Boosters for mobile phone coverage

MapisM

MapisM

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A friend of mine not very technology minded asked me which is the best solution for improving the mobile phone coverage in his country house.
At the moment, with his Vodafone mobile, he has a very hit and miss coverage inside the house, and also when he's in the garden the connection is often lost.
He tried other operators, but they are even worse, or similar at best.

He was offered this thingie, and also another amplifier called "Vodafone booster", and he's wondering how effective they (or any others) are.
But unfortunately, I never tried any similar equipment, so I have zero first hand experience.
Hence this thread, since I half remember that some of you folks tried similar equipments onboard...

Any views/experiences welcome, TIA!
 
Hey P

I have the Vodafone booster at home - it's a femtocell and needs a constant connection to broadband as it does not rely on the mobile masts. It works really well unless the connection to broadband drops
 
Doh! Femtocell, I had to google for that...
Just to check if I got it right: the thing in practice routes your mobile calls to a box which is connected to a landline (also Vodafone, I guess?), so in practice it allows mobile devices to receive and make calls also in total absence of mobile coverage?
Sounds nice, but I don't think the chap interested has any landline at all... I'll ask him, anyway.
 
MrB said:
Vodafone do their own booster called a Sure Signal and they do work very well, I used to get full bars on the phone even in the garden.

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/accessories/SKU75375-white
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you need an existing broadband connection. I mentioned my poor data connection to Vodafone and they suggested one. I pointed out that I didn't have a landline and got data via 4G. They still thought it would be a good idea until I talked them through it until they spotted the flaw.

I saw things at £500-£1,000 but these were way too expensive for limited time I spend at home. I tried a £30 antenna from eBay but it didn't improve the signal at all. At least I got a refund easily enough.

We have a poor Three signal and Vodafone is variable. Turns out that the Vodafone masts are 3.6km away, almost in line of sight and about 500m from another over a hillside. Both broadcast more strongly towards towns away from us. I think we get interference from both and found one spot where signal is OK as long as the Wifi dongle isn't moved more than a few inches. We switched to O2 for voice and that's fine.

I used https://www.mastdata.com to find the exact position of nearby masts.
 
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Depending on the phone and the carrier ( it is a carrier specific setting ) there is often a "wifi calling" option the routes the called over wifi whenever connected.

On my iPhone it is under Mobile Data.

As far as I know all other UK ( no idea about Italy) carriers have the same feature.

Mine is sitting next to me now and says "Three Wifi Calling". Rather annoyingly it is configured to only work in the UK - so you don't get feee roaming I suspect.
 
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