No Mobile Signal - Help!

[uuf361]

I live in a slightly unusual house (it's essentially underground) thus making phone signal a challenge.

I've been with Three since before I moved in over 10 years ago and the signal has got progressively worse and vanishing altogether about 4 weeks ago for no reason.

Having now gone through all the escalation processes at Three they have said there is nothing that can be done to improve the indoor signal strength (it's fine outside) and it is random it suddenly disappeared. Wi-Fi calling seems patchy at best and half the time doesn't seem to work at all and there are no pans for any of the networks to upgrade any infrastructure.

None of the other major networks (O2, EE or Vodafone) have any signal either as I have their SIM cards which I've tried and still no signal indoors.

I've seen some boosters that look like they might work despite being expensive, but all require outdoor sighting and drilling holes through the grass/concrete roof to get wires in the house which is a non starter.

Anyone have any suggestions for being able to use my mobile at home ?

[vaud]

How about a 4g broadband router and use wifi calling?

I have a Huewai 4g router as a backup to my house internet (WFH, etc) and it has detachable ariels; it gets a way better data speed than my phone. Can also get specialist ariels to mount if needed.

[babelfish]

uuf361 said:

I live in a slightly unusual house (it's essentially underground) thus making phone signal a challenge.

I've been with Three since before I moved in over 10 years ago and the signal has got progressively worse and vanishing altogether about 4 weeks ago for no reason.

Having now gone through all the escalation processes at Three they have said there is nothing that can be done to improve the indoor signal strength (it's fine outside) and it is random it suddenly disappeared. Wi-Fi calling seems patchy at best and half the time doesn't seem to work at all and there are no pans for any of the networks to upgrade any infrastructure.

None of the other major networks (O2, EE or Vodafone) have any signal either as I have their SIM cards which I've tried and still no signal indoors.

I've seen some boosters that look like they might work despite being expensive, but all require outdoor sighting and drilling holes through the grass/concrete roof to get wires in the house which is a non starter.

Anyone have any suggestions for being able to use my mobile at home ?

My wife and I are both on 3. Mobile signal in our village is extremely poor. We both use Wifi calling on various iPhones at home and in the local pub and find it extremely reliable.

Could it be your wifi or phone that are the issue?

[uuf361]

babelfish said:

My wife and I are both on 3. Mobile signal in our village is extremely poor. We both use Wifi calling on various iPhones at home and in the local pub and find it extremely reliable.

Could it be your wifi or phone that are the issue?

I guess it's possible but it's an iPhone 12 and works well outside the house and on the latest iOS

I have an Apple router with an Apple repeater that gets good signal around the whole house too.

It just seems sometimes I'm sat with no signal and the phone hasn't picked up Wi-Fi Calling either, which just seems odd as it should be automatic!

[nebpor]

vaud said:

How about a 4g broadband router and use wifi calling?

I have a Huewai 4g router as a backup to my house internet (WFH, etc) and it has detachable ariels; it gets a way better data speed than my phone. Can also get specialist ariels to mount if needed.

If his phone can’t get a signal, a 4G router won’t get a signal either though - I was using a 4G router with external aerial here, I do know it works well like that

OP: if you don’t want to drill through the roof, run a cable out the front of the house and find somewhere to mount an aerial - you’re not leaving many options if you’re not prepared to put one up, as it will solve your problem

How is your broadband delivered - over phone line? Replacing the apple router with a modern mesh network would blanket the house in wifi and make wifi calling more reliable - it’s what I have to do here as the EE signal in the house is rubbish downstairs

Edited by nebpor on Tuesday 28th February 18:37

[uuf361]

vaud said:

How about a 4g broadband router and use wifi calling?

I have a Huewai 4g router as a backup to my house internet (WFH, etc) and it has detachable ariels; it gets a way better data speed than my phone. Can also get specialist ariels to mount if needed.

This is a little past my technical knowledge but would that require another SIM card to work thus doubling my monthly cost ?

And how would it get a signal ?

[uuf361]

nebpor said:

If his phone can’t get a signal, a 4G router won’t get a signal either though

OP: if you don’t want to drill through the roof, run a cable out the front of the house and find somewhere to mount an aerial - you’re not leaving many options if you’re not prepared to put one up, as it will solve your problem

I'd be happy to put an aerial up but I've no idea how I could get cables in the house as apart from the doors (windows only in the bathrooms) there's nothing going outside to in.

I'm not sure I could/should drill through the roof - it's concrete, rubber, polystyrene then soil then turf - any hole would probably let water in (there was a pin hole leak shortly after I moved in).

Broadband is via the phone line. Guess I could upgrade the routers, any recommendations or just with BT (who Broadband is through)and their whole home guarantee ?

[vaud]

nebpor said:

If his phone can’t get a signal, a 4G router won’t get a signal either though - I was using a 4G router with external aerial here, I do know it works well like that

OP: if you don’t want to drill through the roof, run a cable out the front of the house and find somewhere to mount an aerial - you’re not leaving many options if you’re not prepared to put one up, as it will solve your problem

How is your broadband delivered - over phone line? Replacing the apple router with a modern mesh network would blanket the house in wifi and make wifi calling more reliable - it’s what I have to do here as the EE signal in the house is rubbish downstairs

Edited by nebpor on Tuesday 28th February 18:37

Not true, sorry. Or rather it depends on your situation.

With my phone I get 2 bar of 3g. With the router and router mounted ariel, sitting on my window sill I get a 4g connection and very usable speed as a backup.

[vaud]

uuf361 said:

This is a little past my technical knowledge but would that require another SIM card to work thus doubling my monthly cost ?

And how would it get a signal ?

You can just put your SIM in the router. It will consume from that.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

If you've got decent broadband then I'd concentrate my efforts on getting the WiFi calling working properly.

[nebpor]

vaud said:

Not true, sorry. Or rather it depends on your situation.

With my phone I get 2 bar of 3g. With the router and router mounted ariel, sitting on my window sill I get a 4g connection and very usable speed as a backup.

He’s not getting a signal he said, not “one or two bars” - it’s unlikely a 4G router will get enough bandwidth to make a meaningful difference with a signal strength that low

[nebpor]

uuf361 said:

I'd be happy to put an aerial up but I've no idea how I could get cables in the house as apart from the doors (windows only in the bathrooms) there's nothing going outside to in.

I'm not sure I could/should drill through the roof - it's concrete, rubber, polystyrene then soil then turf - any hole would probably let water in (there was a pin hole leak shortly after I moved in).

Broadband is via the phone line. Guess I could upgrade the routers, any recommendations or just with BT (who Broadband is through)and their whole home guarantee ?

Given your honest level of capability then yes, no harm in trying out the BT whole home solution, which means WiFi callling everywhere and no drilling !

If you DO have to drill, you (I don’t mean in the literal sense, I mean someone who knows what they are doing - I don’t, I pay folk), could go through the window frame and then seal it so it doesn’t leak!

Whole home wifi will probably fix it though, a cheaper and easier solution to try first. Only thing I can’t speak to is 3 wifi calling. EE wifi calling is excellent

[audi321]

Matt_E_Mulsion said:

If you've got decent broadband then I'd concentrate my efforts on getting the WiFi calling working properly.

This, if wifi calling isn't working, then there's a different issue altogether.........it works fine for me and seemingly others on here, so maybe the issue is the router setup?

[uuf361]

No idea if there’s an issue with the router(s). They work fine for anything that needs to connect to them normally to use data but that’s only normal stuff like phone, iPad, PC, Amazon Echo and Ring camera.