We have very poor mobile phone signal on all networks at home. It's been like it for years and none of the networks seem willing to do anything about it so...

I am going to bite the bullet and install a signal booster.

Have done a bit of research and it seems that O2 and Vodaphone both use the same frequency so I would only need the one booster ?

The question is, which one?

How much should I be paying for a decent one? (I've seen them for around £60)

How easy are they to install?

How much difference will it make?

Will I need to be climbing up on the roof to fit it or could it go in the loft?

My parents complained to vodafone about poor signal and threatened to leave, they sent them one for free, and they get full signal in the house now. May be worth raising some hell

Oh and it uses the home router and broadband for signal

Edited 9 August, 201213 yr by Lofty79

Vodafone pure signal - only works with vodafone mobiles off course

We use a few at work - they work well, bit bandwidth hungry as they are on ADSL

Have a look at this

http://rich.kavanagh.it/2011/02/my-take-on-vodafone-sure-signal.html

Oh and they can take a while to connect (hr ish) on startup

Tom

this is interesting, im after one for t-mobile for home as my house seems to to have a force field around it to give crap reception

Im not sure if T-mobile does a sure signal equivalent - probably best to talk to them direct

The vodafone pure signal is around £50 for comparison

tom

Pretty sure the only UK mobile provider to offer a femotcell in Vodafone.

You have to have a 3g capable handset, and it needs to be registered to allow connection to the SureSignal (user managed via the Vodafone portal). I have one at home it seems to work ok.

To buy they are about £40-£50 from Vodafone, otherwise if you have an expensive contract they might give it to you for free....

My S3 on Orange has a Signal Booster App that uses a WiFi connection to route calls using your phone plan, I use it at home as reception is bad and it makes and accepts calls using my home broadband. Luckily it is unlimited to doesn't eat in to any data cap.

Paul

Paul, that would be the ideal solution.

Is it an android app and could it work with other phones and networks?

Excuse my ignorance

My S3 on Orange has a Signal Booster App that uses a WiFi connection to route calls using your phone plan, I use it at home as reception is bad and it makes and accepts calls using my home broadband. Luckily it is unlimited to doesn't eat in to any data cap.

Paul

whats the app called mate?

and does it use more battery?

What irked me with these Vodaphone boosters is that they were routing the call over the internet connection, with no cost reduction. If you're on a bytes-per-month contract (i.e. a ceiling beyond which you pay for) you can end up paying twice for a call.

In the building here, we have a company that installs masts for Vodaphone, they had on of these cell things in their office. After a month they scrapped it. Apparently, at best, it was unreliable.

Nice idea though.

I have a SureSignal and to be fair it can be a bit troublesome at times - I suspect the voda instrusture fails though, as if you look on the support forums everyone has issues at the same time. I think they only support 4 concurrent calls so might not work very well in a business like environment.

As mentioned above - orange do something called "UMA" which allows *supported* devices to route calls over wifi.. my company blackberry supports it.

Its not an app as such but a feature built in to the firmware of various handsets Orange sell.

I have a SureSignal and to be fair it can be a bit troublesome at times - I suspect the voda instrusture fails though, as if you look on the support forums everyone has issues at the same time. I think they only support 4 concurrent calls so might not work very well in a business like environment.

I've just installed a new ADSL line in one of our offices for a suresignal. The support 5 concurrent calls, but can have 25 registered devices.

Given that they've all got landlines on their desks as well 5 call shouldn't be an issue,,,

Thanx guys.

I'm gonna speak to O2 and orange on Monday and see what they can offer me ??

I reckon it would be a good feature of all mobiles to be able to make calls via wireless but it probably isn't going to happen on a large scale as the providers would lose money from calls.

Mind you most of us have inclusive minutes and texts so does it make a difference?

I'm gonna speak to O2 and orange on Monday and see what they can offer me ??

Vodafone is the only UK network operator to offer a femtocell option

I reckon it would be a good feature of all mobiles to be able to make calls via wireless but it probably isn't going to happen on a large scale as the providers would lose money from calls.

Mind you most of us have inclusive minutes and texts so does it make a difference?

Vodafone calls made over the SureSignal, along with data traffic is still billed by vodafone. Not sure how Orange deal with their VoIP offering...