Cell phone repeaters - experiences?

[tRidiot]

I have seen several people here mention using a cell phone repeater. My place is about 10 miles out and I have terrible service. I'm with AT&T and I'm not really interested in switching carriers. I would rather buy a good repeater that will work for myself and anyone who visits out at my place. I get 1-2 bars most of the time, but it goes up and down a lot. Sometimes my phone reads 4G, sometimes Edge, sometimes no data signal at all. Running a Samsung S3 with Android 4.1.1 stock. Texting goes ok, though it can be a bit slow, and trying to send multimedia msgs (pictures) seems to take forever - sometimes an HOUR for a single pic to go through! Most of the time, it's about 2-5 minutes before the signal is strong enough to send MMS, though.

I was looking into repeaters a little bit a few months back, and am starting to again today. Initially looked at zBoost stuff, which had fair reviews at best, but it seems the Wilson stuff is much more highly rated, and has much better tech support. It's also only about 20% higher or so, for equivalent features. I'm willing to spend a fair amount, I realize this stuff ain't cheap. Looking at up to $500 or so, I guess.

Coverage doesn't need to be huge, anything in the 2000-3000 sq ft range (legit, not advertised!) is fine. It's just for my moderately-sized 2BR trailer right now, but I will eventually be moving into something larger and will take it with me.

So, what, if anything, have you guys used, and what are the pros and cons you have experienced?

 

[SoonerP226]

Wilson Electronics is the only way to go. Call their pre-sales support and their engineers will walk through it with you to make sure you get what you need.

 

[Belthos]

I installed a wilson in my semi, it works well.

 

[JSPANIER]

Go to an AT&T store. If you have wireless Internet they can sell you an adapter to boost your signal for less than $100.

 

[vvvvvvv]

There's two types of devices sold as repeaters. The first is a real radio repeater that is essentially an outdoor antenna, small amplifier, and indoor antenna. The other is an access point that sends your calls over the Internet instead of the airwaves.

I personally use the former in my house. It doesn't have the range that you want, only about 200', but it's fine for me. When outside, my reception bounces between 0 and 1 bars, but inside I get 4 or 5. The problem I'm solving is not so much coverage as it is having hills between me and all of the nearby towers.

The ones that work over the Internet require a good, stable, and fast connection. My connection is only 3Mbps, and that's been the minimum recommended by service providers. Considering I make more money off my bandwidth than my phone, that's not a route I could take. Prociders will try very hard to sell those because it eases stress on their network.

 

[juwebe]

(legit, not advertised!)

The actual vs advertised confused me a lot too when I first started looking into these system. What I found was that actual coverage area is directly related to your existing outside signal strength. So you can get the advertised coverage area, and sometimes more, if you have a strong outside signal. Then, the weaker your existing signal, the less and less coverage area you'll get. So for you with 2-3,000 sq ft and only a 1 to 2 bar signal outside, I would guess you'll want to look for something that's rated at about 10,000 sq ft. I got mine from uber signal and had a great experience with their customer support, but I'm sure there's a ton of places online that could help. I never found a retail store I could go to, which would have been nice given how complicated these things can be.

 

[vvvvvvv]

Heh... I was tired and missed the sq ft. Thought you meant a half mile of range.