Wifi Calling - home 'cell'

[CardUK]

Hi All

Back in the day you used to be able to get a signal booster/transmitter that plugged into your router and your phone would connect to it as an extension of the mobile signal (if you have poor/zero reception in your house). Now it appears as though the only option is wifi calling.

I have 2x issues with wifi calling:
i) when the kids are all on devices the wifi gets congested and wifi calling is unusable, and
ii) I lose about 50% of my battery per day with my mobile 'looking for coverage'. 

Does EE still do a home plug in cell or booster option that will connect directly to the router, i cannot find one? Anyone got any other ideas on how to solve this. There do not seem to be 'legal' mobile boosters in this country unless you are willing to pay hundreds or thousands for a commercial (ofsted approved) one. 

[Chris_B]

@CardUK  No you can not get a signal booster box any more.  These boxes use 3G and the 3G network is being shutdown.   if your phone is constantly saying searching for a signal, then it’ll be best if you put your phone in Airplane Mode when possible as that’s the device searching for a cellular connection. 

What device do you have ?   I had this issue years ago with a iPhone and I did a network reset on the device and it stopped the battery drain. 

[bristolian]

Across the UK mobile industry, the in-home "signal boxes" and 3G which they relied upon, are now considered legacy tech. WiFi-calling is now the preferred solution, and works in-tandem with 4G-calling for a seamless voice solution - which the Signal Boxes never did.

VoWiFi uses very little bandwidth and shouldn't contribute to internet congestion. I would be very surprised if wireless congestion caused issues, but dual-band routers may give you the option of the 5Ghz band as well as the more common 2.4Ghz

With the signal boxes using 3G2100, and most current phones preferring 4G bands over any legacy one, your second issue would not be as clear-cut.

[paul03631]

If you  have a recent Samsung phone (not sure about other brands) then make sure WiFi calling is set to WiFi preferred. That *should* stop the phone searching for a mobile signal so much. It's under the dialer app settings >WiFi calling. Tap on WiFi calling and you can choose between WiFi preferred or Mobile Network preferred.