STC 4G LTE Internet Connection - Problems --- Slow Speed

Hi,

I live in Olaya Area, Riyadh.

I would like to know if someone is facing any problems with STC 4G LTE Internet connection. Please share your stories here for help and awareness.

I recently subscribed for STC 4G LTE Internet Connection for 14 Months in SR 1,400. It was special offer bundle by STC.

I made sure before purchase by visiting the STC website and a Link of "Coverage Map" at bottom of page to know if my house is covered by 4G signals.

I am very disappointed to see that my router is getting just one bar of signal and very unstable performance. I was expecting powerful signals in Olaya Area because of its prime location.

This 4G connection should give you between 30-50Mbps average speed if router is installed at area near to the STC Towers. I am just getting average 6-8Mbps speed which is worst for a 4G connection. I feel that I lost my money.

A friend of mine is getting 4 bars of signal on the same STC 4G router but his speed is also not even more than 6-7Mbps whereas I have seen speed test on youtube  of STC 4G connection crossing 30Mbps speed.

I was suggested to install an external antenna for outdoor which should improve the speed not the signals. Such Antennas works up to 10km range. I have visited to Mursalat Mobile Market, Olaya Computer Market, and Batha area and found that these antennas are very expensive. Average between SR 350- SR 400 of a good Brand. It is with plastic body and rectangle shape. They must be installed at roof top and should be directed to the Tower. It is also required to make sure antenna is capable to handle frequency of your internet provider.  e.g Zain is on 1800 frequency, STC on 2300 and Mobily on 2600.  Some antennas cover from 700-3000 frequency.

I did not buy this external antenna for outdoor because first I am unable to reach roof top being living in rented building and second, I don't know where is nearest STC Tower around my house.

My only choice left was to buy external antenna for indoor use.  I found several types of them ranging from SR 80 to SR 200. Some are long but similar to a plastic antenna installed on a Wifi router but I would not advice to buy this.

I finally bought a 4G 16dBi antenna in SR 200. It is thin and long steel antenna with 2-3 meters cable. I bought this from Batha. There is a shopping center with a lot of shops which sells only 3G and 4G routers and Data SIM Cards.  This shopping Center can be seen behind parking of known "five buildings" in batha.

I don't see any improvement in Signal bars on my router but stability of internet connection is improved after installing external antenna for indoor use. The internet speed is still the same.

Please don't buy "Yagi" antenna. The Yagi is not a brand.  It is a kind of antenna and several companies make the same.  They are made for 3G not 4G. I bought one and returned it because I did not know that. Just Search "Yagi Antenna" in Google and you will see its picture.



bye

it depends on you exact location and also where you are placing your modem

go to opensignal dot com to find exact location of nearest tower so you can determine the direction of ur 4g router



4g Antennas are far  more different in shape then 3g

i olaya main computer market their is a shop name Small Memory they have good 4g antenna  they word fine just be sure to check cable length before buying

I am using the same router, and i checked my speed now after reading your blog, my speed is 10Mbps and i have kept it inside my home, and my apartment is on ground floor. so the bar shows just 1 dot.
My suggestion to you is to long in into your roter http://homerouter.cpe/
or 192.168.1.1

and go to the Internet

if the NETWORK MODE is AUTO, change it to only 4G, than only 3G and check, sometimes u will get a better speed on 3G also.

All the best

binngo23 wrote:

go to opensignal dot com to find exact location of nearest tower so you can determine the direction of ur 4g router


Excellent.. I wish I knew this site before buying the router.  My house is clearly fall under very week 4G coverage.  My router is placed in a correct room after checking the coverage and Tower location.

Thanks a lot.

time.chime wrote:

if the NETWORK MODE is AUTO, change it to only 4G, than only 3G and check, sometimes u will get a better speed on 3G also.


OK, I will check this out today night and post the results here. Let me see if changing to 3G brings any better signals and performance.

time.chime wrote:

if the NETWORK MODE is AUTO, change it to only 4G, than only 3G and check, sometimes u will get a better speed on 3G also.


I just changed from 4G to 3G. No Luck. I am still getting one bar. The speed is same. Returned back to 4G settings and will keep as it is.

Browsing experience is faster on 4G even getting only 6-7 Mbps speed.

I wish STC could cover our area with more transmitters of 4G so I can enjoy true speed of 4G LTE.

Thanks and lot.

Thanks bro...facing same problem, and i was planning to buy the same antena, because i also have speed and signal problem but my speed raises upto 14 mbps, me in Malaz,
One thing i have to confirm that the speed of the router,as it is written on the box, mine is 150 MBPS, as i bought for 1600 of 14 months package.
Normally the mobily which i was having in past has the download speed 4 to 6 MBPS according to speedtest.net
so what is the speed of this router....??
and thanks again for this advice.

Also remember, the speed depends on the number of subscribers under that network cell. If there are several subscribers using 4G near your location, may be your data speed would go down. According to the technical aspects every subscriber should experience same band width. But due to over subscribers under one cell the speed would go down. If your 4G is slow, change it to 3G and try, the speed would be higher than what you are getting in 4G now. I faced the same problem with mobily for 4G so i changed the settings to 3G and its awesome. Coz all the people around me are using 4G. I can say all these shit, coz one of my friend is working in telecom for 3G and 4G, he advised me to do so.

Checked That too bro

I bought the STC 4G LTE router for 1600SR/14Months deal 2 days ago.
Before buying I checked the coverage map in the STC site and found that 4G was there in my area (baghdadiya, Jeddah)
Prior to buying, I even took a friends unit to my home and found that 4G was there (checked after loggin on to the router) and was getting > 20Mbps speed.
But my unit doesn't give me any 4G signal at all. I am always connected to 3G and getting varying speeds, which sometimes go upto to 16Mbps, (day time) and sometimes to as low as 2Mbps (in the night)
When I set the device to '4G' from auto, i get no signal at all. When I set it to Auto or 3G, i get 5 bars and get the speeds as mentioned above.

When I checked out 4G coverage in 'opensignal.com', it showed no 4G coverage in my area, but STC did show !

Hi

I'm struggling with different problem regarding STC LTE modem, ie it is disconnecting all the time each 20-30 min for 1 min. Do anybody have the same? Any Idea how to fix?

hi

is anyone facing speed problems lately with STC wireless router. I live by exit 7 and my internet has been very slow recently, was wondering if anyone else has had same problem? will be grateful if anyone can shed some light? Also when i change mode to Auto it is still very slow, 3g is slow and 4g mode doesn't connect at all!

:(

Thanks

Saj

Check on STC's website if your area is covered for 4G. If area is covered, try to relocate your router to a different place in your home with better coverage. If area is not covered, you have a bad luck. You can try Mobily or Zain.

i did try this thank you, failed miserably. i changed my router settings to 3g and seems ok now so will see what happens

Dear,

I am also facing the same problem in 3g-stc router,and i contact in stc office they told me to purchase 4G-router its good speed getting 100 Mbps,now i read u r experience change my mind and i  plan to activate my old-postpaid afaqshamel connect its very good performance the problem is billing, its not transparent.Anyway thanks to spread genuine information keep in touch.

jaff :cheers:

i dont know about you guys .i live in middle of nowhere in buraidah and am getting pretty decent download speed 1-2mbps on STC 4G router and yes i was facing the same problems few months ago getting download speed of 400-500 kbps so i just changed the  bandwidth to specific different numerals on the site instead of auto to get perfect transfer of data .I think it  also depends on number of subscribers of 4G in your locality ,so try changing the bandwidth

A word of advice. People who wish to buy any GSM- SIM based router from any provider, just before buying check the LTE / 4G signal strength in your room or place where you wish to place your router by using a LTE/4G mobile phone. if you dont have one ask a friend who does to come over and check its signal stregnth. move around a bit in the room and if you see a stable signal then only you can have a good stable internet speed. changing signal strength or signals which are switching between bars are unstable and the device is constantly busy in trying to find a stable frequency. This shows you may face a problem in your router.

You can check the same way for 3G only signals. You can check using each of STC, Mobily, ZAIN SIMs and can know which provider signals have the best and stable reception in your room.

Further you can also test the speed using speedtest app in your mobile if you are testing the LTE - 4G signals in your room. The technology and platform is identical to provide you speed on your mobile sim and the SIM based router.

Anyone needs help / info regarding internet and such let me know. I know it by profession :)

Dear All
you have to do a survey before buying or install an external antenna in your area
1- from your location check how many STC towers do you see, lets say 3 towers
2- go to every tower and do a speed test from your 4G phone and check the download speed
3- check on your location what tower are you getting the 4G speed
every tower it have a TAG number in this way you will know what tower you are connected on
4- if on your location you are connected on a low speed and there is other tower is providing high speed you need to buy a external directional antenna and point it to that tower

my case is I have 4 towers all of them are providing 7-15 Mb speed but I need more speed so I have do a survey and I find a tower that it 2-2.5Km fare with download speed of 80Mb

I have installed the external antenna to that tower and now I am getting average of 65-75Mb speed

please note that you have to buy an directional antenna and cable that support only 50oms.
must cables sold in the market are 75oms and they are for other use then data. is most cases the signal and quality drop %75

Thanks bro for such a suggestion, but the antenna which u buy from where can i get that, and from how much, and if possible please provide the product number of thanks a lot in advance, good job :|

hi bro i bought stc usb modem 4g my location jade sanaya exit 16 industrial city 2 connection was amazing for me!!  the signal here for LTE IS 4 BARS speedtest is uploa speed is 20mbps d load speed 6mbps connection spped 100 mbps i did not use antenna, i tight my usb modem in a stick and put in the window i got good LTE signal!!!!!!  if you talk tlak to me my skype jake_cute30 hope give you an idea this is my experience..

Hi I want to buy 4G router, currently I am paying 275 SAR per month in my compound for internet only. I have few question if some one can answer please
is 4G router needs phone line to get DSL or how it works,
if I am paying 1400 SAR and buy 4G router how I will connect to internet, is it wireless and doesn't need any phone line. idont have stc phone at my home.
please send me some good information....

Hi

STC's 4G router connects on mobile network, therefore you do not need STC's land line at your compound home. Just make sure that 4G network coverage is available in your area. You can check it by visiting http://www.stc.com.sa/wps/wcm/connect/e … t#coverage

TA

Sometimes you might have the coverage, but that dosent mean you would get the speed. It always depends on the number of subscribers available inside the tower radius. So rather sticking to 4G betetr use 3G sometimes. For my case, all my colleagues use 4G in our appartment, and they suffer slow speed, but i use 3G which gives me higher speed than what they get. So just play around and see which one would give you better speed. technically they say 4G is faster than 3G but if the number of users are more than the speed would be shared based on the operator configuration on the system. :/

I bought an open Mobily Router, which support speed upto 150MB/s and it supports all other Data Sims as well i.e. STC, Zain etc. Along with that I took 3 months STC unlimited Data SimCard. It cost me 600 SAR (270 Router + 330 Sim) total. The speed is amazing, download 1.2 MB/s.

Try this, you wouldn't regret it. Speedy & economical :)

AOA guys. im using the stc 4g lte(14mos) too since september, eventho having 1-2 bars only i can get max 40+mbps (but normally 18++) dl from speedtest.net. but just this wednesday i got dc while playing an online game and resumed after few minutes and since then conection became very slow. ive been doing tracerts to diagnose and im getting request timeouts every few seconds, there are times its working fine but most of the time slow with drops. i went to customer center today and the guy typed something on his pc then said its ok, i didnt believe him so i tested in front of him, and after long monitoring its true no drops. i came home then its same problem again,  then i tried placing it on diff parts of the house and now its working in the kitchen lol. but for months it never moved outside my bedroom.... can anyone tell me what happened there? im still monitoring if its gonna make request timeouts on the tracerts  --btw i live in riyadh exit 9. please clarify thanks!

STC changed the configuration of tower that was used earlier and now you should find another tower, generally coverage is overlapped between two towers so shouldn't be problem. As long as it works in kitchen you're should be okay

so yes i was using the router on the kitchen earlier and no drops/request timeout. then i turned it off bec i went outside for a while, when i came back net is slow again with request timeouts in tracert every few seconds T_T.. its even hard to load this page... any tips please. i already tried the ones mentioned earlier in the thread. :( --- edit: tried everything except the antenna. ..i think i want to be sure first that my 4g router is not faulty before spending on antenna..
-ok so yes it worked again after tilting it a little bit near the stove. very safe, i know.i guess that concludes that it really is just tower config change,modem not faulty and now i need to buy antenna for proper reception?
-so i guess ill have to live with position+point+then play -_-
-but does it make sense that u position it, it works, u turn it off, it doesnt, need to position again?

It depends upon what tower it is linked with and how strong the reception is. I think, installing an external antenna will definitely help. It should be available in Oalaya's computer market or Mursalat's mobile market.

I am a ZAIN prepaid internet package user , for which I paid Zain 1200 SAR. Only after 2 months of usage, Internet got stopped not to work again. Despite calling them cross network spending almost 15- 20 SAR per call, no action could be taken. Reason being the staff at customer care are totally ignorant of what technical problems may have happened. Getting a compalint thorugh a Zain outlet provided no fruit at all.
I would recommend people only to stay with companies like STC, or Mobily, which at least have better technical support or at least complaints centers in the town to report issues of bigger intensity, not like these miniature companies with poooor support.

although im using stc at first it was very good, then went a little meeeh~ (which could get fixed but with a little financial effort) i would disagree with you complimenting their customer support. :D

I would greatly appreciate

hi AoA mr shosan thank you for offering support. just now i was making an email of problem details and i logged in the router to get diagnosis to send to you, and there was a software update. after installing it i got my usual fast speed and my usual problem of speed test getting 1-3kbps upload speed since february now became 1-2mbps. is this a fix for some global problem? i will monitor the service and will email you once problem shows up again.  I am very hopeful this is the fix that i wanted!!!!  :D

Is it weird that im getting slower speed when connecting the router with an external antenna(the one they are offering in stc) ? like from 11mbps down to 4mbps... :unsure

waleed_prince143 wrote:

Assalam o Alaikum every one,

I just bought this device few weeks ago with 3 months unlimited downloading subscription for 600 Riyals.
before i was getting 1.5 mb downloading speed pretty good downloading speed for movies and torrents.
but now from 2 days i'm locked to 250 kbps only
I tried every thing reseting router changing settings checking sim card in mobile... but still 250 kbps only
Don't know what happened wrong.... Any one have idea whats the solution ?
250 kbps not worth 600 riyals


All ISP has "Fair Usage Policy" wherein certain limit of data to switch you on capping method.  This is to control the abuser on their entire network.  After a period of time, they will remove your speed limit.  I advise you to minimize your downloading, especially on torrent, because it consumes more bandwidth and this could affect other users in the network.

I think this is true because i recently bought STC 4G for SAR 1600 and it was giving me average 8-10 Mbps but now after over 70 gb downloaded my torrents dont go over 50 kbps since a few days now. I am thinking they are throttling torrents because downloads from other protocols are not affected and are giving same speeds as the speedtest.net results.

I am getting 2 bars and is on 4G FDD and currently between 5-6 Mbps speed.

jadihussain wrote:
time.chime wrote:

if the NETWORK MODE is AUTO, change it to only 4G, than only 3G and check, sometimes u will get a better speed on 3G also.


OK, I will check this out today night and post the results here. Let me see if changing to 3G brings any better signals and performance.


I just bought STC LTE 4G ROUTER but my signal is just 2 bars and a very slow speed. How could we change the NETWORK MODE to 4G or 3G? I always see the indicator screen of the router as 3G.

log in to your router>>internet tab>>network connection>>network mode... i have only 1 bar but my speed range is 2-20mbps...

im getting slow speed sometimes but when i log in the router it shows 3g (i specifically set it to auto before). after seeing that,I changed it to 4g, done speedtest, then its ok again. a day passed, felt slow, checked again, it set itself to 3g again...

Hi

Yea i am suffering from the same issue

Most of sites are jammed

Try to fix the band into 3G (2100MHz) and get back to me.

After that software update on our router 2 months ago... we are now having slow internet. I dont know what really happened but we notice a significant slowdown after that auto update of our router.

I installed an external antenna, signal was quite improved but still the internet speed was too slow!

I went to Olaya, I was told by a salesman that   we have to change the stc router. I disagreed and told that I am having the same huawei router, but he showed me that there is already a new model that supports 150mbps.

To verify what the salesman told me, i checked my router and it was indeed having a different model from what he showed me. I am having thoughts of buying a new router from stc, since I only have 3 months balance on my old stc router.

Any guys out there that can verify the claim of this salesman?

*** i know salesman will always tell anything just to sell their stuff... LOLZ!

i have the old one with 100 mbps. and i also bought recently the new one "150" for a friend. both are working fine.

-try testing it on a different area. maybe ur area's signal sux
-did u abuse it with torrent downloads? then its some fair usage policy thingy...
-u dont just put the antenna and get faster speed, i think u need to point to proper direction
(in my area i get only 1-2 signal but good speed, when i tried the antenna it gave higher signal but decreased the speed, dunno how that works lol)
-last february i kinda abused mine with too much huge downloads.. it got very slow.. until one day i logged in the router and saw an update--updated it, then right after the update finished, speeds soared^^
-try this: log in ur router, check on the upper right side of screen and see if ur getting 3g or 4g.
if 3g and slow, go to: internet tab>>network connection>>network mode
and change to 4g and test

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