Promises Promises

[Surly71]

Just received an email from EE trying to delight me by stating, and I quote 'We've got some big news'.
What could be this big news?

Reading the email I thought it might be the fact that my mobile signal might not drop all the time when making a phone call to friends and family, but alas NO. It was just more tech being developed and deployed that will no doubt fail and cause further disappointment.
EE - Just can we have a mobile service that works and stays working so that when using my mobile at home at least doesn't lose connection when both parties haven't moved.  Can we have a firmware update which allows me to tell my router to reboot itself maybe once a week, so that I don't have to do the reboot middle of the day when I'm actually using it.

Please do not reply and try to start up a conversation about have you tried this, or that...we've done that round and round the mulberry bush exercise with your network engineers.  Basically your kit does not work!

Worse thing is...other suppliers are just as bad so might as well stick with the devil you know.

[bristolian]

Are you using WiFi-calling or the mobile network when calls drop? EE uses the same carrier-grade equipment as other operators.

EE's home broadband is a completely different network & technology to EE mobile.

[Surly71]

Thanks for the response on this.  With EE engineers, no solution has been found for my issue.  Wifi calling has been turned off, and on, phones rebooted, sim cards replaced, auto and manual network settings change.  EE just fails to be able to hold a stable connection once connected.  Only today 20/10, my friend phoned me and the call then died between us, then they phoned me back and I could only hear them.  I hung up.  This is regular with me and regular with them when they use EE to talk to others, so its not our phones.  I have phone calls with different people and sometimes the call is stable and sometimes its not, doesn't matter the network my network is talking to.

The reason for my post is EE are now promising other services, but they cannot deliver a phone line yet.  So in essence why would I rely on  EE to deliver any other service.

Appreciate the router is a different kettle of fish, but why does a router need rebooting, and if its a regular thing with all routers which is well documented that they do need to be rebooted now and again,  allow me to choose a reboot schedule for when I'm using it the least.  Don't wait till the middle of the day of a random day to just stop all my connected devices working to finally tell me the router is playing up, such as smart lights not working, PC's not connecting especially when working from home on important Teams Calls.  Its first world problems I know, but hey, the promise is there and its not being delivered.

[bristolian]

Are you using WiFi-calling or the mobile network when calls drop? Does WiFi-calling or VoLTE/4G-calling show on-screen when this happens?

[bristolian]

Are you using WiFi-calling or the mobile network when calls drop? Does WiFi-calling or VoLTE/4G-calling show on-screen when this happens?

[Surly71]

Hi Bristolian

Sorry its been a while. Life gets in the way sometimes, and then EE service reminds you how bad it is.
In answer to your question, my phone does have WIFI-calling switched on when its available. I assume this means data connections as well away from home, but I might be wrong on that assumption.   In terms of the VoLTE/4G label showing, I didn't notice. but for some reference I'm sat here in the same place and my phone shows no signal, but VoLTE/LTE1 is showing.

However the signal in my area seems to be affected as others on EE also have the same issues.  I was on a call the other night and the sign al bars on the phone went from zero to 2 max, while I walked around the house to see if I could get a stable signal. I could here the other person perfectly, but to them I sounded like a robot.  I phoned EE the next day and sure enough this year a certain mast has been out from Jan to Sept, and then was supposed to be fixed, but engineers are working on that mast again.  
I think its really disappointing to have a service like this, along with the broadband having to be rebooted every few days.
The other night the internet went off for 5 seconds, 5 seconds, which sent all my smart devices to start complaining they had no connection to the internet.  This was after watching a 4k stream documentary on youtube for 3 hrs.  I think the Router had had enough and decided not to work.  Once the router was back up and running again after another reboot, I had to reboot all google devices and the Yale security system.  Its appalling to be honest!

[bristolian]

Voice calls & mobile data are different uses of a mobile network signal, but calls do not use data.

VoLTE is the technology which underpins 4G-calling, allowing voice calls over 4G. Without this, mobile data can use 4G but voice calls will use 2G or 3G.

I would take "mast down" with a relative pinch of salt.

[Surly71]

Thanks

I agree, many of my friends who I have trouble speaking with are on EE, and they get the same banter from EE when they manage to speak to someone.

My son is on Smartie - and he seems to get a signal ok...so might try his SIM in my phone for signal strentgh and I may give them a go for a month, as at the moment my November bill and December bill has been paid for by EE due to lack of service lately.

Been thinking about my router as well I wonder if I can get a propriety router and ditch the EE one.  Have you had any experience doing this or know if its possible to replace the EE  modem/router?  I do have a very good ASUS router doing nothing, which I could mesh from the EE router, but its not a modem router so the weak link is still the EE router which I'd have to use as the main modem link to EE.

Regards

Gaz