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[Varche]

I currently have limited Internet.  20Gb a month via satellite and the same via a 3g UK sim in a MiFi on roaming.

The only technology available here to give us unlimited is 3G (soon to be 4G) from in effect a wall mounted MiFi and a router. This is their rural equivalent of their fibre offering. It claims to be adequate for streaming TV . Apart from the 20Gb a month cap on the 3G roaming SIM, it streams but at peak times the service drops to nil. So four times a day when the schools convene or break up, four times a day for rush hour plus around 11p.m. at night. This happens regardless of what you are using the Internet for.

My question is to anyone who knows,   Do the Telcos set their unlimited 3G contention ( I think that is the technical term) differently to say a SIM in one of their mobile phones. By the same token I would expect a roaming service such as ours from another countries Telco to have the worst contention of all at busy times.  Anyone know?

[Rods2]

IME from Ukraine it is due to your local cell being overloaded. This happens at school finish times where the kids use their mobiles & streaming TV and at early evening peak times for people getting home from work & TV streaming. I currently have no work arounds.

[Varche]

Agreed. But the question is do they have different contention rates for what is in essence the same technology?  In effect first class, second class and so on.

[zirk]

Agreed. But the question is do they have different contention rates for what is in essence the same technology?  In effect first class, second class and so on.

Yes, but its not that simple, as there are many factors involved based upon what the Cellular Network is trying to achieve at any given point as well as Who or What is either connected or trying to connect to the Network and what there privileges are.

What your describing is a simple form of day to day Traffic Management for Busy Data Use Periods, ie, sudden use of Data (Kids come out from School) so in order to protect the Service Quality of the Network it effectively shares and slows down the Data Quota to its Users, theres also other factors involved they may be implemented, like, has someone over stayed there welcome, as in excessive Data Use, ie, Hammering the Network or has Speed Restrictions in place that are dependent to there Tarrif, as well as like you say, Roamers on the Network who may have different access restrictions.

There are, as you say VIP access (Different Tier Levels) but these are generally restricted to High End User Access, ie extreme Government Personal or Security Services and or for Emergency Situations on a Regional or National scale.

Theres not much you can do to beat the System, if that was a hidden question, you could try a Re Registration on the Network by switching the Mobile Device off and back on, or the only other advantage that would improve things, particularly with Data Speed is to improve your Signal Strength, so in terms of a MiFi Device get it as high as possible and near a window, or add an external 3/4G Aerial to the Device.

[Varche]

My concern is simply our experience with Movistar who carry our roaming uk signal here is also the supplier we would have to use if we go for the unlimited  3g package. So we would be swapping one rubbish service for another albeit more expensive unless it has a better “ contention” rate.

[TheBoy]

2 things (beyond signal strength) impact mobile throughput - ISP infrastructure (ie, their core network, CGNAT capacity and DPI capacity if they do traffic management), and the local cell backhaul.

In many cases, with rural cells that might cover up to a 10m radius covering many villages etc, its the backhaul that will be the biggest limit, this backhaul might only be a few Mb, and you then get contention when 400 school kids all want a slice...


Unless you have huge buffers, rural 3g (at best, suitable for a bit of surfing) isn't going to stream too good, certainly at the quality to watch on a large screen.  The dropouts will likely be too big.  The Sat option might have appalling latency, but its consistent, allowing the decoder half a chance to optimise.

4G generally, but not always, means the backhauls get fattened, but that depends on the network operator.  Certain UK operators turned on 4g on their cells (as for most mask heads, was just a software update), but were slow in upgrading the backhaul.

5G is looming, and early trials suggest it really is an answer to fixed line, but again, it all depends if your local masts get the backhaul upgraded, and their core infrastructure can cope. All assuming you have a usable signal.  Its believed that most 5G masts will be needing/having at least a 10Gb backhaul)


I live in a semi rural small town, and get a reasonable consistent 10Mb down on 3g, 65-80Mb down on 4G. Last time I was at Wembley, at an event, I was getting 145Mb consistent...  ...but as Wembley is EE sponsored, you can bet they will maximise its capability as a showcase site.

[Kevin Wood]

Do you know how far away your local cell site is?

Knowing your local geography, I wouldn't mind betting it's a fair distance away. To serve high speed data to a quite remote device in the presence of lots of more local (to the cell site) devices does put quite a challenge on the network. Not one that you are going to win, unfortunately.

It could be that you get a worse QOS from the network as a roaming customer. They might well prioritise their paying customers over you but who knows? The only way to know for sure would be to sign up for a local SIM and see if it changes things.

Like all internet services, mobile networks are heavily contended, not just at the network level but with the radio resources available to the local cell sites at any given time versus the demand being put on them. The "headline" data rates are probably not ever achievable in real life, and certainly not even close at busy times of the day.

[Marks DTM Calib]

5G is going to be a mare, needs lots of base stations and the receivers lots of antennas to work well (the frequency band used is badly attenuated by pretty much anything), implementing it on vehicles is needing four antennas, one at each corner.

AT least LEO is on the way, low latency, massive bandwidth and should be cost competitive.