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Rant: I bought a $200 signal booster that was a total waste
I had a job in a big brick house where the cellular backup kept dropping, so I ordered a fancy signal booster online. It didn't fix a thing, and I ended up having to run a hardline for the communicator anyway. Has anyone found a good way to test signal strength before you buy gear like that?
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alice3366mo ago
Check your phone's field test mode first, it shows the actual signal numbers. I learned that after my own booster fail. You need to know if you're getting -120 dBm or -90 dBm before spending any cash. What kind of phone do you have?
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robert_anderson696mo ago
Saw my buddy waste a ton on a booster for his cabin. He had an old iPhone and checked the field test like you said. It showed -112 dBm outside, which is basically nothing. The booster couldn't make a signal out of thin air. He ended up switching carriers instead, and that actually worked.
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theasmith6mo ago
Yeah, that's the big thing, right? I read a whole article about how boosters are basically signal copy machines. If the original is garbage, you just get a louder copy of garbage. Like @alice336 said, that field test number is key. My cousin had -105 dBm on Verizon at her place, got a booster, and it just made a weak call slightly less staticky. It didn't fix the dropped calls. She also had to switch to a different network that had a tower closer by. Seems like carrier coverage maps are often more hopeful than real.
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