Why does my internet suck worse than yours?

[terroir]

Most likely.

They purchase potential bandwidth from different higher tier carriers, if that carrier can't supply enough bandwidth to a lower tier carrier, they will delay that carrier till the congestion goes down. That's the way it is most the time. About the only way to get decent wireless internet is to go for 3/4g, and live in an area where you have good coverage, with a better carrier.

It is very likely though, that the signal dropped out, got terminated, and the device is dialing back up, representing a time period that it is dormant.

While the signal does frequently drop out, with the device then dialing back up, it's clear to me when that happens.

When the connection goes dormant, it claims to be still connected, and does not redial. This is a crapshoot, and sometimes traffic resumes and sometimes it eventually drops connection, but it does appear to be connected while dormant.