Now that many of us are working at home, cellular dead zones aren't just annoying, they're mission critical. If you have weak or no cellular signal in your home, a cellular signal booster can really help.
The basic principle behind signal boosters is simple: A big antenna is better than a small one. Instead of relying on the tiny antenna in your phone, they capture cellular signal using a large antenna in your window or outside your house (or car), then pass that signal through a device that cleans and amplifies it, and out through a rebroadcaster inside your home.
That's the basic plan, at least. Booster makers have to add various tricks to detect the best signal from various surrounding towers, and then especially to amplify the signal without messing up the carriers' own systems. That's why you need to stick with boosters from the big four companies: Cel-Fi, HiBoost, SureCall, and WeBoost. Cheaper boosters sold on Amazon often aren't FCC-certified, which means they can cause trouble with surrounding cell sites and networks.
Do You Need a Cellular Booster?
Boosters help the most when you have weak, but not absolutely no signal. While your phone may show bars, wireless industry folks measure signal in -dBm. A number higher than about -90dBm (like -80 or -70) is a strong signal. Get down below -110dBm and it's definitely a weak signal; below -120dBm and you'll have trouble holding onto any signal at all. Apps like CellMapper can show you the signal you're receiving on your phone.
This chart shows the relationship between signal strength and LTE speed
There are a few tricks you can try before investing in a home booster. All of the wireless carriers have Wi-Fi calling now, so you can hook your phone up to your home Wi-Fi network and make phone calls. Unfortunately, we've noticed T-Mobile has a big problem with sending picture messages and group chats over Wi-Fi.
Verizon's 4G LTE Network Extender 2 is a carrier-approved mini cell site that hooks up to your home internet connection and extends it as Verizon Wireless coverage. If you have a fast home internet connection but poor Verizon coverage, that one is worth a try.
Types of Home Cellular Boosters
Boosters generally have either two or three main components. There's an external antenna outside your home; the booster itself, which cleans and amplifies signal; and an antenna inside your home. They're all connected by coaxial cable.
SureCall's products combine the latter two functions into one unit. That makes SureCall's boosters easier to install and place, which is part of why the SureCall Flare 3.0 is our Editors' Choice for in-home boosters. But if you have a larger home, and you're willing to run some coax cable, you can greatly extend the boosters' range throughout your home by getting a three-part solution, some splitters, and multiple panel antennas. This can get complicated, so at that point you may want to get a professional installer to set the system up (especially to reduce interference between multiple, in-home antennas.)
Most boosters handle bands 2/4/66, 5, 12, 13, and 17. That includes base coverage bands for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The important missing band is 71, T-Mobile's 600MHz rural coverage band. Because it took a while for TV stations to get out of that band, the FCC hasn't approved any consumer boosters for band 71; you're just not going to find one.
Most home boosters also boost between 64 and 71dB of signal. Once again, that's due to FCC regulations. If you need more of a boost than that, you need to go to Cel-Fi's single-carrier booster line, which can get to 100dB by boosting only the frequencies used by one wireless carrier at a time.
The booster store Waveform has a comprehensive guide to how boosters work on its site.
The little fin on top of the car shows that a booster is being used here
In-Car Cellular Boosters
Boosters for your car are similar to in-home boosters with one exception—you can get single-device, in-car cradle boosters. These are much less powerful than in-home boosters (the ones we tested boost by 23dB instead of 65-75dB) but are less expensive, take seconds to install and remove, and don't radiate beyond the cradle that grips your phone. We like the WeBoost Drive Sleek as a single-device booster.
RV owners and people who need to boost multiple devices in a vehicle can get in-car boosters with small radiating antennas that can handle several devices. These can be tricky, though, because of how close the output antenna is to the input antenna.
With that in mind, here are our top picks for boosters for homes, apartments, and cars.
SureCall Flare 3.0
Editors' Choice
Our pick for home cellular boosters, the SureCall Flare 3.0 is affordable at $299.99; supports AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon; and uses a directional antenna outside, but an omnidirectional antenna inside. That lets you fiddle with the outside antenna to get the strongest possible signal, but also lets you place the inside antenna anywhere you want and still get coverage. It covered three indoor rooms in our tests.
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WeBoost Drive Sleek
Editors' Choice
Our pick for in-vehicle boosters, the WeBoost Drive Sleek ($199.99) has an excellent, secure cradle for pretty much any kind of phone, with a USB-A port on the power plug so you can charge your phone as well as boost it. In testing, we got about 17-18dB improvement on T-Mobile and Verizon, which was enough to keep our in-car navigation going for just that extra mile we needed.
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SureCall EZ-4G
The SureCall EZ-4G ($299.99) is an all-carrier solution for people in apartments or other places where you can't mount an outside antenna. The booster promises the same 72dB improvement as devices that use an external antenna. You won't get the same performance, because an antenna placed in your window probably just isn't in a position to capture signal as clearly as an antenna placed on your roof. But if you can't put something on the outside of your building, this just might deliver the boost you need.
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Cel-Fi Go X
Most home boosters claim around 70dB of signal improvement. If you need more, because you're very far from the tower you're trying to reach, you need to get Cel-Fi's specially tuned boosters. Cel-Fi's lineup promises 100dB of signal improvement, but it does so by only boosting the frequencies used by one carrier, so you can't switch carriers without switching your booster. The company's premiere home booster, the Go+/Go X, also costs $900, much more than most consumer home boosters.
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WeBoost Installed Home Complete
Most home boosters require some DIY work to place the exterior antenna. If that scares you, WeBoost comes to the rescue with a professionally installed solution for $1,199.99. The Installed Home Complete has the same directional antenna and 72dB of signal improvement you'll find on many other boosters, but you can be assured of absolutely optimal indoor and outdoor antenna placement if you go this path.
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Cel-Fi Pro
For apartment dwellers who need a very aggressive booster solution, the Cel-Fi Pro ($699.99) can boost signals far more than the SureCall EZ-4G, to the tune of 100dB rather than 72dB, and without installing an exterior antenna. You plant the antenna unit inside a window facing in the right direction, and you should be good to go. There are downsides, of course. Cel-Fi's solutions only support one carrier rather than all of them, and this booster costs a lot more than SureCall's $299.99 product.
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SureCall Fusion2Go 3.0 RV
RV boosters are sort of halfway between car boosters and in-home boosters. SureCall's Fusion2Go 3.0 RV ($449.99) uses an omnidirectional outdoor antenna—useful because your RV is always moving around—and offers two antenna options inside. It isn't as powerful as a home booster, at 50dB of gain, but it's more powerful than small car boosters. The trick with this one is to place the indoor and outdoor antennas properly, which can be tricky—they need to be as far apart as possible.
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HiBoost 15K Smart Link
Most consumer signal boosters cover a few thousand square feet at most. The $899.99 HiBoost 15K Smart Link covers up to 15,000 square feet, making it the broadest coverage consumer booster we could find. HiBoost's lineup also has a unique, and cool feature: There are LCDs on the front of the boosters showing signal strength on each of the covered bands. With a large home installation, you're probably going to want to use a splitter and additional panel antennas; one panel isn't going to cut it for 15,000 square feet.
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SureCall Force8
No consumer booster can boost T-Mobile's Band 71, its 600MHz low band that really extends T-Mobile coverage. The FCC hasn't approved any consumer boosters for that band because of legacy TV stations that took their time clearing away from it. If you really need a boost on band 71, you need to turn to the $7,000 (!) SureCall Force8, which needs to be set up by a professional installer who gets permission from T-Mobile.
10 Ways to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal
Cellular signals are the only ones that can benefit from boosting. Check out these quick tips to boost the wireless signal from your router, extend and optimize your Wi-Fi coverage, and speed up your surfing.
Further Reading
Modem & Hotspot Reviews
The Link LonkJuly 30, 2020 at 02:40AM
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The Best Cell Phone Signal Boosters for 2020 - PCMag.com
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