Mobile data speed inconsistent and undependable

[bogie4646]

I am on a grandfathered plan which should have 4G LTE data. In Renfrew County I get horribly inconsistent Service. I'll be sitting still and go from full bars 4G to full 3G service. Trying to browse the internet and loading of sites will completely pause, images at times wont load for a full page. I've attached a screenshot from a speed test conducted today. 

It used to work just fine and I only started to notice this more once Public started to offer sepesepa data speed options. 

Has anyone else noticed issues with their data type connection or horrible speeds?

My phone is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (global version). 

[srlawren]

Thanks @sheytoon!

[sheytoon]

All FDD sites except parts of Manitoba are shared for all the main bands. You can safely assume all Bell/Telus mobile subscribers have the same coverage (except rural MB).

[srlawren]

@Korth Telus and Bell share towers, so in almost all cases (there are some exceptions I believe--maybe @sheytoon could shed some light on that?), a Bell tower effectively is a Telus tower, and vice-versa.  Telus towers are more prominent in the western parts of the country while Bell towers are more prominent in the eastern parts of the country (which makes sense when you think about the origin of these two organizations). 

[kav2001c]

Renfrew is WEST of Ottawa

In your post it says you are connected to MONTREAL

I'd suggest trying a closer server will make a huge diff in a speed test

[Korth]

I see on the Canadian Cellular Towers Map that Renfrew County only has Bell and Rogers towers, no Telus towers in the area at all aside from a cluster around Ottawa.  Not sure if that makes a difference.  Note that cellular towers usually don't just have an omnidirectional radius, they often mount multiple fixed antenna arrays which are directed at (or away from) specific areas.

Your signal strength can make a difference - if you're in a noisy or occluded or fringe area which gets weak or inconsistent signal then your data will be slower because many extra signal packets (and signal timeouts) will be sent, this error-correction overhead can consume a lot of your bandwidth.

Your battery can make a difference - if it's weak then the radio hardware in your phone will also be weak.  And most smartphone software seems too dumb to recognize this common limitation.

Local conditions can make a difference.  High demand (many users) on your local tower means everybody gets a smaller share of the bandwidth (data speed), this can vary from one minute to another, from one side of the street to the other.  Bad weather can adversely affect wireless data.  As can solar flares, geomagnetic activity, and all sorts of other wildly unbelievable factors.  A single speed test run isn't necessarily representative, a number of speed test runs across specific isolated conditions (or a full variety of conditions) would be a more meaningful performance metric.

[chrstyles]

Hi guys,

You could consider that the particular tower(s) the phone is associating with have a poor backhaul connection. From a quick look, it seems like there are fewer towers in Renfrew County. Also keep in mind that there could be several network hops/connection points and the nearest Telus cell switching centre is in Montreal. 

[will13am]

I suffer from slow speed as well at work.  The towers are either overlooked or too far away.  Being by the lake doesn't help as coverage near shorelines are generally not as good. Switching to 3G makes things worse because people making calls overwhelm the towers.  

[Luddite]

Lock on 3G, not LTE preferred; I do that at home for stability.

[bogie4646]

I only noticed it more recently; I'll try with a different phone. I live in Renfrew County, so that's where I use it most often. It generally seems like my speeds are better out of the area, but I will try to check for sure next time I'm out of the area.

As I'm typing this, I'm getting fairly consistent 4G, Id wonder if it could also be network usage related. I'd be using Bell towers in my area. Not aurs if there's any prioritizing happening between Bell and Telus or between them and the subbrands. 

[koimr1]

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@bogie4646 wrote:

I've added info, accidentally posted when trying to add the info.

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Thank you. 🙂

So this used to work just fine and now it doesn't.

Does this just happen in Renfrew County and other places are ok or is it happening everywhere you might go?

Do you have access to another unlocked phone? If so, try swapping SIM cards and see if the problem:

1. remains with your phone with the different SIM
2. happens with the other phone with your SIM

That's probably the first thing to get out of the way - a problem with the phone itself.

[bogie4646]

The phone is set to prefer LTE. It will be on 4G and have full signal and then change to 3G for no reason and go back and forth

[srlawren]

@bogie4646 I notice in your screenshot, your phone is showing "3G" over the signal meter.  According to gsmarena spec sheet, your phone has band 4 (the primary LTE band) as well as 5 and 7 (used in some areas of the country to augment band 4) and should be LTE capable.  Do you have your phone set to 3G only, by chance?

[bogie4646]

I've added info, accidentally posted when trying to add the info.

[koimr1]

Can you post a bit more information? What you've written can mean so many different things. 🙂