Issues with Zoom when using 5G broadband (Three)

cometogether

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had troubles with Zoom calls on their Three 5G broadband. I started noticing towards the end of May that the audio would drop on Zoom calls. It drops for about 5-7 seconds, it might happen five times on an hour-long call. After this, a message comes up to say 'Your Internet Is Unstable'. This is not changed by using Zoom on the desktop instead of the app, and it doesn't matter where in the house I am. Microsoft Teams remains unaffected by this.

I contacted Zoom, and they said that it's an issue with 3. I contacted 3, and they've tried several times to help me remotely to fix it, ensure I'm near the closest mast, reset browsers, etc. I was also told that this was an issue with people using Zoom on the 5G network. On the week of June 5th, I was told that a network-wide fix was being implemented. I was on a week's holiday the following week and was told it would be fixed when I got back. It wasn't, the problem continues.

I've been on several times to get fixes. I spoke last week or the week before to someone who advised that they would remotely implement a solution, and it should be done by last weekend, and they would text to let me know. This didn't happen. I called on Monday and spoke to someone else. He said I needed to fix an issue with 'bridging' on the router, and that this worked in "95% of cases". He said he would text through instructions. He didn't. so I had to get on the following day to get them. Once I had them, I couldn't log into the router. I phoned for help, but whoever I spoke to didn't know how to fix it, said theywould contact me. She then phoned to say she had checked and that there was no possible fix.

I was just wondering if anyone else had a similar issue, or had any possible fixes? Would really appreciate some support.

billyhead

Sounds like a speed issue i.e. losing connection at intermittent times. It would depend on traffic on the network. Fibre broadband would be more stable if you have that option in your area.

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058305030/issues-with-zoom-when-using-5g-broadband-three

Mobile Broadband is not sufficiently reliable for Zoom calls, gaming etc. Don't be fooled by download speeds - you need to check the latency, and see how it fluctuates over time. These variations in latency cause major issues for certain applications such as gaming and video-calling. By comparison, any fixed line based service should give you rock steady latency. Most employers who allow employees to take calls from customers while working from home insist that their employees have a fixed-line based broadband service, because they know that mobile broadband is unreliable.

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852310#Comment_120852310

Thanks for that. I don't know if you know if Three offer fibre broadband?

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852993#Comment_120852993

Thanks for that. It's strange though that Zoom is affected but Teams is fine?

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120857589#Comment_120857589

Not sure but there are plenty of providers of FTTH or FTTC available.

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120857594#Comment_120857594

Zoom is more demanding than Teams. If your connection performance is marginal, Zoom could break down while Teams could hold up. However, it is likely only a matter of time before you experience the same problems on Teams. There is no way of guaranteeing bandwidth and latency on a mobile connection - you are at the mercy of what the other users in your area are doing. Your connection could work fine for a while, and suddenly a few users start streaming videos in your cell and the quality drops dramatically. You need a fixed-line Broadband service to guarantee consistent latency.

Orebro

OP - it could be a DNS issue. Are you able to change the DNS settings in the router? If so try changing them from the ISP default to 8.8.8.8 (Google) or 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) to see if it makes any difference. If you can't change this in the router you could try changing it in the network settings on the computer you are using Zoom on to see if it helps.

What kinds of speeds are you getting on the connection - can you go to speedtest.net and run a test and post the results?

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120860813#Comment_120860813

Thanks for that. The only thing is that I'm in a share house, so not sure if replacing the current provider is possible, if we're under contract, etc. I'm not sure if you'd know if there are any easy or cheap options to get a basic fibre connection installed? I know very little about this!

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120859451#Comment_120859451

Thanks for that, will see what I can do re the fibre.

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120860813#Comment_120860813

Thanks a million for that. Have you had an issue with the DNS causing problems like that before? I changed it in the network on my laptop. Will need to wait until I have another call to see if that will work. If it doesn't, would it be better to try change it in the router altogether.

Speed isn't an issue at all. I just ran a test there and got a 241.3 mbps download speed, and a 23.7 mbps upload speed. The call itself doesn't drop or break, the video remains perfectly fine, it's just the audio that drops periodically. It drops both for me and for others on the call, i.e. I can't hear them and they can't hear me.

Really appreciate the help!

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861535#Comment_120861535

Don't be fooled by high download speeds. Run a speed test and check what the latency is and how it varies. If you were on even the most basic fixed landline based broadband (FTTC, not even FTTH), you would get a rock-steady latency of around 6ms. If your latency is jigging around, that is most likely the cause of your audio drops. Video is much more forgiving - it just gets buffered when there is congestion. Audio can't be buffered because the speech becomes unintelligible.

Orebro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861535#Comment_120861535

It's more if a guess really, DNS can be weird sometimes! Changing this is only a setting, it doesn't mean you are changing provider. Make sure your webcam drivers are up to date on the computer you are using too. Let us know how the test call goes anyway. I would gues your latency is fine, anything under even 100ms would be grand for Zoom (you can see this on your speedtest results).

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861733#Comment_120861733

I did a latency test earlier and it showed a number of 27.6ms, it said it was 50.5ms download speed and 32.8ms upload speed. I just performed another one, which gave me a result of 28.5ms, with download speeds of 57.1ms and upload speeds of 32.ms. I'm not sure if these are normal or even good numbers?

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861859#Comment_120861859

Thanks very much, have a call today so I can test it then. Appreciate the help

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120865661#Comment_120865661

Compared to fixed line based broadband, a latency of 27ms is dire. However, what is likely a lot worse is little spikes in latency that can cause havoc for audio on conference calls. You may not have caught one of these spikes on your test, and you may need to run a number of tests before you catch a spike.

cometogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120869182#Comment_120869182

Yeah, I reckon it was that. I had another call since, and the issues persisted. I've been onto Three in the meantime, and they said they're going to try rolling out a system-wide fix. It's been a complete joke with them so far. I don't know if anyone can think of any other possible fixes in the meantime? Or if anyone uses Vodafone 5g, and if they have these issues? I'm considering getting a 5G enabled phone and hotspotting it altogether.

babelfish1990

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120876707#Comment_120876707

Don't believe Three if they say they can fix this. Congestion is inevitable on mobile networks. You cannot guarantee fixed latency as is possible on a fixed line fibre-based network. It is only going to get worse when more people use the mobile network. Mobile is fine for best effort services such as email and web browsing, or even video downloading, where video can be buffered, but it is not reliable for voice or gaming which require consistently low latency. Vodafone might be less likely to have congestion because their prices are higher and they discourage overuse, unlike Three. However, if you look at the Comreg coverage maps, you will see that Vodafone have the worst 5G coverage of all the networks. Eir is probably a good balance, as they have much better 5G coverage than Vodafone, and most of their business and consumer customers probably have fibre-based broadband, so they only need to use mobile when out and about. However, you need to check coverage in your own area, as all areas are different and you can't generalize. I would still discourage you from using any mobile based product as a substitute for fixed line broadband. There is a good reason why employers ban customer-facing employees from WFH over mobile broadband or hotspots - they just aren't reliable enough for voice calls.