Do I need a cell signal booster, and will it work for my situation?

How do you know if you need a cell phone signal booster? You can easily determine if a cell phone booster will help you get better reception and stronger signal by asking the following questions:

1. While I am inside a building, do I have problems with lost connections, dropped calls, or poor call audio quality, or emails, texts, and voicemails only appearing hours after they were sent?
2. Do the problems identified above disappear or improve when I go outside?

If you answered, "yes" to BOTH questions above, a cell signal booster would probably improve the signal coverage in your home or office.

A basic cellular phone signal booster system consists of four components:

1. An outside (tower / donor) antenna to receive a signal from the cell tower.
2. A signal booster for amplifying the signal.
3. An inside (server / broadcast) antenna to broadcast the amplified signal.
4. Coaxial cable to connect the three components.

To find out if a cellular booster is suitable for your situation, try to make a call outside. If the connection can't be completed because of weak signal, move to another outside location.

Once you have found a location where you can make a call successfully, the tower antenna should be placed at that location, on that side of the building. If it is possible to make a call outdoors, chances are that the signal is strong enough for a booster to amplify the signal so that it can be used inside the building.

How can I make sure cell phone signal booster will help?

If the signal at your address is too weak on your service carrier's "phone signal power test" to be able to be amplified with a booster, then a signal booster will not help. Therefore, in addition to above test, you can also check with your service provider's tech support team and they may be able to perform a remote signal power test. This may not be possible with MVNO's as they may not have access to tools needed to perform such a test. Any high level technical support team at Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T should be able to perform this test over the phone (Carrier tech.'s physical presence not required) and advise you whether a cell signal booster will help in your situation.

Let us get technical to be sure whether booster will help fix the problem.

A cell phone signal booster catches outside signal, amplifies it, then broadcasts it inside. However, it needs some signal outside for it to amplify and send it inside. Outside best signal spot requires atleast +1 SINR (Signal to Noise Ratio) but ideally in the +2-4 range. Additionally, RSRP should be better than -110 dBm (3G) or -120 dBm (4G) to be sure the booster will work effectively.

Therefore, for any cell signal booster to help, outside signal strength must be at least -110dBm (3G) or -120dBm (4G) or there must be a clear line of sight to a cell tower that is within twenty miles of your home / building. Please check outside signal level in decibels before ordering. Square footage stated in signal booster listings is based on good signal outside. If it is any weaker, the boosted sq. ft. area will be considerably lower, accordingly.

Conclusion:

If you're still not sure if a cell phone booster will help, talk to us. We will be able to quickly determine if a signal booster will help in your situation. You can also read our blog that shows how they work and may help determine which one to buy? Or you may try the recommendation tool below.