Cell signal booster

So...I recently relocated (temporarily) to a house in the country. I mean waaaaaaaay out in the woods. I have one major problem...my cell service is atrocious! I drop calls constantly and my 3G is patchy at best. Playing PL is nearly impossible due to ping out of this world. About half a mile up the private road I get a fairly strong signal...playable. My questions... Do signal boosters work? Will they improve my 3G connection? Do they work well enough to justify spending $300 on one? If anyone has experience with these devices I would appreciate your opinions. I really hate the thought of facing the new cap with my only option being playing in my truck at the top of the hill :(

You may be able to get one for free from your provider. Just tell them your service doesn't work. Raise your voice a little and tell them you are considering another carrier.

I may be getting mixed up here, karmakali, but I believe that most 3G signal boosters require a dedicated land-based internet connection (typically cable or DSL) to tie into -- with at least the speed of a single T1 -- to function properly (that's what I recall being required with the last one that I saw, at least). As such, assuming that this is true, you are really better off utilizing WiFi on your pre-existing cable and/or DSL connection (single T1-like speeds should be fairly comparable to most real world 3G throughputs anyhow).

An alternative to a signal booster would be a repeater. The problem with repeaters is that they'll rebroadcast amplified RF garbage if that's what they see on their front-end. When you get better service on this private road, is there any kind of terrain change involved (i.e., you travel up a hill to get there)? If so, and this may be a stretch, you could try mounting a directional antenna at an elevation above your house which will match your elevation of successful calls up the street.

At the end of the day, I have to agree with Seijo on this one. There are some potential options, but certainly leverage your carrier first before you dish out any cash on an "iffy" fix. If they recommend that you try something and it doesn't work, they should reimburse you (I would hope).

Sounds like I am taking a trip to the Verizon store to be a sqeaky wheel :) The area I get signal is up on a hill but it is probably less than a 5-10 foot elevation difference from the house. There is dsl in the house but it is through a different provider...not sure if that matters. Thanks for the suggestions though.

The cell phone signal boosters work like an antenna to improve the cell phone signal to a maximum degree, thus there is no need for you to leaning out of the window to make or answer a phone call. The coverage of cell phone signal boosters is up to 500-800 square meters, but the area may reduce when there are obstacles in the way like the surrounding buildings.

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Originally Posted by karmakali

Sounds like I am taking a trip to the Verizon store to be a sqeaky wheel :) The area I get signal is up on a hill but it is probably less than a 5-10 foot elevation difference from the house. There is dsl in the house but it is through a different provider...not sure if that matters. Thanks for the suggestions though.

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If you have internet in your home, just use that connection. It will be a better connection and more reliable.