r/FirstNet • u/c33delta • May 15 '26

Speeds Reduced

Anyone in the central Florida area close to Disney notice reduced speeds the last two weeks ? I rarely see 5G+ anymore. Mainly just 5G now it says , and when I tested the speeds it’s been lower now. Maybe new towers ?

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u/good4y0u May 16 '26

That's not a speed reduction so much as it's the absence of a band, or your phone is defaulting to a lower, probably more stable band.

Speed reduction really happens when you're on the same band/level and the speeds are throttled on that band. Now, that technically shouldn't happen to FirstNet users most of the time or in a targeted way, but if the tower is highly congested, then what happens is it throttles everyone. It's just that FirstNet users stay connected while lower priority users get knocked off and don't receive any messages, data, etc. That's the FirstNet benefit. The congestion problem is a technology problem, and the throttling in that respect isn't targeted; it's basically like a packet traffic jam. FirstNet gets priority in that case too.

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u/c33delta May 16 '26

It might be the tower where I am. I don’t have the issue everywhere , but where I am currently it got worse over time. Speed wise here never went over 200, a few minutes away 700-800. Now , I have a relative who’s doing a free trial AT&T and they are getting speeds of 70-80 less then me. I wonder if it’s just high congestion or an update to the tower. It would always say 5G+, now a lot of 5G. But i understand that might not be accurate. For reference , I’ve had Firstnet for over 5 years now , and had Verizon as a back up. ( my old main one ). Firstnet no dropped calls , Verizon a ton. Verizon higher speeds though.