Cell phone signal Booster ?

rhagfo wrote:


Well I don’t have an instrument, but if you have good signal, but response is slow, that is lack of band with. It is basically too many users for the cell towers available band width.
We just came from a situation like that in the Columbia Gorge. Decent signal strength, but constantly timing out, had to use either early in the morning or late in the evening.

First, OP mentions very little signal, that is not a "bandwidth" problem.

Second, speed of Internet is highly dependent on SIGNAL STRENGTH.

Both cellphones and Wifi do something called "auto negotiation" for speed. The connection speed varies with the SIGNAL STRENGTH, less signal and the SLOWER the connection goes, more signal strength and the faster your connection goes.

To get the max speed you NEED the max amount of SIGNAL you can get.

One or Two bars of signal basically brings your Internet to a crawl or even dead stop.

Op is trying to find the best Cell signal booster to help stabilize their Internet speed. It may or may not help, just depends on a lot of factors like terrain, what is between them and cell tower. Cellphones work on "line of sight" signal propagation, a hill, building, trees in between can easily block the signals.

Most boosters will use an outdoor antenna which you need to place high enough to capture the most signal as possible.. Then there will be an indoor antenna which the cellphone will use.. Then you have the booster in between the antennas.. Certain amount of distance needs to be in between the booster antennas. Boosters are not a fix all type of thing, they also amplify any RF noise that may be around you also swamping the cell signal you are trying to boost.

This is much different from a "bandwidth" problem where there is too many people trying to use the same service from the same cell tower.