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Cell phone signal repeater?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Accessories & Modifications' started by Gstatus64, Aug 22, 2019.

  1. Gstatus64

    Gstatus64 Junior Member

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    Hey there.
    So I drive for Uber and Lyft here in the Denver Colorado metro area, and have come across a very annoying and highly irritating problem. Every so often, maybe every 30 minutes or so my phone would disconnect from the T-Mobile Towers and I would lose a ride or delivery. I don't really want to switch to Verizon or another phone provider because I'm already set with T-Mobile.

    So I've done a little bit of research and have found this gem online and would like to ask for some opinions or advice on it. From what I've found, it receives the signal from the tower, amplifies it and then repeats it in the cabin of the car. The only problem is, it's fairly expensive. I have found a place to put the external antenna and how to roughly secure the wire to my car. I was thinking about silicone sealing it to the top of the car and then go down and around the inside part of the rear hatch, underneath the weather seal, and inside that way. I would put silicone around the wire and between the seal and the bottom of the car's door jam. Then I would run the wire into the spare tire area, and that's where the amplifier would be. Then I would double sided sticky tape the inside antenna to the rear passenger's spare window (the small triangular one); not the glass itself but the plastic trim around it. I could get an upgraded antenna for the little repeater/booster later on that would get a stronger signal as well.

    Not only would I benefit from this, but everyone around me would benefit from it as well. On top of that, the signal would be really good inside my car for myself and the riders I have.

    What do you think? Good, bad, maybe? I'm thinking about trying it and letting everyone on here know how it goes. It supports all phone bands in the USA. So people from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, At&t, and all of the other carriers would be able to receive a boosted signal.

    Here is the link:
     
  2. Gstatus64

    Gstatus64 Junior Member

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  3. Gstatus64

    Gstatus64 Junior Member

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    Okay so apparently I can't post links.. Lol. That's also irritating.
     
  4. Gstatus64

    Gstatus64 Junior Member

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    upload_2019-8-22_20-47-49.png

    So I can't post links but I can post pictures? Hahaha. Anyway, this is the device I'm looking into getting. Please let me know what you think about the idea!
     
  5. richmke

    richmke Member

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    I would find a dead zone, park the car, and see if you can get 2-3 bars when you are outside the car (like the video says). If you can, then it might be worth installing.

    The video seems to imply the repeating antenna needs to be very close to your cell phone (low power to avoid interfering with the real signal). You might need to put it on the front window, or under the ceiling trim.
     
  6. Calimobber

    Calimobber Member

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    So im kinda an expert with these things haha. Ive owned and installed maybe 10 throughout the years. For houses and cars. They work amazing but Id only go with Weboost Brand. They are a very coplex thing and I would just stick with the big name and avoid the cheap no names. I would also stick with a dock style in your case since the full car boosters you need to be super close to the antenna anyways .
    This is the one I recomend for everyone since its LTE and boost most frequencies you need. Check new&used(ones for $112 as I post this link). I have regularly bought the used or damaged box for as much as 50% off and it looks perfect when it shows up most times.



    Some you need to drill holes and mount but that one just has a magnet. I just run the antenna through the rear hatch. You can tape the cord down if you want a sleeker look
     
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  7. Calimobber

    Calimobber Member

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    On more thing. These wont create service from nothing but in places where you only have 1 car it should bring it back up to useable bars and allow you to stay on the tower or channel longer not needing to drop signal as much to find a better one.

    If you have android you can go into setting then sim status and it will show you the signal strength in -dbm for acuracy.
     
  8. Gstatus64

    Gstatus64 Junior Member

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    Yeah I have done that. I've even downloaded the LTE Discovery app, and my phone sees the towers and connects to them, but the dbi is in the upper 110's. Even being in a Discord call, I'll have 4G LTE and also 4 bars of service and the call will still have lag/latency and drop. I live right next to a tower, maybe 120 feet north of my house, and even then I receive pretty terrible service. I'm not worried about around my house though, as I am worried about around town.

    Also, wouldn't it be better to have some distance between your phone and the inside repeater antenna?

    Thanks for giving your input!!
     
  9. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Those situations will NOT be resolved with any kind of external antenna or signal booster.
    You either need a new phone or a new service provider.

    You can switch providers and KEEP your phone number.
    If you can find someone to "unlock" your phone, you can keep it too.

    P.S. What is a "Discord" call ??
     
  10. Gstatus64

    Gstatus64 Junior Member

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    Discord is an app that is similar to Skype and TeamSpeak. It's really low latency for online gamers and all that. Since it's low latency, it should never drop the call, but it does. As for replacing the phone, I have 3 times and still have the same reception. And I can't currently switch carriers until my wife's phone is paid off. So I guess it's a RIP for me hahaha.

    Thank you for your input!
     
  11. WilDavis

    WilDavis Senior Member

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    I think I would tread very carefully! I have an FCC issued Amateur Extra Radio License (K1WD) and used to operate on all bands from my Toyota Corolla! (Those were the days, screaming down I-93, having QSOs (contacts) with folk in the far flung corners of the globe! …but all that changed when I got my Prius, I'd not been on the air (from my car) for quite a while, and was just too lazy to set up the Prius for mobile operation, plus I was rather concerned about the computers in the Prius being sensitive to all the RFI generated by the Ham-Radio gear, so my mobile-operations were a thing of the past.

    The frequencies used by today's mobile-phones are much higher (in the GHz range) than those I was using for my Ham-Radio operation (KHz-MHz), and the metal body of the car was great for screening and blocking off high-frequency radio waves, and in the early days of modern cell-phones I had a Motorola FlipPhone (remember those?) I bought antenna thingy which clipped on the window - the device consisted of an antenna which was in the inside of the car, connected to a thin strip which went over the window glass to another antenna on the outside of the car - the adverts boasted "improve reception of any cell-phone" , "like magic", "blah, blah, blah" -

    Moral of the story: If a thing appears too good to be true, it probably is!

    Good luck! The device in your link might be the best thing since sliced-bread, and the answer to the maiden's prayer, but $250 seems to me a bit steep to find you're wrong!

    Caveat Emptor! :);)
     
  12. Calimobber

    Calimobber Member

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    While I do agree the booster would not nescessary fix the issues im still a huge fan of cell boosters. If your always in the city then its not a big help but when signal gets low these save the day.

    (Also, wouldn't it be better to have some distance between your phone and the inside repeater antenna?)

    No its actully the opposite. The farther you are from the antenna means the inside antenna needs to be stronger and the stronger the inside one is the more chance you have for the outside antenna to see it and try to repeat the signal. So when your phones on the antenna the booster, it can keep its power down and prevent interference

    Ive had my Ham radio license for almost 20 years - Cheers :)
     
  13. NewHybridOwner

    NewHybridOwner Active Member

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    Or check out the Google Fi service: with the appropriate hardware (e.g., Pixel nn, Nexus 5X, Moto X4), it switches between T-Mobile, Sprint, and (I forget: it's not in our area). But cost effectiveness depends on the amount of data you use: if you use a lot, it can get expensive; but we usually get a credit each month for unused data.
     
  14. BEL

    BEL Junior Member

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    Dear Gstatus64:

    Well thank you for the suggestion about T-Mobile having poor reception in places here in the Denver area. And I am about to become a Denver Colorado based Uber driver myself. Ahhh the competition... And I have T-Mobil too! But I have some comments first to give you.

    Gee I read an article last week that spoke about these cheap cell phone repeaters from China and that they violate the FCC rules. Evidently the US Government / FCC wants to crack down on the sale of them from because they interfere with the cell phone towers so much so that they can freeze all reception in and out of a tower and interfere with many other people's conversations in the area. I would recommend you NOT use such a device.

    And secondly, Uber Car Insurance only covers you under two (2) conditions: And that is when you are driving to a pickup location (after accepting a new customer) and while you are driving that customer from Point A to Point B. I checked with my insurance carrier and I do not have ride sharing insurance. My personal car insurance doesn't cover me under three (3) conditions, that is the two conditions mentioned above that Uber Car Insurance covers you, and whenever I have the Uber application running while looking for a new customer. So for example, if you have an accident with the Uber application running to find a new customer, and your personal car insurance policy is not ride-share approved, then YOU HAVE NO INSURANCE! And my personal car insurance agent said that your personal car insurance carrier will fight you in court saying that you were running your Uber application at the time of the hypothetical accident.

    So what other Uber drivers are doing (according to my insurance agent) is finding a favorite parking space (for me with good T-Mobil reception), and parking the car whenever I turn on my Uber ride-share app.This also vacates the need to purchase an illegal repeater from China. I also intend to keep a log book to record every time I turn ON/OFF the Uber application, along with my location, odometer reading, and time.

    Good luck to you now.
     
  15. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    I've heard about this 'credit' before, but don't understand how that works. Could you please expound a little bit.
     
  16. NewHybridOwner

    NewHybridOwner Active Member

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    Maybe I didn't express it well. There is a charge of $10 per month for 1GB of data, but it's prorated, so if we don't use the full 1GB in a particular month we only pay for what we use. E.g., looking at our account for July 18 to August 18, we used only 0.483GB, so were charged $4.83 rather than $10.00. In an earlier month we used 1.12GB of data. so we were charged $11.20. The data charges are not in $10.00 increments.
     
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  17. Gstatus64

    Gstatus64 Junior Member

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    I have unlimited data from T Mobile. The reception is terrible, meanwhile my dad (Who also drives for Uber) has Verizon and has 100% coverage all the way to the airport and even past the airport. Meanwhile, if I try to accept a ride anywhere out there, it crashes the app due to poor cell phone connectivity... That's why I want it. Or I can get the Mophi 4g LTE device that uses two bi-directional antennas or one omni-directional antenna and it receives the cell phone signal from the tower, and puts it out as wifi in my car.