Advice / help needed with MTN LTE

[steveco1]

Hi All.

I am hoping somebody out there can shed some light on my current problem.
I live in Kew, Johannesburg, which is clearly marked as an LTE covered suburb (where I stay anyway).
I am getting terrible LTE speeds and have attempted to get this addressed by MTN.
It took about 6 weeks for somebody to come out and check the reception - thereafter they installed an LTE router and a new high gain LTE MiMo Antenna.
This combination did little to help the situation.
My speeds are as follows:
LTE download - 196.1 kB/s, LTE upload - 263.8 kB/s (no mistake here, upload quicker).
WCDMA download - 1598.2 kB/s, WCDMA upload - 403.3 kB/s.

My router shows the following:
LTE - Cell ID - 253, signal strength 2, RSRP(dBm) - 104, RSRQ(dB) - 10
WCDMA - Signal strength 3, RSSi(dBm) -75

I have now been battling for two months for MTN to acknowledge a problem, but all I can get back from them is that everything tests OK on their side. Whether anything is actually being done or tested is unknown.
Very, very frustrating.

Anybody out there able to assist or shed some light?
Steve.

 

[sajunky]

Signal is still low, higher upload rates indicate other problems (usually network side).
What router? Firmware version?
Are you sure router is using external antenna?
Try prepaid Telkom Mobile, there are the best if you have coverage.

 

[Alacrity]

Your signal strength is useless.

Is the antenna outside and pointing to an MTN LTE tower?

 

[steveco1]

Thanks for the reply sajunky. Router is a Huawei B593u - 12. Hardware version B. Software version V100R001C697SP053.
Router has 2 cables to the external antenna and is set for external antenna.
In terms of coverage, I'm supposed to be covered by MTN.

Mtnuser, useless is an understatement. Antenna is outside and pointing where it should.

 

[RichardG]

When you've the chance get on your roof and see whether you've clear line of site to the tower. If you do I recommend you do the following your mobile phone run a Speedtest from your current location even though it's 3 G. Then drive towards the tower once next to it do another speedtest to see whether the signal/speed has improved.

The worst cast scenario is that the lte tower you connect to is congested with plenty of users. Have you tried testing the service at 3 am - 5 am in the morning to see whether there is an improvement.

When I first received my LTE device connected to Telkom Mobile LTE it was painful receiving 2 meg was in contact with Telkom Mobile 2 months later they installed an Antenna. I am a happy camper... noticed my speeds never improved even though I have the best signal imaginable. Conclusion base station congested - speeds would only pickup at 1 am.

Could possibly be a faulty router as well - doubt that's the cause.. You've weak signal test your wireless status with out the external antenna(don't disconnect the antenna) on the dashboard disable it. If you notice an improvement in your RSSI then the technician didn't do a good job.

If you've a tree in the way go and buy am axe and cut it down.(kidding don't)

 

[RichardG]

Mtnuser, useless is an understatement. Antenna is outside and pointing where it should.

Nonsense. When the technician came over did he/she have the location where the LTE tower is or a notebook whereby it showed exactly where the LTE base station in real time.

 

[steveco1]

Hi Richard. I don't have line of sight. There are apparently 3 towers around my location but I don't have LOS to any of them. The strange thing is that my 3G signal is coming from the same tower with the same LOS restrictions. My speeds on LTE never pick up regardless of the time. My speeds on 3G however do get faster late at night. I don't think the router is faulty because my LTE signal on my phone at home is also almost non existent (App shows -140dBm).
I'm a bit confused by 'nonsense'. I have been at the antenna with the router and spent over 2 hours trying to get a better signal than the technician got - no luck at all.