4G Signal Booster

Cosatto

Member
We are on the edge of 4g coverage in our house typically our phones flicker between 3G and 4 G and we only get about 2mbps. If I go outside and walk a couple of hundred yards it’s solid 4G at 25-30 mbps so I was thinking a booster would help. Had a look in line and there’s everything from £15 to £1500 all claiming to do the same thing! Anyone got a recommendation for a good booster?
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Not all of them are technically legal. Apparently the network the booster is connected to should be able to turn its signal off. Not sure why but I guess it’s something to do with bomb threats or national security......who knows.

I know someone that bought a cheap one and it works well but sadly I’m not in touch anymore so can’t get you details.
 
They are illegal I think.

The o2 one will use the internet to supply a better signal. If you have good broadband speeds then you can get big boosters. They work well so long as you don’t drive off on the phone - get cut off when out of range

If you pants broadband you are stuffed
 

TheTallGuy

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
They are illegal I think.

The o2 one will use the internet to supply a better signal. If you have good broadband speeds then you can get big boosters. They work well so long as you don’t drive off on the phone - get cut off when out of range

If you pants broadband you are stuffed
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/mobile-phone-repeaters

https://www.mobilerepeater.co.uk/blogs/boost-signal/are-mobile-phone-signal-boosters-legal-in-the-uk
 
We are on the edge of 4g coverage in our house typically our phones flicker between 3G and 4 G and we only get about 2mbps. If I go outside and walk a couple of hundred yards it’s solid 4G at 25-30 mbps so I was thinking a booster would help. Had a look in line and there’s everything from £15 to £1500 all claiming to do the same thing! Anyone got a recommendation for a good booster?
Don't buy a "booster". Period. End of. Don't do it. Been there years ago and got the T-shirt. Utter waste of cash and time.

Interestingly I see that @TheTallGuy has mentioned MobileRepeater - without wanting to invite claims of libel to TFF I would avoid that marque like the plague. I had a Mobile Repaeter unit exactly 10 years ago and it was absolutely **sh!t***. So yeah don't do that if you can help it at all :cool:

Conversely if you simply need mobile "voice" services in your house / barn / shed /whatever you can very safely use a network provided femtocell (quite often called boosters, but they are actually small mobile cells - hence called femto or pico-cells). They go by network trade names for them like "SureSignal" for example by Vodafone. They work exactly in the same way - in that they setup a tiny (femto) Mobile cell in your house /whatever and use your broadband connection to provide a "backhaul" on to their network. They generally work fine, but the range is quite limited. Also any data comes off you mobile allowance.

Finally the best way, imho of going about this is to setup a 4G router with an external antenna - then just use this as a regular broadband connection using wired ethernet or WiFi to the rest of your house and devices. Setup the router and especially external antenna in the best possibly location and run a network connection from there - don't forgot copper can easily support a 1000 Mb/s gigabit connection up to 100 metres on Cat 5 cabling or literally kilometres on fibre, so there's always a better way of doing this than those rubbish boosters.
 
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Cosatto

Member
Some interesting replies, thanks, one important thing I have managed to establish is that most of the cheap 4g boosters don’t cover 800MHz (band 20) which is used frequently in the UK to cover rural areas and when I checked we are on band 20.
 

tomlad

Member
Location
nr. preston
My mob and fibre on ee
I have wifi calling which generally works well , same prob if u wonder off out side , prob disconnect call as leave wifi but no biggy
Before this system my mob basically didn't work inside my farm house, generally works fine now , i like it. Before id receive missed call text and be having to call people back , business.
 
(y)(y) Totally agreed. WiFi Calling is really the best way of doing it now if possible - as long as your handsets are new enough to support it and your network/contract supports it!

It’s a lot cheaper and easier to put in WiFi access points about the house / sheds and yard than anything else.

WiFi Calling will also have better range than SureSignal style ‘boosters’ too. And whereas you generally have only one or maybe two of them you can have as many WiFi access points as you want.
 

TheTallGuy

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
(y)(y) Totally agreed. WiFi Calling is really the best way of doing it now if possible - as long as your handsets are new enough to support it and your network/contract supports it!

It’s a lot cheaper and easier to put in WiFi access points about the house / sheds and yard than anything else.

WiFi Calling will also have better range than SureSignal style ‘boosters’ too. And whereas you generally have only one or maybe two of them you can have as many WiFi access points as you want.
Assuming of course that you can get a decent enough internet connection to start with!
 

PREES

Member
Location
SW Wales
Has anyone used an app called Speedify which can "bond" wifi and mobile signals to maintain continuity of your connection and does some speed enhancement? It is also a "vpn" but that is of less interest to me
 

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