cell service

[cool hand]

I know that this is way off topic, but at age almost 88 I still look for YT knowledge on topics a little off topic. I live on my farm, now mine alone, and living alone, I am located in a valley where I get no cell service. Not being particular savvy in such electronic communications, I choose to tap into the vast amount of knowledge contained in YT.
Today I seek your knowledge of cell phone service in my situation, particularly power booster equipment.
Do they work sufficiently for me to pursue acquiring such equipment?
If so, recommendations where to best pursue such information.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

To put it simply, you can't boost what you don't have.

You need some signal in order to boost it. With no signal at all, boosters are a waste of money.

 

[DoubleO7]

(reply to post at 12:46:02 08/30/23) [/quot

If you have no cellphone, how do you know you have no signal?

Visitors have no signal?

 

[Tramway Guy]

Cell service can be affected by whichever carrier you have. I have AT&T and several times I have 5 bars while people around me with Verizon might have 1 at best. And the opposite has been true in other places.

Can you get someone you know that subscribes to another carrier go to your house and see if they have service? You might be pleasantly surprised.

Keep in mind that AT&T and Verizon utilize the two systems in virtually all of North America, I believe. All the other services use one or the other of those, I believe.

 

[Tramway Guy]

For U.S. cell phone customers, AT&T and TMobile are GSM carriers, while Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular are CDMA, taking into account updates in carrier policies and plans to close off networks.

 

[Janicholson]

You may have what you need. It all depends on your internet provider. WiFi calling assumes you have an internet modem that allows wireless connection to your service. If your computer is connected with a cable directly to your provider's cable modem, that is not necessarily a problem. Can you access google or other search applications when you are in your house? If so, that is a good head start. Your provider needs to be contacted to determine your options for either WiFi calling, or VOIP (voice over internet calling procedure) The link takes you to a pretty clear readable explanation. The only other option is a satelite linked system for hand held phone which is expensive.
Link to info

 

[DaveBN]

If you have high speed internet you can connect your cell phone to it when your at home. Otherwise I'm afraid your out of luck.

 

[wore out]

Does your cell carrier have a store nearby?

I would start there, a friend in a similar situation was helped by the local cell store to try a booster that helped his situation greatly.

I don't remember which carrier, or what the cost or rental was, but he's happy with the results.

It costs nothing to ask.

 

[Russ from MN]

At our cabin we have a reasonable signal outside, but the cabin is all steel, siding and roof. We installed a weBoost system years ago, it works great! We use our cell phones for a hot spot to use laptops, works great. We have Verizon phones system. At home we have T-Mobil internet, we have used our Verizon phones through that when the Verizon signal was weak.

 

[sourgum]

Sometimes a mobile hotspot can be created, but generally you would have to have a cell tower signal that can be collected by the mobile hotspot installed in your house. Many rural folks have used a Net gear night hawk M 1 as a hotspot device. You would need to visit a store that sells cell phones to get their advice on signal strength at your house . Verizon and at & t use different bands of data signal. A night hawk device is around 255 on amazon. Ask your cell store clerk about them.

 

[DanielW]

We had no cell service at our Northern farm, but a booster with the antenna on the roof solved that. I don't think it was anything too fancy, but wasn't the cheapest model either (probably about $500 if my memory serves me?). My former boss didn't have any signal either and couldn't get anything even with a booster, so he took my old TV antenna and mounted the booster on top of that. He says he has amazing service now. As others have mentioned, you need to have at least some signal to be able to boost it, but boosters seem to be pretty good at picking up faint signal that might not register on a cell phone. And you can mount a booster antenna higher up where it gets a signal. An extra 10 or 15 feet higher sometimes makes a huge difference. Before we got a booster you could sometimes get a signal and make calls by just standing on the deck, putting the phone on speaker, and holding it up as high as you could reach.

 

[Goose]

We have U.S. Cellular, and it's exasperating.

I can be sitting in my office, facing the TV, and have as clear a conversation on my cell phone as if I was on my land line. Then if I swivel my chair 90 degrees and look at my computer it's like one of us hung up.

 

[onefarmer]

Basic questions:
Do you have a cell phone now?
If so does it work while outside, but not inside?
What carrier?
If Verizon do you ATT guests get signal? If yes outside? Inside?
If ATT same question only Verizon guests?


If you have signal outside but not inside then yes a booster will work.

If no signal outside you'd have to get what ever company you would have put in the booster test to see if you could get signal if the antenna was up on a tower or not.

Any booster you would get will need to be compatible with the carrier you have.

 

[RJKeith]

Cell service signals are line of sight. You say you live in a valley, if the hills or mountains on either side are between you and the tower you will not have service. Someone said that had a booster with an antenna on the roof, which means the antenna is high enough to overcome whatever is obstructing the signal. Really do not have enough info to solve the problem, but the first thing I would do is to see if you can find the closest tower for your provider.

Another problem you might have is if a number of people have moved into the area and have the same provider. The cell infrastructure will only have so much capacity, and the providers focus on urban, not rural areas.

 

[Caryc]

I've had a cell phone for many years, even though it did not work at my home. I get my internet from a company located on the top of one of the mountains in the Lakeview mountains.

I get my internet from a small dish type antenna mounted on my home. It gets it's signal from the big transmitter in a line of sight from the top of that mountain. Anyway I had a WIFI router installed on my computer so I could get Netflix movies.

Come to find out that I could set my cell phone so if it didn't detect a cell signal, it would use a WIFI signal. So, now my cell phone works at my residence. Maybe if you install a WIFI router on your computer, your cell phone would work like mine does.

I also have a land phone line and have always had it even before I got a cell phone.

 

[brooktre]

As others have said, you can use internet service for a cell phone. However, your internet service needs to be fast enough and you need to connect the phone using Wi-Fi.

If you have internet now, how are you getting it (cable, over phone line, satellite)?

 

[buickanddeere]

. If you can get this cell repeater/booster high enough .It will pickup faint cell signals and rebroadcast them at full strength .
https://winegard.com/content/pdf/2452456.pdf