Cell phone signals go up and down as indicated by the number of "bars" the phone shows. The more bars the stronger the signal to the cell tower, and the greatest chance of a clear call that doesn't get dropped.
My home office was good for anywhere from one to five bars. Starting today, my entire house is 5 bars...all the time.
Did AT&T increase their towers in my area. No, but I did by purchasing and installing a 3G MicroCell antenna. The antenna is connected to my router actually and propagates a cell tower signal to the antenna in my home office. Pretty simple really. Just connect it to the router, plug it in and program up to 4 AT&T mobile phone numbers on their website.
Take a look at the upper left hand corner of the picture and you'll see that I'm connected to my own MicroCell. If I walk outside, it automatically re-connects to an AT&T tower.
On this one I also bought an unlimited calling plan for $20/month. As long as the calls originate on my MicroCell, they don't count towards my cell phone plan minutes. The actual hardware was $100, with a $100 rebate if I also purchased the unlimited calling plan. No two year contract required either.
This is well worth the purchase to have 5 bars 24/7 in the house. I've been waiting for this technology to come along.
Rich Iarossi is a full time licensed REALTOR®, working in Crofton, MD. My coverage areas are: Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Howard, Calvert, Queen Anne, and Baltimore City and County. I specialize in residential real estate, working with both buyers and sellers. Use the registration free search on my website at www.RichSellsHomes.com. If you’re not already working with a REALTOR®...I can help. Call me at 443-995-9595 (Cell) or 410-451-6255 (Office).
SKYPE ME: RichSellsHomes
Richard, Three letters keep me from getting an iPhone. I do like them, but here in my area, their service sux - big time...
Rich, That is quite the tool. I am also looking to get better service at home, especially after work hours. I look forward to seeing how it works for you.
Great suggestion. I have great service now, but know lots of people on the low end of the bar. I'll be sure to pass this along.
I have a Sprint Cel antenna on the roof of my house and a booster inside * It works GREAT!!!
I did not know that you could have your own "cell!"
Featured in the Group "Whacked!!!"
I'm sure if you put a real cell tower at your house the neighbors wouldn't be happy.
I got the new Palm. It is its own Hot Spot. And, I've used it at a number of opens....no need to subscribe to anything. It's included for free for two years on my phone plan. So, when my @#@ internet service goes down...I'm still good. LOVE IT. Hate the new internet service......
What a cool gadget! Thanks for sharing!
You are Mr. Tech Rich. I have to do the same with my home office...
WOW, this is good news. I was waiting for them to become available AND the price is better than what I had been told a few months ago. Thanks for the heads up on this.
Never heard of this before, if I drive by your house will I get better reception? haha
This is all news to me. I never knew you could do this.
Richard,
Would this help much if I have fairly good signal at my residence?
Richard - That's valuable information for us AT&T customers. My bars are pretty good, but have a friend in Florida, who will likely benefit from this information
Mike: I hear you. Without a decent cell phone signal, they are all a bunch of expensive paperweights.
Wanda: So far, so good, for the first day. Still sitting at five bars without any deviation.
Dave: Please do. Thats what Active Rain is all about...sharing.
Wallace: I could have gone that route too. This unit just sits on a file cabinet in my office.
Richard: Thanks for the feature. The technology just came out in my area.
Pat: I'm sure you're right about that.
Suzanne: I can't give up my iPhone.
Krystin: Thanks for stopping by.
Paul: I don't know what the rollout is, but it just became available in my area.
Mary: You're right, the price is reasonable.
NSDSS: Sorry, I get to program what phones can use the tower.
Terry: Thats one of the cool things about AR...learning about all these new things.
Patrick: Signalwise, probably not. The unlimited calling plan for $20/month is pretty good though if you use up a lot of minutes from home.
Myrl: I'm sure they can check availability on the AT&T website.
Richard, very interesting. Thanks for the info. I'm assuming this means you're giving up your land lines now.
Do you need a land line anymore? And if all the home cell calls are $20/month, can you cut back on your cell plan minutes? Out ATT service is spotty here on Cape Cod - this could be good!
I love it, thanks for the info. I live just 5 miles North of downtown Seattle and AT&T's coverage is terrible. I have to turn off my iPhone's 3G capability at home or else all of my calls drop. I'm using the old Edge network at home full time. It's ridiculous.
I'm on my way out to get one today. I wish that Steve Jobs would just let us use another network.
Great tool to improve your cell service through a poor carrier, I'll recommend this to all my unfortunate iPhone-using friends! Here, Verizon's service (and Customer Service) is far superior to AT&T's. Great reception, no dropped calls. I've heard rumors that Verizon is getting iPhones by the end of the year, if so I might get one, but NOT through AT&T!
Seems cool, though I'm not sure I want to boost signals in my house, i might wake up glowing......
I do wonder about the health effects of this. Would it help to put it on the roof? Do they address this issue in the "instructions"?
Rich, that's pretty cool. I know my service is hit and miss around my house (course, I have another service provider). Thanks for the info.
Rich - That's great info and I may consider installing one. I am totally bundled with AT&T and not all that happy about it.
Fascinating as that's why I wasn't getting an iPhone, that is until my techie son educated me further.
Seems that Apple is playing dirty & manipulating the applications that run on the iPhone. You might have heard how they gave Adobe (read flash) a hard time. The problem is much more serious in that Apple has pulled 1,000s of applications out of the iStore and now they require applications to be ONLY developed using their tools.
Fascinating that Steve Jobs lost the PC market by not licensing his operating system. Then the iPhone was very open ... and the pendulum is swinging back to close the door unless you play his game, his way.
If this is true, guess I won't ever own an iPhone.
Seems like a small amount to pay for the piece of mind of never dropping a call in your own home again...and it's a tax deductible business expense too!
I'm leaning towarrd getting one, and droppinng the land lines entirely... Sorry, Qwest!
Sprint ought to give me one of these for staying with them, "Can you hear me now . . . '
Great blog. I even had a draft of this one. Your post looks a lot better than mine does though. I wasn't going to post but Gene's comment inspired me to. I got mine free from Sprint.
Richard, This is really awesome! I'd love to know I had 5 bars at home at all times.
Does this give you free unlimited texting when you're hooked up to the Micro-Cell Tower?
Richard - I went to BestBuy today to buy a headset w/mic, and came out with an iPad as well. This news of yours is very well-timed....thanks!
You could have five bars all the time by switching to Verizon.
This is great to know. That way I don't have to always have my head out the door to talk on the phone.
This is timely. I just bought my first Iphone today. I have to start another learning curve!!!!!
I'm wondering when Sprint and Nextel will start the same service.
I checked at the local ATT store - they apparently will only sell one to a user who is in a known "bad cell coverage" area... I've never seen a merchant NOT sell something just because it would not help the customer... but that is what the gal said - they check their maps, and base the sale on that
I just joined this group and this is the first blog that I read. SHAZAM! A winner! Thanks!
This is by far the best news for those of us stuck in "bad bar" zones. Thanks for the information Richard. Let's see if they sell me one. ;-)
Hello Richard - I'm glad to hear that you have all your bars now. I will have to check into these. Thanks a bunch.
I just bought one. I get at least 4 and most times 5 bars, instead of 1 or 2 bars before. However, I still break up and get dropped calls. ATT support says if I have 4 or 5 bars calls shouldn't drop, but they do. I'm sorry I got it.