How to boost AT&T Signal?

[btsportzmom]

New user. Not a techie - so limited knowledge of how signals work. We have moved to a small town, Have had decent AT&T coverage at our rental. Buying a house about 6 miles from town. In the woods. Barely a sporadic bar of signal in the driveway. Appears to be dead in the house. Have received an occasion text message while in the house - but rare. What is our first, best, appropriate steps to boost signal for our family's cell phone coverage in our house? It is a lost cause? We don't want to spend too much extra to boost signal - but would prefer to keep our AT&T service rather than switch to another carrier. Any suggestions or recommendations? How do you know where a tower is? What can be done by AT&T to improve our signal and keep us as customers? Any ideas out there? Thank you!

[Telekom]

Originally Posted by btsportzmom

New user. Not a techie - so limited knowledge of how signals work. We have moved to a small town, Have had decent AT&T coverage at our rental. Buying a house about 6 miles from town. In the woods. Barely a sporadic bar of signal in the driveway. Appears to be dead in the house. Have received an occasion text message while in the house - but rare. What is our first, best, appropriate steps to boost signal for our family's cell phone coverage in our house? It is a lost cause? We don't want to spend too much extra to boost signal - but would prefer to keep our AT&T service rather than switch to another carrier. Any suggestions or recommendations? How do you know where a tower is? What can be done by AT&T to improve our signal and keep us as customers? Any ideas out there? Thank you!

First of all, do you know of other carriers that do have better service where your cabin is? Verizon is acknowledged to have the best network, but even they may not be able to reach you in a really remote area. You could try a Verizon prepaid account to see if that works better than your AT&T service. Also consider that no mobile providers will guarantee service inside a building. If you can get some coverage where you are you may need a repeater booster. They are not cheap however and will run you in the neighborhood of $700 from places such as Wilson Electronics.

[Maximum Signal]

A good direct connect amplifier/antenna kit will solve your problem . With shipping and adapter cable you are looking at less than $240.00 . If you are looking to do multiple phones a wireless system is what you are lloking for . There are plenty of wireless systems out there for less than $700 . It all depends on what the signal is there and how much coverage area you need.

Originally Posted by btsportzmom

New user. Not a techie - so limited knowledge of how signals work. We have moved to a small town, Have had decent AT&T coverage at our rental. Buying a house about 6 miles from town. In the woods. Barely a sporadic bar of signal in the driveway. Appears to be dead in the house. Have received an occasion text message while in the house - but rare. What is our first, best, appropriate steps to boost signal for our family's cell phone coverage in our house? It is a lost cause? We don't want to spend too much extra to boost signal - but would prefer to keep our AT&T service rather than switch to another carrier. Any suggestions or recommendations? How do you know where a tower is? What can be done by AT&T to improve our signal and keep us as customers? Any ideas out there? Thank you!

[cellwiz09]

Whoa, that's expensive.

[whosurbud]

Originally Posted by btsportzmom

New user. Not a techie - so limited knowledge of how signals work. We have moved to a small town, Have had decent AT&T coverage at our rental. Buying a house about 6 miles from town. In the woods. Barely a sporadic bar of signal in the driveway. Appears to be dead in the house. Have received an occasion text message while in the house - but rare. What is our first, best, appropriate steps to boost signal for our family's cell phone coverage in our house? It is a lost cause? We don't want to spend too much extra to boost signal - but would prefer to keep our AT&T service rather than switch to another carrier. Any suggestions or recommendations? How do you know where a tower is? What can be done by AT&T to improve our signal and keep us as customers? Any ideas out there? Thank you!

Your best bet is to call customer service, and explain your situation. Have them open a trouble ticket on your behalf. Make sure they understand everything you just stated above, and include it in your trouble ticket. From there they will forward your issue to the appropriate folks that may be able to do something for you. At a minimum, they should be able to take a look around at the sites in your area, making sure everything is "cool".

The last thing ya want to do is spend your own hard earned money on some third party amplifier junk, to "fix" a problem that may be able to fixed by AT&T relatively easily.

[Maximum Signal]

Originally Posted by whosurbud

The last thing ya want to do is spend your own hard earned money on some third party amplifier junk, to "fix" a problem that may be able to fixed by AT&T relatively easily.

Third party amplifier junk ? There are lots of good products out there . Buyer just has to do his research to make sure he is not buying junk!

[RadioFoneGuy]

A troube ticket isnt going to do anything unless the nearest tower is broke.

First thing first climb up on the roof (being safe while doing so of coarse) and see what kind of signal you see on the phone.

If you have a decent signal on the roof you may be able to just use an external antenna if your phone support it. An external antenna is more cost efficient than an amplifier if you have usable signal.

Downfall to external antennas and direct connect amplifiers is you have to drag a cord around.

You could go with a wireless amplifier but they are more costly.

Another option is to buy a Dock N Talk unit. The dock n Talk connects your cell phone with your home wiring either by cable or blue tooth. Some dock and talk units have the ability to use an external antenna.

[Maximum Signal]

Less expensive wireless solution is direct connect amplifier kit and a bluetooth headset . Direct connect amplifiers do amplify much better than wireless if you are in a really poor signal area. With Blue tooth headset you are not tethered to amplifier and have the best signal.

[whosurbud]

Originally Posted by RadioFoneGuy

A troube ticket isnt going to do anything unless the nearest tower is broke.
.

simple, does at least two things actually.

forces the provider, who your paying good money every month, to take a look around, to rule that out. how else do ya know something isn't broke till ya really have a look? For all ya know his phone may be broke. I've seen plenty phones that worked fine, long as ya never took em out of the city and in to tough coverage areas. .

documents the fact that a user is having trouble in a given area, which may be valuable info, squeaky wheels get the grease.

I'll say it again, Why would anyone want to spend their own money, to fix a problem that is none of their own doing? Ya gotta at least make the provider do their own homework, first.

Isn't anything at all like maintaining your vehicle, where the onus is squarely upon you...

[cellwiz09]

Originally Posted by Maximum Signal

Third party amplifier junk ? There are lots of good products out there . Buyer just has to do his research to make sure he is not buying junk!

Easy enough to say, but nobody selling junk marks it "junk". I've been doing some research, but it's daunting how easily I could be buying something worthless.

[Maximum Signal]

Check around , Check the forums. Good Dealers that have good product are easy to find. Make sure they have a good reputation and a return policy in case the product does not meet your needs or expectations.

Originally Posted by cellwiz09

Easy enough to say, but nobody selling junk marks it "junk". I've been doing some research, but it's daunting how easily I could be buying something worthless.

[swbcolorado]

I bought the wi-ex 510 and added a pcs and yagi antenna but I still get signal that comes and goes. Frustrating to say the least!

[Maximum Signal]

I would return to dealer and try another brand . WiEx only seem to work well when they have a good donor signal outside the building . We are waiting on the new Cyfre in building systems to get carrier and FCC approval . wpsantennas.com - Cellular Antenna and Amplifier Reception Solutions has a good variety of units and excellent support to back them up.

Originally Posted by swbcolorado

I bought the wi-ex 510 and added a pcs and yagi antenna but I still get signal that comes and goes. Frustrating to say the least!

[Chaldo]

Do you have a high speed connection at the area you are at? If so you can wait for AT&T to come out with there Femtocells and get one, hook it up to your high speed you should have full 3G coverage.

[elmo01]

Originally Posted by Chaldo

Do you have a high speed connection at the area you are at? If so you can wait for AT&T to come out with there Femtocells and get one, hook it up to your high speed you should have full 3G coverage.

thats a limited trial in the Atlanta, Raleigh and Charlotte markets...if your not in the trial already you wont get it...


I've been watching for news of a sales launch... still nothing defininte... just in 2009...

[swbcolorado]

Thanks for that info. I hope AT&T does it soon or I will have to go with another carrier.

[Critic]

I was actually just thinking about the femtocells myself - it seems like AT&T announced theirs ages ago. I'd love to get one for my office, which is in the middle of nowhere, so the signal is really inconsistent (sometimes full 3G, sometimes it drops to EDGE, sometimes no data at all).

[Chaldo]

I heard that AT&T is going to release these in some city's really soon like a week or so, not sure if it is true, but we will see.

[tisoccer]

Hey all,

I looked at the AT&T MicroCell, but they still weren't available in my area and you never know if they ever will! Either way you still have to pay for it and use your minutes or you can add somekind of like microcell minutes and pay for those too. Only 4 users can use it at once and you can program up to 10 phones to use its service. My business can't wait for a MicroCell to be available in my area.

I now run my business from home to save money got rid of my other office, no more rent to be paid. I can't afford to drop calls or have bad reception, I don't want to lose current or potential customers because of my cell phone signal!

So, I actually purhased one of the Wilson signal boosters about a month ago. It did cost about 700 dollars, but I was able to get rid of my landline so the kit will eventually pay for itself. I checked my area to see what frequency AT&T was on in my area here on wirelessadvisor.com, AT&T was dual band. I did my research on all the different brands of signal boosters, reviews, and how they worked. I also found a very interesting fact...

AT&T has implemented an "overlay/underlay' network in most or all areas where they broadcast both 800 MHz and 1900 MHz. This means signal strength coming from AT&T for each frequency will vary, depending upon level of usage. To make sure you get a cell phone signal all of the time you need a true dual band cell phone signal booster - repeater.

This was something I had no idea about. It all makes sense now, I would have signal outside in the morning and sometimes at night I'd have trouble with my signal outside.

The booster system I purchased is a Wilson 841626 dual band kit, and will work for all providers except nextel. After setting it up, I went from having 0-1 bar in my home to full bars! It is definately a gadget worth having. I'm super excited to have this repeater in my home because when my family comes over for the holidays they will have no trouble with they're cell phone signal! Yay!

I also found a page where you can compare Wilson Electronics VS The Competition You decide for yourself whats better and whats good for you.

Hope this helped.
I.T.