Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Method to improve mobile phone reception?

posted by Mike Harding on Jul 25, 2007 at 08:49 am in Community
4 comments • Click to email this story

I don’t know what your experience with mobile phone coverage on this coast is, but mine has been pretty miserable. I’ve been searching for a way to improve reception and think that I might have found an answer from across the pond.

http://cochrane.org.uk/opinion/articles/silicon/2007/18-07-2007.php

Dr. Peter Cochrane is the former CTO of British Telecom and his solution seems pretty straightforward (though the frequency in the US 850Mhz and 1900Mhz for GSM.) He lays out a simple method for a cellular antenna that might work for many Coastside homes.

I’m thinking of trying this out since I have a similar situation where it’s 5 bars on the roof, but spotty below. Has anyone tried such an arrangement? And if so, do you recommend it?

Comments

Comment 1 by Barry Parr on Jul 25 at 4:52pm • All my comments •

This is a very cool idea, and might work for a lot of us. My reception is very weak on my second floor, so I'm not certain how much it would help me, but it sounds worth trying.

Comment 2 by Jonathan Lundell on Jul 25 at 6:58pm • All my comments •

You're not going to find a TV antenna for 1900 MHz, but 850 is close to the top of the UHF TV band (tops out at 806).

Here's another approach: http://search.solidsignal.com/?q=Cell+Phone+Signal+Booster&I1;.x=15&I1;.y=12&site=com&new_search=1

Comment 3 by Mike Harding on Jul 25 at 8:11pm • All my comments •

Thanks for the pointer Jonathan.

Comment 4 by Barry Parr on Jul 28 at 5:51pm • All my comments •

I've heard good things about T-Mobile's hybrid wifi/cellular phone service. This would solve the no signal at home problem for many of us. However there are two drawbacks:

It's T-Mobile
There are only two handsets that work with this service.

Find out more at this lame, Flash-driven site:

http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/

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