Weird problem with 3 broadband

Leeg17

Basically in 3 connect the download speed goes from say 75kb/s-0-50-0-75
It's impossible to play games online with and websites are very slow to load.

It was slow before but never this bad. Any idea what's wrong?

watty

It's a Mobile phone system. Perhaps more people are now using it in your area.

It's not weird.
see http://www.radioway.info/comparewireless/

bealtine

watty wrote: »

It's a Mobile phone system. Perhaps more people are now using it in your area.

It's not weird.
see http://www.radioway.info/comparewireless/

nor is it real broadband so there are no guarantees with it. You may or may not even connect with midband.

drunkmonkey

If there's a 3 store or Agent in your area (tuam?) go down to them and get them to make a call on it, needs to be reported if the site is at capacity or there's a fault.

watty

ALL network statistics are available centrally. There is no need or value in going to a phone shop/agent.

evolutionqy7

thats normal dude. its midband. speeds its not a fixed speed. as it states you can get speeds up to 7.2 mbps though i only got 7mbps once only. usual during the day would be under 100 kbps and yes its a pain in the hole playing online games with that

Leeg17

Do you guys reckon it's possible to cancel this without any fines out of contract? It's become unusable 95% of the time, and I'm struggling to load websites any time of the day. Someone told me to ring and say they're not providing the service outlined in the contract and to mention Comreg if they start threatening fines.

evolutionqy7

Well my friend has a problem when used to have coverage in his house. Then some malfunctions came in with the ISP and he lost it completely even outside. So we rang customer care and they have agreed to cancel it after checking that the internet hasn't been used for weeks. Though after some maintenance the coverage came back so he kept it.

Tbh your only getting slow speeds. Their statement is that you can get mobile broadband speeds up to 7.2 so they don't promise stable or fast speeds at all times. Reason why your getting lag when playing online is because mobile broadband ping is in nature high.

Dont think their gonna let you off. You can cancel it but you will have to pay the remaining months left on the contract so not much point

Though this is a problem in country side area. When i had it in Dublin i was getting speed of around 3.5mbps + during day time

Leeg17

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Well my friend has a problem when used to have coverage in his house. Then some malfunctions came in with the ISP and he lost it completely even outside. So we rang customer care and they have agreed to cancel it after checking that the internet hasn't been used for weeks. Though after some maintenance the coverage came back so he kept it.

Tbh your only getting slow speeds. Their statement is that you can get mobile broadband speeds up to 7.2 so they don't promise stable or fast speeds at all times. Reason why your getting lag when playing online is because mobile broadband ping is in nature high.

Dont think their gonna let you off. You can cancel it but you will have to pay the remaining months left on the contract so not much point

Though this is a problem in country side area. When i had it in Dublin i was getting speed of around 3.5mbps + during day time

Ah cmon there's speeds, and then there's taking 5 mins to go from Google (home page) to Boards site itself. It's basically useless, yes it loads the sites, after connecting, getting "webpage cannot be displayed", refresh, same again, disconnect, reconnect and try again.

The nature of my first post was why was it going decent before, and then suddenly after the data refilled again (back to 15gb on the 8th) it suddenly went slow as shít? I'm not expecting anything amazing, but if I pay for a service, I want to at least be able to check my emails and stuff, and not take an hour doing it.

evolutionqy7

hey dude sorry dont take it out on me :S i dont work for three

i have three broadband too and its horrible at times. I have called the customer care many times. The last few times i got completely annoyed with their lack of common sense whats the bloody problem and gave out to them.

Though where i live its either this or Eircom. Id rather have this

Leeg17

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

hey dude sorry dont take it out on me :S i dont work for three

i have three broadband too and its horrible at times. I have called the customer care many times. The last few times i got completely annoyed with their lack of common sense whats the bloody problem and gave out to them.

Though where i live its either this or Eircom. Id rather have this

Sorry if it seemed like I was directing it towards you. Just it's like we pay for a service, and we're screwed over by compaining that we're being ripped off

It's actually not that bad now, maybe it's just the bad weather recently or some shíte. I'll leave it until it goes out of contract, then maybe I'll go for UPC

evolutionqy7

well if your in an area where UPC is available i would suggest you rather go for that. Had 15mbps broadband with them was the best ever. No slow downs nothing watching full hd videos on youtube was a blast

Mobile broadband was never put together with stability in mind

MackDeToaster

Leeg17 wrote: »

Basically in 3 connect the download speed goes from say 75kb/s-0-50-0-75
It's impossible to play games online with and websites are very slow to load.

It was slow before but never this bad. Any idea what's wrong?

I'm in Tuam too and have the same problem. It was fine until about a week ago, I was getting speeds of up to over 300KB downloading and browsing had been fine, but this last week has been a disaster.

I can't see that contention would have suddenly gotten so bad so I'm suspecting some sort of setup issue on their end, but that's only a guess.

Leeg17

MackDeToaster wrote: »

I'm in Tuam too and have the same problem. It was fine until about a week ago, I was getting speeds of up to over 300KB downloading and browsing had been fine, but this last week has been a disaster.

I can't see that contention would have suddenly gotten so bad so I'm suspecting some sort of setup issue on their end, but that's only a guess.

Mine was decent up until the 3rd (I didn't use 3rd-8th, had no data allowance left). After that it's been horrid. My downloading speeds reached 100kb/s at most, less for music and all that stuff we can't talk about.

lucernarian

I think it is unusual that it would change so dramatically over a short period of time.

Firstly, have you tried using the same laptop/dongle in a completely different area and see how it works there?

To be honest, on this forum it seems that all issues involving three are given the response of "it's not broadband and shouldn't be ever used for fixed access" etc. Rather than any genuine attempt to identify what's the issue. Basically, contention can't be the cause of every issue on three's network. Three's mobile phone network can suffer microwave link faults or base station faults like every other GSM/3G network.


The OP's issue isn't even a case of sub-broadband quality, it's sub-midband and even if it were an inherent flaw with three's 3G network (which the onset of the problem makes me highly doubt) it won't help anyone or anything to state how UMTS isn't broadband. The poor souls who have used three know too well how much worse it can be than the best broadband technologies used in Ireland.

Leeg17

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I think it is unusual that it would change so dramatically over a short period of time.

Firstly, have you tried using the same laptop/dongle in a completely different area and see how it works there?

To be honest, on this forum it seems that all issues involving three are given the response of "it's not broadband and shouldn't be ever used for fixed access" etc. Rather than any genuine attempt to identify what's the issue. Basically, contention can't be the cause of every issue on three's network. Three's mobile phone network can suffer microwave link faults or base station faults like every other GSM/3G network.

The OP's issue isn't even a case of sub-broadband quality, it's sub-midband and even if it were an inherent flaw with three's 3G network (which the onset of the problem makes me highly doubt) it won't help anyone or anything to state how UMTS isn't broadband. The poor souls who have used three know too well how much worse it can be than the best broadband technologies used in Ireland.

It's exactly the same, jumping from say 50kb/s download to 0kb/s and back up again. I went over to a friend's house in the country and it is perfect, was downloading at around 250kb/s (highest I've seen on 3) compared to barely reaching 50kb/s at home before it went to shít. Bearing in mind my friend also has 3 mobile, and his speeds have been good all the time, so it's 99% likely to be something to do with my area. He lives around 3 miles from my house, in the countryside, I live in Tuam (~5k people).

watty

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I think it is unusual that it would change so dramatically over a short period of time.

It's not unusual.

If it's a Mast fault or backhaul fault then 3 already know and it will eventually get fixed. If it's a couple or 3 new users (that's all it takes), then it will only improve if they move house or get Satellite or some other service.

The capacity of a 3G/HSPA sector is incredibly low. In theory GSM can actually have higher number of users (in practice actually lower) because it hasn't got CDMA and the top speed/ capacity allocated per user is a small fraction of capacity. The top speed of HSPA is giving 100% capacity to one user. Phone calls or other users or a busy nearby mast on same channel dramatically reduces the speed.

Some Fixed Wireless systems you could add 5 users watching YouTube and not notice. On 3G/HSPA just TWO new users (or a bunch of phone calls) nearer mast watching YouTube can mean you never connect or randomly disconnect or only get < 0.2Mbps.

Having five regular users instead of one regular user typically results in 1/10th speed at peak times. It's doubtful that on average 5 people in a sector can watch Youtube at the same time. The lowest quality video is about x60 more traffic than a phone call. Phone calls usually have priority.

The 7.2, 14.4 or 21 Mbps is TOTAL capacity with a perfect signal, with only one user and no "crosstalk" interference from other cells on same channel. Each operator here has only 3 x 5MHz channels.


The 21Mbps is nothing magical. It's simply higher QAM.
Lowest quality signal is top left. Best Signal is bottom Right.
As users are added the speed has to be shared, but the sharing mechanism (CDMA) means you need a stronger signal the more codes that are used. So the range varies with allocated speed and number of users. CDMA breathing.

See http://www.techtir.ie/comms/fixed-wireless-broadband-better
and here http://www.radioway.info/comparewireless/ for fuller but simplified explanations.

Yes, it could be a fault. If so their monitoring system tells them at once. But the capacity in Mbps and Number of users is so woefully low on 3G/HSPA it really can go from 5Mbps to intermittent connections and only 50kbps to 200kbps overnight.

Generally as the Mobile operators add more subscribers it gets much worse. The Data is subsidized between 100:1 to 300:1 by voice calls on same network so density of masts (the only way they can add capacity) is designed with Voice call revenue in mind.

jay93

Leeg17 wrote: »

was downloading at around 250kb/s (highest I've seen on 3) .

is that the highest uve seen :eek:
ive seen it hit 530kb/s at night time on my own connection the odd time its more around 410kb/s max tough barely get 5mb during the day tough its not so great around 1mb be lucky to get 2mb but its been like that for the 2years ive had broadband and phone from them .
you just have to be lucky to live in a area where not alot of people use 3

Leeg17

jay93 wrote: »

is that the highest uve seen :eek:
ive seen it hit 530kb/s at night time on my own connection the odd time its more around 410kb/s max tough barely get 5mb during the day tough its not so great around 1mb be lucky to get 2mb but its been like that for the 2years ive had broadband and phone from them .
you just have to be lucky to live in a area where not alot of people use 3

Average now is 151kb/s this session, athough it dips to 0kb/s intermittently (Spelt wrong, I know lol). Higest on mine is 250kb/s, though when I was at my friends it hovered about 2mb/s when he was streaming off of YT.

lucernarian

watty wrote:

If it's a Mast fault or backhaul fault then 3 already know and it will eventually get fixed. If it's a couple or 3 new users (that's all it takes), then it will only improve if they move house or get Satellite or some other service.

That's exactly what I have come not to expect from the likes of Hutchinson three Ireland. Their disregard for customers knows no bounds. I can see on the forums of other operators that some issues are not initially noticed by network management until user complaints highlight them. Fault detection and reporting by network equipment itself is by no means ideal, even after 20 years of GSM and 10 of W-CDMA. For things like microwave links or yes, but not for more subtle aspects, like how the base station is handling coding and modulation for each customer device. That's especially relevant for HSDPA internet use, yet it wouldn't be felt so much by the average voice user.

I also think that because of the small no. of users that HSDPA can handle, the benefits of one or two leaving the network would equally be massive and there should still be occasions where speed would resume at previous levels. I doubt the hypothetical new users would be watching youtube for a few days running:)

watty

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I can see on the forums of other operators that some issues are not initially noticed by network management until user complaints highlight them.

You mean they ignore it and only admit there is a problem when people complain, especially if they are busy, run out of spare parts etc...

I agree that not everything is "reported" accurately. There is Zero transparency to customer.

I know of situations where Comreg more or less made it impossible for senior people to tell Call centre staff what the "real" problem was.

YouTube (alone!) traffic growth on Mobile is over 30% a year for last few years.

In countries with Fixed Broadband the Mobile operators don't want to sell Mobile for Fixed use. They WANT you to have real Broadband and install a Femto Base to reduce traffic on their network. They want you to have Mobile AND Fixed broadband subscriptions.

Mobile isn't designed for what it's being asked to do in Ireland. It won't ever do it.

Sensible Mobile operators don't want customers having ISDN or even only analogue dialup speed and dropped voice and data. They want to RETAIN customers. Hence they need traffic management, low caps and only actually Mobile users. Not people using rte Player all evening on Mobile instead of a TV set or Fix Broadband connection.

greendragon3

i had the exact same problem , im living right out on the north west coast , outside sligo and when i tried for any kind of broadband the guy in carphone wharehouse said the only one that might work would be 3 , it worked great for a while and then BANG , nothing ! i rang the guy in india and they were very helpfull , he explained that i was right on the edge of thier signal and thats why it was intermitent , he said that i qualified for a "home repeater" under the national broadband scheme ! he said he would send me one and it arrived next morning , i rigged it up and havent had a problem since or no drops in signal !!!!! best part was it was free .

jay93

Thats very true watty and the way mobile broadband is been advertised in ireland is a joke everyone is under the impression that by seeing speeds at 'upto 7.2mb' for 20euro a month is great but there is no information given to people about the way mobile works and how crap it can get with to many people online if most/all houses in ireland could get DSL cable or proper fixed wireless the pressure put on o2,vf,3,and meteors 3G services would be greatly reduced

lucernarian

watty wrote:

You mean they ignore it and only admit there is a problem when people complain, especially if they are busy, run out of spare parts etc...

Especially in the case of three Ireland, I honestly wouldn't give them even that much respect for either their ability to notice problems in their tiny network operations centre in Dundrum or for a poor configuration issue with their base station to be resolved. Perhaps I'm too cynical but I really expect little of the humans running three Ireland's shoestring network.

I still maintain that the issue I had recently with a friend's USB dongle was base station specific. Time of day did not make a difference and when a HSDPA connection was held for long enough, I was managing 3mbit speeds over their network. When the card/laptop was used outside with a "full" signal reading (yes it's arbitrary) it made no difference and I could only manage a solid 370kbps on ordinary 3G. I think that was an example of a base station issue, possibly with the AMC part of its HSDPA support. Just because contention and tech limitations are the issue 90% of the time, doesn't mean we ignore the other 10%:)

mankydogg

Im in the Killalloonty area of tuam, i switched from o2 broadband to three pro a couple of weeks ago for the bigger allowance and better speeds. Up until a couple of days ago I was consistently getting broadband speeds of 2mb-5mb(download). But now the speeds have dropped to near unusable levels. about 0.1 download speeds. I e-mailed three complaining and havent heard anything back yet.

The speeds have returned to normal just this moment, i got a call back from three customare care at about the same time(coincidents im not sure)



Now they have dropped off again, so frustrating



Could everyone with the problem contact three, and they might be more likely to do something, Im going ringing the technical team now 1913, as i have been advised to by customare care(some indian fellow)

mankydogg

I spoke to technical support just there and he said there was a problem with the mast and it was fixed yesterday. my broadband is switching between excellent and very poor download speeds. how is it going today for everyone else?

MackDeToaster

mankydogg wrote: »

I spoke to technical support just there and he said there was a problem with the mast and it was fixed yesterday. my broadband is switching between excellent and very poor download speeds. how is it going today for everyone else?

Fair play to you for going to the trouble. I had been on contract with them several years ago during which time I never got above 15KB max and averaged 2-3KB, worse than dialup. I nearly ended up bringing them to court as they eventually let me out of my contract after 11 months, and immediately after they tried to set debt-collectors on me saying I owed them the last month ! They really are scum.

I tried other services as well but they were just as bad, but a few months ago discovered the Three service had improved, however I'm now on pay-as-you-go as I refuse to pay contract for such a crappy, unreliable service from such a scumbag company and even that pains me but I have no other real option. Hence why I hadn't even bothered ringing them up to find out what's going on as it's just par for the course with them.

As for speed today, it has improved as it's not continually dropping to 0KB and timing out as it had been doing, but my max has only been 49KB. It is a Sunday though so it might only be contention, I'll keep an eye on it. Oh wait, yep it's still dropping back down to zero at times but not quite as frequently or badly, it had been entirely unusable.

mankydogg

ya eircom is only other option and is much to expensive for me to get a landline in.

technical support told me to go to a different area and try out my modem there to make sure it wasnt a modem issue.
I drove to the gaa pitch in belclare where there is a recently erected three mast. The speeds here were in excess of 6mb downloads so its fair to say the network in tuam is problem. I rang them back and after a long period of going on anf off hold, theys said the network team would look into it within the next 24-48 hours, hopefully they mite do something.
If someone else could complain aswell it might put a hurry on them.

evolutionqy7

Ive lost all patience to call them :S

the CC keeps telling me that i always have some limitations in the house. Even though i only have full coverage at the windows and in the exact same spot during the day i get around 50kb at night time sometimes i get around 7 mbps.

Then when you call them they tell ya you got either some limitation or you should go get your modem checked out of they have a problem with the network and their very sorry

(tired of hearing sorry and it not being a genuine one cause they never fix up after :S )

My contract is up soon and im hoping to move to a town area soon and avail decent fixed speed cable broadband. You can all have faster speeds then one youtube user less

MackDeToaster

Well it seems to be back to normal at last, pulling down a file at 388KB/s

edit - dammit, get orf my line ; P That went well, only a few minutes and it's gone back to 15KB.

lucernarian

MackDeToaster wrote: »

Well it seems to be back to normal at last, pulling down a file at 388KB/s

edit - dammit, get orf my line ; P That went well, only a few minutes and it's gone back to 15KB.

That's at 7 in the evening, it's probably normal contention with varying amounts of usage in the area.

MackDeToaster

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

That's at 7 in the evening, it's probably normal contention with varying amounts of usage in the area.

That could be it alright, but I'd be horrified if it was because I haven't gotten above that since and I've tried it at all times.

foggy_lad

the students are back using it all night so i think mobile broadband will be rubbish for a few months!

jay93

foggy_lad wrote: »

the students are back using it all night so i think mobile broadband will be rubbish for a few months!

o2 are rubbish wherever you use because they over sell then their network cant handle it!!it was just as bad over the summer when they where all off school :P if you can get meteor 3G id try them seem to be the best at the mo:)

Leeg17

Came home to this :


Was 3.44 down and 1.54 up a while ago. Still it's ALOT better than it was, I can load websites for now.

mankydogg

ya they seem to have fixed the problem back to normal now for the last 24 hours, hopefully will stay that way

foggy_lad

i got a weeks worth of three broadband for a tenner and it was great up till sunday then nothing from monday to thursday, dial up speeds, it actually felt like i was only getting 10% of the speed i should have been getting as it never in the 4 days went over 35kbps

jay93

Its not that great on a sunday here either but its still usable get about 0.60mb/s other days it around 2mb-4mb guess your just in a crap spot for access to the internet
since o2 seem to be crap aswell ?have your stilll got your DSL from vodafone ?:)

foggy_lad

jay93 wrote: »

Its not that great on a sunday here either but its still usable get about 0.60mb/s other days it around 2mb-4mb guess your just in a crap spot for access to the internet
since o2 seem to be crap aswell ?have your stilll got your DSL from vodafone ?:)

had a vodafone sales person call to the door about an hour ago:) nope all cancelled now.