What you can ask of your operator when there is no signal at home
Before anyone sells you an installation — us included — there is one conversation that costs nothing: the one with your own provider. This page sets out what you can ask for, what deadlines start running once you complain, what happens to your minimum term, and exactly where the law stops obliging your operator to do anything. With the official sources linked, so you can read them yourself instead of trusting us.
Start with the uncomfortable part: nobody owes you coverage in your house
It is the sentence that most surprises people who ring their operator angry, and it is worth knowing before you pick up the phone. The Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones — the public body complaints go to in Spain — writes it on its own mobile telephony rights page: there is no universal coverage obligation in mobile telephony. No company is required to put up a mast so that your living room has bars, nor to reach your urbanisation because forty people live on it.
That does not mean there is nothing to claim. It means the complaint that goes nowhere is 'give me coverage', because nobody is obliged to. The ones that do go somewhere are different, and they are the ones below.
Source: the Spanish telecoms users office, user rights · mobile telephony. Consulted on 9 September 2026.
The four things that are worth asking for
- Have WiFi Calling switched on for your line. It is free, already included in what you pay, and it solves the call problem if you have internet at home. Not every line has it enabled, especially on brands that run on someone else's network. You ask for it by phone and check it in two minutes: how to switch it on, operator by operator.
- Ask whether anything is planned in your area. It is their network and sometimes they have a concrete answer: a new mast, a band change, works under way. If the answer is that nothing is planned, that sentence is useful to you: it is the point at which to stop waiting.
- Ask them to offer you equipment. Some exists, though almost none of it is meant for a home. It is set out further down, with what we could verify and what we could not.
- Ask to leave if they are not providing a service. A minimum term is not a prison, but it does not vanish on its own either. That is the next point.
The deadlines, which are what almost nobody knows
A call to customer service is not a complaint until there is a record of it. And the moment there is a record, a clock starts running that is written into the law, not into your contract.
- Complain to your operator and ask for the reference number. The company has to accept a complaint by telephone as well. Without that number you cannot later prove you complained, and it is the first thing you will be asked for.
- It has one month to answer you. One month from the day you file the complaint, not from the day somebody feels like it.
- If it does not answer, or the answer does not satisfy you, you have three months to take it to the Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones. The three months run from the answer, or from the end of the month of silence. After that the route closes.
- The Oficina has six months to resolve it. The procedure is free and no lawyer is needed.
Deadlines published by the office itself: complaints · telephony and internet. Consulted on 9 September 2026.
A minimum term does not lock you in, but it does not fall away on its own
This is where the internet exaggerates most, in both directions. What the official source says is measured: the existence of a minimum-term clause does not prevent you from exercising the right to cancel. So leaving, you can. What the contract may indeed provide for is a penalty tied to the benefits you received on signing — a subsidised handset, a discount, a reduced monthly fee — and that penalty is precisely what gets argued about.
That is why the useful question is not 'can I leave?' but 'what am I going to argue the penalty with?'. And what gets argued is facts: on what dates, in which part of the house, with what signal reading, and what the company answered when you told them. Without that, it is your word against theirs.
We are not lawyers or a consumer association, and this page is not legal advice: it is a summary of public sources, with a link to each one so you can read it in full. If real money is at stake in your case, the free places to ask are the Oficina itself, or your region's consumer arbitration board.
A decided case, to see how this is actually settled
The Madrid regional government publishes consumer arbitration cases, and one of them is exactly this situation: a user whose line did not work at home because no coverage reached it, and who could not get anyone to come and look. The company maintained that it had run technical checks, that the address had 2G, 3G and 4G coverage, and put the variations down to the building itself.
The arbitration panel did not accept it, and the reason is the part to remember: the company did not establish that any technician had ever attended the address. It ruled that the outstanding debt be cancelled and that the user be removed from the credit-default registers if he had been listed. What decided the case was not the customer's anger: it was that there was no evidence on the other side.
That is where the most useful advice on this page comes from, and it costs nothing: measure it yourself, note the date and the spot, and keep whatever they answer. Your own phone has the meter inside it, underneath the bars, and here is how to read it. Those readings are yours and they are worth the same if you never call us at all.
Case published by the Madrid regional government: 'Baja por falta de cobertura'. Consulted on 9 September 2026. It is not our customer and not our case: it is a public ruling, which is why it can be quoted.
And a device? What the operators actually offer today
It is always the next question: 'don't they have a little box for this?'. There are two things on the table, and they should not be confused.
- WiFi Calling. It exists, it is free, your own operator provides it and it travels over your home connection. It is the first thing to try and the only item on this list that costs anybody nothing. Where it stops being enough is set out plainly in the guide on this same site.
- The femtocell. A small base station plugged in inside the building, using the internet connection to reach the operator's network. Orange presented its own in October 2025: the press release describes it for businesses and public administrations, says it works over any operator's internet connection and that it covers up to 1,000 m² in open-plan spaces. It is not presented as a product for a home.
Checked on 9 September 2026, and we say it for what it is — a search of ours, not an answer from the companies: we have not found any femtocell offer published for private homes in Spain. If your operator offers you one for your house, take it without hesitating: it is their equipment on their network, it is lawful by definition and it needs nobody else to turn up. And if they do offer you one, write to us: we will correct this page.
Source: Orange press release, 'Orange lanza Femtocelda', 30 October 2025. Consulted on 9 September 2026.
When to stop complaining
When you have tried WiFi Calling and it is not enough, when your provider has told you nothing is planned, and when you have checked that another provider does not get into your house either. That is where what can be fixed by talking ends, and what is fixed by fitting begins: an antenna outside and a booster inside, so that your operator's network reaches the living room. How it works and what it costs.
And one distinction that matters, because the two get mixed up constantly: asking your operator for authorisation to amplify its signal is not complaining to it. It is a different procedure, addressed to a different part of the company, and it is the one we carry out before touching a single screw. Nobody can promise you in advance what the answer will be, and if the answer is no, nothing is installed. Why that authorisation is compulsory.
We measure › We ask for authorisation › We install › We test
We measure
Indoors, outdoors and on the roof, with a meter. If nothing can be done, we say so before starting.
We ask for authorisation
From your operator, in writing and in your name. Without it nothing is installed, and you pay for no installation.
We install
Aimed outdoor antenna, booster and indoor antenna. Half a day.
We test
We measure again in the same spot and make a call with you before we leave.
Questions about this
Can I force my operator to put a mast near my house?
Can they charge me the penalty if I leave over poor coverage?
How long does all this take?
Do you complain on my behalf?
Have you already spoken to your operator?
If the answer was that nothing is planned in your area, tell us where you live and what you see on the bars. We will tell you whether your case has a technical solution, and if it does not we will tell you that too. The survey costs 49 € and is free if an installation follows.
Improve mobile signal at home · WiFi Calling · How to check your mobile signal · Mobile signal booster · All areas