No connection in certain locations and at work

[ekangadean1]

Hello.

For 3 months, every time I am at work I have no connection on my phone.  I have a iPhone 12 mini since 2021. There are no signal bars in the top of my screen. I have been with EE for close to a year now on a sim plan.

Other people I work with get connection in the toilets at work, staff rooms and other parts; as some are with O2 and Three (3), they can use their phones. 

I however, can’t use anything- Gmail, WhatsApp etc

It has been such an inconvenience. I called EE today and an advisor said if I go to settings and mobile services, I can switch off network selection from automatic and try selecting EE again to be reconfigured to my closest mast. I’m yet to try this. 

I am aware the building I work at has a blocker on, which makes the network there extremely poor including its WiFi, but another colleague is with O2 and even makes calls. Is there any way to troubleshoot this? I don’t want to share the postcode but generally the location finder said there is good connection in the area. For that school though it’s so poor.

[bristolian]

No network will guarantee indoor coverage, but depending on various factors - you will always find some networks perform better than others in particular buildings. One of those factors is the location of, and frequency bands in use on, the nearest serving site - meaning that for every location where O2 or 3 are better, there will be dozens of others where EE is the only network to work indoors or O2 might be the only network not to work.

WiFi-calling is EE's recommended solution for any indoor coverage issues. I'm not sure what you mean by a "blocker", but any powered equipment that actively blocks mobile network coverage tends to be unlawful for use in the UK.

[ekangadean1]

Thanks for answering.

By blocker I mean that there are websites students can’t access for safety and security and generally, it seems everyone has some sort of poor connection meaning reduced signal bars etc. at my workplace.

I understand. However, my problem is when I click a notification whether that be Instagram, WhatsApp, Gmail or the like, nothing loads. I only get notifications from apps and can communicate with iMessage only the most efficiently. My phone calls don’t come through until later and that is the most important thing I need alongside SMS.

[bristolian]

All of which are symptoms caused by poor coverage. It sounds like the building construction is causing issues to all networks to some degree - it happens.

If your workplace has WiFi, then trying WiFi-calling is your best course of action. It allows full use of a phone for incoming & outgoing calls & texts without needing any mobile coverage.

If you drift out of WiFi coverage and back into mobile service, calls will swap over naturally.