Can i squeeze more MB/s out of my 4g Broadband

[A_Lamb_Chop]

Hi Sean, as a newbie to 4g broadband this site has helped me achieve speeds i never thought possible from my rural location through my 4g broadband, so firstly thank you.

Some background, i have a Huawei b525s-23a i am from Northern Ireland and currently on a vodafone unlimited sim. I have had some trouble pinpointing my nearest mast there are two i have been testing with, i believe my nearest (and best hope) is 0.5km away (direct line of site, maybe 1 - 2 trees minimum obstructing), the other i am unsure of distance only that it is on the north facing side of my house, both band 20 (UL 847 MHhz & DL 806 MHhz) both seem to be giving same speed results, however mast 2 seemed to perfrom better in speed tests, however mast 1 has since perfromed the same (i believe this was down to usage/load etc one mast is in estate of local village, and other in general direction of only a main road). This morning my Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 arrived and i have been running tests in the roof space and such to find the best place before i begin drilling holes. Additionally i have been messing with my bands in LTE H-Monitor however i can only seem to connect to band 20. Below are the avaerage figures ive been achieving:

RSSI: -63 dBm +- 1
RSRP: -76 dBm +- 1
RSRQ: fluctuates between -6 and -13 (seems dependant on where Antenna is placed)
SINR: fluctuates between 4 - 12 (again as above)

This has gave me on average 2.5mb/s - 4mb/s download depending on time of day with a max of 5.5mb/s download (currently 4.6mb/s) these figures are great! Current BT line is max 1.3mb/s. My question is, have you any further advice on how i may if its possible to improve my SINR as it is consistently my weakest point? 

[Seán]

Your signal strength is great, but there is some interference going by your SINR reading. I reckon this will improve if you move your antenna outside as it's likely picking up interference with the signal of the other mast bouncing about the loft.

I am surprised the speed is not much higher as the mast appears to be lightly loaded with those RSRQ readings, assuming it's averaging around -10dB. This seems to indicate that there is a bottleneck further upstream such as whatever backhaul feeds the mast. Going by the info I could find, Vodafone UK has 10MHz of bandwidth on band 20. Even with a poor SINR of 4, I would expect the speed to be around 20-30Mbps with an RSRQ hovering around -10dB.

Before mounting it outside, try a temporary setup, e.g. mount it on a tripod, washing line pole or something similar. If the SINR is much higher but no improvement in speed with either mast, then the throughput (speed) is facing a bottleneck further upstream, i.e. best to leave it in the loft until they upgrade the backhaul to the mast where you notice a speed improvement.

Going by Wikipedia, Vodafone UK operates on bands 1, 7 and 20. Bands 1 (2100MHz) and 7 (2600MHz) have poor penetration, so these are worth testing with the antenna outside.

[A_Lamb_Chop]

Your signal strength is great, but there is some interference going by your SINR reading.  I reckon this will improve if you move your antenna outside as it's likely picking up interference with the signal of the other mast bouncing about the loft. 

I am surprised the speed is not much higher as the mast appears to be lightly loaded with those RSRQ readings, assuming it's averaging around -10dB.  This seems to indicate that there is a bottleneck further upstream such as whatever backhaul feeds the mast.  Going by the info I could find, Vodafone UK has 10MHz of bandwidth on band 20.  Even with a poor SINR of 4, I would expect the speed to be around 20-30Mbps with an RSRQ hovering around -10dB. 

Before mounting it outside, try a temporary setup, e.g. mount it on a tripod, washing line pole or something similar.  If the SINR is much higher but no improvement in speed with either mast, then the throughput (speed) is facing a bottleneck further upstream, i.e. best to leave it in the loft until they upgrade the backhaul to the mast where you notice a speed improvement. 

Going by Wikipedia, Vodafone UK operates on bands 1, 7 and 20.  Bands 1 (2100MHz) and 7 (2600MHz) have poor penetration, so these are worth testing with the antenna outside.

Thanks for getting back to me! Currently i have the antenna attached to a tripod until i find the correct spot. I spent the day trying both masts, when testing each mast i made sure to try with the house between me and the other mast i am not testing, hoping this would reduce any interference.  After all my tests, it appears the SINR is not better than when in the roof space and the speeds are similar. 

The fastest speeds i have been able to achieve today are not in my loft, i was able to achieve a steady 6.1mb/s from my second story with an interior and an exterior wall between the antenna and the mast, and aimed in the direction of the mast with similar signal as specified in my original post, however it is not sutiable to mount in a spare bedroom.

Im thinking next i should try the antena in the loft for a day or two and monitor the speed and signal? Also i am very happy wtih me Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 however is the the best antena for my set up?