Reasons Why You Have a Poor Cellular Connection and How to Fix It
Cellular reception isn’t a consistent thing. If you look at your phone throughout the day, you will certainly notice the bars going up and down even if you’re at the same place. Three bars are usually enough for voice calls, texting, and mobile data. But if you have fewer, the quality of communication will inevitably spiral downwards. Many people around the globe are doomed to live in the area of a poor cellular connection. Meaning they can’t enjoy all the benefits of mobile networks to the fullest. But why do mobile signals bounce up and down? Stick around and you’ll found out which factors affect your reception. We will also reveal an effective solution to amplify the strength of your poor cellular connection.
Why is My Mobile Signal So Weak?
If you’re dissatisfied with the quality of your mobile service, this is likely due to the following reasons:
Poor coverage
Network service providers try to install cell towers densely but oftentimes, it’s a mission impossible. If you live in the countryside, or if the landscape makes it harder to build infrastructure, you may end up being too far from a cellular base station. The farther you are from a transmitter, the weaker the signals you get.
Built Environment
Radio waves are not really unstoppable. There are many obstacles they struggle to overcome including buildings in general and building material in particular. It may be a neighboring house that attenuates signal propagation or even your own house if it’s made of brick, reinforced concrete, or metal constructions.
If you go outside and you get 5 bars straight away, then the obstruction is somewhere within your house. Every new generation of wireless networks gets more and more sensitive to impediments due to high-frequency band usage. They are capable of carrying a lot of data but they won’t travel far and they tend to stumble over obstacles.
Natural Landscape
Not only man-made objects get in the way of signal distribution but also those created by nature. If your home is surrounded by trees, hills, mountains, valleys, and other natural lowlands or elevations, it is more than likely that your reception is going to be iffy. Even snow and rain impede signal propagation at times.
Is There Anything I Can Do with a Poor Cellular Signal?
Yeah, there are basically two solutions. You can choose the hard way and swamp your network carrier with requests to improve coverage in your area or you can go with a simple solution and install a cell phone signal booster in your house.
A signal booster, otherwise known as a repeater, is a compact device that comes with an amplifier and two antennas. An amplifier is responsible for enhancing the signal. One of the antennas receives radio waves from your network carrier and the other broadcasts the improved signal inside the room.
You can install an amplifier in a house, apartment, office, store, mall, restaurant, hotel, public space, etc., just make sure to pick a model with an appropriate coverage (the range usually varies from 100 to 5000 square meters (approx, 1000 – 54 000 sq. ft.). Besides that, there are devices suitable for cars, trucks, boats, etc.
When you’re selecting a cell phone signal booster, you should also focus on bands and frequencies it operates on. If you don’t mind spending a little more to get versatility and comfort, your best choice is multi-band repeaters. They support a wide range of cellular frequencies, i.e. they are suitable for more than one mobile operator.
If you live alone or your entire family is connected to the same telecom company, you can go with a carrier-specific device. However, you need to be very careful when buying such a repeater. Because operators use various frequencies to transmit their signals, your booster must support the exact frequency found in your area. Otherwise, it will fail to do its job.
