Attic
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2025
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 10
Hello all. I am sitting with a very strange issue, one of which I am not sure how to resolve, so I thought I would put it out here for all the clever online peoples to have a look at, to potentially offer solutions (Or to maybe even just tell me that I'm not alone)
We have been with Cool Ideas for years, and have been very happy with their customer service, as well as the services they offer. We had been getting our fiber through Cool Ideas, but after moving to a complex without fiber earlier this year, we have had to settle for swapping over to a uncapped fixed LTE service.
When we received the MTN LTE SIM card from CISP, we were pleasantly surprised with the speeds we were getting. Download Speeds between 60-120Mbps (One test went as high as 145Mbps!). We miss the stability and latency of fiber, but things were good for a while
Then all of a sudden, we started noticing a strange pattern. In the mornings, our download speeds appeared to be throttled to 50Mbps, which was not the end of the world, but at around midday, this throttling worsened to reduce our speeds to ~8Mbps! Once this behaviour started, it persisted every day for a few weeks. The same pattern of ~50Mbps in the morning, ~8Mbps in the afternoon until the next morning. In this time I had been speaking with Cool Ideas to try to resolve this issue, but seeing as it's an MTN service, finding a solution seemed problematic. At first, MTN's solution consisted of "refreshing my line", and after a few times of that not doing anything, they switched to blaming my router. (I opted to use my own ZTE MF286R, to not be tied in to a 12 month contract for my LTE) I doubt it's the router, as my cell phone's prepaid SIM card gets me close to 100Mbps, (-As well as the Vodacom fixed LTE SIM I have since purchased to get me through the afternoons)
At this point, I PM'd @PBCool here on MyBB and explained the situation, and the following week I got a call from Cool Ideas saying that they have had a similar issue once before, just a few months back. That case got resolved by sending a new SIM card and creating a whole new service, and cancelling the previous one, which they wanted to attempt for me. I naturally agreed to go for it, as nothing else was working.
The next day (15th May), I received a brand new MTN SIM, couriered to my place of work. When I got home from work, I did a speed test with the old SIM (got 10.7Mbps - See screenshot attached), swapped in the new SIM, and did another speed test and got a whopping 92.45Mbps download speed. So that surely points to a defective SIM card or line, right? Our speeds seemed to be back to normal for the rest of May, with the LTE being more in line with what I was expecting.
Well, unfortunately the problem has returned since the beginning of this month (June '25). Exact same symptoms. ~50Mbps in the morning, which then drops to ~8Mbps in the afternoon.
I'm at a bit of a loss. It surely can't just be bad luck? I don't think it's realistic to have to get a new SIM every month? I also feel like the fact that it looks like it pops up at the beginning of the month should point to something?
Just a few notes; after receiving the second SIM, I didn't change anything at all in my router settings. The routers placement has also not changed. It's always been in the same spot, connected to a Poynting XPOL 6 external antenna. Whether the external antenna is connected or not makes no difference to the speeds, I just get a much better signal to the router with the antenna plugged in. The throttling can also not be a FUP thing, as number 1, we are not typically downloading a lot, and number 2, the second time this issue started was the beginning of the month. Not sure if it's important or not, but I am in George, Western Cape.
Anyone had a similar issue? Or have any ideas?
TL;DR - I am on a uncapped unlimited fixed LTE service with Cool Ideas (MTN), but being subjected to a 50Mbps throttle in the mornings, and a ~8Mbps throttle from midday until the next morning. No-one seems to know why.
We have been with Cool Ideas for years, and have been very happy with their customer service, as well as the services they offer. We had been getting our fiber through Cool Ideas, but after moving to a complex without fiber earlier this year, we have had to settle for swapping over to a uncapped fixed LTE service.
When we received the MTN LTE SIM card from CISP, we were pleasantly surprised with the speeds we were getting. Download Speeds between 60-120Mbps (One test went as high as 145Mbps!). We miss the stability and latency of fiber, but things were good for a while
Then all of a sudden, we started noticing a strange pattern. In the mornings, our download speeds appeared to be throttled to 50Mbps, which was not the end of the world, but at around midday, this throttling worsened to reduce our speeds to ~8Mbps! Once this behaviour started, it persisted every day for a few weeks. The same pattern of ~50Mbps in the morning, ~8Mbps in the afternoon until the next morning. In this time I had been speaking with Cool Ideas to try to resolve this issue, but seeing as it's an MTN service, finding a solution seemed problematic. At first, MTN's solution consisted of "refreshing my line", and after a few times of that not doing anything, they switched to blaming my router. (I opted to use my own ZTE MF286R, to not be tied in to a 12 month contract for my LTE) I doubt it's the router, as my cell phone's prepaid SIM card gets me close to 100Mbps, (-As well as the Vodacom fixed LTE SIM I have since purchased to get me through the afternoons)
At this point, I PM'd @PBCool here on MyBB and explained the situation, and the following week I got a call from Cool Ideas saying that they have had a similar issue once before, just a few months back. That case got resolved by sending a new SIM card and creating a whole new service, and cancelling the previous one, which they wanted to attempt for me. I naturally agreed to go for it, as nothing else was working.
The next day (15th May), I received a brand new MTN SIM, couriered to my place of work. When I got home from work, I did a speed test with the old SIM (got 10.7Mbps - See screenshot attached), swapped in the new SIM, and did another speed test and got a whopping 92.45Mbps download speed. So that surely points to a defective SIM card or line, right? Our speeds seemed to be back to normal for the rest of May, with the LTE being more in line with what I was expecting.
Well, unfortunately the problem has returned since the beginning of this month (June '25). Exact same symptoms. ~50Mbps in the morning, which then drops to ~8Mbps in the afternoon.
I'm at a bit of a loss. It surely can't just be bad luck? I don't think it's realistic to have to get a new SIM every month? I also feel like the fact that it looks like it pops up at the beginning of the month should point to something?
Just a few notes; after receiving the second SIM, I didn't change anything at all in my router settings. The routers placement has also not changed. It's always been in the same spot, connected to a Poynting XPOL 6 external antenna. Whether the external antenna is connected or not makes no difference to the speeds, I just get a much better signal to the router with the antenna plugged in. The throttling can also not be a FUP thing, as number 1, we are not typically downloading a lot, and number 2, the second time this issue started was the beginning of the month. Not sure if it's important or not, but I am in George, Western Cape.
Anyone had a similar issue? Or have any ideas?
TL;DR - I am on a uncapped unlimited fixed LTE service with Cool Ideas (MTN), but being subjected to a 50Mbps throttle in the mornings, and a ~8Mbps throttle from midday until the next morning. No-one seems to know why.
I do hope it stays fixed.
