Microcell will not connect to iPhone 6 :( M-Cell

I have 2 brand iPhone 6s phones, but also have 3 iPhone 5's as well. If I tweak the M-Cell so that it matches the new 6s phones, will that have any adverse impact on the 5's? In other words, will the Mcell still work with the 5's?

There is no way to "tweak" the MicroCell so I'm not sure what you are talking about. If you are in a mixed environment (WiFi-C capable phones and non WiFi-C phones) then you will need to put the WiFi-C phones in Airplane Mode to disable the cellular radio so they can connect to your WiFi.

eddiebike, nice job discovering this!

Temporarily disabling LTE on my iPhone 6 (Settings > Cellular > Enable LTE) immediately caused the phone to connect to my MicroCell.  I did "everything possible" (many times over!) previously to try to re-establish my former M-Cell connection.  It was dogging me for months -  disconnecting, reconnecting, re-entering a tiny-font serial number, etc, and generally feeling totally incapable.  😉  That LTE switch proved your theory and restored my sanity.

Of course, I turned back on LTE.  Having to manually manage LTE settings and "think about" what to do before using my cell phone just doesn't work for me.

 just enabled the new WiFi-C option on my iPhone6 (Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling).  I now see "AT&T Wi-Fi" instead of just "AT&T", in the same spot where "AT&T M-Cell" used to appear.  That suggests WiFi-C may automatically engage as needed.  That would be great.

When I've had time to use WiFi-C and confirm that call quality is reasonable at home, I'll return the MicroCell.  This thread saved me from wasting more time futzing with the MicroCell, and now I learned about WiFi-C.  All set!

Thanks dspdon and you are very welcome!

ATT needs to be much more forthcoming with the conditions under which the Mcell will & will not work for your particular cellphone. 

By the way, I work from time to time in large university facilities in the bowels of the buildings. The wifi calling option is WONDERFUL in these circumstances. I can clearly make & receive calls & messages & emails on the facility's (weak) wifi. ATT clearly has an advantage over Verizon now in these circumstances. For people who work daily in the bowels of buildings with little to no ATT cellphone signal, this has been a godsend !!! (This option is a carrier update & available on iPhone 5S & later versions.)

@eddiebike and @dspdon

Disabling LTE for some iPhone 6's and above to get the phone to connect to the MicroCell has been around for awhile. It is a problem with some iPhones that may or may not be related to WiFi-C (WiFi-Calling). Enabling Airplane Mode (which turns off the cellular radio) is also another method of "forcing" the iPhone to use WiFi if WiFi Calling has been enabled on the iPhone.

There will be no automatic "hand-off" from WiFi-C to the MicroCell and vice versa because of the a limitaion in the technology. WiFi-C, like the MicroCell, is designed to fill in coverage gaps when a macrocell (tower) is not going to work adequately, but they are not designed/intended to be a complete replacement for a cellular tower.

The reasons for the LTE issue are many and varied, and is something that AT&T will not discuss with us for "proprietary reasons", which I think is bull but it's their store, not mine. Not that it is going to help you now but I will be updating my Tech Guide to include some WiFi-C information as it relates to the MicroCell.

OttoPylot - you are very smart and appear to be a wee bit stubborn.

You have had a tendency to blame Apple and the iPhone 6 hardware for the ATT MicroCell connection problem.

To wit:

OttoPylot
Sep 12, 2015 1:09:31 PM “…that possibly points back to the phone because the MicroCell is indicating that it is still connected to the AT&T Mobility servers. I have an iPhone 5 with no issues at all so it seems to be something with the iPhone 6's. Have you turned off completely the phone and then turned it back on?”

OttoPylot
Sep 13, 2015 7:03:20 PM “This is an Apple id issue…”

Walker4BC
Sep 30, 2015 7:33:04 AM
Contributor
"I am having this same issue on my new 6s+. Microcell has worked forever and just stopped when I got my new phone. Nothing else changed. Help!"

OttoPylot
Sep 30, 2015 8:53:04 AM: “This is a technical issue with the new iPhone 6 hardware.”

Again - to reiterate - the "problem" began when ATT upgraded their VoLTE HD Voice which is a significantly better connection for voice calls than their previous voice connections.

This means that starting with the iPhone 5S - it will connect automatically to the best connection - whether it is VoLTE HD Voice or the ATT MicroCell.

In my house (non metal roof), I get at least 2 bars of VoLTE HD which is a better connection and overrides the ATT MicroCell.

In my son's house (metal roof), my iPhone 6 automatically connects to their ATT MicroCell because it is the best signal.

All of this is a completely separate issue from the wifi calling feature. Again, this relatively new feature is fantastic - particularly in buildings where the ATT VoLTE signal can't reach.

OttoPylot - whenever you upgrade from your iPhone 5 - you will experience firsthand the issue that the rest of us have been beating our heads against the wall trying to figure out (if you are able to receive the ATT VoLTE HD signal.)

So...if one is able to receive a strong enough VoLTE HD ATT signal in your house on an iPhone 5S and higher - you WILL NOT benefit from using an (existing) ATT MicroCell.

@eddiebike

I don't understand the point of your argument that you are trying to start. I have never said that the MicroCell, and certainly AT&T, are blameless in the iPhone/LTE issue. There are a lot of things that AT&T has told me, that I can't really state publically, that is utter nonesense. That being said, as AT&T tweaks their LTE network for future use needs, and phones become more complicated, there are going to be sporadic issues that just can't be resolved. The MicroCell is old technology that has just about reached it's usefullness, but there are still thousands of users who still rely on it and can't use WiFi-C because they don't have an iPhone 6 or above.

If one is on a call, whether it be LTE/4G or 3G, and walks into a house with a MicroCell, the call most often will not hand-off to the MicroCell and you may in fact lose it. That problem seems to exacerbated in areas where the LTE signal or propagation has been increased. Some phones can handle that transition better than others. We have friends and family members now with iPhone 6's and 6S's, who are on the Approved Users List, and they don't seem to have an issue, at times, with our MicroCell and LTE (which has since been upgraded/increased in our Service Area after one of my original posts). That doesn't mean the problems don't exist though. However, they do have to enable Airplane Mode if they want to use the WiFi-C feature of their iPhone when in our home.

To quote AT&T, from a personal communication,

"HD Voice presence or lack thereof only matters for handoff purposes; WiFi Calling can handoff to HD Voice because they use a lot of the same systems and thus it’s more like a tower to tower handoff, but the 2G/3G voice network isn’t capable of accepting the handoff because it can’t ‘see’ the WiFi call properly.

This is not controllable from the phone. Due to network/technology structure, a WiFi call can be handed off to an HD Voice tower, but not to a 2G/3G tower."

There are some who were unable to even activate WiFi-C on their new iPhones because of hardware changes and network requirements unless they deactivated their MicroCell, reactivated it, and completely shutdown their phone and then turned it back on. The AT&T network needed to see recognize the new hardware via the MicroCell before the phones would even connect, let alone do WiFi-C. Add the LTE issue on top of that and you have all kinds of issues that may or may not affect your particular phone. As I get new information that can be confirmed I try to update my Tech Guide but it is becoming more and more difficult to stay current because of the time involved and the rapidly changing AT&T network.

Be thankful you don't have an Android-based phone because that can be even more troublesome. And Samung admits as much.

@dspdon

WiFi Assist is used to force the phone to a cellular connection when WiFi is weak. It has nothing to do with WiFi-C and, in some cases, can chew up your cellular data. WiFi Assist is on by default so I would disable it if you don't think you'll need that feature.

Apple has designed the phone so that it will always prefer a cellular connection over WiFi. That's why it won't automatically switch to WiFi within MicroCell range. It's a problem that we call mixed environments. By that I mean individuals in your home who don't have an iPhone 6 or above and need cellular service. In that case the only thing you can do is enter Airplane Mode to disable the cellular radio if you want to use WiFi-C. LTE is a different, but somewhat related issue. It has to do with the strength and/or direction of the LTE signal in your particular environment and how well the phone decides which signal to stay locked onto. Disabling LTE, if it is the stronger signal, will force the phone to look for a 3G signal, which is the MicroCell, and connect to it. With the continued provisioning of VoLTE and its LTE requirements, MicroCell connection issues are not surprising.

WiFi-C is not without its problems because it uses two of the four ports that the MicroCell requires, this is an Apple requirement not AT&T's, so anything that affects those ports may affect WiFi-C. In fact, anything that can alter your WiFi reliabiliyt will affect WiFi-C. Most have found WiFi-C to be more robust and stable than the MicroCell. That's why we recommend using WiFi-C in-home if nobody else needs the MicroCell to see how well it will work for you.

I was just told there is no benefit of having the 6Plus with the microcell.  Is this true? It has built in Wifi