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Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: Weaver on December 20, 2020, 09:09:58 PM

Title: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 20, 2020, 09:09:58 PM
I’m just wondering if I could get some box of tricks to relay 4G into the body of the house as Janet can only make calls upstairs and on the east side of the house.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: GigabitEthernet on December 20, 2020, 10:07:20 PM
Wi-Fi Calling, what phone do you have
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 20, 2020, 10:41:33 PM
My wife has an iPhone with an EE SIM in it. Wifi calling doesn’t seem to work somehow. The 802.11n 5GHz coverage is superb throughout the house.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: sevenlayermuddle on December 20, 2020, 11:54:50 PM
I seem to remember that WiFi calling will only work under a limited set of circumstances. 

For example, it may not be available to payg users.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 20, 2020, 11:57:41 PM
My wi-fi has an account with EE, not payg.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: tubaman on December 21, 2020, 07:53:41 AM
Wi-fi calling should work on her iPhone with EE. Assume she has checked the settings - https://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/getting-started-and-upgrading/using-your-phone-features/how-do-i-use-wifi-calling
 :)
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: GigabitEthernet on December 21, 2020, 08:18:10 AM
Wi-Fi Calling should work then.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: chenks on December 21, 2020, 08:27:33 AM
WIFI calling only kicks in when the phone decides that the signal is not strong enough to maintain voice calls.
it's possible that the voice signal is sufficient to maintain that - or it thinks it is.

my wifi calling on my pixel 5 (on Three) kicks in sometimes in my house, but i've seen the 4G signal extremely low and it still not kick in - mainly because voice won't be using 4G (the H+ signal is reasonably strong).
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: GigabitEthernet on December 21, 2020, 09:25:10 AM
Workaround is to stick the phone on Airplane Mode and then turn Wi-Fi back on.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: tickmike on December 21, 2020, 10:47:16 AM
I seem to remember that WiFi calling will only work under a limited set of circumstances. 

For example, it may not be available to payg users.

Correct, I am on that and can confirm but my wife is on a contract and hers works.

@Weaver.

You need a EE 'Signal Box/s' 
See https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,16825.msg309975.html#msg309975

Not sure if they still do them but there are plenty on eBay .

We currently have two and both are registered with EE.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: roseway on December 21, 2020, 11:10:55 AM
I seem to remember that WiFi calling will only work under a limited set of circumstances. 

For example, it may not be available to payg users.

There may be a half way house on this aspect. I have a O2 pay monthly contract, and WiFi calling works perfectly with this without needing a long contract.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Alex Atkin UK on December 21, 2020, 08:52:05 PM
There may be a half way house on this aspect. I have a O2 pay monthly contract, and WiFi calling works perfectly with this without needing a long contract.


It really annoys me that O2 do not support it on PAYG.  I can't rationalise contract as I've spent about £5 on calls in the last 12 months.  I mainly want WiFi calling for the higher quality.

Its annoying as I believe the TU Go app used to work with PAYG.  I believe at one time you could even use it on a different phone without a SIM card.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: RichardB on December 22, 2020, 08:45:22 AM
Three PAYG supports WiFi calling and SMS.
Useful as a backup second SIM in Anroid phones.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: neil on December 22, 2020, 06:22:18 PM
wifi calling?
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: j0hn on December 22, 2020, 06:27:17 PM
wifi calling?

When connected to WiFi a mobile phone will use the broadband connection to make calls instead of the cell phone tower.

Great for anyone with poor mobile or no mobile reception indoors.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: neil on December 22, 2020, 06:31:15 PM
When connected to WiFi a mobile phone will use the broadband connection to make calls instead of the cell phone tower.

Great for anyone with poor mobile or no mobile reception indoors.
like a whatsapp call?
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Ronski on December 22, 2020, 07:45:40 PM
Yes and no, yes only in the sense that wifi calling is using data, it's using your broadband data instead of mobile data though. No because that is a separate app, wi-fi calling should be completely transparent to the end user, they dial a number from their mobile phone, and as there is no mobile signal the call is routed over the broadband connection via the wi-fi link.

Hope that makes sense.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Chunkers on December 23, 2020, 09:01:23 AM
This thread really resonated with me, until recently I was unaware only certain operators support wifi calling (https://www.4g.co.uk/news/ee-o2-three-and-vodafone-which-networks-offer-wi-fi-calling/) (and certain phones obviously).  A while back I switched to Tesco mobile for one of my SIMs, I live in a not-spot and was very frustrated to find suddenly I could not use the phone at home.

Annoying, mobile operators appear to be using wifi-calling as a 'feature' for marketing purposes and only enabling on some contracts or certain tariff's - one to watch out for.

Currently I also use 3 for all my SIM's as they support wifi-calling on PAYG, as I also (pre-COVID) travel a lot for work they are also very good for international roaming under some of their contracts (roaming calls and data in the USA is a big money saver)

C
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Alex Atkin UK on December 23, 2020, 10:14:22 PM
Its likely because Three needs WiFi calling more than every other network, as they do not have any 2G coverage.

I moved to O2 from Three as at the time the call charges were identical and O2 has much better coverage in my experience.  As Three is quite weak at home it was hammering the battery.

My mum is still on Three but as she spends most of her time upstairs, its not nearly as bad as her room is facing the mast.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: chenks on December 24, 2020, 08:15:56 AM
what carrier still has a 2G network? it was all shut down surely as there is nationwide 3G coverage.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 24, 2020, 08:41:12 AM
@tickmike, @7LM - so given that my wife is on an EE contract, and has an iPhone, then in theory wifi calling ought to work?

Janet’s iPhone connects to the house’s wireless LAN fine as I can ping it using its A&A static IPv4 WLAN address, and my Firebrick router can see the iPhone, lists it on the list of DHCP clients and in the known ARP list. (Each known host gets an IPv4 address via DHCP, but that address is actually constant, set according to a long list of MAC address -> IPv4 mappings in the router.)

I read tickmike’s very helpful old post about the EE/Cisco boxes. Do I actually need one though given that this Apple phone does supposedly speak wifi calling?

I could start either by talking to Apple or by talking to EE - nightmare, each will blame the other. I will recheck the settings yet again, but I should probably get Apple to help me with that.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: meritez on December 24, 2020, 09:59:27 AM
what carrier still has a 2G network? it was all shut down surely as there is nationwide 3G coverage.

The 2G networks will be around longer than the 3G networks, as the emergency services use the 2G networks.

Vodafone is looking to shutdown their 3G network: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/06/vodafone-uk-to-switch-off-3g-mobile-network-within-2-3-years.html
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: chenks on December 24, 2020, 10:11:35 AM
Its likely because Three needs WiFi calling more than every other network, as they do not have any 2G coverage.

I moved to O2 from Three as at the time the call charges were identical and O2 has much better coverage in my experience.  As Three is quite weak at home it was hammering the battery.

My mum is still on Three but as she spends most of her time upstairs, its not nearly as bad as her room is facing the mast.

they actually used the 2G network from another provider, can't remember who it was, possible EE (or whatever they were called at the time).
when 3G coverage was pretty much UK wide they dropped it as it was no longer needed.

3G coverage reaching 98.7% of the population, 4G coverage available to 99.8% of the population
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: tickmike on December 24, 2020, 04:23:51 PM
so given that my wife is on an EE contract, and has an iPhone, then in theory wifi calling ought to work?

I read tickmike’s very helpful old post about the EE/Cisco boxes. Do I actually need one though given that this Apple phone does supposedly speak wifi calling?

iPhone.
You have to turn it on in >settings>phone>WiFi calling   turn on.

Note you can link other apple device's to her phone as well and 'if it's in range' make calls on them using her account.

We have the EE box as well, useful for me on PAYG and our daughter or visitors.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 24, 2020, 10:31:06 PM
Janet’s iPad can get notification of incoming calls that go to her iphone and the iPad can then pick them up. So that bit works.

So if we check the settings as per tickmike’s post and find it isn’t set correctly then all good, possibly. If not though, do we call Apple or EE? Toss a coin?

Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: GigabitEthernet on December 24, 2020, 10:56:07 PM
Janet’s iPad can get notification of incoming calls that go to her iphone and the iPad can then pick them up. So that bit works.

So if we check the settings as per tickmike’s post and find it isn’t set correctly then all good, possibly. If not though, do we call Apple or EE? Toss a coin?



Call EE, got nothing to do with Apple as it's controlled by the carrier.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 24, 2020, 11:51:48 PM
@GigabitEthernet The ‘call Apple’ thing was motivated by wondering whether there might be an iOS bug.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: GigabitEthernet on December 25, 2020, 08:28:49 PM
@GigabitEthernet The ‘call Apple’ thing was motivated by wondering whether there might be an iOS bug.

Not aware of any bugs with Wi-Fi Calling. It's a very reliable feature.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 26, 2020, 05:41:46 AM
Many thanks
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: tickmike on December 26, 2020, 08:47:27 PM
I think EE may have to make sure WiFi calling is enabled on the account.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: chenks on December 27, 2020, 01:46:16 PM
not sure if it's enabled by default or not, but i know EE don't offer Wifi calling on corporate account SIMs (for some strange reason).
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: Weaver on December 27, 2020, 02:39:19 PM
That could well be the answer then guys, that we haven’t called EE to get it enabled.
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: chenks on December 27, 2020, 03:09:41 PM
https://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/getting-started-and-upgrading/using-your-phone-features/how-do-i-use-wifi-calling
Title: Re: 4G stone wall reception
Post by: j0hn on December 27, 2020, 03:11:45 PM
That could well be the answer then guys, that we haven’t called EE to get it enabled.

Not necessary.

https://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/getting-started-and-upgrading/using-your-phone-features/how-do-i-use-wifi-calling

We have 2 EE contracts at home. Both use Wi-fi calling.
Neither required setting it up.

EE can't enable/disable it for individual accounts AFAIK.
It's just "on".
You enable/didable it at your end on the device.

Quote
Who can get WiFi Calling?
Anyone on an EE pay monthly plan with a compatible phone. Sorry, it’s not available on pay as you go yet.

To use the service, be sure to check your device supports WiFi calling first.

How do I set up WiFi Calling?
WiFi Calling is easy to set up.

Just connect your phone to WiFi, ensure you have the latest software installed and switch on WiFi Calling in your settings.

The process is slightly different for each phone – select yours to see how it’s done: