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Cell Phone Signal Boosters

M

Mikey Radio

Curious if anyone here has had experience with the small cell phone boosters one can puchase on the internet? I have a client that has a building with poor cell phone reception. Most employees get 1 or 2 bars at most, signal strength fluctuates and some days they report few problems, while most days they get spotty signal at best. I've seen signal boosters being sold on the internet, and at one point when Sprint had spotty service in the downtown area, that provider would send small tabletop signal boosters powered by wall wart power supplies to customers who'd complain about it, free of charge.

Anyone had experience with these or other solutions that actually worked and gave a notable improvement?
 
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Mikey Radio said:
Curious if anyone here has had experience with the small cell phone boosters one can puchase on the internet? I have a client that has a building with poor cell phone reception. Most employees get 1 or 2 bars at most, signal strength fluctuates and some days they report few problems, while most days they get spotty signal at best. I've seen signal boosters being sold on the internet, and at one point when Sprint had spotty service in the downtown area, that provider would send small tabletop signal boosters powered by wall wart power supplies to customers who'd complain about it, free of charge.

Anyone had experience with these or other solutions that actually worked and gave a notable improvement?
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The problem with cell phone boosters involve the signal quality of the carrier your client wants to repeat inside their building. Along with that, comes a good place to mount a high enough gain antenna, high enough and away from the transmitter inside the building. The signal from the specific phone carrier outside needs to be receivable-enough, and the indoor TX far enough away from the RX antenna, so the RX doesn't feedback from the inside TX. It's quite a dance to get the right combination. I've found the inexpensive cell repeaters available on Amazon are junk, and should be avoided.
 
Kelly A said:
I've found the inexpensive cell repeaters available on Amazon are junk, and should be avoided.
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That's what I was hoping to find out; Thanks, @Kelly A. As mentioned, when Sprint was experiencing customer complaints about poor signal strength in certain parts of the city, they handed out those smaller repeaters to everyone who complained, but I never actually heard if they were effective at all.
 
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Third party cell phone boosters are illegal and may cause problems for the service providers. Ask your cellular service provider for a solution. When I was on AT&T they gave out small internet connected hotspots which worked great. They have a GPS built in so that you can't use it outside of their service area. I never missed a call again.
 
Good luck getting permission to use them by the cell carrier on their spectrum.
If you have not coordinated all of the legal requirements then they are illegal.
Sure these companies are happy to sell to you without authorization. Most people just buy them and turn them on and that is not legal. Show me one example of a fully compliant installation of one of the types in the link you provide.
 
MM797 said:
Good luck getting permission to use them by the cell carrier on their spectrum.
If you have not coordinated all of the legal requirements then they are illegal.
Sure these companies are happy to sell to you without authorization. Most people just buy them and turn them on and that is not legal. Show me one example of a fully compliant installation of one of the types in the link you provide.
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Apparently you didn't read the link. As long as the devices are registered with the Commission, they aren't illegal. Nor do you need to get permission from the carrier.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Curious if anyone here has had experience with the small cell phone boosters one can puchase on the internet? I have a client that has a building with poor cell phone reception. Most employees get 1 or 2 bars at most, signal strength fluctuates and some days they report few problems, while most days they get spotty signal at best. I've seen signal boosters being sold on the internet, and at one point when Sprint had spotty service in the downtown area, that provider would send small tabletop signal boosters powered by wall wart power supplies to customers who'd complain about it, free of charge.

Anyone had experience with these or other solutions that actually worked and gave a notable improvement?
Click to expand...
I use a Verizon 4G Network Extender and it's excellent. It uses my Internet connection for backhaul and acts like a little cell site. It (usually) seamlessly passes calls to/from the macro mobile network.

Most phones support WiFi calling. Perhaps setting up a WiFi network for employees/guests is an easier solution, and more carrier agnostic.
 
luperm said:
Most phones support WiFi calling. Perhaps setting up a WiFi network for employees/guests is an easier solution, and more carrier agnostic.
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In this case there's fast and reliable WiFi for employees and guests so using apps like WhatsApp or messenger isn't an issue. The problem is when making/receiving calls on their cell phones via their carrier's network. If they're outside the building, coverage isn't usually an issue, but as mentioned in my OP, inside the building it's spotty at best. Its not uncommon to see employees moving about or trying to stand near exterior windows when on a call to try and maintain a viable signal. Some report they don't always receive incoming calls when at their workstations, and only find out later when they get a strong enough signal and they see a missed call notification.
 
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Mikey Radio said:
In this case there's fast and reliable WiFi for employees and guests so using apps like WhatsApp or messenger isn't an issue. The problem is when making/receiving calls on their cell phones via their carrier's network. If they're outside the building, coverage isn't usually an issue, but as mentioned in my OP, inside the building it's spotty at best. Its not uncommon to see employees moving about or trying to stand near exterior windows when on a call to try and maintain a viable signal. Some report they don't always receive incoming calls when at their workstations, and only find out later when they get a strong enough signal and they see a missed call notification.
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Why don't users utilize WiFi calling? It's native to most phones and carriers. You usually just need to toggle on the feature in settings (if not already turned on).
 
luperm said:
Why don't users utilize WiFi calling? It's native to most phones and carriers. You usually just need to toggle on the feature in settings (if not already turned on).
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In my case (T-Mobile), it doesn't work well enough to bother with. Between bad audio, echoes, and missed/dropped calls, I turned it off a few days after getting my new phone (Samsung S20 FE). It was even worse on my sig-other's S21.

Same goes with 5G: T-Mobile admitted to me when called to complain about it that it's not ready for prime time in a lot of areas, including mine. Worked great in Vegas, but is useless in Mesa.
 
KeithE4 said:
In my case (T-Mobile), it doesn't work well enough to bother with. Between bad audio, echoes, and missed/dropped calls, I turned it off a few days after getting my new phone (Samsung S20 FE). It was even worse on my sig-other's S21.
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Your results don't match mine.

I have T-Mobile service, use an older iPhone and have had essentially zero problems using T-Mobile's WiFi service for cell phone connectivity when I am outside the United States.

By the same token, I don't think I've ever used the WiFi service in the states, because I am generally in areas which are covered by T-Mobile's regular cell service. One exception, T-Mobile had a total site failure in the area of our home in Fleming Island, FL, and we just switched all the cell phones over to our internet router for the WiFi link.
 
I have the WeBoost booster in my car and it really works. I can drive hundreds of miles while streaming a radio station and not hear dropouts. I’ve looked at the signal on a spectrum analyzer and I can see that it’s indeed amplified 15 dB
 
Kelly A said:
Apparently you didn't read the link. As long as the devices are registered with the Commission, they aren't illegal. Nor do you need to get permission from the carrier.
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Yes you are right. I was told to install one of these in an office building for my employer (longer time ago) and at that time it was not compliant.
 
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