jamiedolan
Newbie
Hello;
I can't think of anywhere else to ask this, I'm hoping that someone here will have had some experience with cel phone repeaters.
I have a friend down in south Carolina who has an android phone (he started with some other phone and got the android right about 2 years ago) on Verizion, I'm not sure what they call the model, but I know it is similar to my HTC Hero.
He is out of the city a little and has few choices for cell coverage and even fewer for Internet access. There is no cable, dsl, etc. It's either satellite (which is very problematic) or Internet over cellular -- 3G.
For about 3-4 years now his phone and Internet access (dedicated receiver card for computer) through Verizion have worked great at his home. His Internet was reliable and got maybe 1.5Mbps down and half that up on 3g. His phone worked so well that he got rid of his land line some time ago.
So here is the problem; several weeks ago he suddenly could not get a reliable Internet connection and his phone stopped reliably making calls from his house either. He described the Internet connection as getting dial up speed if it even gets on; took around 5 minutes to load facebook. His phone does not work well outside any more either, he could not make an emergency call from outdoors when he needed to. He said he needs to drive a mile or two towards the tower before he gets really good coverage again. The tower is 5 miles from his house(per Verizon). Once he is closer to the tower or in town, his phone works normally. He had someone else at his house with a Verizon phone and they had the exact same problem, so this pretty much rules out his phone / modem card.
Multiple calls to Verizon have basically been useless. They won't admit to a problem, though they said there have been 5 trouble tickets opened in his area in the last month; though they state that is not enough for them to send out a tech to investigate. They told him that the problem might be caused by the leaves on the trees, even after they knew he had been getting service at this location for the past 3+ years?!?!?! So it's pretty clear Verizon made some change to the antenna position or the power output or something else they don't want to fix.
The only thing Verizon has suggest is for him to buy a $300 cell phone repeater from them; though it is very hard to know if that is just a generic suggestion from them and an attempt to sell a repeater or if they really have a good idea that it will work for his location, I'm guessing it's a more generic suggestion they give to anyone that is having reception troubles.
Does anyone have any experience with repeaters and have an educated guess if it may work? He would be willing to buy one, as his service options are very limited, but would like to have an idea if it would really work. He would prefer to buy some other brand than being locked into a Verizon one, so if a repeater is a good idea, if you have any brand / type suggestions, please let me know.
I've heard of repeaters working well to put a signal into a building that had good service outside, but inside was poor due to the building / local Interference. However, I don't have any idea how it would perform in an area that is getting spotty service.
Any other thoughts / suggestions?
Thank You;
Jamie
I can't think of anywhere else to ask this, I'm hoping that someone here will have had some experience with cel phone repeaters.
I have a friend down in south Carolina who has an android phone (he started with some other phone and got the android right about 2 years ago) on Verizion, I'm not sure what they call the model, but I know it is similar to my HTC Hero.
He is out of the city a little and has few choices for cell coverage and even fewer for Internet access. There is no cable, dsl, etc. It's either satellite (which is very problematic) or Internet over cellular -- 3G.
For about 3-4 years now his phone and Internet access (dedicated receiver card for computer) through Verizion have worked great at his home. His Internet was reliable and got maybe 1.5Mbps down and half that up on 3g. His phone worked so well that he got rid of his land line some time ago.
So here is the problem; several weeks ago he suddenly could not get a reliable Internet connection and his phone stopped reliably making calls from his house either. He described the Internet connection as getting dial up speed if it even gets on; took around 5 minutes to load facebook. His phone does not work well outside any more either, he could not make an emergency call from outdoors when he needed to. He said he needs to drive a mile or two towards the tower before he gets really good coverage again. The tower is 5 miles from his house(per Verizon). Once he is closer to the tower or in town, his phone works normally. He had someone else at his house with a Verizon phone and they had the exact same problem, so this pretty much rules out his phone / modem card.
Multiple calls to Verizon have basically been useless. They won't admit to a problem, though they said there have been 5 trouble tickets opened in his area in the last month; though they state that is not enough for them to send out a tech to investigate. They told him that the problem might be caused by the leaves on the trees, even after they knew he had been getting service at this location for the past 3+ years?!?!?! So it's pretty clear Verizon made some change to the antenna position or the power output or something else they don't want to fix.
The only thing Verizon has suggest is for him to buy a $300 cell phone repeater from them; though it is very hard to know if that is just a generic suggestion from them and an attempt to sell a repeater or if they really have a good idea that it will work for his location, I'm guessing it's a more generic suggestion they give to anyone that is having reception troubles.
Does anyone have any experience with repeaters and have an educated guess if it may work? He would be willing to buy one, as his service options are very limited, but would like to have an idea if it would really work. He would prefer to buy some other brand than being locked into a Verizon one, so if a repeater is a good idea, if you have any brand / type suggestions, please let me know.
I've heard of repeaters working well to put a signal into a building that had good service outside, but inside was poor due to the building / local Interference. However, I don't have any idea how it would perform in an area that is getting spotty service.
Any other thoughts / suggestions?
Thank You;
Jamie
