Why Your Speed Tests Might Show Lower Results Than Promised

We understand that running speed tests can sometimes lead to questions, especially when the results seem lower than the speeds we’ve told you to expect. Don’t worry—this is completely normal and can happen for several reasons. Here’s a quick explanation...

1. Cellular Load Balancing

Our service uses multiple cellular connections simultaneously, which share the load to ensure reliable and consistent performance. Most public speed tests, however, are designed to measure a single connection at a time, so they might not reflect the combined performance of our setup.

2. Traffic Steering Rules

We use traffic management systems to prioritize certain types of data, ensuring smooth operation for your critical applications. Speed test traffic might be deprioritized in these rules, making the results lower than the actual capacity of your connection.

3. 5G Bonding Overheads

To provide a seamless experience, we bond multiple 5G connections together. This process involves some throughput overhead, which means the raw speed test numbers don’t fully represent the real-world performance of your bonded connection.

4. Cellular Bufferbloat

Cellular networks sometimes experience "bufferbloat," which happens when too much data gets queued up, causing delays. This can impact speed test results but doesn’t usually affect everyday performance like video streaming or web browsing.

How We Test Your Connection During Commissioning

When setting up your system, we run tests using UDP-based iperf3 on each individual connection. This method ensures we get an accurate measure of each cellular connection’s true performance.

Want an Up-to-Date Speed Test?

If you’d like us to perform a speed test on your live system, we’re happy to help! Please note that these tests need to be run outside of regular operating hours to avoid disrupting your network's performance during peak usage times. Just let us know, and we’ll arrange it for you.

If you have more questions feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to help!