Signal quality declining

[Darius1212]

I live in London and for the past couple of months my signal is getting worse as the time passes. It started couple of months ago when my signal was like 4 to 5 bars. I was able to make a phone calls with no issues at home. Now if I have one bar that's really good. Most of the time I have to rely on WiFi calling at home and outside maximum 2 bars. Most of my incoming calls go to voicemail straight away. Checking coverage in my area and there is no issues apparently. Phone is up to date and tried the usual restarting and resetting network settings options. Nothing works. I use Samsung and my wife has iPhone and she has the same issues. When calling EE I get the same response, use WiFi. Why are we paying for service which is obviously not there? Is there anything I can do or complain to some other institution than EE as I'm getting nowhere and Im still in contract so can't leave. When I joined couple of years ago it was the best network but not sure what has happened since. 

[Northerner]

Hi @Darius1212 

You can complain here: https://ee.co.uk/help/contact-ee/complaint

What zone you in? 

Thanks 

[bristolian]

Chapter & verse could be written on why on-screen bars are a useful guide but should not be taken any more seriously than that.

The concern should be around loss of service where previously there was - if this is primarily indoors then I would suspect re-config activity on your local serving sites, unfortunately putting you at edge of sector. This is only a guess though, and yours would require specific local investigation.

WiFi-calling is EE's preferred means to mitigate against poor indoor service, which is unfortunately unavoidable sooner or later. Is there a problem with your using WiFi-calling? Or do you experience any issues with using the service? You mention incoming calls going to voicemail - is this with WiFi-calling enabled?

[Darius1212]

WiFi calling enabled but still phone calls go to voicemail and or I keep missinng them and just get text message that someone tried to call me. WiFi calling is rubbish as I have stable connection throughout the house with minimum speed of 300mb ( my internet speed is 1gb up and down) and still when using WiFi calling calls get cut off or when I move from one room to another it is simple unstable. Not sure if the phone is trying to use network first before WiFi. 

[Matt_124]

What brand of phone are you using? On some Android devices (namely Samsung in my experience) there is the "Calling Preference" option to switch between "Wi-Fi preferred" and "Mobile network preferred" which help the device to determine when to use Wi-Fi Calling.

[Darius1212]

Phone is set to use WiFi calling as preferable connection while at home. The main issue is that it is not only at home but everywhere in my area within radius of 1 mile it's really bad. 

[Darius1212]

Yes I have that ticked as I use Samsung. I thought it could be my phone but my wife is using iPhone and she has the same issue 😞 

[bristolian]

If your phone is connected to a WiFi-router, with WiFi-calling set to WiFi-preferred, and calls are failing, then the chances of the issue being on the mobile network are vastly reduced.

My understanding of iOS is that the option for WiFi/mobile-preferred is not available, and this is an Android USP - happy to be corrected, but I'd be wanting to check that your in-home calls are actually using VoWiFi. Check the on-screen symbols when on a call, Samsung/Android gives you the VoLTE/VoWiFi symbol next to the coverage indicators.

[Schockwave]

@bristolian , you are correct the wifi preferred is an Android thing, although IPhone do have wifi calling but not preferred as on Android, have just checked, as I do not use wifi calling as I do not need it.