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Why You Should Connect Your Mobile Phone to Your Home’s Wi-Fi

Cure problems with poor signal strength, weak audio, data overages


spinner image a person holding a smartphone with a wifi signal on the screen
Photo Collage: AARP; (Source: Getty Images (2))

If you’re annoyed with calls breaking up or video chats freezing when you use your smartphone where you live, one solution will save your sanity and your data: Join your phone to your home’s Wi-Fi network.

The sound quality of your calls and music streaming will improve. Using Wi-Fi will also save you during a widespread outage, like AT&T’s service interruption that affected 75,000 of its cellphone customers and 13,000 users of its Cricket Wireless mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).

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Make calls even when your cell service is down

If your smartphone and carrier support it — and chances are they do — making and receiving calls and text messages are easy over a Wi-Fi network. Being connected is also a great backup plan if you lose cell service.

When you call for help using your cellphone, the tower that connects the call helps a call center locate you. Depending on the technology, that could be within about three football fields. Newer Next-Generation Enhanced 911 can pinpoint a call within about 50 feet.

But most Wi-Fi doesn’t use a cell tower, so your provider needs to know the exact location of your connection to the internet in case you dial 911. That way, it can connect you to the correct 911 call center in an emergency and dispatch help to the proper address.

Before you can use Wi-Fi calling from your house, you’ll have to register your home address with your mobile carrier. Some companies allow you to register while you’re enabling Wi-Fi calling, shown below on an iPhone.

spinner image three images of smartphone screens
Some cellphone providers allow you to add your physical address, right, for more accurate 911 dispatching while you’re turning on Wi-Fi calling rather than separately going to the carrier’s website.
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You also can do this on your mobile carrier’s website by searching for Wi-Fi callingAT&T,  T-Mobile,  UScellular and Verizon are the four largest cell service providers.

You should change the address if you’re a snowbird and want to use Wi-Fi calling at your second home or anywhere else. Many carriers say they’ll first try to use a cell tower to connect 911 but will go to Wi-Fi if that’s the only service available. 

Print documents right from your phone

If you want to print from your smartphone — a document, email, photo or web article — you’ll need to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your wireless printer. Exceptions include printers that use an app or email address to print from anywhere, even outside the home.

But most wireless printers require devices requesting a print job to be on the same Wi-Fi network as they are.

Stream video without data overages

If you stream TV and movies on your smartphone and you’re not on a Wi-Fi network, your entertainment time will count toward your wireless phone’s data cap if you don’t have unlimited service.

Watching a program in standard definition, commonly referred to as 480p — a screen height of 480 pixels with a progressive scan that draws the picture line by line in sequence — can use up to 1 gigabyte (GB) of data every hour, according to streaming giant Netflix. That’s way below today’s standards for TV screen resolution.

High-definition streaming at 720p can use up to 3 GB of data an hour and ultra-high definition, better known as 4K or 2160p, can eat up to 7 GB an hour, according to the platform. 

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Throttling won’t be an issue

Even if your cellphone plan says it has unlimited data, your provider might slow your data speeds, called throttling, if network traffic is heavy. Sometimes that will happen if you exceed a certain limit within a billing cycle.

If you have a data cap, you might face overage fees that can get steep quickly. Many plans sell you extra data in 1 GB increments even if you go slightly over the limit, so it’s wise to push data usage to your home Wi-Fi when possible.

How to get on your home’s Wi-Fi

Connecting your mobile phone to Wi-Fi is just like connecting a computer, smart TV, wireless printer or other devices. You need to know two things: your Wi-Fi network name, sometimes referred to as a service set identifier (SSID), and its password.

Just like other devices, you need to add your phone to your Wi-Fi network only once unless you change the name of your Wi-Fi network or password.

iPhone

1. Tap Settings ⚙️ from your home screen.

2. Tap Wi-Fi near the top. On the next screen, make sure Wi-Fi has a green toggle switch to show it’s turned on.

3. See the list of all nearby Wi-Fi networks that your smartphone detects under Network.

4. Select the name of your home network and type in its password when prompted.

Now you should see the familiar Wi-Fi ᯤ symbol at the top of your iPhone. The more curves, the stronger your Wi-Fi signal, similar to the vertical bars 📶 that indicate cellular signal strength.

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Android

Be aware not all Android phones are set up the same, so steps may vary slightly among models from Google, Samsung, Moto, OnePlus and other manufacturers.

1. Swipe down from the top of Android’s home screen and you’ll see the Wi-Fi ᯤ symbol near the top. If swiping down doesn’t work, you can tap the Settings ⚙️ icon on your home screen.

2. Choose Connections. Make sure your toggle switch is blue and on. Tap the name of your Wi-Fi network if you’re not yet connected and type in its password when prompted.

3. Tap the name of your provider and the Settings ⚙️ icon on the next screen to ensure the toggle for Auto reconnect is on. That way your phone will automatically join your Wi-Fi network when you walk in your door.

How to improve the Wi-Fi connection

If your phone is connected but your signal is weak or you’re not getting Wi-Fi, you can troubleshoot.

Change your router location. Keep your router elevated on a desk or table with no obstructions, ideally centered on the main or top floor. The farther away the router means less signal strength.

Consider a mesh system. Those who have a large home or older home with concrete walls might think of buying a mesh or whole house network. The more advanced router includes multiple bases, nodes or hubs — wireless extenders — to place around the home.

These devices all wirelessly communicate with the router to blanket a broader space with faster and more reliable Wi-Fi. This is a modular system, so you can add more bases if you need them.

Get a better router. You may have a modem from your home internet service provider (ISP) or an optical network terminal if you have fiber optic. Both send and receive signals from the internet. But a good router, which disperses the signal to devices hooked up to your network is important.

If you haven’t upgraded your router in a few years, consider picking up a new one. Look for Wi-Fi 7, the latest standard, or at least Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6e. All are probably faster than what you have and support more devices being used simultaneously.

Return to wires. If devices such as your desktop computer support a wired connection, plug them into the modem or router if it’s close enough. This requires an inexpensive ethernet cable, which looks like a fat telephone cable.

If your device is wireless, like a smartphone, you’ll need to be as close to your router as possible for the best performance. You might consider a mesh system or wireless extender for areas with spotty reception.

Switch frequencies. Today’s Wi-Fi routers broadcast in different frequencies: 2.4 gigahertz (GHz), 5 GHz and 6 GHz for Wi-Fi 6e and Wi-Fi 7 routers. The newest routers deliver faster speeds with less signal interference among devices operating on the 2.4 GHz frequency in the home, such as baby monitors, cordless phones and microwaves.

While the 2.4 GHz frequency can reach farther distances than the 5 GHz and 6 GHz frequencies, devices connected to the 5 GHz and 6 GHz frequencies operate at faster speeds. Figuring out the best one for your needs can improve your network’s reach, speed and reliability.

Upgrade your service. The fastest router in the world won’t be useful without fast speeds from your internet service provider. Budget permitting, go with the fastest speeds available in your neighborhood, which may require a new router.

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