Boosting low strength Cell phone signal

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RichardBigBuddy

36 posts

Geek

#97934 22-Feb-2012 09:45

Hi all,
I am moving to a house with very low cell phone signal - none in the house and a couple of bars on the roof.
I have been reading up on cell phone booster solutions,
Roof antenna - need to have a RF antenna port on your phone , seems like bugger all phones have these.
You can get an inductive adapter that velcos to your phone - needs a cable for each phone , we have three in different rooms.
Repeaters - like having your own cell phone tower in your house - I hear these are illegal in NZ and I am not sure what the health issues would be or the level of EMF these things transmit.

Has anyone here had any experience with improving cell phone reception in low coverage areas?

Richard

Jaxson

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#584988 22-Feb-2012 09:52

Well....

What company are you with? Telecom/Vodafone/2 degrees etc?
What type of phone do you have?
Where in NZ are you?

freitasm

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#585008 22-Feb-2012 10:17

The only legal picocell available is the Vodafone SureSignal. You must be a Vodafone mobile and broadband to use it though.

RichardBigBuddy

36 posts

Geek

#585042 22-Feb-2012 10:55

Hi Jaxson
I will be in Huia Rd Titirangi area - about 2km from Titirangi village Auckland

We have 3 cell phones, 2 with Telecom and 1 with 2 Degrees - if need I could change the 2 Degrees cell over to Telecom
Phones are : One Blackberry and a couple of cheap phones - Samsung flip phone 2 yrs old and a Nokia C2

stevenz

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#585049 22-Feb-2012 11:07

Unless you're willing to risk the wrath of the broadcasting authorities for operating an unlicensed transmitter to act as a cell repeater, then the Vodafone unit is your only option, which would obviously require switching all phones to the Vodafone network.

Even obtaining "other" units is difficult, or it was when I last looked into it about 2 years back. They're expensive too.

@KnightNZ

jonb

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#585065 22-Feb-2012 11:25

stevenz: Unless you're willing to risk the wrath of the broadcasting authorities for operating an unlicensed transmitter to act as a cell repeater, then the Vodafone unit is your only option, which would obviously require switching all phones to the Vodafone network.

Even obtaining "other" units is difficult, or it was when I last looked into it about 2 years back. They're expensive too.

This is an older post asking the same thing - it seems around two years ago both Vodafone and telecom were both testing femtocells, but only vodafone went ahead with them..

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=39&topicid=72261

Mark

1653 posts

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#585071 22-Feb-2012 11:32

I live on Huia Road as well and yup cell reception for Vodafone is appalling! I switched to Telecom and it got a little better, but not a huge amount. Also it is only "3G" that works in the area, the GSM network on Vodafone is non-existant.

What I'm doing is making use of the Viber app on Android (and IOS) so that when I'm in range of my home wifi I can call the wifey and other friends on Viber (or use Skype).

How far down Huia Road are you ? (Woodlands park area is very bad)

Shoes2468

785 posts

Ultimate Geek

#585073 22-Feb-2012 11:33

Just looking at the mobile cell site map it would seem that Vodafone have better coverage in that area, might be worth a try with a Vodafone simcard in your 2degrees mobile (if its a 3g mobile).

If you want to have a look at the map yourself http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22487235/fusion.html

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Jaxson

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#585084 22-Feb-2012 11:49

Yeah, the other's are heading where I was going, in that we recently found that by upgrading to phones that could use the 900MHZ 3G band (called extended coverage by Vodafone) our house was covered by a much better signal. As in check what you can do by upgrading phones and checking coverage maps etc and you might find you don't need your own local rebroadcaster. Just an idea is all.

RichardBigBuddy

36 posts

Geek

#585104 22-Feb-2012 12:03

Thanks Mark ,
Thanks for that I was wondering if Vodafone had better coverage than Telecom in that area
I will be just 2k from Titirangi village just past the Tangiwai reserve ( turn off to Laingholm)

RichardBigBuddy

36 posts

Geek

#585109 22-Feb-2012 12:11

And good ideas re checking out Vodafone and the 900MHZ 3G band

Thanks