Good 4g but poor voice in house.

[Richy_01]

Hi. 

I have good 4g signal both indoors and out but voice struggles in the house. I often miss calls and have to go outside to make a call. 

So my question would sure signal improve my voice call reception but leave data to use 4g? Doesn't matter a lot as I have good rural broadband so data wouldn't be an issue either way. I could do with improved voice reception in the house though. 

[BandOfBrothers]

Their could be issues such as thick walls and certain materials in the building of a house can cause issues. 

A sure signal creates a 3G signal in the home that works off broadband wifi. 

Your phone would latch to 3G to use that to make calls so the answer is Yes. 

Also your phone will search for the strongest signal so if you launched your browser app in the phone it would auto connect to the fastest signal available at the time. as long as you've set the connection in your phone to connect to both 3G and 4G options. 

To add sometimes turning 4G and 3G off in the phones settings to force the phone onto 2G is known in some cases to stabilise call quality.  

[Richy_01]

Thanks for getting back to me. Not sure why voice is poor in the house as get reasonable 3/2g signal. I am rural N Yorks and there is a big stone building between ourselves and the local mast. 4g works well though far from the full signal I get outdoors. 

I've recently swapped from a motorola moto x 2014 to a moto x play and find the new phone switches immediately from 4g when making a call.  The older Moto x 2014 could take anything up to maybe 30 secs to drop 4g to make the call. 

Interestingly I have turned 4g off in the past to use in the house and  still get problems with voice. Just seems to be in our house and more so the living room and I'm my favourite chair! 

My sim only contract is finished this month and think I'll be staying with Vodafone again for another year. The 4g coverage in my home and work area is good considering I'm rural. As I'm thinking of staying with voda I wondered if a sure signal would help in the house and from what you say it seems it will. Can they be bought in my local Vodafone shop? 

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi,

Youre Welcome. 

Stock availability allowing in a Vodafone Store or you can order online. 

Structures , trees , congestion can all play a part. 

Does the Online Checker offer any insight ?

Vodafone Network Checker.

[drey_p]

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@Richy_01 wrote:

So my question would sure signal improve my voice call reception but leave data to use 4g?  

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Hi there

The key part here is that 4G is data only and a SureSignal is 3G only.  This means that if you purchase a SureSignal you'd get improved voice calls, as they route over 3G, but data would slow down.

Out of curiosity, do you voice calls improve if you change your handset to 3G or 2G?  That could be a work around for you - leave WiFi on for data when at home and switch down to 2G or 3G.  2G can be a better option as normally the signal can penetrate further.

Another thing you could wait for is Vodafone to roll out voice over 4G - this is something they are working on at present and will hopefully have rolled out soon.  That could potentially solve your issues. 

[BandOfBrothers]

Also Calling Over Wifi is here albeit as long as a person is on an eligible tariff and currently using the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. 

Soon to include the Samsung Galaxy s6 and 6s edge. 

Hopefully not not too long to include all compatible phones. 

More information here Vodafone Calling Over WiFi.

[jeffkinn]

Clearly you have a good 4G service and a not so good 3G signal and that isn't so surprising. The 4G signal should go further and be able to penetrate buildings better than a 3G signal. So a Sure Signal would give you better voice quality in the house. Also, when at home you are much better off using Wi Fi from your home broadband as that will be more reliable and, more importantly, not use up your mobile data allowance.

[Richy_01]

Thanks all for your responses. I have tried voice calls with phone set to set to 3g and even 2g only. Still get problems with calls in the house. It does vary somewhat but go outside and things are fine. There is a huge stone farmhouse between us and our nearest mast so I guess that may not help. Out of interest I've tried EE and Three and calls can be patchy. In honesty not being able to receive calls on an evening can be an advantage :smileyvery-happy:

For data on the phone I do generally turn wifi on. That said 4g is often a little faster  than wifi.  Even though rural,  BT have run a fibre cabinet to the village and even though a mile away from it we get a good 32meg service! 

I presume for wifi calling and voice over 4g I'd have to get a phone off Vodafone and not as I do currently, buy my own phone? 

If, and it looks very likely, I stay with Vodafone at the end of the month, I'll maybe give a sure signal a try? O2 have 4g here but EE and Three don't. My serious alternative to Vodafone  would be EE or even O2. No sign of 4g with them EE for some reason though they might go with 800mhz 4g. I've no idea though. Having just tried an EE PAYG sim I lose signal too much in the house. Our house is a timber framed building and not an old rural building with thick stone walls. I left Three a year ago because I got sick of dropped calls. 

[kids]

@Richy_01 You do not need to have purchased the phone from Vodafone to use wifi calling but you do need a compatible phone and one of the bundles that include wifii calling.

[Richy_01]

I think I'm on a business red and doesn't look like that account can do wifi calling? Matters not as I don't do iPhones and don't think I'll be getting a Samsung gs6 any time soon. 

Actually for the life of me I don't know why I went with a business account? Seems no advantages and plenty of disadvantages. If I renew my contract can I swap it back to personal or would that open another world of hurt?  :robotindifferent:

Back on topic -  can a sure signal be turned off when not using it such as when you're out the house or away. It wouldn't trigger another set up? I don't like leaving too many appliances on when away and read on this forum a few failing badly.