[X4U] Poor Cell Phone Reception at home

Jim Robertson jamesrob at sonic.net
Sat Jul 30 17:34:34 PDT 2011


On 7/29/11 4:28 PM, "Ann Bolton" <annbolton at cfl.rr.com> wrote:

> Are there Antennae, Receivers, Amplifiers, Boosters, etc that can improve cell
> phone reception inside my home?

If you have an ATT iPhone, you may be eligible to receive (for FREE) an ATT
"MicroCell" (those in the know say it's a femtocell, whatever that is). You
set it up as a device on your Ethernet LAN and it functions as a mini-cell
tower in your house. You have to be in ATTs "3G" coverage map (which, as we
all know, doesn't mean AT ALL that you can get reliable cell coverage).
However, what happens is that a GPS receiver in the device fixes your
precise location (to make your location compatible with 911 services), and
you authorize up to 10 ATT mobile phones as clients of the device. When
you're in range of the device (about 2500 square feet), the MicroCell routes
your calls via your Ethernet LAN through your router to the internet. It
works remarkably well when it works. It's not a booster or repeater.
However, I'm told that it transmits DATA much more slowly than does the over
the air 3G network to limit the consumption of data bandwidth.serv

Jim Robertson
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