BleepingComputer.com: No Good Cell Phone Reception in my Home

I have very limited to no reception of my cell phone inside my phone. I have heard there is some form of antenna and booster that can be mounted inside the home to help boost the cell phone signal. Any advice or directions would be appreciated!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!

They do exist, but ones that actually work are not cheap. Additionally they are also carrier specific. As an example take a look here: Cellphone Signal Extender

I have this same issue at my house but I just got a blackberry which has calling and texting over wifi so all you need is a wifi connection and there you go.

The signal frequency from phone to cell tower and back is of high enough frequency to be called 'line-of-sight'. This means that the signal does not bounce off the ionosphere like lower frequency waves, instead it punches through the atmosphere and heads out. So if any obstacle happens to be between you and the tower, signal will diminish drastically if not completely fail.

This is why cell phone towers are always built on hills or mountains. I am not sure the general frequency here but the higher the frequency the faster it degrades over distance. Even tree leaves in the way of a Ghz signal will affect reception.

You may be able to get some kind of amplifier but it will not do too much for the price. You may have to just live with it and hope they build another tower near you.

Verizon came out with their own network extender by converting the 3G into a VoIP call. You can get one (if you are on Verizon) for 249$.

http://support.vzw.com/information/network_extender.html

I have one. It works awesome!

I'm having a similar problem in my home. I can hear people as clear as a bell, but they cannot hear me. Frustrating! I currently have a Samsung Solstice with basic service with AT&T. I've had 2 other phones with AT&T both with the same problem. However, I do not recall if the problem was just in my house with the other phones.

AT&T has recommended turning off the phone daily to "refresh" it or purchasing another phone through them.

Most everyone has recommended Verizon to me. I'm considering switching over to Verizon and purchasing the Network Extender as suggested in the previous reply.

I was also told by Verizon that I could get reception through a concrete wall with one of their 4G phones with the Smart phone service.

AZrox, everything depends on Location location location. In a concrete bunker 2.5 miles away from a tower, no problem you've got service, but 5.0miles you're outta luck. Verizon has 0 signal at my house, Sprint has great, US Cellular is ok ,and nTelos is ok. In other words "Your Mileage Will Varry" if they offer a 30 day trial it wouldn't hurt to try each carrier out until you've found one that works everywhere you want it to.

Here's my every expanding list of stuff that ruins cell signal:
1)Manufactured Housing (aka mobile homes and modular homes)
2)Aluminum Siding
3)Foil backed insulation
4)Foil Backed house wrap
5)Tin Roofs and/or siding
6)Mountains with metal deposits in them

Getting the picture? Anything with metal in it will degrade signal quality, and now for the catch 22 using the foil backed insulation and house wrap increases energy efficiency for the home. I have -50dB cell strength in my yard I have anywhere between -100 and -130dB in my home. According to Qualcomm who makes cell phone chips and cell powered devices -50 is awesome and -100 is the bare minimum for "good" reception (you can access the network at -110 to -120 ,depending on which chipset your phone has, but quality really suffers past -100).

This post has been edited by BlackSpyder: 21 January 2012 - 07:19 PM

Thanks Black Spyder.

I contacted my current provider AT&T and they claim to have 2 towers within 1 mile radius of my zip code. They would not give me a exact location. So these towers could very well be 5 miles plus from my home. I will take your suggestion in trying out some other providers.


As far as your list of things that ruin cell phone signal, my house may have foiled back insulation and house rap. My house has none of the other things you mentioned and was build in 1985.


Just to clarify, if I had a 4G phone and these towers were 5 miles plus away from my house, could I still have a poor signal in my home?


Cheers