Mobile Phone Signal Boosters

[JD]

Appreciate some thoughts on the following.

We're all on Vodafone, but have awful reception at my parents house. We have a SureSignal but due to piss poor landline connections for internet services, coupled with the internet provider Zen (the worst company on this planet, but stuck with them as part of a contract for mum's work), the phones still cut in and out as the SureSignal can't send or receive.

So dad is looking into buying one of these;

http://www.cellphonebooster.co.uk/GSM-900mhz-Booster/900-plus-3G-Booster-Kit.html

Has anyone used or installed one?

Cheers.
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[Tunst]

Will keep an eye on this as my old man is on vodaphone and his signal is dire at home/work so he is near impossible to get hold of via mobile..

 

[JD]

Will keep an eye on this as my old man is on vodaphone and his signal is dire at home/work so he is near impossible to get hold of via mobile..

The SureSignal is great, when the internet is playing ball. We have one in the Lakes (Patterdale) and it works brilliantly. That's via BT Broadband with 4-8mgbs, rather than Zen which is sometimes as low as 500kbps!!

 

[Tunst]

Ours is at around 2.5mb so if it works with 4 it should be alright with 2... Might get one and see...


Edit: I just noticed iv spelt Vodafone wrong in my previous post >.<

 

[Amos91]

Slightly off topic but Zen are known for providing a good service on the whole. I imagine the issues are related to line length or a fault somewhere along the line.

Are you parents tied into their vodafone contract much longer? Any other providers cover the area with decent signal?

I'm with vodafone and found that their signal coverage is frankly shocking. I can't even count the number of times my girlfriend on EE has H or H+ signal and I'm stuck on gprs.

 

[JD]

Slightly off topic but Zen are known for providing a good service on the whole. I imagine the issues are related to line length or a fault somewhere along the line.

Are you parents tied into their vodafone contract much longer? Any other providers cover the area with decent signal?

I'm with vodafone and found that their signal coverage is frankly shocking. I can't even count the number of times my girlfriend on EE has H or H+ signal and I'm stuck on gprs.

While I agree, it's still Zen lying to them about speeds, but they can't change due to an IT maintenance contract. We have a poor line tbh that goes down roughly once a year, just due to positioning (overhead through gardens, trees and bushes).

Vodafone are the only ones that cover the areas we visit. And are miles ahead of EE/Orange, who all were with previously, in terms of customer service. Plus another major reason, if he's reading this!

 

[sn00p]

(this is my opinion based on designing products with RF electronics, I've never actually used one of these)

I doubt that will really help, the issue is that you haven't got a strong enough signal in the first place, amplifying a shite signal is really only going to accomplish raising the noise floor. It's hard to see how effective it'd actually be without seeing how big the "outdoor" antenna actually is and what the problem is in the first place (hills or distance).

That page is fairly careful in what it spells as what it can be used for, and you'll notice they're pretty much all applications where the mobile phone is inside something that will block the signal (underground, in lifts, buildings etc) - it doesn't specifically say for "improving general signal" presumably because if you put garbage in you get garbage out.

 

[JD]

I was hoping you or Tom might reply, Snoop. Thanks for that. It makes sense and I voiced my worries over what they guarantee. As far as I could see, they're an internet sales outfit, without engineers to fit them. The reason he's (my father) found them is he was linked to it by a friend who has a guest house. He's installed one and says it works, but had to fiddle with the positioning of the antenna. This worried me. Only so good as the operator/installer sprang to mind...

 

[Ed.innit]

Just received one from three.
Went from having no bars or sometimes no service at all, to full bars and h+ service...

 

[sn00p]

Just received one from three.
Went from having no bars or sometimes no service at all, to full bars and h+ service...

Received what from three? I bet it wasn't one of these and was a femto cell.

 

[Ed.innit]

Yea it wasnt at that price lol....
Possibly was a femto cell, whatever one of them is, but it works, and works very well...

 

[sn00p]

What you actually got is your very own mobile cell which uses your internet connection to connect to the main network, so its no wonder you get full strength signal. Op has a voda femto cell, but it doesn't work too well with his internet connection. Although clever they still have a need for good clock sync with the main gsm network, so if you have s**t latency then you'll probably still have problems.

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

(this is my opinion based on designing products with RF electronics, I've never actually used one of these)

I doubt that will really help, the issue is that you haven't got a strong enough signal in the first place, amplifying a s**te signal is really only going to accomplish raising the noise floor. It's hard to see how effective it'd actually be without seeing how big the "outdoor" antenna actually is and what the problem is in the first place (hills or distance).

That page is fairly careful in what it spells as what it can be used for, and you'll notice they're pretty much all applications where the mobile phone is inside something that will block the signal (underground, in lifts, buildings etc) - it doesn't specifically say for "improving general signal" presumably because if you put garbage in you get garbage out.

Can I ask what sorta stuff you design mate?

Im in a radio comms engineer so be interesting to know

 

[sn00p]

Can I ask what sorta stuff you design mate?

Im in a radio comms engineer so be interesting to know

Radar (vehicle detection). Systems also have various other bits including ZigBee, Bluetooth and gsm.

 

[dave_rudabar]

I cannot check the website linked by the OP, but basically using a gsm/3G antenna on the outside of a building, linked to an internal signal booster / re-broadcast device will work but legally you need an license to operate it.
FWIW, kits are available on eBay for around £100 or so that will do the job sufficiently well.
If you Google the topic for a while there's quite a bit of info around about it.

 

[MWright]

Just received one from three.
Went from having no bars or sometimes no service at all, to full bars and h+ service...

Ditto, they're pretty good although the ethernet cable supplied was 1m, the instructions said to place the Home Signal more than 1m away from any electrical appliance.

OT I'm sure vodafone do a similar signal booster for home, my uncle has a sure signal box that he was given FOC after a select few words to customer service.

 

[Camble]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I work from home and the signal is absolutely aweful. It's 4/5 outdoors which is almost perfect, but indoors it's pathetic. We have BT Infinity so unlike the OP I could use one which uses the broadband, so does anybody know of any that work?

The guy at the EE shop said they are around £20 and people come in asking for them all the time, yet online I can't find any that aren't like £200+