tool

I am having major issues with my Cell Phone.

Poor service, dropped calls.

Etc.

I rely on my phone VERY heavily as I am an equipment salesman and on the road a lot.

I'm running a Blacberry Curve Handset, which was new in late January.

I'm on a corporate plan so pretty much tied to that carrier.

So I sent our "Help" person an e-mail stating my problems.

They said, "yes it's a known problem that the service is spotty in the area you describe, we reccomend this Booster Kit, cradle etc"

They quoted 2 setups, one for $600+ and one for $1,000+



So needless to say I'm a little choked.

This Coroporate plan, generally runs our company approx $80,000 a month.

I pay personally $250-$400 and then they want me to give them $1,000 to make thei crappy service work?



I appoligise for the rant, but I guess what I'm getting at is if anybody has had good luck with booster kits or similar setups.

John Faughn

More info need , at home , on road or just walking .
There are lots of options , most are around $200-300 , the service people are hosing you , do a search , cut the middle man and save .
Do not look at the garbage little things that go into the battery area .

tool

Home can be an issue, I would say it works about 70% of the time at home.

Primarily on the road is the problem.

In the office it seems to work all the time.

jthorpe

Go to www.wilsonelectronics.com. They make the best stuff out there, and it works. I've used it in a number of applications.

AH64ID

My dad has one and it works very well... but there has to be a signal in the first place.

John Faughn

For at home try leaving the phone plugged in , its common that with the constant power from the wallwart & the wire working as an antenna , that most of your reception issues are solved .
So then its the mobile issue , to do for the lest , find a source for connecting to a roof mount antenna [ so just the cost of cable & antenna ] , most of the issues will go away again , then as a last resort use the amplifier's .
There is a reason why they made laws cutting back the power in cells phones , more power requires more knowledge , to keep from cooking things with RF [ radio frequency ] .

jthorpe

Yeah, like a brain. However, if the guy is using a amp and an outside antenna, it's not going to be an issue. Even then, it's only 3 watts. It's not an issue.

John Faughn

Just trying to help .
None meant , why the attitude .

jthorpe

No attitude at all. what I mean is that the only thing it's going to fry by using 3 watts is if you have the antenna by your head (aka brain). Other than that, it's not an issue.

Iron Mike

I used to have Verizon. My home was just about 1/2 way between 2 towers. Service sucked even in the yard. I bought the Wilson repeater setup through my Verizon dealer. It was a little better, but still dropped a lot of calls. After about 6 months the dealer told me I needed to unplug my repeater as Verizon had some equipment fried and was pursuing a Lawsuit against people who where using home repeaters.
I finally fixed the problem by switching to Cingular. Verizon even let me out my multiphone family plan because they knew I was in a poor area.

12valve@heart

I have a Wilson amp in my truck and another at the house. They do help extend my range but they are not a cure-all. By that I mean, if the tower kicks you off, you'll still get kicked off whether you have 5 bars of signal or 1 bar. Also, if there are no towers that work with your provider in a specific area, it doesn't matter how much power you have, you still won't get a signal. There are places where I go where I still can't get a signal but locals have great signal; their provider just doesn't support my provider.

You can buy a setup like the one I have in my truck off ebay for $300 plus a $35 antenna.

Jfaulkner

I have one from Cellantenna.com for home use but they also sell mobile amps. I also have a "smoothtalker" which is a wired amp which could be used in a car. Both are for Nextel, what carrier are you with?

This is what I read about the Wilson repeater

tool

I'm with a provider that rhymes with "Smell".

jthorpe

First of all, there is a difference between a repeater and a booster. All of this repeater talk is irrelevant because the OP was asking about boosters. He's mobile all the time, so a home repeater isn't going to do him any good. A hard wired booster (dual band) on the other hand, will do some good. Not perfect, but better.

As for that quote about needing a hundred pound box in order to get 3 watts out of it, that's pretty funny, and nowhere near accurate.

Fronty Owner

smooth talker has a nice 3 watt system.

my try your sim card in another phone to verify you dont have a defective pohone..