Can a cheesy cell booster antenna actually work?

[jamecsen]

This is probably the reason why I don't use cellular numbers because I think they are less reliable. It is better to buy yourself a VoIP number from https://www.mightycall.com/virtual-phone-number/, which will give you the opportunity to call abroad, and you will always be protected from hacking and wiretapping. It's not expensive and it's also easy, so I recommend everyone to at least familiarize themselves with it.

 

[kenmbz]

We have a t-mobile repeater (2 boxes on either side of the house with one by a window where I can get 1 bar) they gave us, as the cell tower is barely line of sight over the hill.
It kinda works.

Don't like WiFi calling as it never seems to get over signal glitches since it is not a real phone service.
I have voip phone on my laptop and that is rock solid, but it has ways of handling network glitches that cell phones don't.

I find it amazing that they can upgrade the cameras in a phone to take DSLR quality pictures, but can't make the phone part work well.

They keep saying 3g-->4g-->5g-->6g will fix that

P.S. I would never go with ATT, had them for years on my work and personal phone and they were terrible. They did not upgrade most of their infrastructure, instead spending all their money on expanding. I have TMobile (great for international) and Verizon (great for US )and both work so much better than ATT ever did.

 

[California]

I know a very good way to get rid of this problem, you just have to buy a VoIP number and get rid of network problems.

... If IP is available where you are.

Some people on here don't have access to anything DSL or better. Some, not even POTS.

 

[California]

A story about a T-Mobile hotspot:

Home in town, Sonic (a re-seller of ATT signal with far better customer service) now offers gigabit fiber for the same $50 I'm paying them now for 50 mbps fiber. 20 times faster.

But there's a gotcha. ATT will only provide the faster signal after a cancellation of the 50mbps service. Then a dead period. Then a delay before ATT starts the gigabit signal as a 'new customer'. So Sonic says expect to be down a week to 10 days, date unknown.

So I borrowed a T-Mobile Inseego MiFi M2000 5G and 4G LTE Hotspot from a friend to see if that would be sufficient during the ATT dead time.

Nope. In a community with population over 1m, it could barely connect. -115 dbm, S/N +3 at best down to -5 (I've never heard of a negative S/N, interference stronger than signal, and it still connects), packet loss 99%. Speedtest failed mid-test each attempt. Ok, this isn't going to work.

I took the hotspot out to the ranch where I have 10mbps DSL and nothing better available. Wow! 65 to 85 mbps signal from the tower I can see a couple of miles east of me. In the middle of the night. Then I tried it in the evening. Nope. 6mbps best case and frequent halts. Obviously too many people are connected to that tower in peak hours.

I returned the hotspot to the friend. It can't take the place of wired or fiber signal, here. YMMV.

​

 

[Hay Dude]

I live in one of the largest SMSAs in the US between Philadelphia and Wilmington.
I have Verizon and I’d say 50% of our entire area is garbage for cell phone reception. I can see a cell phone tower from my 3rd story windows and cannot make a call in my house without 2 cell phone reception signal boosters.

I remember cell phone reception was MUCH better in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

 

[Oaktree]

I find it amazing that they can upgrade the cameras in a phone to take DSLR quality pictures, but can't make the phone part work well.

They keep saying 3g-->4g-->5g-->6g will fix that

P.S. I would never go with ATT, had them for years on my work and personal phone and they were terrible. They did not upgrade most of their infrastructure, instead spending all their money on expanding. I have TMobile (great for international) and Verizon (great for US )and both work so much better than ATT ever did.

Well, when you consider that their core customer base is millennials and Gen Z who are more interested in posting pictures of their lunch or some weird video on Tick Tock than they are in actually talking on the phone it kind of makes sense.

As far as providers go, much depends on where you live. Verizon and US Cellular seem to have the best coverage in this area, others it might be T-Moble or ATT.

I live in one of the largest SMSAs in the US between Philadelphia and Wilmington.
I have Verizon and I’d say 50% of our entire area is garbage for cell phone reception. I can see a cell phone tower from my 3rd story windows and cannot make a call in my house without 2 cell phone reception signal boosters.

I remember cell phone reception was MUCH better in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

I find that a bit hard to believe. Outside of urban/suburban areas, cell coverage was poor-to-non existent in most places 20-odd years ago. None whatsoever here until the late 00s (aah...the good old days! ).

What's a SMSA?

 

[Hay Dude]

Well, when you consider that their core customer base is millennials and Gen Z who are more interested in posting pictures of their lunch or some weird video on Tick Tock than they are in actually talking on the phone it kind of makes sense.

As far as providers go, much depends on where you live. Verizon and US Cellular seem to have the best coverage in this area, others it might be T-Moble or ATT.

I find that a bit hard to believe. Outside of urban/suburban areas, cell coverage was poor-to-non existent in most places 20-odd years ago. None whatsoever here until the late 00s (aah...the good old days! ).

What's a SMSA?

Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area.

I didnt say coverage was better. I said reception was better.

 

[TheMan419]

We have a hotspot for our internet connection. We have a large Yagi antenna outside that connects to the hotspot. Dramatically improves the signal. They make powered cell boosters that could hook to the yagi as well and increase your cell service in the house.

Our connection is ok for a phone call from the cell phone. Not so good for trying to stream video or other heavy bandwidth applications. The yagi makes it tolerable.

 

[rontaki]

We have a t-mobile repeater (2 boxes on either side of the house with one by a window where I can get 1 bar) they gave us, as the cell tower is barely line of sight over the hill.
It kinda works.

Don't like WiFi calling as it never seems to get over signal glitches since it is not a real phone service.
I have voip phone on my laptop and that is rock solid, but it has ways of handling network glitches that cell phones don't.

I find it amazing that they can upgrade the cameras in a phone to take DSLR quality pictures, but can't make the phone part work well.

They keep saying 3g-->4g-->5g-->6g will fix that

P.S. I would never go with ATT, had them for years on my work and personal phone and they were terrible. They did not upgrade most of their infrastructure, instead spending all their money on expanding. I have TMobile (great for international) and Verizon (great for US )and both work so much better than ATT ever did.

I had one of those T-Mobile supplied boosters, completely unable to connect to anything.
I use an app called Network Cell Info that shows me what channel and signal strength my phone sees, so I knew where to locate the "cell tower" box and what channel it would work on.
I found the app from the booster mfgr to optimize the booster the best I could, no luck whatsoever even though I had enough signal strength to make it work, according to the specs.
Sent it back to T-Mobile .
I'm using one of their femtocells to get 4G via my internet connection, which is a microwave link that goes down if any of the in-between links is down, especially during our not-so-infrequent wildfires.
Fortunately (?), since PGE cut down lots of trees in the area , tower reception is somewhat more useable.