Has anyone on here used any mobile phone signal repeaters/boosters?

I get very patchy network coverage inside my flat (big thick walls), and need to improve it or i’ll be sending my new phone back to O2! Annoyingly, Vodafone coverage is great but they have no phones i want & mine is knackered.

For ~£110 I can get a gsm network repeater, with external/internal aerials & amplifier, that could rebroadcast inside the flat.
The signal outside/in some windows is acceptable, so external antenna will be placed appropriately.

Anyone got any user experience to share, or recommendations on what to get (on a budget!)?

Bear in mind that this will probably only amplify gsm, not 3g signal. If you’re wanting a fancy phone (presumably you are as you can’t get it from Vodafone), the flashy internet features will be slow, and it will eat battery trying to find a 3g signal all the time, unless you switch it to only use gsm.

£110 seems a lot of extra money just to have a particular phone. Is it because you want an iPhone?

Joe

Hmm, haven’t heard about boosters. I would second everthing JM said above. You could switch to using wi-fi in the flat but that will also cook the battery and relies on VoIP so the call quality may not be great

3G coverage isn’t an issue for the reasons you say, i’ll generally only use that on the move.
It’s just basic GSM coverage i need. £100+ is a lot for a one-off i hear ya’, but it’s spread over the life of the contract, etc., and i’ve got a better deal than I could get on Voda anyway.
The phone is an HTC Touch Diamond2.

I suspect these will not be legal (if that matters). We had a GPS repeater for testing kit indoors and the supplier had to recall it 🙁

If it’s not the iPhone, then (assuming you’re within the cooling off period on your contract) I’d find out which of your mates has an orange phone, and get them over to see if they have good signal.

The booster thing will just be a hassle, and you’ll have to keep switching 3g on and off each time you want to use it outside the house.

Joe

Really, you can get your own base station?

Blimey, I could well be out of a job soon then…

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/enforcement/jammers/

Specifically the last section, “Cellular enhancers / boosters / repeaters”.

Ahem – I didn’t ask about the legailty of it, I already know that!
joemarshall – 3G defaults on wherever available, otherwise it goes back onto the normal network.
Teetosugars – it’s not a base station, just a local signal booster.

FWIW, their use isn’t illegal, you just need a license to transmit.
They’re often deployed in large offices/warehouses/etc, where building size/construction kills off the indoor coverage, or where local environment plays havoc with signal reflections, etc.

Cool, can you come to our planning Committe meetings that we have to chair, and explain to people how these things work..

As they are all convicend that we are “Frying the Brains”..

Having one of these in yer house should help with the ICNIRP Issues, and H & S idssues everyone has…

FWIW, their use isn’t illegal, you just need a license to transmit.

imagine how cheap that’s going to be 🙁

FYI it has to transmit to work

joemarshall – 3G defaults on wherever available, otherwise it goes back onto the normal network.

Yeah, and eats your battery, because when it has GSM signal only, it repeatedly looks for 3g signal in order to try and get something better. Whereas if you stick it on gsm only, it doesn’t, because it is happy with just a GSM signal. At least that is the case on phones I’ve used.

Joe

Its relatively easy on the HTC to go to settings/comm manager and switch the 3G off when you are at home.

Very long shot but perhaps you could try to get on O2’s user trials for femtocells. A femtocell is basically a micro 3G base station, but connected via your broadband to the operator backhaul network.
Femtocells

Yeah i’ve heard about those femtocells, didn’t read anything about O2 doing them though so perhaps i’ll have a look into it tonight

Teetosugars – couldn’t agree more but then i’d only be getting irradiated anyway if it weren’t for the thick stonework walls in our flat! Although it will probably help keep the flat a bit warmer I suppose 😉

O2 and Vodafone will be sharing masts soon, so signal should be better, but there is no difinitve date

If allegedly I did have an alleged 60db 900Mhz GSM repeater with external aerial (all from ebay HK) in my office, I would like to be able to say that it worked a treat for Vodafone signals. I’d be really impressed if my reception went from zero/1 bar to 3 or 4 bars. But I don’t, so I can’t.

RegP – Member
O2 and Vodafone will be sharing masts soon, so signal should be better, but there is no difinitve date

We’ve started allready…

pedalhead – What a wonderful theoretical summation.
What I wonder is how fast performance degrades with distance from the transmitter, as the theoretical installation I considered would only use a 40 or 50dB amplifier.

Anyway, there’s no 3G mast nearby anyway so it’ll remain switched off until I need to use it.

Well I’d expect the signal to be 100% within the confines of the 30ft x 15ft room it would be in. I’d also predict it’d be reasonable on the floor below (floorboards & carpet in between), but I don’t think the amplifier would have much effect outside the ~200 year-old thick stone building.

Oh, and knowing me, I wouldn’t be very scientific with locating the external antenna & would be likely to point it in “any old direction”.

(snigger) That theoretical information is good to know, thanks.

Although my sensible mode has now kicked in.
I realised that it’d be better to return the O2 phoen I have, get the best phone I can as my Vodafone upgrade, sell it and then buy the one I want sim-free to keep. Simplez! 🙂