Evidence of my ISP throttling my speed?

Hello, everybody.

I need your opinion on the following screenshot

Let's have a look at the results from top to bottom:
See result of 9.01 and below it 0.35? Look at the time stamp: 1min difference.
Going down, see result of 10.1 and below it 3.47? Look at the time stamp: 2min difference.
Further down, 7.71 and below it 3.50? Time difference: 2 min

And on and on it goes.

I live in a slow-spot, in Ireland. My ISP is "Three".

I have discovered a trick that boost my signal for a short time. I simply make a call. In this case, I make a call to a number I know is no longer in service. And my speed goes up.

I don't know enough about such stuff, hence why I am here. But I understand a little, so tell me if I am wrong. It looks like my ISP uses VOiP for the calls, and not the old timey-way of cellular network. So when I call someone, the system gives me the speed in order for that call to happen.


Some background info:
Phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+.
The package is "Unlimited" with fair policy use of 750gb a month.
When in a city, I get speeds of 100 Mbps with a "4g+" icon.
I also have broadband from Three. With the same terrible speeds, averaging of 1Mb at day, and 5Mb at night. And this trick doesn't work, even though the broadband uses a SIM card and I have tried calling the number. Here is the speedtest history from a typical 24h cycle on ookla
The masts are 412 meters away from us.
Phone and broadband are near the window, on the second floor, facing these 2 masts whenever I run speedtests. Broadband is 1 meter away from the pc, unobstructed.

I have an escalated ticket with Three about these terrible speeds, and they are investigating it, but it takes 10 working days, and I only have 14-day cooling period to return this broadband if I am unhappy. Plus I am sure they will come back to me and say "there is no verified network issue".

I have also got COMREG involved, and I will have a reply from them on Monday.


Thank you in advance.

Edited by deleted (Sun 26-Apr-20 19:50:04)

I think you may just be seeing the variable speeds of a poor mobile coverage. It may be that one of the other mobile providers might have a better service (no idea what coverage is like in your area).

Is it possible to get up to the TV aerial on the roof? If so, I'd strongly suggest getting a 4G antenna and point it directly at that mast and plug in the 2 cables to the modem as that should help things a lot, as 400m isn't actually that big a deal for a 4G signal.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I think you may just be seeing the variable speeds of a poor mobile coverage. It may be that one of the other mobile providers might have a better service (no idea what coverage is like in your area).

I would agree with variable speeds on the broadband speedtest results . But the screenshot I have provided, which is on my phone, I can give it a boost with conscience effort (by making a call). It works like clockwork. Isn't the understanding of "variable speed" means it goes up and down by itself depending on different factors?

Edited by deleted (Mon 27-Apr-20 11:48:34)

SAFETY POINT - most people are not experienced enough to go crawling around their roof to access the TV aerial.

Cable point - while you can gain from the height and line of sight you need to ensure that the cables used to link to the modem do not attenuate the signal to the point of cancelling out advantage. Hence why a good many devices have the 4G or Wifi part in the antenna to keep cable distance to a minimum i.e. use Ethernet or USB to link into device/network rather than the much weaker 4G signal.

On the issue, as its 3G the bandwidth available is invariably very limited and it might simply be that someone else is trying to use the service on that mast at that time.

In reply to a post by zzing123:

Is it possible to get up to the TV aerial on the roof? If so, I'd strongly suggest getting a 4G antenna and point it directly at that mast and plug in the 2 cables to the modem as that should help things a lot, as 400m isn't actually that big a deal for a 4G signal.

Technically, yes, we could do that. But we don't have the time to test this. By the time we purchase and install everything, the 14-day cooling period will lapse, and we will locked into a 2 year contract. We can't take the risk in the event that the antenna does not improve our signal.

Edited by deleted (Mon 27-Apr-20 11:48:58)

One possibility (this applies to what have seen people doing with 4G - so not sure it applies with 3G) is they find their modems switching to lower bandwidth bands at times, lower bandwidth but stronger signal probably and by forcing the modem onto a different frequency band they can get better speeds.

Solution in your case is if the variability is not meeting your needs and the short timescale to test resolutions you need to walk away from the service now. Or accept that things are going to be very variable - question is whether even when bad whether its better than what you have via other means.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

SAFETY POINT - most people are not experienced enough to go crawling around their roof to access the TV aerial.

Cable point - while you can gain from the height and line of sight you need to ensure that the cables used to link to the modem do not attenuate the signal to the point of cancelling out advantage. Hence why a good many devices have the 4G or Wifi part in the antenna to keep cable distance to a minimum i.e. use Ethernet or USB to link into device/network rather than the much weaker 4G signal.

On the issue, as its 3G the bandwidth available is invariably very limited and it might simply be that someone else is trying to use the service on that mast at that time.

Yes, absolutely. I am aware of the congestion, and I can see that is most likely the issue why the broadband has such [censored] speeds. Because I get measly 0.5 Mbps during day time: when people are awake, and somewhat decent 5+ Mbps during night: when people are asleep. Agreed. No argument there.

My issue is the fact that I can boost my own signal by making a call, and get up 10 Mbps even during those times of day when congestion theory is very possible. Surely, if I can boost my signal at any part of the day, that means that the speed is available, but I don't have it for some reason, unless I make a call?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

One possibility (this applies to what have seen people doing with 4G - so not sure it applies with 3G) is they find their modems switching to lower bandwidth bands at times, lower bandwidth but stronger signal probably and by forcing the modem onto a different frequency band they can get better speeds.

Solution in your case is if the variability is not meeting your needs and the short timescale to test resolutions you need to walk away from the service now. Or accept that things are going to be very variable - question is whether even when bad whether its better than what you have via other means.

Yeah, I am most likely gonna send it back this week. I have a scheduled call with COMREG today, I'll see what they advise and act on that.

While on topic, I have tried forcing the router on 2.5GHz and 5GHz, enabling both or just one, and trying 2g, 3g, 4g, and auto as well. Nothing gave any noticeable improvements.

In reply to a post by Andrewit:

Yeah, I am most likely gonna send it back this week. I have a scheduled call with COMREG today, I'll see what they advise and act on that.

While on topic, I have tried forcing the router on 2.5GHz and 5GHz, enabling both or just one, and trying 2g, 3g, 4g, and auto as well. Nothing gave any noticeable improvements.

If this was the UK Three then we could guess you are picking up the longer distance, but less capacity band on 3G - but as you are in Ireland, the spectrum deployments are different.

Good luck with the regulator.