Cell Signal Boosters?

[Ben]

Anyone have any experience with them? The new building I work in is a signal blocker and it's fallen on me to get us a signal. It's a two story building and we actually get a semi-decent signal in our upstairs conference room that is mostly windows on two sides. Most everywhere else though, especially downstairs, it's zero to one bar for everyone. Stepping out of the building, my OpenSignal app shows ~70% and around -80dBm, and call and 3G quality is good. I have the ability to mount an external antenna on our roof and use a cable drop for the internal booster inside the building.

I'm looking at this at the moment:
http://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Electronics-Booster-Includes-Directional/dp/B0023RRCP4/ref=zg_bs_2407782011_2

Just wondering if anyone else has any experience with signal boosters in general

[RevDisk]

Wilson's is a good choice. You can call or email their reps, and they'll walk you through selecting whatever you need. More distance between the external and internal antennas, the better.


Last cell repeater I installed needed 4G service and a large area, so I went with:
http://www.surecall.com/product/cellphonebooster/CommercialAmplifiers/62/FORCE-5-(CM5000-80)

[Fitz]

I have tons of experience with these.



And i'm getting more than I want.


We have a few wilson units at a few buildings I work in. Antenna separation is key. Wilson stuff is pretty good. They have a new booster that is capable of boosting LTE as well.

How big is the building and what carriers are you concerned with?

[MechAg94]

We got a model at Best Buy a while back for a small metal office building.  It worked, but the range was limited.  I am sure there are better models.

[Ben]

Thanks for the tips on antenna separation. I did not know that, but it should not be a problem. It looks like I can get up to a good 100', The building is ~7500 square ft. A good thing is that it's designed kind of like a Roman courtyard because of the LEEDS thing for letting the building "breathe" or whatever. It basically gives me a big opening in the center of the interior of the building that exposes the internal booster to offices on both floors.

As for carriers, the .gov issued phones are Verizon, but I also want to support AT&T and Sprint. I have around a half dozen people that I've convinced to use their personal smartphones vs the gov buying them one. They just forward their gov dumb phone number to their personal phone. If I support their carriers, then I don't have to waste taxpayer money on smartphones for them.

4G would be a perk but not a requirement. 4G works well outside the building, and when they're in the building, they can access web stuff from their computers.

[RevDisk]

They also make cell phone towers in a can. You plug them into your internet connection, and voila. Most cell phone stores use those, hence why reception and downloads there are often much faster than real world circumstances.

Example: http://www.att.com/standalone/3gmicrocell/?fbid=jXxF0qyIRVX

Cell amp is likely a better choice for you. One of the Wilson's will be fine. If Fitz has spares, buy one from him or snag another from the interwebz.

[Ben]

Additional question on another kind of antenna separation. Any minimum distance concerns from other antennas? I just came back from where I am going to be able to mount it, and I will be able to put a mounting array on some conduit that will give me probably a total 4' spread. There will be other antennas mounted here. A 162MHz tuned antenna, a marine antenna in the 160MHz range, and another radio antenna in the 170MHz range, digital.

As far as I know, cells transmit on 800MHz and 1900MHz? I'm guessing at least a 1' separation will be okay, but wanted to be sure. Coax will all be running down the same conduit, but I'll be using shielded, so there shouldn't be any issues there.

[CNYCacher]

Do cell service providers help out in these situations? It seems they would have an incentive to.

I know Sprint will send you a device to install in your house if you don't get service there.

[TechMan]

Forum for Distributed Antenna Systems

ETA: DAS and Small Cell Technologies Distinguished

ETA2: DAS Deployment Considerations

[Scout26]

No one bothered to check if cellphones would work in the building before they signed the lease/agreement??   

Oh, that's right, you work for the .gov.  Nevermind.

[Fitz]

Bad cell service in office buildings is more common than you might think

In many cases, good cell service in an office building is a result of some sort of geek installing the aforementioned booster system

[Ben]

No one bothered to check if cellphones would work in the building before they signed the lease/agreement??   

Oh, that's right, you work for the .gov.  Nevermind.

Brand new building built for us. The design itself would be a cell killer, as the walls are very thick and there are automatic metal shutters that overhang the windows, all part of designing the building to not need climate control.

As Fitz said, lots of buildings have bad cell service. Our last building was a Navy building that must have been built for nuclear war with the commies, because the walls were incredibly thick, and half the time I used to have to hang out my window to have a cell call in my office.

Fitz- did you use any specific GSA supplier for your Wilson equipment? If so, could you PM me their name?

[Fitz]

I just make the recommendations and the procurement folks handle all that stuff. And our gov guys are furloughe tomorrow but I think I have our last quote in my email box. I'll dig it out tomorrow

[Ben]

I just make the recommendations and the procurement folks handle all that stuff. And our gov guys are furloughe tomorrow but I think I have our last quote in my email box. I'll dig it out tomorrow

Thanks man!

[Jim147]

I live in a hole in the middle of nowhere. I have two Microcells set up so I can get service It took a couple of calls to get past the 911 thing with a rural route but I get full service here.

jim

[RevDisk]

Bad cell service in office buildings is more common than you might think

In many cases, good cell service in an office building is a result of some sort of geek installing the aforementioned booster system

Ayep. What Fitz said.

If you have a building of any size, it probably has bad reception. Unless it's one of those "all glass" jobbies. With mostly radio transparent internal materials and objects.

Higher the frequency, easier it is to block with mass.  (As a general rule of thumb)

Additional question on another kind of antenna separation. Any minimum distance concerns from other antennas? I just came back from where I am going to be able to mount it, and I will be able to put a mounting array on some conduit that will give me probably a total 4' spread. There will be other antennas mounted here. A 162MHz tuned antenna, a marine antenna in the 160MHz range, and another radio antenna in the 170MHz range, digital.

As far as I know, cells transmit on 800MHz and 1900MHz? I'm guessing at least a 1' separation will be okay, but wanted to be sure. Coax will all be running down the same conduit, but I'll be using shielded, so there shouldn't be any issues there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_frequencies#Carrier_Frequency_Use

700, 800, 850, 1700, 1900, 2100 and 2500 MHz, actually.  Yea, I had to look it up myself.

If you're operating at 160-170, you won't have any inherent problems unless you are cranking out more power with the cell antenna than you should be pushing. More distance is better, but 1' should be fine...  I'd prefer more. But I'm a radio dork. Again, check will Wilson for best practices and any specific questions. Coax in the conduit will be fine if shielded.

[Balog]

CNY? How do you get that? I'm on Sprint and have crap cpverage at home.

[Calumus]

Call  and complain. You might have to try a couple times, and speak to multiple supervisors but usually they give in. Keep in mind that your home internet connection needs about a 1mb upload speed for them to work seamlessly. I'm in a dead zone with Verizon and was given a generous offer of buying one for $250. I found one new in box on eBay for half that. So even if you can't get a good rep to just send you one, there are other options.

[Fitz]

Ben, looks like the one we're about to buy came from ubersignal.com


Credit card purchase. Our gov CC limit is 3k, so this doesn't have to go through contracts.

[Harold Tuttle]

Higher the frequency, easier it is to block with mass.  (As a general rule of thumb)

Are you calling govt workers fat?

[CNYCacher]

CNY? How do you get that? I'm on Sprint and have crap cpverage at home.

I never got it myself.  I was told that but I can't remember by whom.  Call Sprint and tell them; see what they say.

[Ben]

Ben, looks like the one we're about to buy came from ubersignal.com


Credit card purchase. Our gov CC limit is 3k, so this doesn't have to go through contracts.

Thanks Fitz! Going on my card as well.

[Triphammer]

Are you calling govt workers fat?

As a general rule of thumb.

[Angel Eyes]

Does anyone have firsthand experience with this Wilson unit?

http://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Electronics-MobilePro-Portable-Includes/dp/B001IBMLKM/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1374338375&sr=8-7&keywords=cell+booster