One of the more obscure aspects of my business is a product called a cellular repeater. Cellular repeaters come in a couple of different shapes and sizes, and can be pretty inexpensive to quite daunting in price. It all really depends on the useage, and how much you really love your cell phone.
Cellular repeaters take or create a cellular phone signal where little or no signal existed before
The first, and original type is the standard cellular repeater. Or what I call MacroCell. These are setup by placing an antenna at a point predetermined by testing for the best cellular signal around your property. Once peak performance is found, a reciever is setup so that this signal is picked up and transmitted into the home. From there, in a manner similar to your WiFi network, the more powerful cellular signal is distributed throughout the house.
The beauty of this is that signal is improved and short of a cell tower failing or you losing all power, you have full cellular signal anywhere in your home.
The negatives are that the price for a full cellular repeater system can quickly run into the five figure range and if the cellular repeater installer doesn't know what he is doing you might get a car full of feds at your house looking to shut you down.....
No, i'm not kidding.
These systems work so well that if the system isn't properly tuned, it will create feedback and send that feedback to a cell tower causing, worst case, major cellular issues for that tower and probably a pretty unhappy agent of the government to arrive at your door. Needless to say this is not what I would really call do-it-yourself territory.
The other type of cellular repeater is brand new to the market and is called Femtocell technology. Femtocells are much smaller cellular repeaters that do not require cell tower feedback to operate. They plug into your network and use your computer network to boost the cell service locally. The advantages of these are numerous. First is they are fantastically cheap, AT&T's latest is $150. The second big plus is that they have some controls so you don't kill your bandwidth. You can program the "cell" to boost only particular phone numbers and ignore the rest.
The problems with femtocells are that they use your home computer network. Why is this a problem you ask? Well, think about emergency scenarios for example. You're buying this to improve cell signal, so if a tree comes down and takes out your phone and cable service, you also lose your cellular service, again. This is more common than you think. In the last set of major storms to hit the NYC metro area, plenty of people had power but are STILL without phone and cable!
The other big issue I and other industry writers have is you are paying companies like AT&T every month for the privledge of improving their network!
The other flaw (depending on how you look at it) with Femtocell, is it's usually specialized to your carriers particular network, where a MacroCell (the MyAVLife term for full scale cell repeaters) can repeat all cell signals (except Nextel) and all data that goes along with it.
Granted, for those of you who really need better service, this is a small price to pay, but the fact is that's a pretty galling request. Pay us to get better cell service in your house. Not what most people have in mind when they sign up for a network. I'm all for cell network improvments, but I don't want to be one of the people behind the Verizon guy, especially if i'm paying to be there!!!!
Which of these is right for you? It really depends on what you need out of your cell phone. If cell phone data is important or mission critical, if covering multiple networks is not that big a deal or life or death, and of course the cost to install.
Your best bet, as always, is speak to a professional you can trust to evaluate your needs. I know many people in the industry that do this sort of thing, and it can be had at all price points, but you do get what you pay for. This is one time that finding the best contractor possible is the smartest thing you can do. Nobody I know wants the FCC knocking at the door.
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