Link Budget Estimation on Companion Device

A device, comprising:

• a transceiver configured to establish a device connection to a further device over a first connection and a network connection to a network over a second connection, the further device configured to establish a further network connection to the network over a third connection, the transceiver configured to receive initiating data from the second device over the first connection, the initiating data based on radio conditions associated with the third connection of the further device;
• and
• a processor determining an initial network metric value based on the initiating data when the device disconnects from the further device and establishes the second connection, the initial network metric value used to estimate radio conditions associated with the second connection of the device, the processor selecting a data exchange mode of the device based on the initial network metric value, the selected data exchange mode being used until a further network metric is determined by the device.