Massive difference in 4G in phone vs Router

Danger Fourpence

I have a 4G LTE router that I've used in a number of locations. It has a Three broadband SIM and I generally get anything from 20-40MB download on it.

I moved house recently and started to get less than 1MB when doing speedtests. If I put the SIM in my phone and do a speedtest, it hits 40MB again. If I tether another device off my phone and do a speedtest, again it hits 40MB.

For whatever reason, WiFI speeds on the router have dropped below 1MB. I purchased a new router and tested and the exact same happened. If I bring the router to another location a mile away it works perfect.

It seems like in the house there's something killing the Wifi signal, as the 4G signal is perfect on my phone.

Has anyone experienced this before? I've stood beside the router and gotten terrible speeds over Wifi, then put the sim in my phone and it's up to 40MB again.

What gives?

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Do you have any other devices in the house?

ED E

What phone, what cellular router?

Its more likely that the phone is latching to a better cell.

Danger Fourpence

Franz Von Peppercorn II wrote: »

Do you have any other devices in the house?

Nothing that would be giving off a strong signal.

ED E wrote: »

What phone, what cellular router?

Its more likely that the phone is latching to a better cell.

The phone is an iPhone. The routers tested are an Asus 4G & TP-Link 4G routers.

smuggler.ie

Tethering from phone is same WiFi - eliminates "severe" WiFi interference in location.
If avail, test speed over Ethernet connection from router directly to PC or laptop. If speed remain @very low, then most likely, as ED E mentioned, your router might be connecting to different mast than phone or is miss-configured. What actual connection your 4G capable router gets? Try to set for "4G only", "3G only" and see if it makes difference.

Danger Fourpence

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Tethering from phone is same WiFi - eliminates "severe" WiFi interference in location.
If avail, test speed over Ethernet connection from router directly to PC or laptop. If speed remain @very low, then most likely, as ED E mentioned, your router might be connecting to different mast than phone or is miss-configured. What actual connection your 4G capable router gets? Try to set for "4G only", "3G only" and see if it makes difference.

This was actually the fix.


Despite a mast being within 0.5 miles away, the 4G signal was being interfered with so while I had 4G reception it was very poor. Changing to 3G only sorted it.


Thanks!

smuggler.ie

Danger Fourpence wrote: »

This was actually the fix.


Despite a mast being within 0.5 miles away, the 4G signal was being interfered with so while I had 4G reception it was very poor. Changing to 3G only sorted it.


Thanks!

You could try to move router around the house and see if it picks better signal. Failing that - external antenna or stay with 3G (in some cases it works better than 4G )