The Snow is Falling, But Your Cell Phone Signal Doesn't Have To!
Mar 06, 2018
I live in a rural area of Connecticut where the idea of cell phone service is still relatively new. Our first cell phone tower went up shortly before I moved here in 2013, but wasn't actually functional until April of 2015. Even now, there is only one cell phone network attached to it, so if you're not with that provider, you're screwed - and even if you do buy into the monopoly, your signal is mediocre at best in these hills, but it is even worse when nor'easters blow through, like the one that hit us just last week.
My husband and I live in a particularly frustrating dead zone. We're right on that blurry line between to the two towns' cell phone towers, and neither one quite reaches our farmhouse in the woods. On a clear day, if we walk up past the barn and up the hill where the hay fields are growing, we might be able to get some service. This has become a real inconvenience, though, and during emergencies it is a serious problem.
As snowstorms like the Nor'easter along U.S. East Coast that left widespread outages this past week become more severe and more frequent here in the U.S., reliable cell phone service is more important than ever. While we all wish to capture the perfect image of our brunches every Sunday, the frightening truth is that at some point, we will need to send out a message or make a phone call to either tell everyone that we are okay or to ask for help.
This year alone, hundreds of thousands of people on the East Coast were without power. A Bomb Cyclone turned into a huge winter storm bringing thundersnow instead. We were amongst the lucky ones to have a generator so that for the 24 hours that we were in the dark, we could at least plug in our refrigerator. Our landline, however, was useless, rendering us doomed should we need to call for help. Thankfully, nothing happened, but the whole situation was enough to get me doing some research once we had Wi-Fi again.
SignalBooster.com provides not just ability to purchase a signal booster for your home, but also a ton of information with tips and tricks on how to get the best signal in your home. This means that my risk of getting lyme disease or buried in a snow bank just went way down since I won't be having to climb the hill behind our house to send a text message anymore.
We’re expecting another big snow storm tomorrow – up to 20 inches of snow. This means that power outages are a definite possibility during and even after the massive storm. So now, in addition to making sure there’s enough gas in the generator to keep our refrigerator running, I’m also getting our signal booster set up. Once the generator gets our refrigerator and signal booster running, I will be able to make prank phone calls asking others if theirs is doing the same.
Share this post
4 comments
Yeah, snow and winds here make for lousy reception and we are fairly close to a cell phone tower. There must be a combination of the wacky weather and something else that makes cell phone calls so troublesome during the winter time. I’m glad the author found a way around this. I know Connecticut gets pretty bad winters.
L.B., in regards to your comment, “These cell phone boosters sound helpful, but are they legal in the U.S. and Canada? I can’t imagine something that powerful not coming under some type of regulation.” You raise an excellent point. Cell phone boosters are powerful (which is why they can be great for anyone struggling with poor call quality, dropped calls, and other problems caused by weak signals. What you have to remember is they are legal. You may have to register them with your cell phone provider after getting their permission to use one, but they wouldn’t be sold if they were illegal. Now these are for residential and vehicle cell phone boosters. The bigger ones (commercial) are legal too, but from what I’ve read, you have a professional installer put them in and they take care of things like the FCC. Hope that helps.
These cell phone boosters sound helpful, but are they legal in the U.S. and Canada? I can’t imagine something that powerful not coming under some type of regulation.
This account really drove home my concerns about weather and cell phones. There are so many things that affect cell phone signals that I can’t help but wonder does cold weather affect cell phone signals. Based on my personal experience, I think weather does affect cell phone signals whether it’s hot weather affecting cell phone signals or winds affecting cell phone signals. I even wonder—can clouds affect cell phone signals. I don’t think there’s a question does weather affect a 4g signal, but how much it does so. That’s why this person is wise in getting a cell phone booster, both because of their weather issues and that they don’t live somewhere with strong cell phone signals.