Can't connect on band 3 (1800Mhz) anymore.

Hello. I'm with Three. I have an AI Cube from them. I was connecting just fine with 800 (B20) and 1800 (B3) concurrently, giving me speeds in excess of 50mbps. In the Huawei router, that shows as "4g+" However, for a few days now i can only connect to band 3. Band 3 only give speeds of <20mbps max, for me, that is. I've contacted Three daily and have told me of no problems in the area or that they can't find anything wrong with the equipment. When i manually choose 1800Mhz it cannot find a signal. The signal strength and quality for band 3 was fantastic before, now non existent.

According to their checker page there is a problem in the area, though, that has been like that for months, when i last checked due to issues. I done some digging and decided to throw random postcodes into the search from around the uk. All postcodes had network issues in the area. I imagine if i typed every UK postcode into that checker, it was show the same message. Does anyone know why a band would disappear like that? Without issue on their end.

Thanks

This is also happening on my phone, too. This happened after a very, very short power cut (couple of seconds) after a lightning storm in the area. Though, could have been earlier in the day, not sure.

I should also state that we lost line of site when the trees started blooming in spring, summer. Live rural with a lot of trees around. I assumed that was the reason, but this literally happened over the course of a few hours.

Edited by deleted (Mon 01-Jul-19 11:22:03)

My postcode gets "Our systems haven�t reported any network problems."

I checked a few and all said the same thing. Guess i just got lucky looking for areas with problems.
Good news, though. The problem has sorted itself out. Whatever that problem was, I'd love to know.

Hello. I'm with Three. I have an AI Cube from them. I was connecting just fine with 800 (B20) and 1800 (B3) concurrently, giving me speeds in excess of 50mbps. In the Huawei router, that shows as "4g+" However, for a few days now i can only connect to band 3. Band 3 only give speeds of <20mbps max, for me, that is. I've contacted Three daily and have told me of no problems in the area or that they can't find anything wrong with the equipment. When i manually choose 1800Mhz it cannot find a signal. The signal strength and quality for band 3 was fantastic before, now non existent.

So to confirm the issue faced, you had connected to B20 and B3 at once, you can now only connect to band 3, band 3 gives you slow speeds. If you manually force B3, you get no connection? Why are you manually forcing to B3 if this gives you the slow speeds or am I missing something?

Sorry, i completely switched up my bands. I could connect to band 20 (800mhz) only. Whereas before i could connect to band 3 (1800mhz) Which is much faster than band 20. To make it even faster, i can connect to both. Carrier aggregation, i believe it's called. Though, band 3 (1800) completely disappeared. None of my devices could connect to it. Only band 20. But thankfully it's been sorted.

And, yes. If i manually forced band 3, it would not connect. Router or phone.

Band 20 (800mhz) is only 5mhz of capacity on Three and EE.
Band 3 (1800mhz) is 15mhz of capacity on Three and 20 (with another 10) on EE. The additional 10 is deployed in areas where required.
Vodafone and O2 have for Band 20 (800mhz) both 10mhz of capacity.

This is why speed is different before you can aggregate.

Lack of a band is either maintenance or a mast location closing and a new one being installed in a slightly different area. Usually a problem in towns as buildings change.

Could it also be 4G kit being upgraded for a 5G launch?

Some interesting info. Thank you! I wasn't too bothered about the aggregation, was more interested in getting back to band 3. Lot faster than band 20. If band 20 stopped working it wouldn't bother me much. It was more concern than anything. Three didn't know what was going on, said the mast wasn't being worked on. Just assumed it had vanished and nothing would be done about it.

I need to go read more on carrier aggregation. Still haven't wrapped my head around it yet

Thank you.

That crossed my mind, but i'm nowhere near the listed sites/cities they state on their website. I'm rural but also near the motor way, so possibly. They are re-farming the 3g spectrum, i believe. Perhaps it had something to do with that?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Could it also be 4G kit being upgraded for a 5G launch?

It could, but Three are also rebuilding their 4G network with a different vendor I believe.