mobile phone signal inside the house

[lizzie]

When at the new build I dont have a great signal inside the building.  I am surmising that this is something to do with the huge levels of insulation as outside I have good reception.

 

In my rented house I use a vodaphone signal booster as mobile signal is rubbish in this area. I only realised how good the signal booster is when it packed up this week!

 

Is the answer to poor mobile reception  inside the new house going to be a signal booster? 

 

Has anyone any experience of this?

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Yes, ours is much the same.  I can get a very weak (barely 1 bar) signal outside, but nothing at all inside, even upstairs..  The answer may well be a signal booster, but there are two types, those like the Vodafone one that are legal, and a lot of Chinese made ones sold on a certain auction site amongst other places, that aren't legal.  The illegal ones work well, and there's no offence in owning one, nor is anyone selling one committing an offence, but as soon as it's turned on then an offence has been committed under the Wireless Telegraphy Act (not that there is very much chance of ever being caught).

[richi]

previously on this topic: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/3773-mobile-signals-frustrated-by-house-wall-insulation

[lizzie]

2 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

Yes, ours is much the same.  I can get a very weak (barely 1 bar) signal outside, but nothing at all inside, even upstairs..  The answer may well be a signal booster, but there are two types, those like the Vodafone one that are legal, and a lot of Chinese made ones sold on a certain auction site amongst other places, that aren't legal.  The illegal ones work well, and there's no offence in owning one, nor is anyone selling one committing an offence, but as soon as it's turned on then an offence has been committed under the Wireless Telegraphy Act (not that there is very much chance of ever being caught).

Thank you.  I think in that case I will get a new Vodaphone one for here and give it a whirl at the new house when the time comes, it needs a broadband connection to work so will have to wait until BT eventually get their act together.......a whole other story currently in progress......  The Vodaphone one I had has worked so well for so long I had almost forgotten about it until a  few days ago when suddenly things on the mobile became very tricky.

[Dreadnaught]

My Three mobile service also includes "Three WiFi calling". Phone calls are made over Wifi, both inbound and outbound, no special app required. Works fairly well in my experience and even in locations where there is no cellular reception at all. It is a service that is part of the mobile technological standard (IEEE 802.11). It is not a proprietary solution and just requires the telecoms provider to support it. Adoption seems to be widening but not yet universal.

 

Might that help you? Although it might require a change of mobile telecoms supplier. And I believe it requires a smartphone such as an iPhone. But might mean you don't need a signal booster at all.

 

Here's a list of which telcos support it today: https://www.4g.co.uk/news/ee-o2-three-and-vodafone-which-networks-offer-wi-fi-calling/

 

I think this is the relevant Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_WLAN

Edited February 22, 2018 by Dreadnaught

[lizzie]

@Dreadnaught thank you . I have wifi calling enabled on my iphone via vodaphone too and yes it is worthwhile.

 

It is no good for texts though and the wifi in this house is rubbish I only get wifi calling in certain parts of the house I have extenders all around the place, the wi fi calling doesnt operate through the devolo wifi extenders. Wi fi range may be better at the new house.

[richi]

Just a note to clarify that Three's app-less VoIP only works with a limited number of phones (and you have to buy Three's version of that phone). Alternatively, Three has a VoIP app, called Three inTouch.

[Dreadnaught]

5 minutes ago, richi said:

and you have to buy Three's version of that phone

 

Not so, at least in my case. My iPhone was not purchased from Three.

 

6 minutes ago, richi said:

Three has a VoIP app, called Three inTouch

 

Yes, its too much hassle in my opinion so I have rarely if ever used that app.

 

8 minutes ago, lizzie said:

It is no good for texts though

 

Oh, that's a surprise. Have not had a problem with texts myself. Texts themselves use such tiny amounts of data that I am intrigued that they have caused you a problem.

 

9 minutes ago, lizzie said:

wifi in this house is rubbish

 

Oh dear! I am sure there are other threads on this, and at the risk of hijacking your thread, but installing a couple of Ubiquity Unifi AC Lites if you have an ethernet network will solve your problem. They are superb. https://unifi-sdn.ubnt.com

 

 

[lizzie]

@Dreadnaught this house is a black hole for electrics and IT. The voda signal booster has been ruined by voltage surges I am told. I think the whole place needs a rewire but thats a different matter. The house is solid brick and block Bovis home circa 1980 and is on a private road that runs through a golf course so it has some limitations and challenges. Even the local MP has been involved in petitioning to get BT to put the fast service in to this road - the BT super service is half a mile away at the main road....they wont bring it down here.

 

I get no texts without the vodaphone suresignal booster as zero bars in house without it I occasionally see a fleeting bar but rarely......the wifi calling does not support texts Voda have told me that.

 

  I have two broadband connections installed and operational in this place one is a gigaclear fibre and the other is BT.  The BT is egg timer slow even though I pay for superfast they admit they cannot provide it but if I went down to the normal package it would be so slow we would be back in the dark ages....I have kept it on because amongst other things I  would lose my email address if I cancelled it. I have a new domain name bought and ready for the new house so I can rid myself of BT but not had time to set up the mailboxes yet.  The other connection is the gigaclear fibre which came into the road a few months ago and I had it installed in the hope it would help with the problems with BT service.  It is great in the room where the hub is but it does not work outside that room without the extenders.  I have my mac plugged into a  top of the range devolo extender with an ethernet cable and that gives me a decent speed. Beyond that all comms in this place are a challenge. I hope I only have a another couple of months here! 

[vivienz]

It can be quite nice when you have a good excuse for not picking up phone calls, though.

[Dreadnaught]

@lizzie that sounds like a real challenge. Hope you can get it sorted, at least for your new home.

 

As a general point of advice, using wifi "boosters" within your house that themselves use wireless is far inferior to running ethernet cables between WiFi access points, even when using the latest "mesh" routers that in some cases use a dedicated radio frequency for the routing signal. It is always preferable to run ethernet cables if you can. Regarding WiFi access points, the better ones have protocols that handle seamless handover between access points. It makes all the difference.

 

I have recent experience of two recent installs, one of which was in a house with very thick walls. The solution worked very well and exceeded my expectations.

 

Of course, none of this can overcome a slow internet supply from your ISP but at least it removes one source of complaint.

 

In your new house I do hope you have run some ethernet cable.

 

10 minutes ago, lizzie said:

Voda have told me that

 

Sounds like a Vodafone specific deficiency. There is no reason in principle why voice-over-wireless must exclude SMS.

 

 

 

[lizzie]

20 minutes ago, Dreadnaught said:

n your new house I do hope you have run some ethernet cable.

 

yep miles of cat cables!

[Dreadnaught]

20 minutes ago, lizzie said:

yep miles of cat cables

 

Fabulous! A few Unifi AC Lites (and perhaps a waterproof one outside too if you have a huge garden) and an (entirely optional) PoE switch and you're good to go. A glorious fast* uninterrupted WiFi signal will be yours!

 

* at least as fast as your ISP will allow.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Dreadnaught

[Temp]

I'm going to have to do something about our mobile signal. It was so bad yesterday that I couldn't connect to 3 to find out what the balance was on a pay as you go account. In frustration I downloaded their app to try and get the info that way but the buggers won't let you use the app to connect to the 3 server over wifi !! They force you to use mobile data to connect on the grounds of "security". 

 

 

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

According to someone on another forum that works in the mobile network business, as EE have won the contract to supply the new secure data and voice comms for all the emergency services (the replacement for Tetra and Airwave), they plan to use their existing mobile network, supplemented in areas where there currently isn't good reception, as they have to be able to cover the whole country.  A side effect of this is that it seems likely that areas like ours, with no useful coverage, may get coverage as a consequence of this upgrade.  The downside is that the emergency service traffic will take priority over normal users, so higher contention may well result in system degradation for normal users.

[Guest Alphonsox]

4 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

According to someone on another forum that works in the mobile network business, as EE have won the contract to supply the new secure data and voice comms for all the emergency services (the replacement for Tetra and Airwave), they plan to use their existing mobile network, supplemented in areas where there currently isn't good reception, as they have to be able to cover the whole country.  A side effect of this is that it seems likely that areas like ours, with no useful coverage, may get coverage as a consequence of this upgrade.  The downside is that the emergency service traffic will take priority over normal users, so higher contention may well result in system degradation for normal users.

 

Not necessarily so unfortunately - My brother went through this last summer up on the Isle of Mull. EE have planning to put in a new tower to cover a large dead spot on the Ross. Great thought all the locals, at last a way of getting decent phone and broadband coverage to replace the dubious BT service. After a few enquiries with EE it turns out that this is an ESN only mast and will not provide any network coverage to the locals. It seems that some of the existing masts will be upgraded, some new "general use" infill masts will be built, and some of the new masts will be emergency only. Not sure why, cost would be my guess.

[ProDave]

I too am awaiting a new EE mast in line if sight to our house. I hope that too does not end up ESN only.

[Temp]

I've actually got an EE (and others) mast in line of sight and about 500m away, but it appears to be set up to service the A14 to the south of it and not our village which is north east of it. 

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

12 hours ago, Alphonsox said:

 

Not necessarily so unfortunately - My brother went through this last summer up on the Isle of Mull. EE have planning to put in a new tower to cover a large dead spot on the Ross. Great thought all the locals, at last a way of getting decent phone and broadband coverage to replace the dubious BT service. After a few enquiries with EE it turns out that this is an ESN only mast and will not provide any network coverage to the locals. It seems that some of the existing masts will be upgraded, some new "general use" infill masts will be built, and some of the new masts will be emergency only. Not sure why, cost would be my guess.

 

Thanks, that's a nuisance if they choose to do that here.  I was hoping that a new mast might fix our lack of a mobile signal.  I'll check with the person on the other forum to see if they can add anything more about this, as I have a suspicion, based solely on their knowledge, that they might work for EE.

 

8 hours ago, Temp said:

I've actually got an EE (and others) mast in line of sight and about 500m away, but it appears to be set up to service the A14 to the south of it and not our village which is north east of it. 

 

 

 

That's mainly our problem, with pretty much all the local masts out in the countryside.  We have an EE mast about a mile away, but it's set up to point up and down the A30, not to our village which is off to one side of that road.  The same applies further North, where the masts all seem to be set up to cover the route of the A303, ignoring the villages, many or which are in deep valleys in the Plain.

 

The ideal fix for use would be a microcell set up in the village.  There is an ideal location for it already, identified, and some have talked about it a few times, but the snag is that none of the mobile companies are interested in putting one up, presumably because a few hundred people isn't a community worth serving, from an economical view point.  The combination of really poor broadband and no effective mobile coverage is a blasted nuisance at times.