Xiaomi speed test very slow

[serious7]

My wife and I have the same public mobile plan.

She uses essential phone one and I use Xiaomi a2 lite.

I did a side by side speed test and she got 46.5/23.4 Mbps speed 

I got 3.67/2.82 Mbps.

Is there something wrong with my phone configuration? How can I fix it?

We are both on the 40 dollar 3g plan.

[sheytoon]

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@bridonca wrote:

It is a little bit more complicated than that.  Telcos have the ability to allocate spectrum to particular needs.  I know in my area, part of the 1900 mhz band, which is used for 3G, tends to be refarmed to LTE.   So, as far as Telus/Bell is concerned, they believe they can service 3G needs on the 850 mhz spectrum.   Wether that is enough, is subject to debate.  

I beleive Rogers over subscribes it's 3G, so in dense areas,  the quality is not good.

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You're talking about something slightly different (local cell capacity). I'm talking about the benefits of LTE over UMTS, as well as the overall network congestion state of UMTS.

In most urban centres, B2 LTE is 20 MHz, and B2 UMTS is 5 MHz or 10 MHz, depending on whether C2 block is licensed to Bell or Telus in that Tier. There has not been any refarming of the upper blocks for Telus or Bell as far as I know.

What area are you in? I can tell you the exact deployment scenario.

[hzmy]

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@BEER wrote:

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@serious7 wrote:

I did the test for 3g specific environment in multiple areas across Toronto today and found my internet speed and reliability to be significantly better. 

When I had it set to 4g, it was pretty bad.

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Yes .... After I disabled my LTE setting and selected 3G only it made a noticeable improvement.

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The bad speed of the LTE is expected. But 3g sometimes may have higher Ping.

[BEER]

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@serious7 wrote:

I did the test for 3g specific environment in multiple areas across Toronto today and found my internet speed and reliability to be significantly better. 

When I had it set to 4g, it was pretty bad.

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Yes .... After I disabled my LTE setting and selected 3G only it made a noticeable improvement.

[BEER]

Suggest you disable LTE and set your phone to 3G only and then test again. -- Let us know if the speed improved or not.

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@serious7 wrote:

My wife and I have the same public mobile plan.

She uses essential phone one and I use Xiaomi a2 lite.

I did a side by side speed test and she got 46.5/23.4 Mbps speed 

I got 3.67/2.82 Mbps.

[bridonca]

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@sheytoon wrote:

@sandpublic, 3G will be slower and have worse performance at cell edge, but it's not more congested than LTE. Where did you get that info from?

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It is a little bit more complicated than that.  Telcos have the ability to allocate spectrum to particular needs.  I know in my area, part of the 1900 mhz band, which is used for 3G, tends to be refarmed to LTE.   So, as far as Telus/Bell is concerned, they believe they can service 3G needs on the 850 mhz spectrum.   Wether that is enough, is subject to debate.  

I beleive Rogers over subscribes it's 3G, so in dense areas,  the quality is not good.

[sheytoon]

@sandpublic, 3G will be slower and have worse performance at cell edge, but it's not more congested than LTE. Where did you get that info from?

[hzmy]

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@sandpublic wrote:

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@sheytoon wrote:

That makes sense, and matches the design intent of your plan.

"3G" plans are restricted to approximately 3 Mbps when using the LTE (4G) network. There's no speed restriction if you are using the 3G network, however.

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3G is more congested and less reliable than LTE though 

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I would believe that 4G now should be more congested compares to 4G, given the phone takes 4G as a default network mode. And eventually, with the infrastructures faded away for 3G, the congestion on 4G would be worse, or somehow the same given they are building more towers.

Another thing I really think Public Mobile should rename is this 3G plan.

It's better to call it LTE lite plan, rather than 3G plan. Quite misleading.

[sandpublic]

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@serious7 wrote:

I did the test for 3g specific environment in multiple areas across Toronto today and found my internet speed and reliability to be significantly better. 

When I had it set to 4g, it was pretty bad.

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Must be location related then because LTE works great for me without any issues whatsoever.

[serious7]

I did the test for 3g specific environment in multiple areas across Toronto today and found my internet speed and reliability to be significantly better. 

When I had it set to 4g, it was pretty bad.

[sandpublic]

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@sheytoon wrote:

That makes sense, and matches the design intent of your plan.

"3G" plans are restricted to approximately 3 Mbps when using the LTE (4G) network. There's no speed restriction if you are using the 3G network, however.

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3G is more congested and less reliable than LTE though 

[sheytoon]

That makes sense, and matches the design intent of your plan.

"3G" plans are restricted to approximately 3 Mbps when using the LTE (4G) network. There's no speed restriction if you are using the 3G network, however.

[serious7]

I went to the network settings and set mobile network to only use 3g.

It was previously set to 4g and it made my speed slow.

[sheytoon]

@bridonca, the main high frequency bands are supported. Only the low frequency B12 is missing for rural coverage. See here: https://www.mi.com/global/mi-a2-lite/specs/

Bands

GSM B2/3/5/8 
WCDMA B1/2/5/8 
FDD-LTE B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/20
TD-LTE B38/40

@serious7, just curious, but what did you change? Other than disabling LTE, I don't see any way to get higher speeds on a "3G" plan.

[serious7]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I solved my problem.

I changed a few settings on my xiaomi and now I'm getting 20-25 Mbps download and 2-4 Mbps up.

I've been customer for almost a year. My wife been customer since yesterday.

[hycm53]

I have the same 3G plan, but somehow the phone occasionally shows 4G or H+ if I turned of wifi or there's no wifi service. The phone is Asus Zonefone 4 Max. 

[jotsang]

Don't think it is Xiaomi related as I have Xiaomi A2 (Global). Currently I have full LTE speed as I just signed up yesterday. I am sure mine with be throttled down in next day or two to 3G speed just like yours.

[hzmy]

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@bridonca wrote:

This a good reason why you do not buy a Chinese phone for a Canadian carrier!  I do not know if this phone is the China or Global version, but is any case, at best, only half the LTE bands are supported, and they are certainly not optimised for the Canadian market!

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I don't think this is accurate though.

B4 is required for the basic 4G to run, and any B12, B13 is there to enhance penestration of the signal.

The OP's phone is working as expected. That's the speed of the 3G plan.

Also, there are lots of Chinese phones have full support over North American LTE bands.

[bridonca]

This a good reason why you do not buy a Chinese phone for a Canadian carrier!  I do not know if this phone is the China or Global version, but is any case, at best, only half the LTE bands are supported, and they are certainly not optimised for the Canadian market!

[hzmy]

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@serious7 wrote:

My wife and I have the same public mobile plan.

She uses essential phone one and I use Xiaomi a2 lite.

I did a side by side speed test and she got 46.5/23.4 Mbps speed 

I got 3.67/2.82 Mbps.

Is there something wrong with my phone configuration? How can I fix it?

We are both on the 40 dollar 3g plan.

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You will soon have the same speed.

The throttle takes a day or two to kick in.

[sheytoon]

Your "3G speed" plan is already throttled, but your wife's hasn't kicked in yet. Wait another day or so, hers will be just as slow as yours.

[Anonymous]

@serious7 - on a 3G plan, your speed is normal.  Any chance your with just signed up with PM?  If so, it is normal that her speed would be much higher during the first couple of days, since she is getting full LTE speed.  After a few days, she will be throttled down to around 3Mb, same as you.

[Anonymous]

 @serious7 

If her phone got activated only in the last few days then that's normal. After a few days it will throttle down to what you're seeing on your phone.

If she's been here a while then ..score!