Now that I've got my 4G signal back thanks to @LauraH 😊 I was working on trying to get my 5G to work now since I've just bought an S20 FE 5G and done a lot of testing on the 5G network so far. It's very impressive when you drive near to the island itself and run speedtests , had multiple 300+ Mbps ones on Nperf, but I'm having an issue at home with the connection constantly flickering between a solid 5G background icon, and an outlined one. I have some service mode readouts from my testing.
From what I've been told, the 5G NR band Three uses 3.5 Ghz, so this band is using (TDD) time division duplex , so that means it requires synchronisation between the device's upload timings and the time slots.
According to this document https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/3.5-GHz-5G-TDD-Synchronisation.pdf
The 5G cells seem to have a max limit of 10.7km unless specially configured otherwise. This would contradict the coverage map for this part of Donegal, Arranmore is the only 5G NR site listed unless there is another 5G NR site that isn't listed on Comreg? Can you confirm /deny that? It would make sense because I am connecting to a different cell driving through Loughanure with a 4000m LTE timing advance which is different to what I get at home.
So anyway my issue is, it wont maintain the connection despite having the adequate signal, it will keep dropping over and over in a loop, So I am wondering is my connection dropping because of there being a max range limit? Because I definitely have signal, I managed to get 5G NR speedtests of 157 Mbps on my mobile which is crazy, but then the next one was only 5 mbps because it's dropping back to LTE-A .
I'll attach my cell readout's as well the the 5G NR signal that shows for the split second it connects for ,
5G NR signal readout from house window.
So to rule out signal being weak, I even strapped my phone to the LNB on a parabolic satellite dish and aimed it at the mast, it boosted my signal to the same RSRP I had when I was directly across the water from the Arranmore mast testing 5G on my phone. The connection still continued to flap so signal isn't the issue. You can also see the "LTE Timing advance" is 8112 meters, So I am about 15 KM away from the mast , but it'll briefly connect long enough to do a 157 Mbps speedtest but thats about it. So is it because there is an enforced range limit for connection?
In my cell information readouts I notice while its flickering between the solid background icon and outlined one the "5G State" keeps swapping between NOT_RESTRICTED and CONNECTED.
Also it may not be relevant, but on the cell ID 1 sector, For example band 3 cannot be set as the primary band anymore i.e say the router aggregates (3) + 3+ 1 , it will link flap/connection will drop in a loop. Its an issue that arised back in early october on this sector. But band 1 will work as the primary band. (1) + 3 + 3 [525+1700 + 1275] EARFCN. But it is not an issue on the other band 3 cells on a different sector on the same mast. (3)+3+1 works totally fine on those others sectors. Really weird one... Something happened back then where it broke some of the carrier aggregation combos. Never used to be an issue before that. Not sure why it happened.
Sorry for all the long explanation/questions but it's a complex issue and I just wanted to provide as much detail as I can. Hopefully you can forward it onto the tech team like you did with our 4G issues, and maybe I can get some information on this, thanks again 😄
I shouldn't be according to the coverage map. (which shouldnt be inaccurate by miles) It extends miles past me, also when using the dish method the signal was identical to what I was getting directly across the water from the mast. There is a chance it's related to the link flapping thats happening on my serving cell when the router tries to use certain CA combos on LTE, it disconnects in a loop in a similar fashion to how it'll flicker between an outlined and a solid 5G background. It happens on LTE when it's trying to use band 3 as the primary band, band 1 seems to work fine as the primary but not the other way around, this issue arised early last month / around the 5G launch with this sector specifically. These speedtests would also indicate otherwise, the fact it establishes a connection long enough to do them, even though I am about 15 KM away but with direct line of sight. Despite it flickering between LTE-A and 5G NR it still managed to get impressive results like this. I would never get these speeds on 4G , if only the connection would remain. You can see in the 2nd result where 4G was used for the majority of it.
I think that your just too far away for the 5G Beamforming to give you a constant stream of data.
