Long-time issue: AT&T Wi-Fi

[lindros2]

Hey folks - please bear with me. I have three routers at home. ASUS AC-5300 is main, and two AC-66U_B1 are connected as repeaters (not AI_MESH).

Speed is pretty good across the board. We get 350Mbps on the main (close connected) and 150Mbps on the two repeaters. Latency ranges from 5ms to 30ms.

We have AT&T phones, and the signal isn’t very good in my neighborhood. So we use Wi-Fi calling as much as possible (works great on Mac and iPad, btw).

But on our phones, the Wi-Fi calling cuts in and out.
Here’s where it gets weird.
It’s actually *more* reliable on the extenders.
On the main router, I can’t seem to keep AT&T Wi-Fi active on my iPhone 8 Plus and wife’s iPhone Xs. I’ve tried the two 5Ghz bands and 2.4Ghz band. I’ve tweaked just about every setting - regular and advanced. I’ve restricted bands (to the 40 and 80 range), and allowed all three. I’ve turned on/off beamforming (which negatively impacts computers, as many of the settings often do). Xbox on/off. No difference. Rebooted phones and router.

So in summary - why would I have so much trouble on the main, when not on the repeater?
Could interference/noise be an issue?

 

[ColinTaylor]

I don't know the answer to your question, but try turning off both of the repeaters and testing again. If the problem with the AC-5300 is the same then you know it's nothing to do with the repeaters.

 

[CaptainSTX]

My experience with WiFi calling on both AT&T & T Mobil has never been good or reliable.

If good quality five bar cell phone service inside your home is something you value ask AT&T to give or sell you a Cell Spot which creates a mini cell tower in your home. The Cell Spot is connected by Ethernet cable to your router and uses the Internet to backhaul your phone service to AT&T networks. Works very well all the time for both incoming and outbound calls. My T-Mobil cell spot used just 38 Mb of yesterday and my wife and I were home most of the day.

The downside is at least for AT&T they charged me over a $100 for the device while T-Mobil will give you one for just a $25 deposit.

 

[lindros2]

If good quality five bar cell phone service inside your home is something you value ask AT&T to give or sell you a Cell Spot which creates a mini cell tower in your home.

I tried this in the past.
The 3G version was iffy at best.

WiFi calling is great on my computer.

I think it’s an interference thing.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I found that WiFi calls would drop when I walked around my home.

Another big irritation was if I didn't turn off WiFi calling when I left home then my phone would try and connect using WiFi when I walked into someplace where I had connected to WiFi previously and sometimes hotspot connections would be flakey or would require that you would have to agree to their terms of service before getting a connection to the Internet.

I only turn WiFi calling now if I am in a large commercial building where cell signals don't penetrate but they have WiFi and I need my phone to be working.