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Broken Wi-Fi calling is a dealbreaker

Hey eero team — I am aware that you are working on a fix for broken Wi-Fi calling under eero 2.0.0. I'd just like to underline the point: For those of us with shoddy cell service, the eero's ability to properly handle Wi-Fi calls is essential to conducting business, staying in touch with family, and being safe in an emergency.

Eero 1.x did this very well. Eero 2.0.0 has broken Wi-Fi calling. I'm trying to stay patient. But this matter is almost literally life-and-death for some of your customers, and I'm so far not getting the sense from your support team that you understand this.

At the very least, please let your customers in this situation downgrade to 1.x software while you figure out what went wrong with 2.0.0. So far, I've been told you aren't doing that. Why? Because it's troublesome? It's hard to believe that's more of a bother for you than you've created for your customers. Please make this right.

- Z

96 replies

    • eero Community Manager
    • Jeff_C
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Official response
    • Reported - view

    Hi everyone,

    Thanks for your patience and understanding as our team has been working on reported issues with WiFi calling.

    Our most recent update to the eeroOS, version 2.2.0, is now available and helps address these reported issues.

    This update will be automatically pushed to networks on a rolling basis. However, if you'd like to update your network now, you can initiate an update by taking these steps:

    1. Open the eero app
    2. Tap the menu option
    3. Tap Network Settings
    4. Tap Update available (found in the Network software section)

    Please note that updating your software will take your network offline for a few minutes.

    If your experience any similar issues after this update, please contact eero support by phone at 1-877-659-2347 or email us at support@eero.com.

    • eero Community Manager
    • Jeff_C
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Official response
    • Reported - view

    Hi zfirst  —

    Thanks for reaching out. I am sorry to hear you're experiencing issues with WiFi calling. This isn't something we've heard many complaints of, so we'd like to work with you to root cause the issue.

    We'd like to investigate the case on our side, but we need a bit more information to get started. Specifically, we'd like some help identifying the times you've encountered this problem on your network so that we can dig into the logs more closely. If you'd be willing to work with us so that our techs can pinpoint where the issue is happening, that'd be greatly appreciated. I can have someone get in touch with you, or you can just respond to your last email from our support team.

    Thanks again.

    • zfirst
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

     Hi Jeff C. — I just emailed support again, per your instructions. The dropped calls happen literally every time I make a Wi-Fi call, usually within 2-3 minutes of call start. This is versus never having a dropped call under the exact same network setup, but running eero 1.x. 

    • eero Community Manager
    • Jeff_C
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Thanks for emailing in. I have notified our team of your response, and we'll start taking a look here soon. They may reach out for more specifics, so please be on the lookout for any emails from our team.

    Thanks again!

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi zfirst!  I do networking and cell phone tech support; can I help too? I've had similar issues myself before (but not with Eero).  Maybe we can crack this wifi calling nut from both sides, Eero Tech Support on one side and us together on cellphone side  

    Hope you don't think this is a stupid question, but let's hit basics first; which phone(s) are you using, which  cell carrier, are the phone(s) updated to latest software?

    • maverick
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi,  I am very interested in this issue.  I have been trying to get info on Eero and WiFi Calling. Like Z this is an very critical.  We only get cell phone service through Wifi Calling.  

    I have not purchase Eero yet.  It would be useless to me without this issue Solved.

    Also, does Wifi Calling hand off as I travel around my house without dropping calls--Vital to my location.

    I look forward to any information being shared on this issue.

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    maverick my wife and I use the iphone 7 with iOS 10.2, which was just released today. Even with iOS 10 and 10.1, we never had any issues with wifi calling or hand-off between Eeros while on a wifi call. We also have two Samsung Galaxy S7's, and as has been mentioned in quite a few Galaxy S7 reviews, they are terrible with wifi calls with Linksys, DLink, Netgear, and Eero. 

    The fact that the Apple iPhones work fine with wifi calling as the Galaxy S7's don't, with research over the last 18 months, showing Microsoft Lumias, and some of the latest LG and HTC models having similar issues, leads me to believe most of the wifi calling issues are more handset specific, and not specific to routers. 

    Not sure if that helps or not. 

    • maverick
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Thanks for the info.  We are an all iPhone, iPad family.  When family comes over we can have up to 40 iPhones, iPod, and iPads on the wifi at one time.  All the family is moving to Wifi calling because they suffer the same way we do.  I am still hesitant to make the move $500 is lot of money in my house for the three pack.  I might go with the two pack and then add at least one or two more.  Very small house but very hard to get wifi through the walls.   Thanks again for your help.  

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    maverick you're welcome. I've originally got the three-pack, and added a 4th Eero, not for coverage reasons, but was curious to see if wifi speeds would increase at the end of the house, farthest from cable modem, even though connection quality for the 3 Eeros was excellent.  Speed went from 45 Mbps average at that end to 112 Mbps average; I wasn't expecting that big a speed boost. Try two Eeros but three may help wifi speed and connectivity quality wise. 

    • maverick
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    thanks,  it might be worth it start with three and go from there.

    • CLalib
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Jeff C. Since release, I have brought several friends over to Eero. Every one of us is suffering from the dropped wifi calls using iPhones on both Verizon and AT&T using iPhone 6, 6s or 7. This is not an occasional issue. It happens on every call at least within a few minutes...and only since v2.0.0. The new v2.1.0 did nothing to correct the issue. I think the reason that you are not getting a lot of complaints is because your customers are not aware that the problem is coming from Eero. (None of my friends were.) They think it is their phone carrier. Until this is resolved, please, please allow us to downgrade to the previously working version. 

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    My wife and I are on AT&T with iPhone 7 and iOS 10.1.1, and we are NOT having these issues.  Wifi calling is working fine for us. On your iphones, have you gone to Settings>Phone>Wifi Calling and made sure Wifi calling on this iPhone is turned on?  

    This may not be a Eero specific issue, as iPhone users from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint are also having this same issue with all other routers by Netgear, DLink, Linksys, etc. 

    What seems to help them on all routers is, on their iPhones, turning Wifi calling off and then on again, and General>Reset>Reset Network Settings and/or Reset All Settings.  These are all recommendations by Apple, who has admitted there are Wifi Calling issues which have nothing to do with any specific routers used by consumers, but actually appear to be sure to faulty cell carrier settings. 

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    However, being able to downgrade Eeros firmware would be a valuable troubleshooting step in general, not just for this situation. 

    • CLalib
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Richard1864 Yes, wifi calling is on and has been reset. This is a Eero specific issue. As soon as I turn off my Eero network and go back to my old router using the exact same credentials and even the same IP address, the problem is completely resolved. 

    A possible reason the you may not be experiencing the issue is that the phones automatically default back to the cell connection if the wifi gets interrupted. However, in my case (and coincidentally my friends' as well) the cell signal at our houses is not strong enough to hold the call after the wifi is disrupted. 

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    CLalib no, not defaulting back to cellular. When home, our iPhones are in Airplane mode with just Wifi and Bluetooth turned on. We were home all weekend with our iPhones set that way and had no problems. 

    Have you tried unplugging from power all your Eeros for several minutes, and then plugging them back in; what results did you have with that?

    • BinaryWeapon
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I moved from Apple Airport wifi units, and to a 3-Eero (wired) mesh, and am now experiencing wifi call dropping.  I have very poor cell coverage, and wifi calling is a big deal.  Locations where I have great Eero coverage (and full speeds) drop wifi phone calls after a few minutes.  (iPhone 7, iOS 10.2, ATT).

    • CLalib
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I'm sure the network engineers are already perfectly aware of this, but the mystery of the dropped wifi calls is becoming more clear to me. The calls drop 100% of the time when the iPhone switches between 2.4 and 5 Ghz. This most often happens when moving from node to node, but can also even happen on the same node under the new v2.x.x firmware revision. So, while this may indeed be more a flaw in iPhones than in Eero, this is still a new dynamic that was created by the Eero v2.x.x firmware update. For those of us who do not have good cellular signal at home, this is a complete show stopper. A responsible company would either immediately patch or roll back a forced firmware revision that caused this kind of problem. Not at all acceptable to allow this to continue unresolved even if a patch is under development. 

    • Dixit
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Im going to chime in here as well and say I have issued with wifi calling.  On an iPhone 7 Plus on AT&T and use wifi calling as well due to the fact my basement (where my home office is) doesn't get the best signal.  When roaming around the house and it connects from one eero to another, Ive noticed it switches back to LTE (while the original call was on wifi calling) and sometimes just drops.  Couldn't figure out if this is an ATT/Apple issue or eero as I was having the same issues even on my old AP setup (Unifi AC Pro, two Asus AC68s converted to AP mode, and DLink converted to AP mode). 

    I know the handoff of is clearly better on the eero since it has the 802.11r spec for handoff, my old setup didn't have that as it was just a homegrown method of blanketing my house with wifi.

    Id love to figure out what causes the drops/switching back to LTE.  Obviously we don't have the algorithm they (ATT or Apple) use in understanding when it goes in and out of wifi calling.

     

    Dixit

    • johnnyflet
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Just came across this thread while investigating our wifi-calling issues with t-mobile and our new eero 3 pack. Both my wife and I experienced drops today. We had no issues with wifi calling and our asus RT-AC68U serving up the wifi signal.

    • swede76
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    My in-laws just bought a 3 eero system  because their house is one huge wifi dead spot and their cell coverage is horrible. Prior to installing the eeros, wifi calling worked fine on all our AT&T iPhones. After putting in the eeros wifi is amazing with blazing speeds, however the wifi calling doesn't work. Every call drops after about 15 seconds. When testing it out I stood still right by one of the eeros to make sure it wasn't due to jumping between the eeros. The calls still dropped. We desperately need a fix to this as there is no way to make a call anymore at their house. I agree with the original poster that this is a huge safety issue since we cannot contact anyone in case of emergency. Please eero team, get this fixed asap. 

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Trying to help troubleshoot this with Apple for you guys. And yes, a big part of the problem is being caused by the cell phone carriers. Two questions from them if you guys could answer for me to pass on to them please?

    1.  Who is your internet provider?

    2.  Are you using the default DNS settings on your Eeros (the DNS your internet provider uses), or have you changed them to a different DNS service (Google, OpenDNS, etc)?

    Thanks in advance.

    Richard. 

    • CLalib
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Richard1864 Or you could just get Eero to roll the firmware back to V1.1.5 when everything worked perfectly.

    • Richard1864
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    CLalib but that does NOT really solve the problem, does it?  

    • swede76
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    ISP is suddenlink (200 Mbps) and the DNS is default. It seems like the problem is when it rolls over from wifi calling back to LTE. The cell coverage is very hit and miss here so it switches between the two very often. Any help is much appreciated. 

    • BinaryWeapon
    • 7 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Richard1864 Why would ISP and DNS settings play a part in dropped wifi calls?  Once the call is established, isn't the connection and DNS resolution complete?

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