Very slow upload speed with Nokia Fastmile

[98centsshort]

I’ve recently installed the Rogers wireless home internet. Upload speed is consistently only 1% of the download speed. My friend is having the same issue at his place. In my case, the speed is 30mbps down and 0.3mbps up. Why such a great disparity?

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[RogersJermaine]

Hi @98centsshort,

Thank you for joining us here on the Rogers Community Forums, and thank you for your post. Slow upload speeds, or slow speeds in general, can certainly impact your internet experience, but we can take a further look into this for you.

Are your download speeds consistently the same and your uploads extremely low? Can you try rebooting the modem by pressing the reset button located at the bottom near the SIM tray? Press it for less than 5 seconds to complete just a reset that will keep your modem settings. Once it is back online, you can complete a speed test with a device connected directly to it and let us know the results.

Thank you.

RogersJermaine

[98centsshort]

I reset the modem as you suggested. The upload speeds are still mostly 0.3mbps, though they can be as high as 0.8mbps. Still quite slow.

[RogersTony]

Hello, @98centsshort 

Thank you for attempting that for us.

You will need to contact our Wireless Home Internet support team to investigate the slow speeds you are experiencing. Please contact them by calling 1-844-256-0052. Our technical support team is available 24/7.

RogersTony

[anne_nonomus]

I'm a new customer testing to see if Rogers 50 dollar a month 5g wifi will work for me here in Muskoka.  I'm rural about 10 minutes east of Bracebridge, Ontario.  It's rated to have speeds up to 100 Mbps download and up to 10 Mbps upload. 

Where I'm located, I'm showing as getting 4G not 5G (bummer, I'm right smack dab between two towers, but apparently not quite close enough) 

So I'm comparing speeds with my current Bell service ( Wireless Home internet 25) which uses Cell technology and the new Rogers 5G Home internet.

With Bell I get about 28 Mbps download and about 4 Mbps upload

With Rogers, I'm getting about 70 Mbps dowload which I'm happy with, but only 1.5 to 1.8 Mbps Upload which could be an issue for work related virtual meetings.  

Anyone else getting these kind of numbers?  Don't understand how the download could be so good, and the upload so bad.

[DDMH]

Exactly the same situation here. I got 5G for our cottage. I only get 4G but hover between 17 and 30 Mbps download speed. Upload is 0.1 to 0.7…

[looperone]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm on the old FWA (fixed wireless access) service. The plan is 25Mbps/5Mbps. I only get 4G even though the hardware is technically capable of connecting to 5G. With that said, I get 25Mbps down no problem. But. Streaming is now throttled to 3Mbps down as of late last year due to a "fair access" policy change from what I understand. Upstream appears to be suffering the same problems as the others are seeing with regard to 4G in the Muskokas (I'm just outside of Parry Sound): I'm seeing less than 2Mbps at the moment. Which is not really acceptable. I expect to see at least the speeds that have been subscribed to ALL OF THE TIME especially since FWA is DOUBLE the price of the Fastmile service.

The problem is likely capacity. The cells up here are just too large when considering demand. 

Update: Last test was run at 5:15pm or so. Just ran another one at 6:24pm and I'm getting just under 5Mbps upload. So 100% related to capacity. This is why wireless is just not the solution: it has much less capacity than fiber would. During prime time hours download will decrease...which is why we are all stuck with caps at 3Mbps down for streaming now.

[rathead]

I too am trying to see if this 5G home internet service is a replacement for me, here in Victoria B.C.  I'm interested since we also have a place in Ontario cottage country and I'd like to see if this will save me from having to have our annual summer cell data service costs.  

I tried the Inseego M3000 and it had worked quite well (90 Mbps down, 9 Mbps up).  But it would occasionally drop to 4G and then 3G service.  Only a full reset would restore it.  Rogers technical was unable to diagnose the problem.  So they are shipping me a Nokia FastMile to see if the problem goes away.  

There are some shortcomings of the Inseego M3000, mostly from what I see to be its design as a mobile hot spot, not a fixed wireless 5G basestation.  For example, only 32 wifi clients.  And it annoyingly seems to drop them occasionally.  Also the data download meter caps out at 99 GB.  With the 500GB Rogers plan, it isn't so useful (have to reset it along the way).  But it is nice and small, with a battery.  

What is interesting is that the technician advised that the 5G home data plan, data rates are capped at about 100 Mbps down and something like 20 or 25 Mbps up.   This makes some sense to me since I can SpeedTest on my rather basic iPhone SE3 at 200 Mbps down.  Sitting right beside it.  I don't have eGlass windows so maybe that helps.

As to the geofencing, I also got the vague response from Rogers that it isn't geofenced to my "service address", as stated in my PDF version of my bill.  But it might trigger some response if the duration is 3 months or longer.  

If you go over to the Nokia website on this product, they do have an interesting Whitepaper for service providers on how to drive revenue with such 5G services.  

[gareth01]

I'm also having the same issue, really slow upload speed (0.1 - 0.2mbps) but download speed is fine (25mbps). It's completely useless for meetings / voip calls / WiFi calling. I opened a ticket with Rogers and they closed it (without ever calling / contacting me) when I called back they told me it was due to network capacity in my area. It was good (2-3mbps upload) all of last fall / winter. I do live in an area with lots of seasonal residents so it sort of makes sense but why is download still full speed I don't get it? They credited me for one month service but I was told that I wouldn't get any additional credits and my only option was to cancel the service and return the hardware. As I said previously it worked fine in the winter so I don't really want to cancel. I'm glad I kept my DSL service as a backup.

[Duffer]

It's a common issue for the 5G.  Upload can be severely throttled depending where you are.  We experience the same issue and it often drops to 1mbps.  The funny thing is if you watch the speed test, you can actually see the throttling kick in.  It will connect and run over 10mbps for a few seconds, then it takes a nose dive down to 2 or 3.  It's all about balancing access is extremely saturated cells.  Too many people in the same cells and as they keep selling more 5G, expect it to get worse.  My old FWA 25/5 (which I have kept for the time being while I evaluate this new to me 5G system) is much better upload consistently running in the 4mbps range.  As more people leave FWA 25/5 and switch over, I anticipate the 5G upload problem will get worse and the older FWA will get better as people leave those cells.

[98centsshort]

Since my original post, I have discovered a few things. A slow upload speed is characteristic of the rural Rogers network. This seems to be their main method of throttling to prevent network overload. When I speedtest with my mobile device near the tower, the discrepancy is something like 70down and 8up. I did find a better location in my home to set the modem. My upload speeds are now between 0.6 and 2mpbs with a download speed of 30-40.

[gareth01]

I've detailed it in another thread but long story short is I've mostly been able to fix my slow speed issue by connecting Waveform 2x2 antenna to Antenna ports 0/1 using SMA to U.FL adapter pigtails and low loss cable (25ft of *MR400 and 6ft of thinner *MR240 to fit inside the 3/4 cable conduit entering my home). Keeping cabling distance down is critical I tested with longer cables and the results were not as good. I'm now getting consistent 3+ Mbps upload and hitting 70+ on download before the throttle of my "Essential" plan kicks in and brings it down to 25mbps. Opening up the modem to connect the pigtails is required which of course Rogers does not condone but there are no permanent modifications required so it is easy to revert back to its original state if our need to return the hardware for some reason.

Note on the cable type the brand name cable is known as LMR### but I used the knock off KMR version available on Amazon. I suppose I could get better results with the name brand cable but I'm happy with what I have now for 1/4 the price. Total expenditure including antenna, pole mount and cabling was about $250.