Any suggestions please on installing a device in the home that boosts the mobile signal (Three)? We can get a signal when at the top of the house but nothing downstairs. Unfortunately our phones cant handle wi-fi calling so that’s out. We could use Skype, WhatsApp etc via wifi, but would prefer to have the option of network calling as not all friends have those apps – Ta.

Vodaphone used to do devices that would allow your phone to make a wi-fi call believing it was using the standard network (and accept incoming calls the same way.

I’d imagine using a full on repeater for a 4G phone signal would be fraught with regulatory, health and legal implications though.

Femtocell is what you want to Google for – does exactly what you’re describing.

Vodafone one is the SureSignal – and (my old one) gives you a 3G signal in your house using your broadband to connect this to the Vodafone network. Not sure if Three do something similar or whether you can just plug something 3rd party in.

Edit: Seems Three’s equivalent is called Home Signal. Linky

Ask 3 first, the other networks do the boosters mentioned above for about £80.

Not sure if you’ll be able to use a 3rd party one, O2 required you to register the mobile numbers you want to use with it while the EE one I think was just plug and play.

Signal repeaters are available but not supposed to use them without a license afaik. No idea how regulated that is or if there’s any chance of getting caught.

Signal repeaters are available but not supposed to use them without a license afaik. No idea how regulated that is or if there’s any chance of getting caught.

Legal to buy, illegal to use, you’ll never be noticed let alone caught.

I’ve used an illegal one for a few years until recently. Why? Because we bought our EE phones from a 3rd party retailer and as a result EE disable WiFi calling unless you buy direct from them. As a result we had to pay for two contracts with no signal in the home (no signal on any network in our house).

Yagi antenna in the loft pointed at the nearest EE 3g mast 4 miles away. Cable down wall cavity. Full signal in and around house. Yes it’s naughty but the mobile phone company does nothing to help those who are paying for a service they don’t receive.

Now on three.

Thanks for replies – much appreciated. I called Three and they confirmed (as per their website) they no longer sell the signal booster, but they also said the local transmitter is being upgraded / fixed next week – so I’ll see if I get a better signal after that – if not I’ll be looking at the options above – ta again

olly2097 wrote:

I’ve used an illegal one for a few years until recently. Why? Because we bought our EE phones from a 3rd party retailer and as a result EE disable WiFi calling unless you buy direct from them. As a result we had to pay for two contracts with no signal in the home (no signal on any

Do they? My phone isn’t from EE and I get WiFi calling without issue.

Yep (iPhones are the exception, I think, as Apple won’t allow it).

EE nearly always insist that the phones run their customised software – mainly so they can install their shit apps onto it – and as a consequence they can control who’s allowed to use WiFi Calling and VoLTE. I think WiFi calling is somewhat less restrictive than VoLTE with EE, though.

It’s also one of the reasons Android software updates take ages in the UK, because the phone companies need to test their own special versions.

AFAIK the Three upgrading is aimed at boosting speeds but not improving coverage so I doubt whether it’ll help you.

Years ago I used a repeater to boost the Vodaphone signal in our large, thick-walled house.

It worked very well and was only £25 but isn’t the right frequency for Three who use 800MHz (Band 20) and 1800MHz (Band 3) for 4G and 2100MHz (Band 1) for 3G. If you want a repeater you’ll need to find one that does 800/1800MHz but a trawl through Banggood, eBay and AliExpress should find some.

EDIT: Banggood do one for £75. Takes 10-15 days to arrive. Choose option “E”

HERE

Another point would be to check what bands your mobiles use. Not all phones have all the bands so it’s possible that you may be missing one of Three’s frequencies.

Because we bought our EE phones from a 3rd party retailer and as a result EE disable WiFi calling unless you buy direct from them

I’m on EE sim only and have been for years. Got a Nokia 8 via Carphone Warehouse, sim free, no branding and almost raw Android (just couple of tweaks Nokia make). WiFi calling works fine. Was surprised but the option is there in the settings, turned it on and worked.

Have noticed a number of things get configured specific to EE as soon as it picks up EE network including a couple of EE apps auto installed. Nothing bloaty, just their support apps. Don’t know if it’s Nokia that have done this or Google team up with operators to auto install based on the sim.

Wifi calling works fine on my iPhone, but you only get iMessages from other iPhone users, not SMS texts, so can’t use 2 factor authentication with Paypal etc, which is a bit of a pain. Our cottage in Swaledale has no mobile coverage at all.

Olly2097 – if your phones are android you can download and re-flash the firmware to the EE firmware at which point the Wi-Fi calling will work. On iPhones it doesn’t make a difference if they were bought from EE or Apple.