Cell Booster recommendations

[Jeff Roltgen]

Verizon. Mingcoil booster from Amazon - on/off, not sure if it really helps. Sometimes seemed to over 4 years use. Replaced module once due to failure/citation from Verizon, as it was emitting periodic spikes, disrupting, irritating local Verizon customers to a point they showed up at my shop door, hanging out the service truck window with an antenna and a scowl. Showed me the spikes on an O-scope app and asked me to shut down the unit. (Go China!) Tower locations changed over last 4 years, as last time I scanned / re-aimed for proper tower, I had to rotate 90 degrees. Just odd. Replaced phone recently = worse than ever. I obviously need some help in this department...

WeBoost (aka Wilson) seems to be the most reputable, if only in name recognition.
Metal roof on metal shop in a canyon = amazing anything works at all, but I know it can be done, as I have signal outside, and towers of multiple carriers visible throughout open valley, just outside canyon, within 1-3 miles.
Any success stories/direction towards or away from certain brands?

Thanks!
jeff

[Brian Elfert]

If you have Internet and WI-FI in the shop just use WI-FI calling if your phone supports it. Another option if you have Internet is Verizon may give you a 4G device that connects to your Internet. Basically, a mini cell tower.

If no Internet just ignore what I wrote.

[Jeff Roltgen]

Brian,
I do have internet/wi-fi in shop. Still craps out - start a conversation, miss 5-10 seconds of dialogue, comes back enough to explain I lost them for a moment, dies within 90 seconds. Maybe new phone is the problem.

[Kris Cook]

I travel and work in a lot of areas with minimal cell coverage. I have boosters in my work truck and personal truck. Both are Wilson they work well. I have a higher dollar version in my camper where I am working and it works with my phone right next to the inside antennae. I use a bluetooth speaker with that one so I don't have to stand next to the phone.

I was working in Idaho a few years back and stayed in a house with zero cell signal but did have internet. I got a Network Extender from Verizon and had 4 to 5 bars. Worked great. I am pretty sure they are still available.

[Adam Herman]

i installed this in our house about a month ago. while I don't really see more "bars" on our phones, we do have better service. I can watch a youtube video in low quality now vs not getting them to load at all before with WIFI down or off. the refurbished one i got looked brand new. our towers are about 6-7 miles away to a single line of sight tower, so you should have better performance with closer towers. we barely have a signal while outside and used to only be able to make a non-wifi call if we were on one area. ie: cant make a call unless you are in the middle third or so of our long, narrow 5 acres.
https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/weboost-home-multiroom-signal-booster-kit-renewed-470144r/

we thought about getting an extender, but we also have a rural isp with a line of sight wireless connection to a neighbors barn on a hill, so we wanted something that would work if that was down. a heavy snow or rain can interrupt that connection, as can any electrical work on our neighbors chicken coop, as the site shares a circuit in his panel haha.

We are in a little valley after the first foothill, and on the last straight road before you really go up into the Rockies.

[Jim Becker]

WiFI calling has superseded using Microcells for sometime now since it would use the same Internet service as WiFI anyway. So if you have Internet service at your location, just turn on WiFi calling in your smartphone...it's available with Verizon, ATT, T-Mo, etc., and has been for some time now. If you do not have Internet service with WiFi available, you can certainly try to use a booster but they can only do so much with the available signal.

[Jeff Roltgen]

Like I said, I have been using the WI-FI calling, and it's just as dismal, even though internet in shop is best it's ever been. Not sure why that is, other than, again, perhaps my new phone is just that bad?

[ChrisA Edwards]

I had a AT&T 3G micro cell which they just replaced with a new 5G version free of charge.

Prior to that, my WiFi calling was sketchy in my garage/workshop, even though I had a repeater in there.

I just upgraded to an Orbit Mesh network and put one of the satellites in my garage. What a difference.

Now I can call and pretty much stream audio and video, out in my garage, with no buffering or drop outs.

[Jim Becker]

The word "repeater" is the key to what was not ideal with your old setup, Chris. Repeaters only spread what available signal they have just a little farther. Mesh is absolutely the way to go and if the links to nodes can be hard-wired Ethernet, there will be maximum performance "everywhere".

[Brian Elfert]

I use WI-FI calling with an iPhone 8 with Verizon and it works quite well. Verizon sent me a microcell at no charge, but I have procrastinated on actually plugging it in. When I first moved to my house in 2014 my Verizon service was horrible. I couldn’t even make calls most of the time. WI-FI calling came out and that fixed the issue. Verizon apparently changed something in recent years and now I usually get two bars of LTE at home and can actually make calls if WI-FI calling isn’t working.

[Kev Williams]

For a few years now I've had a newer Wilson unit attached atop a 16' mast that's attached to our chimney to help with our dismal service. So even with the antenna 35-ish feet in the air, best I could muster was the wife's phone getting about 2 bars instead of 1. But as they say, it was better than nothing!

Service got better about a year ago, I'm assuming simply because a tower got put up closer, I haven't messed with the antenna...

[John K Jordan]

Jeff,

Do you have decent broadband internet access?

When I built my shop the metal roof plus the shadow of a hill made cell reception unusable inside the building. I tried several booster solutions, one with an antenna on a tall pole, and none were satisfactory.

Then I bought a Verizon femtocell which gave me full bars in and around the shop. Verizon told me it was in essence a tiny public cell “tower” on their network. (The device has a GPS antenna to verify the location and they said it would quit working if moved to another area.) I think I paid about $600 for it.

I put the thing on a shelf in the shop, taped the GPS antenna to the glass of a window, plugged in an ethernet cable, and called Verizon to activate it. It worked extremely well inside and around the shop. The range is limited. It did sometimes drop the connection if I started a call inside the shop then walked too far and got of range - apparently the handoff to the area Verizon tower didn’t always work correctly. But that wasn’t a problem once I was aware of it.

I quit using it when Verizon upgraded service in our area and their signal became sufficient. If you have a decent internet connection you might ask Verizon if this type of device is still supported. If so, you are welcome to mine since I no longer need it.

JKJ

[Jeff Roltgen]

Wow- quite a variety of info!
John - I'll check with Verizon on that - much appreciated - never heard of that unit.

As I review suggestions and possible solutions, sounds like the wisest answer would be to avoid cell boosters entirely, and concentrate on maximizing internet connection.

Current setup: Starlink, connected to Netgear50 (as Starlink does not have the range to push to shop), which broadcasts to a receiver in shop, which then repeats/broadcasts inside shop (with capped data transfer rate, due to it's age). While I can stream and surf just fine, it appears the cel's WI-FI needs a cleaner, less cluttered rout to signal.
SOLUTION(?):
Run a buried ethernet cable, bringing a hardline connection to Starlink in the shop, move Netgear50 to broadcast WIFI inside the shop. It's only about 30ft of digging a shallow trench, and a $30 cable. Perhaps this would upgrade the WIFI enough to make the phone connection more solid. At the very least, I'd be upgrading the internet in the shop to full strength, which I believe is hitting 300Mbs + at this point. Pretty awesome, out here in the boonies.

FWIW: anyone else in similar rural setting, struggling with internet, try Starlink - after a year of it in place of old Centurystink dsl, we couldn't be happier. Flat out amazing performance for rural internet.

[Jim Becker]

Hopefully, the solution you've identified will work well but it will be interesting to see if the latency (delay) in Sat service, which is pretty much based on the laws of physics messes with anything. It doesn't affect things like streaming, but it may affect real time communications. Fingers crossed!