(solved) Very slow 4G/LTE download speed

fransoa

SOLVED : Refer to bottom of page for the solution.

Only 5 days spent with my brand new Plus E and already a lot of times spent on that forum...
So I went few various issues so far:
- Poor camera quality : Fixed (almost) with Camera FV5 app
- SMS issue with Textra : Fixed with sticking to default SMS app, which is a pain to handle with dual sim if you want to send text with different sims.

Now I'm struggling with 4G/LTE, which download speed sticks up to 0.02 MBps while the upload one is over 10MBps.
I live in France and rely on Free Mobile provider. Coverage is great in my area so no issue from that side. Phone is up to date with the latest ROM. Signal is strong. First days were fully ok, but LTE suddenly went very slow.When I put my sim in my former Nexus 5, i obtain great 4G down/upload speeds.
I tried to :
- Apply the last update via FOTA
- Set the APN by myself referring to my provider settings
- Get into *#*#4636#*#* menu to try EURO, AUS, AUS1 or AUTO radio bands, or to try setting preferred network type to anyone relative to LTE.
- Get into *#*#3646633#*#* engineering menu to check if every LTE bands were checked
- Manually select every network I could reach
- going to Lourdes for a prayer
Still no change. For now, I'm sticking to 3G only as it provides 10 times the speed in can get from LTE, but what's the point in using a LTE phone in 3G ?

I guess these issues are the price to pay when you get a terminal from a new brand. but this last issue makes me close to sending the phone back for refund.

Apart from the above, screen is gorgeous, manufacturing quality is great, battery life is excellent so I would like to keep the phone but the 4G issue really piss me.

Thanks for sharing any tips that may help.

Cheers

chance

Uff. Try master reset and setup once again. My LTE works fine, tried and result 125Mbits during deep night. Daily result about 35-60/Mbits. You do not need engeneering mode. Must work properly. Try asus messaging for SMS, use apk mirror download.com

fransoa

Hello,
Thanks for your help.
Tried that too, just before posting my above message.
Unfortunately problem still remains.
I also forgot to mention that my data plan is 50 gigs per months so I'm sure it's not due to a limitation on my provider side.  

fransoa

I thought of something regarding 4G bands.
Here are my provider's available ones :
700MHz (band 28)
1800MHz (band 3)
2600MHz (band 7)

My former Nexus 5 supports them all but the UMI doesn't work with the 700MHz one. Would it be there some reason for a slow 4g ? Maybe the phone requires all the bands to work great. But, again, it was working fine during the 2 first days.
The closest Free Mobile antenna to my home doesn't support the 700MHz yet anyway.

chance

I do not think so. Missing 700 MHz is not reason to go slow as you wrote. 700 MHz is not very typical band and most carrier been abandoned like Vodafone Czech republic and do not want to use this band any more. 700 or 800 MHz bands are typical for coverage of villages. If you are in the city, 1800 and 2600 LTE bands are used for high speed connection. For your good feeling try in your nearest bigger city where you are sure about coverage 1800 or 2600 MHz.

fransoa

Problem is solved.

I went to my provider (Free Mobile) shop. A nice tech guy told me that :
- Indeed, you need a phone working with all the bands to get 4G (You're right chance)
- With the LTE option activated, you got 50 Go of fair use. After 50 Go, speed is limited. With a 3G phone on the LTE network, the fair use is 3Go
- My phone is not recognized as a LTE phone by my provider, but as a 3G one
- I had to call the technical service to ask them to register my phone giving the IMEI

That's why everything was fine during the first day, when I was setting up the phone. On the LTE network with phone recognized as a 3G one, my fair use is then 3Go, that I used in few days to download all the apps, songs, movies, etc. (Yes, my wifi is crap)

So UMI has nothing to do in that problem and I sincerely apologize.

Cheers.

fransoa

Last update, to definetely solve the problem :
I went through the forum to get some help regarding the register of my phone with my provider.
Best way, although not legal in France, is to change your IMEI toward one from a registered phone. I used the one from a broken nexus 5 i got.
Follow that thread : http://community.umidigi.com/thread-1375-1-1.html

In case you're on windows 10 (even on a mac through bootcamp), check this out also : https://forum.xda-developers.com ... vers-32-64-t3267033

Cheers

chance

Welcome, happy you solved problem. This phone is good. Better then I bought ASUS Zenfone 2 flagship almost 1 year unusable.