT Connection is so poor in my area. It has been working fine for many months and had fantastic download speeds in excess of 70mbps at most times however I am  finding that the connection drops overnight after midnight and needs to be rebooted in the morning (sometimes more than once ) to get restored. I am using an external antenna and have been in contact with the manufacturers to look into the issue but they are saying the problem is with the vodafone network.

If the router is not rebooted in the morning it does sometimes return on its own without any intervention.

Vodafone network status is not showing any issues but I am convinced this is some sort of bandwidth management or energy saving attempt on the mast outside of peak times. 

I use multiple sites and have seen this at most locations.

Is anyone else seeing this problem recently from about november 22 onwards?

[Mark]

Thanks for reaching out us us @kbrownuk, I can understand how frustrating having to reboot your router every morning would be, so let's see if we can get to the bottom of this for you. Firstly, I'd like to reassure you that our masts remain active 24/7 and are only taken offline for maintenance and repairs. If either of these are happening in your area it'll be advised via out Network Status Checker. I can see you've mentioned this is happening in multiple locations. When this happens, it can indicate the problem lies with your device, or SIM as these are the common factor in all connections. Please try popping your SIM in another device. If that doesn't help, please try some of our other trouble shooting steps, or reach out to us through one of our social channels and we'll be able ot take a closer look into this for you. 

[kbrownuk]

Hi Mark

Thank you for your reply, Unfortunately this happens with different sims in different kit in completely different locations, the only common thing is the vodafone network, this is why I have created this post to see if there are any other people experiencing this issue with a view to finding a solution.

I have reached out to the supplier of our sim cards and router manufacturer but not really progressing much from there apart from the usual rebooting/manual roaming requests.

To me it seams something is happening at or near midnight perhaps on a specific band that is causing the drop in connection but once restored the signal is good and stable until after midnight.

[Gemma]

@kbrownuk - thanks for coming back to us and the tests you've already done. I understand you've mentioned this has been tested in different locations and with the SIM in different devices. Is this always with the SIM being used with the router or have you tested this in a phone as well? When you're saying different locations do you mean around your home or different areas around Devon? Please can you update your postcode onto the 'My Settings' section on your profile? Just go to the 'Personal Information' section. I can then go through some additional checks on the network. 

[Symbister]

Hello Gemma.  In the past month or so, I’ve been having a similar problem. I lose internet access on 4G just after midnight. It happens most nights. I’m not sure exactly how long the interruption lasts, as I’m usually asleep, but it is always back between 3am and 4am, when I sometimes wake up. I don’t have to reboot the router (or at least I’ve never got out of bed to do it!). The signal comes from your Scalloway cell, in Shetland. I cannot see why this would have anything to do with the aerial, router or SIM card - none of these has changed in the past month. It feels very much  like a timed  network outage. It would be good if you could look into this.

[Effie]

Hey @Symbister I hope you're well. I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing network issues regularly. We can certainly look into this for you. We'll need to gather some information and speed tests from you so we can investigate. So we can do this, please come and speak to the team on Social Media. 

[Symbister]

Why do you want me to use social media? Why can’t you simply forward my concern to them?

[Effie]

The Forum is for general advice and conversations @Symbister for cases where we need to access accounts or run through testing and checks, we need to get you in contact with the Social Media Team so they can investigate in detail and raise a network case where needed. 

[ARH1950]

Please see my reply to @kbrownuk.  The issue is slightly different for me, in the sense that no rebooting is needed.  The core of the conundrum is that the mast is still radiating a 4G signal, but the internet connection apparently isn't being carried on that signal.  How that can happen, I have no idea, but it does!  I don't have a Vodafone mobile phone, so I don't know whether I could actually make a phone call at those times; in any case, though, the signal (without a loft aerial) is so weak that it would have difficulty connecting at the best of times.

[Symbister]

Thank you Steph, much appreciated.  I've now done that, but I think that whoever designs your systems might want to reflect on whether this is the most user-friendly or efficient way of handling concerns.  It's more cumbersome, from the customer's point of view, than it needs to be.  All the best.