Thanks for the advice. I'll certainly try doing a factory-reset on the B525 and see what happens. I have tried powering it off for an hour to see if it made any difference, but it didn't, it still only connects at LTE speed. I don't think I've ever seen it connect at LTE+ I had assumed it was because Three or my local mast didn't have it enabled, but clearly that isn't the case as the B535 does connect at LTE+. I did check that both routers are connecting to the same Cell ID.

I also tried using Android app "huaCtrl" (available in the Google PlayStore) to change bands on both the B525 and B535, but I still couldn't get the B525 to go to LTE+

In reply to a post by smithbill:

Thanks for the advice. I'll certainly try doing a factory-reset on the B525 and see what happens. I have tried powering it off for an hour to see if it made any difference, but it didn't, it still only connects at LTE speed. I don't think I've ever seen it connect at LTE+ I had assumed it was because Three or my local mast didn't have it enabled, but clearly that isn't the case as the B535 does connect at LTE+. I did check that both routers are connecting to the same Cell ID.

I also tried using Android app "huaCtrl" (available in the Google PlayStore) to change bands on both the B525 and B535, but I still couldn't get the B525 to go to LTE+

Rather than turning the power off login to the router home page (192.168.8.1) and press the button with the two green arrows in. Leave it "disconnected" for 30 secs, then turn back on. This near enough always gets mine to 4G+ as I believe whilst it's off the device is checking what other networks it can see. After 30 secs turn back on and see if the 4G+ logo is lit when testing a heavy download. 4G+ doesn't activate unless you are trying to use most / all available bandwidth

In reply to a post by gary333:

The band steering on the B525 seems quick poor / slow to react. I've always found the above disconnecting and reconnecting works for me (in my location). If left to it's own devices this can take hours for it to work out there is 4G+ available

'band steering' is normally a term used with the cell site, not the end user equipment. The cell site is in charge, and it watches the error counters and quality of signal measurements between your end user device and the cell site. It will push you to the band it thinks is needed.

Obviously on Three, band 20 (800mhz) only has 5mhz of capacity, whereas band 3 (1800mhz) has 15mhz of capacity. If you get 4G+ showing, this means your device and the mast are together sharing the two bands together for an equivalent of 20mhz of spectrum.

That is as maybe, however the observation still stands regardless of whether the terminology I used wasn't totally correct. Trying to help the guy with what I have seen to help in this scenario. If you know what the correct term is for what I am trying to describe please post as clearly the device wants to connect to the strongest cell, rather than the "best" / higher capacity band. Logging off network and back on has worked every single time for me. Band 20 cell is <400m away, whereas the band 3 is over 1.2km away. The B525 appears to want to lock and stay on band 20 when it picks this up first, lots of people report this.

Edited by gary333 (Mon 16-Dec-19 20:18:35)

Yes as described the mast is in charge. It measures your signal quality and puts you on the one most likely to give you a usable signal. It does not care about internet speed.

Carrier Aggregation only activates when the mast allows. (4G+ as you see it)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Yes as described the mast is in charge. It measures your signal quality and puts you on the one most likely to give you a usable signal. It does not care about internet speed.

Carrier Aggregation only activates when the mast allows. (4G+ as you see it)

If that's the case and all the device is doing is looking for is signal quality then why does what I describe above work, and work every time?

Leaving the device alone after switching on / restarting can lead to CA never being activated, or taking many hours. I am not saying it's the device that is deciding to give CA / 4g+, however it's the device choosing to stay on a band 20 cell where CA will never work until the device switches to the band 3 cell.

By example my closest cell gives an RSRP of -90db / 5 bars but on band 20. Where as the cell further away gives a RSRP of -103db or worse however is on band 3.

Yet, as above if you disconnect the B525 for 30secs (using router page not by turning device off) then reconnect to network the device switches to the "poorer" strength signal and quality cell (neighbouring)l which has band 3. As soon as it hits this cell with band 3 then CA is activated by that cell site.

I think the B525 simply goes for the strongest signal upon start up. When disconnected from network it must free up resources on the device to do further computation. I think it's likely that it uses this time to work out if neighboring cell sites have better bandwidth available which still fall within whatever pre-programmed upper and lower control limits it wants to accept. The device clearly has say on which cell it connects to, and must be using some internal logic to move over to a poorer cell site that will support ultimately better throughput.

IMO it's likely the B535 has a better processor and can do this computation quicker and thus move over to a more suitable "better" cells far quicker. It seems to me that if the B525 doesn't have available resource to process the base station & cell data within a couple of seconds of starting up it just gives up. Doing what I said seems to kick the B525 in to having another go working out the "best" cell where multiple are available.

Edited by gary333 (Mon 16-Dec-19 22:05:22)

In reply to a post by gary333:

Rather than turning the power off login to the router home page (192.168.8.1) and press the button with the two green arrows in. Leave it "disconnected" for 30 secs, then turn back on.

Hi, I tried disconnecting using the 'green-arrow' button on the router home page and waiting 30secs or so, but it always just reconnected to the same cell (1148231) at '4G' speed. Whereas the B535 sitting about 90cm away on the same windowsill, connects to the same cell (1148231) at '4G+' speed.

I suspect i'll always connect to that cell as it less than 100metres away with direct line-of-sight.

In reply to a post by smithbill:

In reply to a post by gary333:

Rather than turning the power off login to the router home page (192.168.8.1) and press the button with the two green arrows in. Leave it "disconnected" for 30 secs, then turn back on.

Hi, I tried disconnecting using the 'green-arrow' button on the router home page and waiting 30secs or so, but it always just reconnected to the same cell (1148231) at '4G' speed. Whereas the B535 sitting about 90cm away on the same windowsill, connects to the same cell (1148231) at '4G+' speed.

I suspect i'll always connect to that cell as it less than 100metres away with direct line-of-sight.

Ah, if both devices connect to the same cell every time then it's unfortunately like jchamier says, this is decided by the cell site so nothing you can do on the device will fix this (unless someone has adjusted the settings to lock to a specific band as this will stop CA totally).

What I was recommending was only for situations like mine where a closer cell with band 20 was taking priority over a neighboring less powerful band 3 cell that you needed to kick the B525 in to life so it switches.

Mobile comms is part science and part art.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Mobile comms is part science and part art.

FTFY