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For starters, I have never really cared a lot about cell phones. They aren't "real computers" in my opinion, and they will never replace my desktop.
But, for reasons I'm not going into here, I suddenly need more reliable service, here at the house. That is, I need the cell phone to work, but I can't be going out into the rain, trying to find that magic spot in the yard where I get a full bar, or maybe two bars for reception.
I have, in the past, used those little cards that go inside of the cell phone, promising to boost your reception. I've had mixed results with that, none of them exceptionally good. The best of them might boost your reception by a bar. When you have no service at all, that little card will usually give you crappy service.
Looking at somewhat more serious equipment, Wilson makes a nice looking cell phone antenna for trucks and cars, that apparently gives you a nice signal boost. It sells for about $80 to $100. Problem is, the phone must be left in the antenna cradle, which probably means using the speaker phone. That sucks - you can't carry the phone around, and speaker phone always sounds like crap.
Car or truck, about $200
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/weboost-drive-sleek-cradle-signal-booster-470135.html
Home use, starting about $500 to $1000
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/weboost-470144-home-multiroom-signal-booster.html
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/wilson-pro-70-plus-for-voice-3g-4g-lte.html
More serious equipment? Starting prices seem to be about $500 for a repeater. Set up your antenna, preferably in an elevated position, and point it at a cell tower. Run the coax inside the house, where it plugs into a booster device, which has another antenna to transmit the signal inside the house. Like magic, you should get 3 to 5 bars, and be able to wander throughout your home while maintaining that good, solid signal.
But, I have almost zero idea who makes good equipment, as opposed to consumer grade feel-good trash.
What is the competition for Wilson / weBoost? Some of you Soylentils have a lot of knowledge and experience in electronics. Point me at some good quality, reputable suppliers, please!!
Or, is this the best, and/or the best price, I'm going to find?
I did run across one booster system, that has to be set to one carrier or another. That is, it will not boost all cell phone signals at the same time - you have to choose one. It supposedly has a much stronger signal than any of the others I've looked at.
https://www.waveform.com/products/cel-fi-go-x
Again, that's a $1000. This particular page suggests that I can't change it from one carrier to another, instead, they want me to specify which carrier I want to use.
This one is near $1000, boosts all carriers, and they claim to have performance comparable to the cel-fi-go-x
https://www.waveform.com/products/hi-boost-home-15k-lcd-f20g-5s-lcd
So, are there better options out there? Cheaper options that are as good or better?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @05:52PM (3 children)
Getting dropped by your provider will stop even the best equipment from working.
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:28AM (2 children)
Has yours cut you off? No? Obviously not a worry then.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @08:12PM (1 child)
But I'm not a budding domestic terrorist. You're still in danger according to you rightwing nutters*.
*yaya you don't think you're rightwing whatever
PS: fix your shitty form key error handling
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 15 2020, @10:39PM
You call me right-wing and think I'm the one out of touch with reality? Dude, you need to get your shrink to double your Clozapine.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Freeman on Tuesday July 14 2020, @08:36PM
While it would be nice to get a bit better reception in my house. It wouldn't be nice to pay those kinds of prices. I'll deal with the spotty reception and my $10 "Unlimited Sarcasm" Skype phone. Fine print, go over something like 3,000 minutes or use it for a lot of short calls and you end up with a $300+ surcharge or something stupid. Still, it has it's uses.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @08:41PM
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 15 2020, @02:32AM (1 child)
If you have reliable Internet service at home but crappy cell service, look into a femtocell. Should give you full bars anywhere in your house and route everything through a tunnel across the Internet to your cell provider.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 21 2020, @03:42PM
That's cool- I hadn't heard of those. That would be the way to go, if it works with Runaway's provider (or maybe time to switch?)
I have heard of the converse (inverse?) where you have a cell-communicating box that gives you land-line (POTS) wired phone connection, and of course WiFi "hot spot".
Or maybe just go with VOIP.
I'm searching for a new cell plan and there are several that are VOIP-based. They'll use WiFi if available, or fall back to cell data. Several have given up the VOIP only systems, but one that still does is "freedompop" and no, I'm not a shill, in fact they're too limiting for most people, and using a proprietary app to talk/text seems sketchy.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @04:15AM
If you have a somewhat recent phone, you can enable Wifi calling [google.com]
As long as your provider supports VoLTE [wikipedia.org] this should be no problem.
What's more, most providers do not charge extra for this.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2020, @10:58AM (2 children)
Just stopping in to say, "fuck you, Runaway, you asshole!" Nice to know you own up to being an asshole, but one consequence is that no one, outside of let's say, the Minority Buzztard, will give you any help when you need it, since you are an asshole. I suggest a sammich sized baggie, and anal insertion. Always good for a buzz, if there is any reception at all!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2020, @08:01PM (1 child)
Do you want your wallet back? You dropped it while "dating" the sheep last night.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2020, @03:44PM
The troll is female, and she's been dating donkeys.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 21 2020, @04:03PM
Many cell repeaters on ebay and amazon and elsewhere, but you need to know the bands your phone is using. You could buy a great but band-specific repeater, only to have your cell provider change bands.
Have you checked to see if one of the other major cell networks has better coverage where you are?
TMB has a great suggestion: femtocell, as does the AC with VoLTE, which sounds to me like VOIP, of which there are many options (assuming you have good WiFi in your house). There are VOIP phone plans that will use available WiFi, or switch to LTE data if needed. Varying reviews of audio quality.
There exist cell phone "base stations" that connect to land-line phones, so you can put the base station where reception is good enough, and use POTS cordless phones.
I know people who have done the opposite- they have good cell reception and plan, and are using a "hot spot" only- no land-based wireline Internet.
One of my old DSL modems has VOIP built in and POTS (copper wiring) RJ-11 jack.
Loon Internet balloons will be overhead soon (the eye in the sky? :)
Many options- ball's in your court. :)