Home based cell booster
I looked but haven't seen this issue discussed. Looking at adding a cell booster. They seemm to be a little pricey. Ran across a Weboost 4gHome, About 300.00. Only has a flat antenna so not good ...
Forum Discussion
Big Katuna wrote:way2roll wrote:Curly2001 wrote:
We are going to be on the coast of Oregon pretty soon this year and cell phone coverage is terrible there, at least for us on Verizon. Would a cell booster be of any benefit there for us?
Thanks,
Curly
The answer is maybe. A booster won't do anything if there is no signal to boost. When travelling and requiring a signal I think the best approach is duplicity. Have a VZ and an ATT account for example.
Get the open signal app. It can tell you what towers, carriers and strength are in a particular area.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you don’t have a Weboost.
Many many times I have had none to one bar, poor to no data rate.
Plug in the Weboost and get 5-20 MBS. Two carriers help. Sometime you are throttled due to tower traffic by company eg Verizon will be slow but ATT is fast.
The sat signal and dB apps don’t tell the complete story.
Speed test does.
yes.
The signal strength needed by a booster to get a useable signal is much much lower than a cell phone will operate on, and often a signal level that a phone won't even operate on. The key is that the booster needs to have enough power to get a useable signal to the cell site antenna. If it can, then you usually can get a useable signal for the phone. If the signal is better than about -150db a cell booster will usually get you a useable signal. By constrast a signal level below about -120db is the threshold for a useable signal with a phone. So you can be in a place where your phone says no service and get a very useable signal with a booster. One in the vicinity of -80db which is around the "5 bars" level.
As to the OP's question about the oregon coast. Yes ATT or verizon has many spots with no or marginal reception. However we travel up and down the coast quite often and with my Weboost system I have had a strong useable signal with Verizon and ATT anyplace we have stayed at along the coast. By contrast there are many high use common campgrounds that without a booster you won't get reliable service with ATT or verizon.
