Darn cell phones

[Lew L]

I have recently cut the land line cord and just use cell phones. Of course the signal strength is poor and calls are sometimes garbled.

How have you solved this problem and not spent 300+ dollars ?????

TIA,
Lew L

[bhern]

I have recently cut the land line cord and just use cell phones. Of course the signal strength is poor and calls are sometimes garbled.

How have you solved this problem and not spent 300+ dollars ?????

TIA,
Lew L

You may be in a place where signal strength is uniformly poor, but often one provider will have a better signal than another in a fixed location like your home. (i.e., perhaps AT&T has a weak signal but Verizon's is strong where you live.)

Alternately, I believe most of the majors now offer what is effectively VOIP, called "Wi-Fi calling," which simply means your phone connects to your wi-fi router and uses your network connection to make a call instead of the (weak) cellular network. If you have a reasonably speedy and reliable internet connection at home, you will probably see an improvement in performance. It's just an option to turn on that is carrier specific, but it's free through AT&T, anyway, and I imagine it's the same with the other majors.

There is a similar option provided by AT&T called a MicroCell that also uses your internet connection in much the same way -- think of it as a very small cellular tower in your house that your phone(s) connect to and are routed over your internet connection to the rest of the world.

AT&T's coverage in our specific area is not great (due more to concrete interference than anything else), so they provided me a MicroCell for free. It works, but can be a bit tempermental. Wi-Fi Calling came along later, and it's pretty solid. We use them interchangeably, as my wife's desk is near the MicroCell, whereas I tend to hang out where the food is (and the MicroCell's reach isn't).

[Lew L]

Thank you, Our phones are old enough to not have the wi-fi option------ but maybe a new sim card????

Lew L

[bhern]

Thank you, Our phones are old enough to not have the wi-fi option------ but maybe a new sim card????

Lew L

Not all phones are wi-fi calling capable. You will probably want to check with your carrier as to your current device's compatibility/capability with their wifi calling offering.

And again, if you have friends on different carriers, it would probably be worth having them out to "compare bars" to see if any of them provide a more reliable signal.

[2dogs]

It's only functional in fringe areas and when it's snowing it's nearly useless. Beyond that they don't work at all. During normal weather it works quite well. My first microcell was free from AT&T, however, from then on they wanted a $100 for them when they begin to fail. When mine failed (I've had three fail) I told the employee at the AT&T store that Verizon recently erected a cell tower three miles from my house so if AT&T didn't want me as a customer, I could easily switch over. (I was BSing the employee but Verizon did eventually install a tower.) The AT&T employee went on to tell me that if I purchased a microcell for $100 they would give me a $100 credit on my next cellphone bill, which they did. Thanks AT&T. A microcell will give you good service but they are not long lived.

[Two cats]

Ask your cell phone guy at the store if there is a antenna booster that can be installed in the phone you have. Remember when cell phones had a little antenna on to you had to pull up to get better reception. I think I still have one in a box around here some where. but a lot depends on where the tower is located and who all is paying the company to use it.

[Orange Spyder Man]

check with Consumer Cellular... they have GREAT prices and NO CONTRACT ..

[Lew L]

Checked with my neighbor and he has poor cell service also. So------ My wife bought a cell signal booster with a directional ( yagi style ) antenna. This should do it. ( I hope )

Lew L

[Rogue Hawk]

You need a doggy-dish

dog-satellite-dish.jpg

[Lew L]

New cell signal booster installed and works GREAT. The yagi style is directional but not wind prone to deflection. Mounting the antenna on an 8' mast on the chimney chase got it up in the air.
Lew L

[UtahPete]

Checked with my neighbor and he has poor cell service also. So------ My wife bought a cell signal booster with a directional ( yagi style ) antenna. This should do it. ( I hope )

Lew L

That's what I was going to suggest. Which one did you get?

[Lew L]

That's what I was going to suggest. Which one did you get?

We got the Sure Call. Check them out on Amazon or at www.surecall.com There are lots of different models. But I think you get what you pay for------ buy cheap--get cheap. We went up scale a bit and are very pleased.

Lew L

[blitzkreig]

Thank you, Our phones are old enough to not have the wi-fi option------ but maybe a new sim card????
L

Other way around. Get a iPod Touch with NO SIM card but great WiFi. Or some other old phone WITH WiFi but ditch the SIM if you want.

Make all calls using Skype or the dozens of other skype like software. In our house FaceTime is used a lot for overseas calls.

You just can’t beat FREE with cheap

if you really NEED an incoming phone number you can get one with Skype for a couple of dollars a month.

[Bob Denman]

Hi Lew!
I was going to tell you to look into a signal booster also. They are a pretty common item with RVers.
So are wi-fi boosters!

Glad to hear that you got it solved!