No Bars, No Signal? Try a Cellular Signal Booster

One important thing to note in installing boosters with separate antennas is to follow the instructions for the required separation between the inside and outside antennas. Mount them too close to each other and you can get a feedback loop going. The booster will shut down until the problem is corrected.

I have 3 Wilson boosters, and when the power goes out i get no service, in use I get two or three bars
long live wilson !!!!

I simply use WiFi calling...much cheaper AND uses less(no) cell phone data plan.

Many years ago, I had horrible service inside the house (AT&T). I went to the store one day and said I was going to change providers if they could not help. They gave me a 3G Microcell which I still have, several phone generations later. It is so old it does not help LTE but does 4G giving me 5 bars in the same room. Much better than leaning against the window like I used to have to do!

My iphone automatically switches to wifi when there is a poor signal.

I live out in the boonies and the cell signal is marginal at best outside and non existent inside my metal roofed house. I have an unlocked phone so my carrier won't allow the wifi calling on my phone (that's another story). I bought the SureCall Fusion4Home Cell Phone Signal Booster and installed it myself. It works great, I now have signal anywhere in the house. I highly recommend it. The installation was easy other than running the coax cable through my attic, this 70 y/o doesn't function as well in the attic as I did 30 years ago.

Another house solution is a Bluetooth cordless phone that links to your cell phone. This allows you to put your cell phone in a home location that gives reliable reception And can also charge the cell phone.now you can roam around the house only limited by the range of the cordless phone. I use an ATT unit that came with 4 handsets and can be paired with 2 cell phones as well as a landline. I use a Straighttalk base station wired to the ATT cordless phone unit. I hope this gives some folks an option.

Be careful should you install one of these signal boosters.If the two antennas to allow the setup to work are too close together,it will cause a feedback loop as stated in the article.This could also cause interference to any cellular telephone towers nearby,denying service to other users.This is not desirable and will cause phone providers and the FCC to come looking for you.

My wife was given a personal cell tower by T-Mobile and it is very helpful.

The typical cost of a cell phone is ridiculously expensive and now you imply I need to spent $200-500 more to get it to function properly. My my, what has technology brought us to?

I still pay $12 a month for my house phone, it always works, and if anyone wants to reach me they know where I am.

How stupid does one need to be to be carrying a phone around with them ALL the time. Must think themselves pretty important.

I live in North Central NC, Cell reception is Bad. For years I've tried everything, Wilson, Yagi, Zyxel, Verizon Extender of the Month, to no avail. We have a landline and Internet through Centurylink. We all got new Cell Phones recently and I just wanted them to work without WiFi Calling which is hard to set up without a strong cell signal. Google Talk is crystal clear but that is only for out going calls and different than actual WiFi calling. So last week I got P O'd and called Verizon for the umpteenth time to vent my frustration w/the Tower Situation where I live and why my phone constantly searches for Alltel. I got a tier 2 Rep. and after checking my signal etc. saw how bad my very expensive service was. He told what I needed was a Samsung Verizon 4G LTE Network Extender 2, I replied great what is that gonna cost me? He said nothing it's free because of your situation and I replied I'll take it. It came last Fri. I followed the directions and in 1/2 hr. I had full bars everywhere in our Home. This extender costs $250.00 but can be found on Ebay cheaper and there are specs to be met w/internet speed etc. I highly recommend it.

I am with T-Mobile and had a bad signal in the house. I spoke with a rep and they sent me an extender, no cost and they paid for shipping. The only caveat is you are borrowing the unit. If you leave T-Mobile they want their unit back or you pay $300 for it. It works great but don't lose it.

For hundreds of dollars, I will simply continue to walk outside when I need a better signal. I praise GOD that I live in the south. My strategy might be a colossal failure in the frozen north.

How odd:
First, to protect the phone; we had to buy a case.
Then, we had to put that anti-scratch film on the screen.
Next, we had to get a few extra battery packs for binging.
Later, we bought ourselves a ring and/or a magnet to go hands free.
We won't count all of those USB chargers/cables we stashed in our cars, backpacks, bedrooms, etc.
We should also ignore all those apps, photos, music and the kitchen sink that we painstakingly jammed in our phones.
And, now, we are in need of some booster doohickey so that the whole shebang works copacetically, while attempting to text on a virtual keyboard that is one-third the size of the teeny-weeny screen.
Good on you JamesBauer; perfect present for the wife!🤨

Bob, I live in Israel and have a new Samsung A50. Whether I get bars or not, cellular provider or wifi, it barely notices the web. The place that sold it to me insists it isn't the phone cand I for sure ain't gonna spend more than the cost of a phone on a dubious extender. Any ideas?

The area in very rural central Kentucky where I now reside is served by AT&T. I tried to get a copper landline connection onto an existing main line. The tech who came out to install thought that I must have wanted a landline so that i could use an ankle cuff monitor to avoid jail/prison. I explained that no, I wasn't a criminal; just someone who was trying to get a reliable Internet connection. The tech ended up recommending using a cell phone and an AT&T creature called a wireless home phone instead as the copper line by my home is no longer well-maintained. I got an AT&T-linked Apple 8 cell and the wireless home phone system. They did not perform any better than my current Verizon linked cell. I returned the AT&T phones...and had to pay $90 in restocking fees. Then, AT&T started dunning me for the 10 days of phone service that hadn't really worked. When contacted, the response from AT&T headquarters was that it wasn't AT&T's problem that their products didn't work as advertised - so pay up.

Now I'm back where I started - I set my Verizon Apple 5 on a table by a window and use the phone's speaker setting. This way I can make and receive calls plus get intermittent Internet services. I'll look into the systems described in the article. I'm also considering the advise in the Ask Bob article about Satellite Internet.

We have a remote cabin in Northern California that is at the edge of a cell node. We can get signal outside intermittently with our $10 Huawaei Tracfones (one of the few phones that will work there because they are phones only, not smart phones). A few years ago we got a Wilson booster and it made a significant difference: we can put the outdoor antenna outside on a stepladder and sit inside and converse normally and receive calls most of the time. It's not perfect, but a vast improvement over having no booster.

Where I live in Quakertown, PA I have fair to poor cell reception in my home (log home construction). On a good day 3 bars, on a bad day 1 to 2 bars. Tried Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and all have the same results. Even outside the home signal strength is 3 bars, and SOMETIMES 4 bars. There are many tall trees that's probably killing the signal. Half a mile in any direction and signal is 4 to 5 bars.

My solution is to use a smartphone that supports WiFi calling, allowing calls to be made or received over WiFi. With this setup I can call from anywhere in the house, even the cellar as my WiFi signal is strong. This also helps when in a store where there is no cell reception but the store has WiFi access. Currently use AT&T, but using this method I could use any carrier as long as they do not block WiFi calling.