Has anyone on "3G" data plans noticed a significant decrease in speeds lately?

[ssilva]

I'm on a 8Gb 3G data plan with 2Gb of US data. I've had this plan since late 2019 (I think).

The data speeds used to be a consistent 3Mbps down/up, but as of late (maybe 3 months ago), I rarely see more than 1Mbps download, and about the same 3Mbps (the usual) on upload.

As most people know, the data is only throttled on the LTE network, thus if I switch from 4G/LTE to 3G networks, I often get 20 to 30 Mbps, regardless of the time of day.

I have checked this with the following phones, and all exhibit the same symptom:

Huawei P30 Pro (owned since Mar 2020)

Pixel 7 (Owned since Dec 2022)

Pixel 7 Pro (owned since Apr 2023)

LG G6 (Owned before the Huawei)

I'm curious to hear if others are experiencing the same thing. 

[Pawprints1986]

Already have an open ticket with an agent... All they can really suggest is try a 4g plan. Which I might if I didn't have to pay more for something that still might not work given my physical signal limitations. It'd be the same towers serving me as now

But, can confirm the 3g wcdma in my area reduced to 5hz on both band 2 and 5 - which might explain why I used to get good data service switching to 3g but not so much anymore 😕

My family isn't here often enough to worry about. Don't know anyone on bell either

[hTideGnow]

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@Pawprints1986 wrote:

So it's not even a throttle/low tier company thing in my case. 

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HI @Pawprints1986 

from what you described, sound like network tower issue

I suggest you open ticket with PM agent

Also, have your Koodo family to open ticket on Koodo side as well

If possible, test with Bell to see if Bell experiencing the same

[Pawprints1986]

I've been having trouble using it at all lately. Very clear weather I might get 2.5mb down and 1mb up - ground floor of a walkup

But I *used* to get the full 3mb or even slightly over for down, and 2mb for up

Both on LTE. It was slow but usable. Now it's becoming garbage. Switching to 3g doesn't even guarantee anything anymore. It's not unusual to get like 0.4mb for upload on an average day, when it doesn't full on just error out during a speed test. I've not moved

I have family on koodo including 5g and *they* had trouble streaming a podcast while doing some repairs for me. So it's not even a throttle/low tier company thing in my case. 

Have you found any solutions? 

[ssilva]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to submit a ticket. 

[DennyCrane]

I noticed this in the end until I switched to a 4g plan about 7 months ago. To me it seems intentional and/or very bad programming of the throttle.

[maximum_gato]

@ssilva 

Aha!.....that's a valuable legacy plan you have as it was only offered for about 3 1/2 months in 2019 and grandfathered ever since. I think you will find many customers including myself finding the "3G" plan's throttled 3mbps service much slower at times. Once in awhile it can certainly happen but not most or all of the time as pm would not be living up to its service commitment.

We certainly don't want to believe it's purposeful in order to migrate customers onto "4G" plans that may be more expensive or off of " legacy" plans they no longer want to administer or cost them more to supply (like yours)?

You can also try opening a ticket with customer support and see if a reprovisioning of your Sim card will help or see if the tech team can look into why your data speed is not consistent like throttled service is meant to be?

[sheytoon]

LTE network should easily be able to provide 3 Mbps, so that is surprising to hear.

For actual 3G, it depends on your location. In some markets, Bell and Telus have reduced 1900 MHz from 10 MHz to 5 MHz.