Cellular Booster amp installation to improve cell and data?

[radioman]

not sure about your area - but where my house is I get couple bars, but voice use isnt great. Sprint gave me an air rave unit for free to use on my cable broadband internet. Now the voice use is clear and much better. I suspect verizon has similar units. If you have cable or high speed dsl, then it might be an option too.

 

[Sodo]

Has anyone done this? Your experience would be invaluable to hear about it.

I have been doing this since 2010. I am posting this very reply on TBN right now from way out in the woods over a Wilson setup, using my iPhone as a wifi hotspot. I have the Wilson SOHO 65 booster receiving signal from a (focused) Wilson YAGI antenna that is aimed at a cell-tower about 8 miles away. There is a mountain 400 feet higher between me and the tower, so this signal is going over the mountain to get to my YAGI antenna. It is not line-of-sight. Once I figured out where the celltowers were, and pointed the YAGI at it, things worked MUCH better. A YAGI antenna is about $60. Also I put the amplifier near to the receiving antenna, and PUSH the signal to the re-radiating antenna, over 100 feet of low-loss cable.

My signal, with no booster, is zero to 2 bars. It does not support internet. I have found that I need 3 bars to get any internet, and 4 is where is becomes useful. With the booster, it's a reliable 4 to 5 bars. I'd say it works quite well. Youtube comes in pretty slow.

I have an iPhone 4S, so I have ATT's "4G", which is just 3G with a partial woody. ATT calls it 4G because there are no standards for Cell signal naming conventions, and Verizon got 4G ahead of ATT, so for a couple years ATT just called their 3G ----> 4G. Now ATT has a true "4G" which they call "4G LTE". I don't know if I can get 4G LTE out here, but I'd sure like to know. When I go ontop of the mountain (400ft higher) my daughter's iPhone5 picks up 4G LTE. But the SOHO 65 does not boost 4G LTE. I would very much like to borrow a 4G LTE booster and test it. For that I'm in the same boat as you. Wish you could tell me something about the DBPro --- my stuff is about 4 years old.

FWIW I climbed up in a tree 40 feet and my signal was weaker than at 20 feet high. So YMMV. I think you'd have to be quite the radio-wave expert to be able to assume how a wave is going to bounce around enroute to your antenna. Note that trees will block cell signal. I have found Wilson techsupport (call them on the phone) to be very, very good.

 

[bumperm]

Some of the wireless amps work well, but they need to be installed properly, so as others mentioned, do a "soft install" with wires laying draped in place first. You have to have at least some signal outside. The outside antenna must be "RF isolated" from the inside antenna - - in other words, the two antennas should not see each other or there will be feedback as the two antennas transmit at the same time and on the same frequency. Best is to have the outside antenna mounted high and inside low. Horizontal separation is also good, as is structure between the two.

Make sure the amp and antennas are designed for the frequency your provider uses. e.g. Verizon's 4G LTE is on the 750 MHz band, many older amps won't operate on that frequency, being designed for 800 -900 and 1900MHz.

EDIT, I misspoke (misswrote?) Both antennas aren't transmitting "at the same time" - duh. The outside antenna is transmitting on the same frequency and at the same time as the signal being received from the cell phone by the amp's inside antenna. So if those two antennas can "see" each other, the outside antenna's relatively stronger transmitted signal will be received by the inside antenna, interfering with the amp's function, and on most, causing it's protective circuit to shut it down.

I recently removed a 7 year old mobile cell booster amp (800 / 1900MHz) in my RV, as it was useless in many areas now that Verizon is using 750 MHz for 4G LTE.

Here's a site that lists which frequencies each carrier uses: Frequencies by Provider
bumper

 

[Soundguy]

I have an iPhone 4S, so I have ATT's "4G", which is just 3G with a partial woody. ATT calls it 4G because there are no standards for Cell signal naming conventions, and Verizon got 4G ahead of ATT, so for a couple years ATT just called their 3G ----> 4G. Now ATT has a true "4G" which they call "4G LTE". I don't know if I can get 4G LTE out here, but I'd sure like to know. When I go ontop of the mountain (400ft higher) my daughter's iPhone5 picks up 4G LTE. But the SOHO 65 does not boost 4G LTE. I would very much like to borrow a 4G LTE booster and test it. For that I'm in the same boat as you. Wish you could tell me something about the DBPro --- my stuff is about 4 years old.

.

I had wondered what LTE meant.. then found out it is Long Term Evoloution.

so my guess is a naming convention for a standard that is changing then..

 

[downsizingnow48]

I use a Wilson booster. Before installation I had -106 db to -114 db on the cell phone (using cell phone field test mode). I installed a directional antenna about 15 feet above the roof on an aluminum flagpole. Used a cell phone app to point it at the nearest tower about 5 miles away. After installation I get -80 db to -94 db. That is usually enough signal for cell phone. For internet I use a USB 727 device plugged into a wireless router, which is located right in front of the internal antenna. That gives consistently good internet through most the house.

 

[Maxify55]

We have a facility that is in the same coverage area for AT&T. Inside the home we utilize the AT&T MicroCell. It can configure up to 10 numbers within a 3000 sf omnidirectional from source.

For the rest of the facility (Arena & Barn) we use two small Ubiquity Pico Stations. One POE'd on the home for transmission. While the other acts as an access point inside the barn for wifi capabilities under the steel roofing.

It really works well for us.
Hope this helps.