Today I’m writing about something we all hate, issues with either limited or no cell phone reception. There’s pictures below so please scroll down and check them out!
We’ve all lived in a house or area where there’s no reception at some point in our life. In the house that I’m in right now, I’ve had no or limited reception for the past 2 years. Regularly I have missed calls (phone won’t ring, and I’ll receive a voicemail notification 2 hours later), or people will send me text messages (SMS) and I won’t receive them for hours. Sometimes if someone sends multiple SMS messages, I’ll actually even completely lose reception for 15 minute intervals (phone completely unusable).
This has been extremely frustrating as I use my phone a lot, and while I do have an office line, people tend to call your mobile when they want to get in touch ASAP. It became an even larger problem when clients started texting me for work emergencies. While I always stress to call the office, they are texting these more and more often.
Recently, to make the problem worse I switched from a Microsoft Lumia 950XL to a Samsung Galaxy S8+. When I received my new S8+, my phone wouldn’t even ring at all, while occasionally I could make an outbound call.
Update – July 28th, 2019 – After reading this post, make sure you look at the end for an update 2 years later!
For these reception issues, there are typically 4 ways to resolve them:
In my scenario, I decided to purchase a Wilson Electronics – weBoost Home 4G Cell Phone Booster Kit. With my lack of experience with boosters, I decided to purchase the most cost-effective option that supported LTE and also which was a refurbished unit. I figured if it worked, I could upgrade it in the future to a better model that was brand new and a model higher.
Please see the links below for information:
https://wilsonamplifierscanada.ca/ – Canada Online Store
https://www.weboost.ca/ – Manufacturer website with information on products
The model I purchased:
Refurbished Part#: 470101R
https://wilsonamplifierscanada.ca/weboost-home-4g-cell-phone-booster-kit-refurbished-470101r/
New Part#: 470101F
https://wilsonamplifierscanada.ca/weboost-home-4g-cell-phone-signal-booster-470101/
weBoost Home 4G Product Page
https://www.weboost.com/products/connect-home-4g (United States Web Site)
https://www.weboost.ca/products/connect-home-4g (Canada Web Site)
Well, after a few weeks the booster finally showed up! Everything was packed nicely, and I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of the materials (antennas, cables) and the unit itself. With my specific unit being a refurbished model, it looked great and you wouldn’t have been able to even notice.
The unit comes with mounting supplies for different mounting options. I could either mount it on a pole (such as the plumbing exhaust port on the roof), against the side of the house, or use the neat window mounting option for window placement (neat little window mount that uses suction cups to affix).
I already was aware of the location of two towers in my area and had previously used cell surveying utilities to find areas where reception was available. If you purchase a cell booster, you can either follow the instructions for finding the best placement with cell service, or you can use apps on your phone to find the best placement.
Here’s some pictures from unboxing and testing. Please click on the image to see a larger version of the image:
And BAM! That was it, literally on the first test it worked great. Full bars in the basement with my main carrier! I tried a few other locations, and found at an alternative location, my other cell provider (I have 2 phones, with two providers), started to function as well!
See below for reception before and after:
As you can see there was a vast improvement! I tested it with phone calls, texts, MMS messages, and data, and it all worked fantastic! All lights on the booster were green (orange and/or red lights mean adjustments are needed).
Now since testing was complete, I decided to install it to make it look neat and tidy and hide all the wires.
I decided to leave it using the window mount since it was working so well (this was to avoid having to get on the roof, or drill in to the house). Underneath the window I have a cool-air intake so I was able to fish the antenna wire through the ventilation duct down to the basement. I was able to make everything look neat and tidy.
Below pics are final install:
The entire process was extremely easy and I’m very happy with the result. I’d highly recommend this to anyone with reception issues. This should be able to help as long as there is faint reception. Please note, if you’re in an area with absolutely no reception, then a booster will not function as there is nothing to boost.
You’ll probably need two people, both for testing the signal and adjusting the antenna, as well as fishing cable through your house. Most of the time required for my install was associated with running the wiring.
For testing signal strength, I used the “LTE Discovery” app on Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.simplyadvanced.ltediscovery)
Update – August 22nd 2018 – I moved to an outdoor roof mount and the blog post can be found here: https://www.stephenwagner.com/2018/08/19/roof-mounted-antenna-wilson-weboost-home-4g-cell-booster-project/
Update – July 28th, 2019 – So here I am two years later. I live and swear by this signal booster. Since the original post, new towers have been erected in the area, however the coverage is still minimal and non-existant in the house. The roof mount (as discussed in the update above), as well as the signal booster provides me 100% full reception. The only issue I had is the power adapter (transformer) fried one day during a lightning storm. Replacing the power adapter resolved the issue and was an easy fix. For the 2 days I waited for the power adapter, I had no reception.
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View Comments
interesting project! Good to know it works well with Rogers, i might get one for my new home. Thank you :)
Hi Eric,
I swear by this cell booster. From now on, any house I live in will have one. Even if you already have some reception, using a booster to get it full will significantly reduce battery drain on your cell phone!
Cheers,
Stephen