Three also stopped selling their Home Signal devices last year, although they are currently still supporting existing users. In response, we’ve attempted to find out the current state of play as best we can from each operator.Īs above, Vodafone stopped selling their Sure Signal (v3) devices last April 2020 and they aim to completely withdraw the service by September 2021. Suffice to say that some consumers have opted to continue using Femtocell Mobile Signal Boosters instead, but many are concerned about the future of these devices. NOTE: Slow broadband speeds (sub 1Mbps) are also an issue here (resulting more in poor quality calls), but that can be true of the signal boosting devices too. the transition should be seamless, but that’s not always the case). On top of that, the feature is mainly designed to kick in around areas of weak mobile signal, but some have found issues with call stability when moving between rooms in areas where the difference between WiFi and Mobile signal strength can be highly variable (i.e. Likewise, some operators support voice calls but struggle with texts, while in other cases you won’t be able to get either on certain plans.Įqually, WiFi Calling may struggle to work if the wireless signal is weak or congested with a lot of users. Support for WiFi Calling remains a bit of a mixed bag and is partly dependent upon the capability of your Smartphone (note: many people still use basic mobiles). The biggest problem with WiFi Calling, perhaps not unlike the signal boosting solutions before it, is that it’s not yet a perfect service. In response, many mobile operators have been gradually withdrawing their signal boosting devices from sale and Vodafone aim to completely shut the service down in September 2021 ( here). As has the ever-expanding coverage of 4G services, not least through the new Shared Rural Network (SRN) project ( latest progress). However, the advent of WiFi Calling ( VoWiFi), which enables consumers with supporting Smartphones to harness a nearby wireless network in order to make mobile voice calls or send text messages, has gradually been reducing the need for such boosters. A minimum download speed of between 0.5Mbps to 1Mbps was often required for this to work, as well as about half that in upload performance. The device is plugged into a fixed line broadband ISP network, which enables it to harness your home or office internet connection in order to create its own indoor 3G mobile signal (microcell / femtocell) over a specific band (e.g. rural locations) where no 3G signal existed at all, or where the signal was too weak to be reliable. Crucially, these aren’t the same as indoor signal repeaters that merely boost an existing signal, instead these devices were often sold to consumers in areas (e.g. Until recently all of the major UK mobile operators offered Mobile Signal Booster devices – Three UK (Home Signal), EE (Signal Box), O2 (BoostBox) and Vodafone (Sure Signal). But some people still want these, so we set out to find which operators will support them. The spread of Wi-Fi Calling across the UK’s major operators, which uses your home or other WiFi (broadband) service to run mobile calls and text (SMS) messages, has resulted in the gradual phasing-out of indoor femtocell signal boosters.
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