NEHotspotHelper entitlement: Wifi Signal Strength

Hi, we are a Carrier company (Utility provider) and working on a feature to display real-time Wifi Signal strength of customer devices (connected to Router Gateway) to help customers identify low and high signal areas, and possibly install extenders to improve signal strength at weak points. This feature requires NEHotspotHelper entitlement approval to access signalStrength property. We went through this Apple documentation too and we're open to other recommendations from Apple https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/721067 .

Since we currently don't have direct point of contact with Apple to discuss this requirement, hence wanted to check it here. Kindly advise. Thanks !

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Birender
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we are a Carrier company [...but...] we currently don't have direct point of contact with Apple

That’s the first problem you need to solve. As mentioned in the post you linked, there’s nothing available to discuss in this forum (public APIs) that would help.

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Scott
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Also, keep in mind that NEHotspotHelper is not designed as a general-purpose Wi-Fi API. Quoting from that post you referenced:

This value only updates in real time for networks that your hotspot helper is managing, as indicated by the isChosenHelper property.

If you’re working with normal Wi-Fi networks — rather than a hotspot, where the user must interact with the network to gain access to the wider Internet — you won’t become the chosen helper and thus you won’t get read-time updates.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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eskimo
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Hi @eskimo @Scott , firstly thanks for your inputs ! So does it mean that we can't/shouldn't use the NEHotspotHelper class for this requirement ? As a Carrier company, we need to get real-time Wifi Signal strength of customer devices (connected to Router Gateway). Could you please suggest appropriate option in this regard ? Is Core Telephony APIs (CTGetSignalStrength class) appropriate in this case, documentation says "Carriers can use this information to write apps that provide services only for their own subscribers" ? Unfortunately we can't find contact at Apple, any pointers on how to get hold of Apple contact? We'll appreciate your guidance in this regard. Thanks !

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Birender
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Is Core Telephony APIs (CTGetSignalStrength class) appropriate in this case

That class isn’t part of the public iOS SDK. If you have questions about it, you’ll need to raise them with your carrier contact at Apple.

Honestly, I think that’s a good way forward here in general. One expected use case for the hotspot helper subsystem is to help carriers offload traffic to Wi-Fi. There are carrier-specific aspects to this that I’m not really up-to-speed with (because they involve stuff that’s not in the iOS SDK).

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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eskimo
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