Poor cellular service

I have cell service at my house but phone will not work, it will alert me if I have mesages, If I get up on the hill high enough it works from another tower. So what kind of signal booster are the YTers using?

I am in nw alabama and experienced low signal, my fix was as simple as changing phones as some have better antennas than others with motorolas being among the best.

The Winegard or Motorola designed Cyfre work equally well. I use them at two houses I own. With just the phone - barely one bar if I walk outside and stand in the middle of the road. With the amp - in the house with a small portable antenna I get 3-4 bars and phone works fine. With a roof mount antenna - signal is always past 5 bars.

Cyfre CA0819 Dual-band amp or Wilson Signal Boost amp 811210

New amps can be found for $130-$175 is you shop around. Wilson also sells the amp in several kit forms. I got the car kit that comes with amp, portable antenna, power supply for 12 volt DC and 120 VAC. Also a phone cradle. You stick your phone in the cradle and then use it. So, only good for one phone. You can also buy an adapter cable and use a plug-in wire to your phone (depending on your model phone). If you want a whole house system you need to spend more money on a table-top repeater. Wilson car kit with amp, cradle, portable antenna, and power supplies is #811211.

Good dual-band roof-top antennas are around $55. These amps work great with cell phones and wireless Internet devices.

I've tested both these amps all over NY, northern Michigan. Both work equally well.

The brand name won't guarantee any gain. It's hit and miss depending on specific model. We just got rid of our Motorolas and got Samsungs. The Samsungs have much better reception on the same carrier, plan, and frequencies. The Motorolas were model EM330. The new Samsungs that work MUCH better are models SGH-a777.

Then of course there is the issue of getting a new phone and plan and company. Then all bets are off since not all companies share cell towers or use the same frequencies. A good example is Sprint. Great deals and coverage down south but lousy coverage in the north.

JD PHIL,

I had a call at noon yesterday. It showed up as a missed call and voice mail at 10:30 pm. I had been past two towers that afternoon and had received other calls too. I think my problem has nothing to do with signal strength and phone. Think the problem is Verizon. Another time, I got a voice mail at 2 am. The voice mail was sent the day before at 8 am. Go figure. Thank you Verizon for outstanding service.

George

That sort of thing happens often with my phone and I'm using AT&T. From what I've heard, they all do it time to time depending on where you live.

Doesn't bother me at all. I grew up with rotary hard wire telephones on party lines and my first "cell" phone was a huge bag phone. These new cell phones and systems are light years ahead, regardless of their minor quirks.

In my RV in areas of poor reception, like maybe 1 bar, I use a "cell phone signal booster amplifier", which I have seen raise it up to 3 or more bars and YES it actually works and I can then call and receive calls and hear the other person.

It has an outdoor roof RECEIVING antenna which leads to the amp,,,,,Then the signal amplifier,,,,,,Then theres an indoor RE TRANSMITTING antenna which my cell phone picks up.

Wilson seems to be a good brand while there are others, if you Google or Flea Bay search for "Cell Phone Signal Booster Amplifier" you get a gazillion hits.

John T

I'v had diff phones and carriers now have verizon 4 or 5 years,they built a tower near me but im on the wrong side of the hill if I walk or ride atv to the top have full service. thats not very handy on a cold snowy day.

Have had Verizon for the last 4 years and almost no problems. Had T-Mobile before that and it was about useless. you could be talking on the phone and take a step one direction or other and you would loose the signal. Then after we changed and notified them, they charged us a month user fee because we canceled. Won't go back to T-Mobile

Bought a new samgung, very low signal. Returned and exchanged for motorola with good reception. Go figure. I'm with att.

I recently bought a IPhone. My reception in this area has always been spotty. Haven't lost a call yet, in 3 months.

I've been with U.S. cellular now for 6 years, the little cheepy phone I had first was usless, got a motorola and everthings great.

I've got a wilson, cell phone extender. I been very happy from day one!

Who is your service with?
I had TMobile where we used to live and I was happy with it. When we moved, the service wasn't so great. I got online and started doing some research. They all had a listing of where their coverage is and I discovered TMobile was weak in our new area. Verizon had the best coverage, so I switched. My old Tmobile contract had long since expired, so no cost involved.
I've been very happy with Verizon except for one incident where I got a couple of solicitation calls from them when my 2 years were up. They were trying to get me to upgrade to a new phone and of course get a new 2 year contract. The calls were coming from the local store where I got the phone. I called and asked for the store manager and expressed my feelings about getting solicited by them. She explained that when a contract expires, it flags it and they are supposed to call and offer a new upgrade phone. I explained to her that I was happy with what I had and when and if I wanted an upgrade that I would contact them and that I didn't want them to contact me ever again. I also said if I received one more call, I would cancel my service and switch companies. She assured me the calls would cease. Guess what? No more calls!

I have two Wilson systems that are an antenna on the top of the house and a wire down to a repeater in the house. One in the house and one in the shop. Until I put the one in the shop you would never get a call inside the building. The one at the house made it so we did not have the missed calls that would go to voice mail without ringing. They where not cheap. I think about $300 each but the older one in the shop is over five years old.

JD PHIL,

Do you have any idea how many bars you get on your roof? As long as you have enough of a signal to send a text message from up there, a signal booster should work for you. The thing to know is that how much coverage you get inside is directly affected by how strong the signal is outside, so if you have a really weak signal outside, you should get a booster with an advertised coverage of much higher than the actual square footage of your home.

I have a Wilson DB Pro with a Yagi antenna which I got at http://www.ubersignal.com/wilson-dual-band-db-pro-yagi-kit-841263.html. It has solved all of our signal issues and has been great. Wilson seems to be a great brand. There are some Wi-Ex boosters that are cheaper, but I'm not sure how well they work.

I hope that helps!