When your EE Broadband is slow, there isn’t much you can do about it, right? Wrong! We know that dealing with infuriatingly slow internet is a headache nobody wants. When your EE broadband crawls along at a snail’s pace, it interrupts everything from streaming movies to video calls to general web browsing.
A fast, reliable broadband connection feels essential for modern life. Yet despite paying for a package with maximum advertised speeds from EE, your speeds often disappoint.
This slowdown stems from a range of factors that come between your router and the internet servers you’re accessing. The causes can range from line quality to dated hardware, congestion, and more. Identifying the exact bottleneck is key.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through testing your EE broadband speed to determine current performance. We’ll also cover how to diagnose what underlying issues may be slowing down your connection, from your in-home WiFi to external line faults.
Follow our troubleshooting tips to pinpoint what’s throttling your EE internet speeds, and get recommendations to improve performance. With the right tests and diagnostics, you can get your broadband speeds back up to speed. Let’s get started!
Potential Causes of Slow EE Broadband Speeds
Several key issues can end up throttling your EE broadband speeds based on analysis of customer reports:
Line Quality and Attenuation
The quality of the physical phone line leading to your home plays a major role in internet speeds. Factors like the distance to the nearest exchange, noise interference, corrosion on cables, and general degradation can hamper your line sync speed. This is known as attenuation – the higher the attenuation, the slower the broadband.
EE’s own diagnostic tools provide line attenuation measurements to give you insight into quality issues. Distance and noise on the line leads to poorer speeds. Check your line speed on EE Broadband’s website.
Too Many Connected Devices
When you have many devices connected to your home network all accessing the internet simultaneously, this can place a heavy load on the router. Everything from computers to phones to TVs to games consoles can congest WiFi bands when online at once.
This overloads the router’s capabilities to juggle all the traffic, resulting in sluggish speeds. Try disconnecting less essential devices to ease the burden.
Outdated Router Hardware
EE provides standard router models to customers that can become dated over time. Newer routers have more advanced processors, extra antennas, better WiFi radios and expanded ports. This gives them increased capacity to handle modern demands.
Upgrading to a more advanced EE router like the Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2 or a third-party model can provide better performance.
WiFi Signal Interference
EE customers frequently report slow internet speeds because of wireless interference in their homes. Other devices like baby monitors, Bluetooth speakers, microwaves and cordless phones can all emit signals that interfere with WiFi networks when operating on the same frequencies.
This wireless congestion results in sluggish speeds, lag and bandwidth constraints. Try repositioning the EE router or changing the wireless channel away from competing electronics to reduce interference.
Network Congestion During Peak Times
Analysis of user complaints indicates that EE’s network capacity can become overwhelmed during peak usage periods in the evenings when everyone is streaming video, gaming online and using the internet heavily at once.
This strain on overall EE network resources results in slower speeds for all users during congested times as capacity reaches its limits. There is often a significant difference reported between off-peak and peak-time performance.
Potential Traffic Management by EE
Some EE customers speculate that the ISP may prioritize speed tests over normal web traffic. Users report faster speeds when actively running a speed test, while regular browsing slows down again after.
This has led to theories that EE may de-prioritize normal traffic at times while ensuring speed tests show optimal results. However, this has not been definitively confirmed by EE.
Testing Your EE Broadband Speed
To get insight into your current EE broadband speeds, follow these testing tips:
Use Speed Test Sites
Run speed tests at sites like Fast.com, Speedtest.net, and Broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk. This checks your raw max download and upload speeds. Do multiple tests for average results.
Compare Local vs International Servers
For a more nuanced test, run speed tests to servers in different locations. Test speed to local UK servers versus international servers in the US or Asia. This determines if slowdowns are distance-related.
Use Ethernet for True Line Speed
For the most accurate speed results, connect your computer directly to the EE router with an Ethernet cable instead of WiFi. This eliminates any wireless constraints and tests your true maximum line sync speed.
Ideally, run these different speed tests under various home usage conditions to compare performance when network load is light versus congested. This gives a clear picture of your EE broadband’s capabilities.
Run EE’s Diagnostic Tools EE provides its own line diagnostics tools that can measure attenuation and identify line quality issues causing speed problems. Run these tests and check the attenuation levels – higher levels indicate more degradation hurting performance.
Call EE Support If line quality seems poor, contact EE support to have them inspect your connection and the phone lines leading to your home. They can repair any issues like corrosion or noise interference on their network end hampering speeds.
Reduce Network Congestion
During peak times, limit bandwidth-heavy activities like streaming 4K video or downloading large files. Disconnect less essential devices to ease the load on your home network and router. Reduce wireless congestion by moving devices closer to the router or upgrading to a mesh system.
Upgrade Your Router
If your EE router is several years old, upgrading to a newer model can provide more processing power, better WiFi radios, and extra antennas to handle more devices and bandwidth. Consider third-party gaming routers for even more capabilities.
Change WiFi Channel
Use a WiFi analyzer app to detect what wireless channels neighboring networks use, then switch your router to the least congested channel to reduce interference. Avoid channels 1, 6, and 11 as they are most common.
Position Router Optimally
Move your EE router to a central location away from other electronics, walls, and obstacles to get the strongest WiFi signal distribution throughout your home. Elevate the router if possible and use the 5GHz band for less interference.
Use Ethernet For Reliable Speeds
For devices where WiFi is unreliable like desktop PCs or smart TVs, use Ethernet cables to physically connect them to the router. This provides the full broadband speed without wireless constraints.
By taking these steps to optimize your home network, router setup, line quality, and wireless environment, you can troubleshoot and resolve the most common factors slowing down EE broadband speeds.
Getting Your EE Broadband Back Up to Speed
Dealing with a sluggish broadband connection can be immensely frustrating, but take heart in knowing the problem can usually be identified and resolved with some targeted troubleshooting. If you really get stuck, check out EE Broadband’s broadband speed improvement article.
Follow the step-by-step guide we’ve outlined to test your actual speeds, diagnose potential issues like line quality and wireless interference, and implement solutions like upgrading your router.
Optimizing your home network, eliminating bandwidth congestion, and resolving line faults will help restore your EE broadband to its full potential. Contact EE technical support if you need assistance pinpointing and addressing stubborn speed problems.
With the right tools and knowledge, you can defeat broadband slowdowns. Arm yourself with an understanding of what factors influence internet speeds, and remain persistent in troubleshooting. You’ll get back those fast speeds you need for smooth streaming, quick downloads, and lag-free video calls.
