Let's talk about cell signal boosters for the home

[geno]

So I've been eyeing this for a bit since cell reception is horrible at our house. Our geographic location is one which is below a ridge and, wouldn't you know it, the closest tower is on the other side of that ridge. No one, and I mean no one, gets reception at our house, no matter the carrier / network.

Does anyone have any experience with signal boosters? Am I silly for shopping around newegg for something like this or does someone have a better source on alternatives? I'm not looking to go with a land line and $300 seems pretty reasonable to permanently boost our signals so we can use our phones at home.

 

[PsiStar]

Does anyone get signal anywhere just outside the house? Near the roof?
If there is no signal to start with then the booster is not going to be doing any boosting.

Or, get Vonage & set it up for simul ring with your cell.

 

[wiretap]

I'm looking for same type cell signal boosting device. I don't mind paying $300 to $500, as long as I get service. I have a cabin out in the middle of nowhere, and I can only get a bar or two on my phone when I'm outside if I'm standing facing the right direction. There's no phone or internet where I'm at.. just electricity, luckily. I was hoping with a better cell signal, I could pull internet off the cell network and tether my phone.

 

[geno]

Does anyone get signal anywhere just outside the house? Near the roof?
If there is no signal to start with then the booster is not going to be doing any boosting.

Or, get Vonage & set it up for simul ring with your cell.

Service is spotty in one area of the house and solid in others, so there is a signal somewhere, and I wanna boost it

 

[Nebor]

MagicJack announced at CES that they'll have a device out in the next few months that you connect to the internet, and it allows you to play and receive calls with your cell phone without using minutes.

The home I live in swings between full bars and no bars, and I get frequent disconnects and choppy signals, so I'm hoping the magicjack device can help me. Seems like it'd be more of a sure thing than a signal booster.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

You probably could get a phemocell provided by your carrier. I don't think MagicJack will get that device out. The carriers won't let it happen.

 

[corkyg]

I hhave used the booster you linked to for two years now, and for me, it works really well. The key is to find a good location for the external antenna.

 

[thomsbrain]

You might want to check and make sure another carrier doesn't offer better service where you live. I finally switched to Verizon when my T-Mobile phone didn't work at my home, my office, my family's vacation home, or in spots along my commute. My Verizon phone works perfectly in all those places.

 

[geno]

You might want to check and make sure another carrier doesn't offer better service where you live. I finally switched to Verizon when my T-Mobile phone didn't work at my home, my office, my family's vacation home, or in spots along my commute. My Verizon phone works perfectly in all those places.

I've had people with all three major carriers in my house and nobody ever gets reliable reception throughout the entire house save for a couple of "hot spots", even Verizon, with the area's best coverage, suffers in the same spots as our T-Mobile phones.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I've heard good things about that booster, I'd give it a shot.

 

[randomlinh]

Does anyone get signal anywhere just outside the house? Near the roof?
If there is no signal to start with then the booster is not going to be doing any boosting.

Bingo. I am looking at one because our basement has signal. Sprint has their Airave phemocell, but getting them to let me buy it w/o paying $20/mo to use it is difficult ($5 x each line).

 

[PsiStar]

I hhave used the booster you linked to for two years now, and for me, it works really well. The key is to find a good location for the external antenna.

This is the most important part. And, not that I am an advocate for cable installer sort of installations, try a temp install outside the house stringing the cable outside in other words (the "cable installer sort of install" in other words) for sanity check.

For antennas, they work best the higher the better, at least this is what you want for the external antenna. Have your cell with you & look for the location with the most reliable bars. The internal antenna would work best centrally located or at least near where people would like to use their cell.

Be prepared to move & adjust both ends until you get it optimized ... this may all be obvious to you, or not ... post back with results.

 

[Nebor]

You probably could get a phemocell provided by your carrier. I don't think MagicJack will get that device out. The carriers won't let it happen.

Looks like AT&T's femtocell, "MicroCell" isn't available in many places yet. I have no idea why though.

 

[wiretap]

With some of those from the big cell providers, they require you hook them up to the phone line for some reason. That might be why certain areas are not available. You're better off buying one outright that you can do whatever you want with. I lol'd when Verizon told me theirs needed to be hooked up to the phone line. I was like.. well, my cabin is out in the middle of nowhere with no phone lines, what good is that.. the whole point of the cell repeater is so I can get a signal just to get some sort of phone without paying $10k+ per telephone pole to be ran to my property from a few miles away.

 

[Nebor]

With some of those from the big cell providers, they require you hook them up to the phone line for some reason. That might be why certain areas are not available. You're better off buying one outright that you can do whatever you want with. I lol'd when Verizon told me theirs needed to be hooked up to the phone line. I was like.. well, my cabin is out in the middle of nowhere with no phone lines, what good is that.. the whole point of the cell repeater is so I can get a signal just to get some sort of phone without paying $10k+ per telephone pole to be ran to my property from a few miles away.

The AT&T one hooks up to your broadband connection, but has to be near a WINDOW so the GPS will work, I guess to make sure you're not using it in an unauthorized place. Whatever, just let me buy one here in Louisiana.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

With some of those from the big cell providers, they require you hook them up to the phone line for some reason. That might be why certain areas are not available. You're better off buying one outright that you can do whatever you want with. I lol'd when Verizon told me theirs needed to be hooked up to the phone line. I was like.. well, my cabin is out in the middle of nowhere with no phone lines, what good is that.. the whole point of the cell repeater is so I can get a signal just to get some sort of phone without paying $10k+ per telephone pole to be ran to my property from a few miles away.

A femtocell is different from a repeater. A femtocell hooks up to broadband internet, and converts the cellular stuff to "voip" and connects to the network via the hard line.

A repeater just rebroadcasts a weaker single to make it stronger.

I feel that if a company rolls out a femtocell it should be FREE or actually reduce the cost your monthly bill (one time hardware costs are acceptable). Because it is offloading their networks, and piggybacking onto the internet connection that you are already paying for.

The fact that they are trying to charge you again monthly so you can reduce their network saturation or better weak coverage is pure lunacy.

 

[wiretap]

Ah, I see. They didn't describe it to me like that.. they just called it a 'repeater'. I hate speaking with technology inept sales people. =/

 

[joleen]

I tried the zBoost and it didn't work. It works for some from the reviews I read, but it didn't work for me. It only allowed me to move in about a 5ft radius and any further I had nothing.:\ My goal was to cover my whole house.

I wanted to do the Microcell thing, but it still wasn't (still isn't) available in my area. :\

I searched on the web.... got lots of great info, looked at other forums about cell phone signal boosters and repeaters, read reviews... finally found a company called [link deleted]. I looked at their website (full of great information) and called them. I talked to Jeff and he asked me what my issue was, what I wanted to accomplish, how my current signal was, etc. in the end he made a recommendation.

He recommended I get a dual band kit, I have AT&T and their Dual Band in my area, only 2-3 bars outside, nothing inside. I purchased the kit he suggested... the [link deleted] Wilson DB Pro 841262 Kit only cost about $620 with shipping and insurance. (worth every penny)

When I got my kit, I had my brother (no experience at all) set it up and it only took him about maybe an hour to mount the outside antenna, run the cable and install the inside antenna. He did call Jeff after reading the instructions just to make sure he understood what he had to do. Jeff was great about it... he was glad to help... unlike others I've dealt with.
Once we powered up the amplifier and turned our phones back on we had full bars inside! I'm on AT&T and he's Verizon... we both had full bars!!!:awe: We were both super stoked as we walked around my house and the bars were there, in every room! I since have gotten rid of my landline and my kit will eventually pay for itself! Yeah!

I recommend you call [link deleted] they have the greatest customer service, they are very helpful and they know what they are doing. If you want to ask me anything I'm open.

Hope this helps
Jo

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Thanks for spamming. Good bye.

Harvey
Senior AnandTech Moderator/Administrator

 

[wiretap]

^--looks like you're from the company.

 

[htne]

For what it's worth, I have the "Verizon Cell Phone Extender" (femtocell). This has a one time charge of $250, and no monthly fees after the original purchase. It does require a broadband connection, and it does not work well if you are heavily saturating your router with other traffic. It does work well ordinarily, and it covers most of my 2300 square foot house.

One important item to note: If you start a call inside your home, and then leave, the call will drop when you get a certain number of feet from the Extender.

 

[vshah]

that magic jack device would be awesome if it is actually released.

and on gsm phones, you could forward to your magic jack number when out of service, so people calling your cell would ring through the magic jack to your cell anyway