Cell Phone Booster for Rural Areas
- Thread starter jaxgt
- Start date
twobjshelbys
GT Owner
I don't know how successful it will be. Boosters were common and successful in the early days of cell phones - Gen 1, analog, think bag phones - when the max power was 5 watts. Coverage was thin and depended on power to reach towers, and analog was inefficient. Now with digital packet from Gen3 on, the network depends on closely spaced towers with overlap and good handoff algorithms.
That said, google "cell phone booster". There are many products out there, but conspicuously absent are any products sold directly by say Verizon or AT&T.
That said, google "cell phone booster". There are many products out there, but conspicuously absent are any products sold directly by say Verizon or AT&T.
TO AWSUM
Ford GT Owner
twobjshelbys
GT Owner
Also, why do you think you need it? There are two reasons:
1. Low or no signal quality.
2. Dropped calls.
If #1: Then maybe a booster will help.
If #2 then here is my experience. When we lived in Colorado we were line of sight to the tower location. I found out where it was when I was chair of our planning board and a provider wanted to put up a tower in our town limits. It was a special review, and part of the information we wanted was coverage so they had to tell us where the other towers were. It turned out that the one and only tower (before the new one) was at the edge of town. It was on a major commercial structure that was line of sight from my house.
So why dropped calls?
Because they were at "the edge of the world". There was no tower west to hand off to, and at times when the tower was at capacity, they would simply DROP CALLS! Instead of refusing service to a new client client they would accept an incoming handoff and drop an existing call to take it! Goofy.
THe point here is that if the tower is a fringe and you have good signal strength, a power booster probably won't help with dropped calls.
1. Low or no signal quality.
2. Dropped calls.
If #1: Then maybe a booster will help.
If #2 then here is my experience. When we lived in Colorado we were line of sight to the tower location. I found out where it was when I was chair of our planning board and a provider wanted to put up a tower in our town limits. It was a special review, and part of the information we wanted was coverage so they had to tell us where the other towers were. It turned out that the one and only tower (before the new one) was at the edge of town. It was on a major commercial structure that was line of sight from my house.
So why dropped calls?
Because they were at "the edge of the world". There was no tower west to hand off to, and at times when the tower was at capacity, they would simply DROP CALLS! Instead of refusing service to a new client client they would accept an incoming handoff and drop an existing call to take it! Goofy.
THe point here is that if the tower is a fringe and you have good signal strength, a power booster probably won't help with dropped calls.
There are 2 ways that I know of. One is called a "micro cell". This is provided by your carrier. It provides some cell reception, and then connects to your router via Ethernet to communicate back to the mother ship.
The second option is in essence a repeater. You locate a outdoor directional antenna that "points" to a cell tower. Then inside your house there are omni directional transceivers that connect to your phone, "repeating" the signal to the tower.
These are 2 suppliers that come to mind.
https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/home
https://www.surecall.com/
The second option is in essence a repeater. You locate a outdoor directional antenna that "points" to a cell tower. Then inside your house there are omni directional transceivers that connect to your phone, "repeating" the signal to the tower.
These are 2 suppliers that come to mind.
https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/home
https://www.surecall.com/
Triheart7
GT Owner
twobjshelbys
GT Owner
Your mention of it dredged up some old memory cells. I tried to wrangle one of the "micro cell" thingies out of Verizon but they never ponied up. Our connectivity issues remained until after the 2013 flood when they upgraded the tower I could see (it was damaged in the flood). The second tower we approved was not built until after we left, something like 5 years after we approved it.
This category is a complete "get what you pay for". The cheap is junk, spend the bucks for a professionally installed integrated system (or DIY, but a quality system) and it will work very well in most cases.
twobjshelbys
GT Owner
The Grey Ghost
GT Owner
We live out in the country and had to get something.
We have a device provided by our cell carrier. It's called an Air Rave, a brand I believe?
As mentioned above, it does hook to our router for internet access, but also has a GPS antenna.
If you loose power or internet, however, it does not work.
They normally charge for the device and a monthly fee, but after a threat to switch providers, they gave it to us for free with no monthly fees.
We have a device provided by our cell carrier. It's called an Air Rave, a brand I believe?
As mentioned above, it does hook to our router for internet access, but also has a GPS antenna.
If you loose power or internet, however, it does not work.
They normally charge for the device and a monthly fee, but after a threat to switch providers, they gave it to us for free with no monthly fees.