M1 Speeds Randomly Drop to <1mb/s (AT&T )

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VyseBlue
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M1 Speeds Randomly Drop to <1mb/s (AT&T )

Post by VyseBlue »

Hello all, I'm glad to have found this site! For reference, I have the M1100 using the AT&T Unlimited Car Hotspot plan

Within the last month or so my M1 wireless hotspot randomly drops to <1mb/s maybe once or twice a day - sometimes more, sometimes less - whereas typically I have been getting a consistent 20+mb/s. The weird part is if I switch bands (12 and 66) or restart it goes back to normal. I bridge connection from the hotspot to another router via ethernet but the same issue applies if I connect directly to the M1's wireless network.

I believe this is client-side only because speeds are fine if I use ookla's speed test (ISP to network), but slow when using google's speed test (client to network). Is this a hardware issue? The fact that manually changing bands fixes the issue is what throws me off on that assumption.

Any and all suggestions is greatly appreciated. Happy to provide any other necessary info. Thanks!
854RM1250
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Re: M1 Speeds Randomly Drop to <1mb/s (AT&T )

Post by 854RM1250 »

YES, I have been having the same issues. I did speed test on a bunch of different sites, google 0.6, testmy.net 600kb, fast.com 1.5, speedtest.net 60+, websites take 20 seconds to load and downloads a lifetime. Its definitely getting throttled by At&t, can stream youtube or netflix videos at low res, funny thing speedtest.net isnt thought (Guess At&t still wants to advertise they have a fast speed with the #1 speedtest site :( ).
Now it looks like as soon as I switch towers by taking it out of the home, or reboot device, it gets a new IP address and its good to go at full speed 60+ for a few hours until it happens again. has been happening for about 45 days now. I'm sure a VPN will bypass the throttling, but will add latency and Hulu and Prime do not like most VPNs.
Would anyone else in community have a fix
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Didneywhorl
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Re: M1 Speeds Randomly Drop to <1mb/s (AT&T )

Post by Didneywhorl »

This has been a battle with the carriers for a long time. It seems ATT is ramping it up lately though.

When a simple reboot, tower change, or band change, fixes it ... then it's definitely the cell carrier managing your connection. Verizon tends to disable CA after a very short period, ATT has been doing it after only a few hours or less. They are getting aggressive with blocking or throttling cell site "campers".
VyseBlue
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Re: M1 Speeds Randomly Drop to <1mb/s (AT&T )

Post by VyseBlue »

Well shucks, I was afraid of that. I'll need to check the IP after I switch and see if it switches like @854RM1250's mentioned. I did check with a vpn but the issue persists. Updating from one APN to another also fixed the issue, which seems to be the quickest way to switch without much noticeable connection downtime.

Does anyone know if there are docs on the AT commands of the M1? Scouring the web hasn't turned up anything. Curious if there is anything that'll let me change the APN programmatically. If push comes to shove I may script something up to check and automatically swap APNs when this issue arises. Using those commands would be easiest but I may have to resort to other options
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Re: M1 Speeds Randomly Drop to <1mb/s (AT&T )

Post by VyseBlue »

I'm curious if spoofing the IMEI to the original Mobley device would help? Not sure if that'll make any difference
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