Can "good" in-home wifi mess with cell phone reception?

[Easy Limits]

My wife and I have been having cell reception issues for a couple of weeks now, texts not coming through, dropped/garbled calls and such. I would consider us to have pretty good in-home wifi with a router (AC56U) and a router (EA6900) acting as an AP at either end of a 2100 sq. foot rambler. The other day, just for giggles, I turned off the wifi points and all of a sudden our cell phone reception became a little better (more bars). I know the major carrier in my city has been upgrading cell towers (there are only two active towers right now) but can in-home wifi make a difference/get in the way?

 

[hyelton]

My wife and I have been having cell reception issues for a couple of weeks now, texts not coming through, dropped/garbled calls and such. I would consider us to have pretty good in-home wifi with a router (AC56U) and a router (EA6900) acting as an AP at either end of a 2100 sq. foot rambler. The other day, just for giggles, I turned off the wifi points and all of a sudden our cell phone reception became a little better (more bars). I know the major carrier in my city has been upgrading cell towers (there are only two active towers right now) but can in-home wifi make a difference/get in the way?

No it would not cause any issues in anyway. Unless you where using wifi calling and your wifi network had some issues.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[thiggins]

Did cell performance actually improve when you turned off Wi-Fi? Or did you just see more bars?

Try turning off Wi-Fi on the phones.

 

[sfx2000]

Depends on the specifics of the particular phone perhaps - keeping in mind that with all the radios inside a modern smartphone (dual band wifi, GPS, bluetooth, NFC) it's a challenge there...

WiFi runs in the unlicensed bands in 2.4 and 5GHZ - the cellular/mobile networks have their own channels (700 LTE, 800/850/900 (cellular)1800/1900 (PCS)/1750-2100(AWS)) so they should not interfere for those are licensed bands that the mobile operators use.

Many of the operators are refarming their spectrum usage in the US/Canada now that 2G GSM has been turned off, so coverage issues might pop up from time to time...

 

[Easy Limits]

Did cell performance actually improve when you turned off Wi-Fi? Or did you just see more bars?

Try turning off Wi-Fi on the phones.

Got more bars. Could not tell if calls/texts were getting through better or not.

 

[Easy Limits]

So far, turning off the wifi on my phone when I am at home seems to better my cell service. I am still looking in to it including contacting my carrier.

 

[hyelton]

So far, turning off the wifi on my phone when I am at home seems to better my cell service. I am still looking in to it including contacting my carrier.

Contacting the carrier won't really do anything unless the problem is actually with your phone.

And you don't have any wifi calling features enabled right?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sfx2000]

Did cell performance actually improve when you turned off Wi-Fi? Or did you just see more bars?

Try turning off Wi-Fi on the phones.

He didn't mention the phone or the carrier - but ATT and Verizon have enabled WiFi calling on certain handsets (mostly higher end android and iphone 6s and later that are VoLTE capable) - so the RSSI bars and poor performance when WiFi is enabled could be due to the WiFi calling feature...

WiFi calling can be very useful, but it is dependent on the Router/AP/Gateway - when the stars align, it's very handy to have...

On iPhone - to see if VoLTE is enabled... Why VoLTE? Because WiFi Calling uses the same Carrier Gateway as VoLTE does, and as such, allows handover from LAN to WAN during a VoWiFI to VoLTE handoff.

Settings -> Cellular -> Cellular Data Options -> Roaming -> Enable LTE -> Voice & Data (to disable VoLTE, set it to Data Only) <-- VoLTE is generally a good thing to have in most markets​

to check for WiFi calling

Settings -> Phone -> Wi-Fi Calling -> Wi-Fi Calling on this iPhone (on/off) <-- try either way, WoWiFI can be nice, but if you've got good bars, then consider turning this off if you have performance issues.
​

On ATT iPhone - to double check...

Settings -> General -> About -- Scroll down to Carrier - tap on carrier, and if it changes to IMS Status == Voice & SMS, then VoLTE is active on that device...

​

Some Router/GW/Firewalls might have issues with VoWiFI and SIP/RTP handling*, and multiple Router/AP's repurposed as AP's can contribute to the problem if not setup correctly...

*SIP ALG settings, which are not consistent from vendor to vendor, and sometimes even between models/firmware revisions from the same vendor.

 

[sfx2000]

My iPhone 6s settings - VoLTE and WiFi calling worked great, but there was an impact to standby time...

VoWiFi (WiFi Calling) - off (20 percent hit on standby time)
LTE - Data Only (voice and data was a 10 percent hit on standby time)
WiFi Assist* - disabled

WiFi Assist - this uses both LTE and WiFi, so if WiFi coverage/bandwidth is low, it'll fall over to LTE, and I have a data cap on my ATT Data Plan

By disabling VoLTE, if I'm in a voice call, data is over 3G vs. LTE, other than that, no impact...

 

[Easy Limits]

I don't have any wifi calling features. My phone is an Amazon Fire Phone (a little older but still a great phone).