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Author Topic: EE Signal Box / Femtocell  (Read 6606 times)

callernumbertwo

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EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« on: July 22, 2016, 04:25:17 PM »

I've been a longstanding EE (T-mobile) customer, however a new neighbour has moved in and after they complained about poor reception in their house they have been given a Signal Box.

I've never had issues with dropped calls or reception at home, until now.

It turns out that my phone is consistently connecting to the Signal Box (which EE say they can't prevent), and possibly due to my lack of poor signal from the Signal Box and/or the neighbours poor broadband, I'm getting dropped calls all the time.

I'm in fact a little concerned about how this would affect my ability to make an emergency call should the need arise. Approx. 3/5 of calls are dropping out after 15 seconds.

EE seem unsure whether or not giving me my own Signal Box would fix the problem (it might detect good signal and disable itself?), however they aren't willing to give me one to try out.

The only useful suggestion EE have is that I enter a new 4G contract, and they say that I should get good 4G signal and I therefore wouldn't connect to the Signal Box because it's only 3G. To be honest, I don't really want to have to pay more and don't need 4G.

Has anyone got any other suggestions as to what to do?
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roswellgrey

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2016, 09:02:58 AM »

eek - nasty situation  :(  Your phone is determining that the femotcell is preferable to your "normal" cell, and unfortunately you cannnot control the cell selection criteria of your phone, so you cannot stop your phone hopping onto the femotcell, with the unfortunate nasty side effects you have.

Moderately unhelpful thoughts that spring to mind ...

- IF (a big if) you still have good 2G coverage at home, you could (IF your phone/sim allows it) restrict your phone to "2G only" mode.
This might allow calls to become reliable then (as it won't register on the 3G femtocell) , but will it knacker any data usage you do - suboptimal at best, and probably unacceptable. And will cause problems when generally moving around as it will restrict you to the old 2G network only.

- Re 4G option (and fully appreciate the fact that you don't want to do that), but that would work as long as you have a very solid 4G signal @ home.
If it is in any way flaky, the phone will drop back to the femtocell when it perceives the 4G signal is not good enough, so you would be back to square 1.
A la the previous thought, you might be able to lock it to 4G only, but again that will cause call reception issues (i.e. dropping out of service) if the 4G signal is flaky in the first place :( and, again, will be nasty when generally moving around as it will restrict you to 4G only.

- EE giving you your own femtocell could well help by covering an area of your house with a stronger local cell signal, and your phone should prefer this. But again, if there are weak areas in the property where the neighbour's femtocell signal is stronger/better quality, the phone will register back on to your neighbours femtocell, and you are back to square 1 (proximity, building construction and the like will all have a severe impact on this scenario)

A theoretical, reliable answer is for the neighbour's femtocell to have a list of "not allowed to register" phone IMEIs so that EE could block your phone from ever registering on that "cell", but I don't think that is supported functionality....

None of the above doesn't help much I know - however, in your shoes, aside from moving networks to get away from the problem, the only thing I could think to do is to try to push EE to give you a free femtocell to see if it helps the situation, as they have effectively changed their network footprint to your detrement ...

« Last Edit: July 24, 2016, 09:22:37 AM by roswellgrey »
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speedyrite

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2016, 10:45:18 AM »

A theoretical, reliable answer is for the neighbour's femtocell to have a list of "not allowed to register" phone IMEIs so that EE could block your phone from ever registering on that "cell", but I don't think that is supported functionality....

That's how the Three Home Signal Box works - only registered numbers can go via the femtocell. I would have thought that functionality would be standard on femtocells of all providers, so I'm surprised and interested to hear that's not the case with EE.
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d2d4j

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2016, 10:45:54 AM »

Hi

Just a thought, but if your on very good terms with your neighbour and you have better internet connection, why not try siting the box in your house, using your internet.

This is based on the fact that your mobile is connecting to the box in your neighbour house, so signal must be strong and it will likely be as good in your house to your neighbour house

Many thanks

John
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tickmike

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2016, 11:30:31 AM »

We have a EE signal box
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,16825.msg309975.html#msg309975
and it works well on our slow ADSL2 connection, our neighbors are not near so we do not get your problem.
The box is made by 'Cisco'
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/wcs/3-2/configuration/guide/wcscfg32/wcscod.html
You could have a word with them.

You need to contact EE again (best by landline to prove you do not get a signal   ;) )
But not tell them your neighbor got a box !, tell them about your poor signal in your area (they will then check there maps) Tell them you need the reliable phone signal for Emergency calls, if they say no just say you are going to another provider ASAP.

If you do get a box, you plug it into your router via Ethernet cable and you have to contact them to enable it or it will not connect to there servers.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2016, 11:34:52 AM by tickmike »
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callernumbertwo

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2016, 09:31:47 PM »

Thanks all for your helpful comments, I appreciate it!

Quote
Re 4G option (and fully appreciate the fact that you don't want to do that), but that would work as long as you have a very solid 4G signal @ home.
If it is in any way flaky, the phone will drop back to the femtocell when it perceives the 4G signal is not good enough, so you would be back to square 1.

roswellgrey - I was advised by EE that if I have any level of 4G voice or data signal, that the handset would connect to the 4G's masts 3G provision rather than the femtocell due to the way 4G works. Do you know whether or not this is true? I assume it relies on there being a solid level of signal (even if the signal is poor), which is possibly what you were referring too over intermittent reception.

EE technical were really insistent I wasn't going to get a femtocell, however after a team leader failed to call me back as promised EE's online complaints chat are dispatching me out a femtocell in the post.

EE technical had actually suggested that the femtocell was capable of "turning itself off" if it detected good reception (from another femtocell and presumably from the mast), so we'll see how this pans out. If it's true, hopefully we have a powercut and mine boots up before my neighbours.

Quote
[...]if there are weak areas in the property where the neighbour's femtocell signal is stronger/better quality, the phone will register back on to your neighbours femtocell, and you are back to square 1

Roswellgrey - It's a flat and effectively we have the upstairs (and a bit of space downstairs for an entrance and stairs), and they have downstairs. I know where their femtocell is, and without knowing the construction of the floor/ceiling where might be the most sensible place to put it? I'm thinking either directly above theirs?

I'm not sure how usual it is for EE to offer discounts on their pay-monthly plans (or to stick to their word), however they also offered me ~£12/mo discount to put me onto a comparative 4G EE plan - so that's the fallback option.
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roswellgrey

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2016, 07:57:17 AM »

That's how the Three Home Signal Box works - only registered numbers can go via the femtocell. I would have thought that functionality would be standard on femtocells of all providers, so I'm surprised and interested to hear that's not the case with EE.

It is strange indeed (the ee website is clear on this point) .
I suppose the logic is that any visitors to the property on ee/orange/tmob get the advantage of the micro-coverage as well, but the side effects, as in this case, can be unfortunate ..
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roswellgrey

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2016, 08:15:22 AM »

Thanks all for your helpful comments, I appreciate it!

roswellgrey - I was advised by EE that if I have any level of 4G voice or data signal, that the handset would connect to the 4G's masts 3G provision rather than the femtocell due to the way 4G works. Do you know whether or not this is true? I assume it relies on there being a solid level of signal (even if the signal is poor), which is possibly what you were referring too over intermittent reception.

I don't know  ... it's an interesting point. The underlying concern of a weak signal from the 4G mast remains, but I have no idea whether it behaves differently solely due to the fact that a 4G mast is involved. If you could borrow someones old 4G phone (either EE or unlocked), it might be an interesting experiment to get a PAYG 4G EE sim and see how it behaves (especially if you ever get to considering the 4G escape route) ....

EE technical were really insistent I wasn't going to get a femtocell, however after a team leader failed to call me back as promised EE's online complaints chat are dispatching me out a femtocell in the post.

A Good Result !   :) Nice one ...

Roswellgrey - It's a flat and effectively we have the upstairs (and a bit of space downstairs for an entrance and stairs), and they have downstairs. I know where their femtocell is, and without knowing the construction of the floor/ceiling where might be the most sensible place to put it? I'm thinking either directly above theirs?


Nice thing about this situation is that you can move it around to try to get a workable solution, but I assume that when the femtocell power up it does a frequency scan to determine what it can hear in terms of base station frequencies in use, so that it can then choose one that is not in use. So, I would place it where it has a good chance of hearing the neighbours femtocell (so that it knows it is there and hence will choose a different frequency), and also is at a spot where you stand the best chance of covering the flat with a reasonable signal.

Good luck :)
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underzone

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2016, 09:48:11 AM »

I thought femtocells were old hat these days. Surely wifi calling is the way forward, assuming your phone supports it:
http://ee.co.uk/why-ee/network/wifi-calling
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2016, 10:31:08 AM »

I thought femtocells were old hat these days. Surely wifi calling is the way forward, assuming your phone supports it:
http://ee.co.uk/why-ee/network/wifi-calling

Wifi calling tends to not be available on PAYG, other than that maybe wort a try?

Re a second (your own) femtocell, maybe I'm being dumb but...   Won't the phone just connect to whichever one is marginally stronger?    If so, in two flats within the same building that has two cells, I'd have expected the phone to choose the wrong cell a lot of the time. Happy to have this explained to me though, it is an interesting discussion. :)
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roswellgrey

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2016, 10:58:35 AM »

Not sure if callernumber2's "(Tmobile)" comment meant he is still using tmob (like me) rather than being on EE - point being wifi calling seems only available on EE sims, so they might not have that option, but then  again .... :)

Seven - you are not being dumb at all - this is an unpleasant situation with the only real answer being barring the OP's phone from registering on the neighbour's femtocell, which doesn't appear to be an available option, unfortunately.   
All one can hope is that the "new" femtocell has a better quality of signal (strength and bit error rate) within their flat as compared to the one below
i.e. that the signal attenuation between floors is greater than between internal walls/obstructions, and as such hoping their phone will favour the "new" signal.
As EE have now offered up one for free, it has to be worth a try afore more drastic solutions, but, unfortunately, the only way to know is to try it ...
« Last Edit: July 25, 2016, 11:02:38 AM by roswellgrey »
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callernumbertwo

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Re: EE Signal Box / Femtocell
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2016, 11:34:38 AM »

Quote
I thought femtocells were old hat these days. Surely wifi calling is the way forward, assuming your phone supports it.

Agreed, and in my opinion and based on the issues I'm having people shouldn't be given femtocells if WiFi calling is an option. I am on t-mobile and therefore I can't use WiFi calling, nor can I use 4G, which makes the femtocell a good fit. I hope EE are logical and apply these rules to other customers. Although, the frustrating thing is that I get perfectly good signal from the mast - except my handset connects to the neighbours femtocell which has seemingly bad connectivity!

Quote
Won't the phone just connect to whichever one is marginally stronger?    If so, in two flats within the same building that has two cells, I'd have expected the phone to choose the wrong cell a lot of the time.

Initially I was concerned that the femtocell would refuse to work, with there being another in such close proximity. I can confirm that I have mine plugged in and my calls (so far) are being made through it. I think the likelihood is that some of the time I will still connect to the neighbours, and possibly the neighbour will connect to mine - we just need to see how frequently this is!

The neighbours femtocell was consistently dropping calls, and so any percentage of calls made through mine (assuming it proves to be reliable) over theirs is better. I wish there were a way of knowing which my handset was registered to for receiving calls (although I can tell when a call is active as the light flashes on the handset).

I'll perhaps give this a week, and assess whether or not a change of network and/or going to 4G and EE is worthwhile.

The other consideration in the back of my mind, is whether or not I've now increased the overall coverage of these femtocells and I'm the person causing an issue for another neighbour (much like my neighbour has caused for me)!.
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