Starlink vs EE

So, within a week of my Starlink arriving, EE have upgraded the mast I use to have carrier aggregation.

Yah.

They've added a 10MHz band along side the 20MHz band it already has, adding 50% extra downlink capacity (CA only works on the downlink).

So in theory in good condition we could be looking at ~120mb/s down (though as configured my router can't deliver me more than 100mb/s)

And overnight (when we don't use it) it has indeed been maxing out at 100mb/s. Great.

Except, there is a problem. CA is completely under control of the mast. The mast decides when you get to use multiple bands and the mast decides which band you get to use. The mast also gets to decide which is your primary band and you get to use the primary band for uplink.

So, some of the time I get to use the 20MHz band and the 10MHz band, with the 20MHz as primary. Then I get 100+/40.

Some of the time I get to use both, but with the 10MHz as primary. Then I get 100+/15 (it seems the uplink on the 10MHz has less than half the capacity of the one on 20MHz).

But also, some of the time I only get the 10MHz, at which point is maxes out at around 40/15.

Those are all max figures, as soon as you hit the afternoon/evening streaming they drop right off.

The uplink on both EE/Three has always been solid and always around 40mb/s, it is the one clear advantage 4G had over Starlink (typical speeds are 15mb/s). Not now, with CA, half of the week the 4G uplink has been no better than Starlink.

In summary: EE upgraded, which could have made it better than Starlink, but in practice made my service overall worse

Probably all on the same Band (ie, Band 3, which is 1800 MHz) but you have multiple carriers. EE can deploy upto 2 x 20 MHz but can only do that when 2G GSM has been reduced. You might find that uplink aggregation and capacity management improves over the next few weeks as the additional capacity is integrated into the network.

Yes, both on band 3.

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

Yes, both on band 3.

My local mast has been through some combinations in the last few 5 to 10 years.

Until this year it was Band 3 only, first 10 MHz (back at launch of 4G in 2012), then 15 Mhz, then eventually 20 MHz. A long time later a second channel, first 10 MHz, then upgraded to 15 MHz, then only just before the pandemic, it was widened to 20 MHz. so 2x20 on Band 3 = 40 MHz of LTE capacity.

But speeds started out well but kept dropping, I assume such increasing load, that only last month EE replaced the panels on the mast and enabled Band 7 (2600 MHz) on two carriers.

So I now have 2x20MHz on Band 3, and 1x20MHz + 1x15MHz on Band 7, a total of 75 MHz of LTE on 4 carriers. My phone handles 4CA without issue. That is quite a lot of capacity of a housing estate, but the terrain is flat and the mast covers a lot of homes across its 3 sectors. (B3+B3+B7+B7)

According to my rooted Android (OnePlus Nord original) using NSG I have no uplink CA, but uplink does switch between the carriers.