I am not going to promise top LTE speeds during rush hours, but if you can get enough speed to stream 480p videos or even 720p, then I think it’s worth trying. So let’s see how to increase your internet speed during rush hours.
Speed up mobile data during rush hour
Before we try to get better speed, it’s good to know why you are getting slow speed in the first place. Mobile networks have dedicated towers placed that have a limited capacity of users they can handle without a drop in promised download speed. And during the rush hours, the network limit is reached so all users receive slower mobile data speed. Once the tower is overloaded there isn’t much you can do to get better speed. Although you can switch your cell phone tower, but there is a good chance all nearby towers are overloaded as well during rush hour. However, there is a good chance that the 3G tower near you might not be overloaded. If you switch to 3G, you might get a better speed than 4G if the tower isn’t overloaded. 4G and 3G towers are separate from each other and come with their own bandwidth capacity. Most of the phones today are 4G enabled, so there is a good chance most users in your area are using 4G; which is why your 4G connection is slow. Although 3G connection offers 2-10 Mbps speed on average, but as it is stable; it might be better than 4G during rush hour. From my personal experience, during rush hour my download speed on 4G drops to 2-4 Mbps and it’s very unstable. However, when I switch to 3G I get a consistent 6-8 Mbps speed. If you are up for switching to 3G during rush hours, then here’s how to do it:
Switch to 3G for better Mobile data speed
All 4G enabled phones are backward compatible with 3G and 2G, so you can easily switch to 3G right from the phone settings. Here’s how to do it: In the phone “Settings”, tap on “More” and then select “Mobile network”. Now scroll down and tap on “Preferred network mode” and select “WCDMA/GSM auto” from the list. On some phones, it might be “3G/2G” instead. You can also select “WCDMA only” if you don’t want the connection to auto switch to 2G if needed.
That’s it, if the 3G towers in your area aren’t overloaded as well, you should see an increase in mobile data speed.
Ending thoughts
I should mention that this trick isn’t limited to getting better speed during rush hours. It might also help if 4G reception is weak in your current area and your phone is not automatically switching to 3G connection. Furthermore, if your network provider is throttling the 4G connection for some reason, it might not be throttling 3G, so it’s worth trying. Let us know in the comments if this trick helps you increase mobile data speed during rush hours.
