I want my damn 3G...

June 13, 2009 7:45 AM

Is there any (genuine) way to improve my cell/mobile phone signal?

The house I'm preparing to move in to is in a little valley at the top of a hill - kind of like someone hit the hill with a massive axe. Everywhere around here gets great cellphone / mobile phone coverage on all the major UK providers, but in the valley it turns into crap.

There are two or three places in the house where I can get 2 bars of signal, but if I put the phone to my ear, or walk away a few feet, the signal vanishes completely.

Is there anything I can do to improve the receiption inside my house? Either phone specific or location specific?

It's kind of important, since I want to work from home but I design websites for mobile phones, so it's kind of a deal breaker if I can't make it work.

[besides, you can pry my SMS from my cold dead fingers...]

posted by twine42 to technology (4 comments total)

Here's a slate article by someone who tried a few cell-phone repeaters in his house. Prices have probably dropped since this was written.
posted by jenkinsEar at 8:17 AM on June 13

Are you going to have broadband in your house? If so, look into femtocell. The US carriers are testing this now, but as usual the Europeans are farther ahead. A quick googling shows articles from two years ago.
posted by birdherder at 9:02 AM on June 13

Here's a more recent piece talking about AT&T 3G Femtos on the way.

More details on same.
posted by beagle at 9:58 AM on June 13

A not entirely helpful previous question. I have almost the same problem; haven't bought a repeater yet.

Try getting on the roof in a spot you can mount an antenna if you're thinking about the booster. If you get a couple of bars inside it's likely there's a good spot outside for antenna mounting.

Also, I have read that inside and outside antennas have to be separated by as much attenuation (space, walls) as possible for the boosters to work right, so if that's not possible in your mounting ideas then a booster might not be the right choice.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 11:45 AM on June 15