Cell Phone Signal Boosters

Cell phone signal boosters are becoming extremely popular for use in homes, cars, offices and the like. These consumer level booster units are not to be mistaken for the BDA (Bi-Directional Amplifier) which is used by cellular networks to enhance coverage in geographic areas. The problem cellphone users have when they are having covered problems is known as attenuation - basically the signal is attenuated becoming weaker.

2 Types of Cell Phone Signal Boosters

There are two different ways to boost your signal - the professional method by the use of a BDA (bi-directional amplifier) and the consumer level signal booster kits. You are likely here for the latter, but I will briefly describe both methods.

Consumer Level Cell Phone Signal Boosters

A consumer level signal booster is what most of our visitors are interested and so now we can get into the meat of the discussion. There many different boosters and brands to consider. Keep in mind when you are shopping for a booster that most of them are built for use on any network whether your carrier uses GSM or CDMA technology.

So basically if your carrier is Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile or perhaps Verizon - the signal boost amplifier will work in your car, home or office no problem. Here is the typical sales pitch;

"Are you sick and tired of dropping calls and all-around bad cellular coverage? Do you want rock-solid and reliable coverage no matter where you go in your house? You need to have a strong 4-5 bar signal no matter where you are in your office, at home, or in your vehicle, and this is why you should buy the dual banded signal boost PCS amp.

"Company 101 Inc. has been the industry leader for over 30 years and uses a proprietary technology that ensures you won't miss or drop anymore calls. Our signal booster kits can be used on a CDMA or GSM network frequency and be used in the 800 MHz - all the way up to the 1900 MHz frequency spectrum. Our boosters automatically adjust for the network you are using!

Our cell phone booster kits makes it possible to boost reception in your home, your workplace, your car, your RV, your boat, and almost anywhere you can imagine. You don't have to worry about which carrier you are currently using and don't forget that we offer free shipping to anywhere in the Continental United States."

Professional Network Cell Phone Signal Boosters - BDAs

BDA's (bi-directional amplifiers also known as cellular repeaters) are professional systems by which the network installs a commercial-level booster for a particular area that has weak coverage. These BDAs can cause problems my raising the noise floor in the area, and cause some unwanted interference. These commercial grade BDAs are not what you are looking for for your personal cell phone, but thought you might be interested to know of them.

More Facts on Cell Phone Signal Boosters

FCC Approval For Signal Boosters

There was a time when you had to have a license from the FCC if you want to broadcast at any of the cellular frequencies in the commercial market, but they have since loosened up these rules. It is now legal to own and operate a cellular phone booster as long as you are using only a small power level. However, there are some different and more powerful booster products that are not on the market because they are currently seeking FCC approval. These boosters can possibly raise the noise floor and therefore affect all other users using the same carrier.

Buildings and Interference

It used to be that owners or businesses of large buildings such as shopping malls, professional buildings, underground parking lots, schools, universities, hospitals would have significantly decreased coverage when you entered the building, and their only recourse was to negotiate with the cellular carriers to have a bidirectional amp installed somewhere in the building. This was usually very expensive and time-consuming to have set up.

Nowadays because of the loosening of the FCC regulations these large buildings can have cellphone signal boosters bought at their local Radio Shack, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Kmart, or Target Stores. Of course these consumer level boosters only worked for smaller areas and you may find dozens of these different kits being used in a large building. For example, one department store may have a three separate booster kits installed throughout their showrooms as a courtesy to customers as well as a necessity for their staff.

What the building is made from also makes a huge difference in how weak your coverage is while you are inside. Some buildings are really bad because of what they are made out of, to be more precise - what the walls are made out of. Some buildings have lead as a byproduct in the roofing materials they use - usually on older buildings built before 1973. These buildings raise havoc on cellular coverage.

If the thickness of the concrete on the external wall of the building is quite wide and/or there are metal beams built in for support the signal from the network-based station will be greatly attenuated. The same goes for concrete floors because many of the concrete floors are secured and poured onto metal surfaces. Even the kind of insulation the contractors used one building can reduce the ability to transmit or receive on a cell phone.

There is they contradiction in technology between Green Buildings and modern cellular networks because buildings that have high efficient windows and exterior coverings block cellular signals like there is no tomorrow.

Frequency Bands and 3 Kinds Of Signal to Boosters

These consumer level boosters come in three main types. These are the single-band, dual-band, and tri-band boosters. Some of these repeaters are multimode and some are singular mode as I have just explained, and some of these repeater systems or kits can be used on the different frequency bands available by the major networks. Above we discussed the GSM and the CDMA frequency bands but there are also networks using UMTS.

Not only is there boosters for standard network frequencies but there are now boosters for various different satellite phones. Satellite phone boosters are becoming very popular because more and more satellite phones are becoming affordable to the average day consumer. It used to be the only companies (usually service companies) that used and can afford satellite phones. One of the big problems with satellite phones is that there is all service when you get out of the line of site of the satellite. This is where a repeater is invaluable.

Using Cell Phone Signal Booster In The Country

Using cell phones in the country (rural areas) can be extremely frustrating for travelers and business people alike. Most networks like Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, Virgin, etc. will not spend a lot of extra money building any extra base stations or cellular towers in the rural areas of the countryside. This is why single boosters have become so popular on farms around the world. Particularly if you live in a prairie setting because you can gain so much for so little by using a dual-band or tri-band booster.

Cell phone users out of the country do not suffer from multi-path interference but suffer from basic attenuation to do the distance from base stations. This is why booster kits can be so advantageous out in the country.

Understanding Multi-Path Cellular Interference

Multi-Path interference is the term used when describing the loss of cellular signal in an urban center such as most cities and the world today. There are many different so-called "dead zones" in major cities to do diffraction and general attenuation problems.

Without getting too technical, I must state that high frequencies are weaker in power that low frequencies. This is the nature of radio technology and always has been. The new cellular networks that use CDMA, GSM, or iDEN technology are working am extremely high frequencies so they need more base stations (towers) and more commercial level BDAs. And this is another reason why consumer level signal boosters have become so popular.

You see, cell phone coverage ways can't travel through the ionosphere whereas the old standard shortwave radio waves have no problem with this. This is why the old school technology of two-way radio communication will always still exists in the communications arena.

Many businesses can't afford to use the new digital cellular phone systems. For example, couriers, excavating companies, taxicab companies, and construction companies. For these smaller companies that require reliable communication for a reasonable price they will still have to choose the old-fashioned shortwave radio model.

A Few Cell Phone Signal Booster Generic Brands

There are several brands, makes, and models of cell phone signal boosters on the market. Here is an example of two manufactures. We will be growing our list of companies that build/make booster kits. These are usually dual-band and tri-band models.

• Wilson
• Zboost
• CellRanger

Some Cell Coverage Boosters By Phone and Network

Sometimes you need a booster that is proprietary to the Network you are using and/or the cell phone model you are using. In these cases you need to buy the exact booster for your situation. Below is a short list of the different network and phone model boosters I have seen available on the market.

• Audiovox Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Kyocera Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Siemens Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Blackberry Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Pantech Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• HTC Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Nokia Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Samsung Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Sanyo Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Boost Mobile Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• LG Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Sony Ericsson Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• UTStarcom Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Treo Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Motorola Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters
• Nextel Cell Phone Antennas and Signal Boosters