Cellular Signal Booster

LaatSahab

Well-Known Member
Skilled
Need something to boost cellular signal (4G/VoLTE) in my house in village. Aim is to have signal coverage and strength increased to such a level that calls and data connection can be made throughout the house.
Right now if a call is made from inside the house, most often than not it's dropped or the audio quality is very poor, akin to speaking to a robot. The data service is no good either, barely get an EDGE network inside the house. For 4G, have to go out to our shed/gher/bada .
Now my village has no coaxial cable service provider, BSNL landline wires have been cut and never fixed since everyone went "mobile" and the 2 nearby towns themselves don't have Airtel or Jio Fibre. So I'm looking for a solution, till Starlink is rolled out, that allows me to have 4G data access in my house which I can share over WiFi if need be to my devices such as Smart TV, Laptop etc.
 

LaatSahab

Well-Known Member
Skilled
What interference are they going to cause in my case where signal is almost none ?
Saw this on Amazon. Don't know if this would do the trick, atleast on data part.
 

kuduku

Well-Known Member
Skilled
I have a tri band , working very good . Bought from a new website 1 year back , sent from UP . The guy had answered all queries and was quite knowlegable about my band requirements .
Will post a pic with model numer
 

LaatSahab

Well-Known Member
Skilled
I'm not sure about the Bands involved. All I know and want is 4G signal of Vodafone and Airtel to be boosted.
 

kuduku

Well-Known Member
Skilled
Ryunosuke said:
I'm not sure about the Bands involved. All I know and want is 4G signal of Vodafone and Airtel to be boosted.
Click to expand...
Download any band checking utility , LTE discovery etc. Check your requirement . Price will keep on increasing as per number of bands
 
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LaatSahab

Well-Known Member
Skilled
Thanks for the direction. Installed the app, will report back here soon with Signal strength analysis screenshots in a day or two.
 

vivek.krishnan

If you cant see the green dot, I'm offline :P
Skilled
Instead of installing a booster why dont you get a 4G router and use VoWiFi

Also cant you complain on some portal or something. Let the service provider install the booster.
 

mk76

Well-Known Member
Adept
chetansha said:
Err,be careful.

Illegal signal boosters dot Delhi, interfere with mobile network, telecom dept cracks down

The telecom dept carried out an inspection last week, issuing around 40 notices to immediately take down such illegal third-party equipment.
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...
It is stupid to carry out this activity in residential areas. A person will invest only when they are left with no choice.

The demographics and poor town planning of cities lead to pockets where cellular signal drops drastically.

I've Airtel number for over a decade. Which at a time did not get any signal in my home. I patiently tried everything from CC to nodal office for a period of 3 years. In the end I pulled logs and screenshots from my phone citing endless missed call alerts (indicating how long the phone was not reachable) . I sent these details to their India head. Someone ( senior level ) from his office called back and told me they can't install a booster and cannot justify the cost. And one day when I had fever but had to attend a meeting in our society park ... that too in winters .. I had enough. Within hours got a triband booster installed. Since then never faced any issue.

@Ryunosuke
Do understand that these boosters are signal replicators. They have one antenna that is placed on top of a building >> goes to an amp >> and then a second antenna is placed inside the building to spread the amplified signal. The second antenna is commonly of 2 types
- Cone Antenna, have less range but spread in all direction if placed centrally
- Patch Antenna, Unidirectional but tad higher range. The challenge with this is rooms that are in opposite direction will get less signal coverage.
If building area is more, you may need to install additional secondary antennas.
 
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LaatSahab

Well-Known Member
Skilled
vivek.krishnan said:
Instead of installing a booster why dont you get a 4G router and use VoWiFi

Also cant you complain on some portal or something. Let the service provider install the booster.
Click to expand...
What good a 4G router be when there are no 4G signals in range !?! And as for complaining, do you really think they give a $h!t about a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. The closest cell tower is in another village 5Kms away.
mk76 said:
@Ryunosuke
Do understand that these boosters are signal replicators. They have one antenna that is placed on top of a building >> goes to an amp >> and then a second antenna is placed inside the building to spread the amplified signal. The second antenna is commonly of 2 types
- Cone Antenna, have less range but spread in all direction if placed centrally
- Patch Antenna, Unidirectional but tad higher range. The challenge with this is rooms that are in opposite direction will get less signal coverage.
If building area is more, you may need to install additional secondary antennas.
Click to expand...
Yup saw some vids about them on YouTube so have an idea now about what the setup would involve. As for main receptor antenna, I would opt for a Cylindrical one to have a better reception and 2nd antenna could either be Cone or Patch as I primarily want my room to be covered. Anywhere else is a bonus.
 

nithishsabapathi

Member
Recruit
I have been using a tri-band signal booster for airtel's band 3 and band 1 and band 8 (which is useless here), the boosters are good in terms of voice connectivity and you cannot expect a great improvement in your internet speed. Also, around 5 years back, we brought around 20 vodafone simcards and they had installed signal boosters in our home since vf signals were weak in our home and they were great at that time. If your primary consideration is voice connectivity, A signal booster would suffice your needs. but if you need a good internet speed, go with something else like a outdoor LTE CPE such as a mikrotik LHG LTE or a TP-Link MR600 with yagi or parabolic antennas.
 

kuduku

Well-Known Member
Skilled
I did something similar with a Huawei B310s-927 . Installed a 4G SIM , placed the router at a good height where some signal was available . Connected my mobile using WIFI of router and used the router SIM data
For calling attached a cordless phone to the RJ11 jack of the router . This made the SIM a landline phone but atleast could call and receive calls
 

vivek.krishnan

If you cant see the green dot, I'm offline :P
Skilled
Ryunosuke said:
What good a 4G router be when there are no 4G signals in range !?! And as for complaining, do you really think they give a $h!t about a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. The closest cell tower is in another village 5Kms away.

Yup saw some vids about them on YouTube so have an idea now about what the setup would involve. As for main receptor antenna, I would opt for a Cylindrical one to have a better reception and 2nd antenna could either be Cone or Patch as I primarily want my room to be covered. Anywhere else is a bonus.
Click to expand...

I think you should look at putting the complaint anyways on the portal.

As for the 4G router, there are devices from Huawei which allow installation of an external antenna. Trust me the signal boost is pretty good when using these.
 

LaatSahab

Well-Known Member
Skilled
vivek.krishnan said:
I think you should look at putting the complaint anyways on the portal.

As for the 4G router, there are devices from Huawei which allow installation of an external antenna. Trust me the signal boost is pretty good when using these.
Click to expand...
Can you please share a link to that device?
 

nithishsabapathi

Member
Recruit
Ryunosuke said:
Can you please share a link to that device?
Click to expand...
Those Huawei devices are not available to purchase as new, try to source them on OLX, the closest alternative is the TP-Link's LTE series. If you can streach your budget further, go for mikrotik's outdoor series.
 

kuduku

Well-Known Member
Skilled
Not an expert but i think 2G bands are different from 4G bands . All pics show 2G bands only
 

nithishsabapathi

Member
Recruit
Well, I was on the same boat as you in the beginning of the COVID in 2020, All the 3 operators have no coverage in my house, I was exploring for the options and some people recommended a LTE signal Booster and i went on with it and it costed around 16k for a Tri-Band Booster. The voice connectivity had drastically improved and i was getting full bars of signal in my home but the data speeds were only in the range of 200 to 300KBps max. And after a few months, was really fed up with the data speeds and explored further and found out the LTE modems, Finally brought a Mikrotik SXT LTE modem and mounted it over my house and i am now getting speeds in the ranges of 3-4MBPS or 24 to 30 megabits per second on Vi and Jio. So, if you want only voice connectivity, a booster will be enough or if you need good internet speeds, the later would be the better option IMO. Also it depends on how much you are willing to spend!.
 

nithishsabapathi

Member
Recruit
kuduku said:
Not an expert but i think 2G bands are different from 4G bands . All pics show 2G bands only
Click to expand...
Since there was no 4g network available inside his room, the phone had latched to a 2G network and displayed the bands.
 

LaatSahab

Well-Known Member
Skilled
Yes, for 4G, I had to go out of the house in a wide open area. Data connectivity is more important to me so need a solution that provides full 4G connectivity and speeds in my room. So what are my options now?