O.S.O.K. wrote:If so, I encourage you to get and install a booster - I just put one in and it works like a charm.
I got mine at Best Buy - Wilson, Singal Boost DT desktop. I have the receptor anenta box mounted on a pole behind our house with the cable running in and down to my office - to the booster box and inside broadcast antena. It boosted my cell phone signal in my office from barely one bar (and often no service) to 5 bars - max. It works all throughout our 1600 sqft house giving a min of two bars service.
We built the house into a hill with two walls (side and back) underground with cement walls - also have a 26 guage metal roof that didn't help any. So, we really needed this. My wife was very concerned being alone when I travel for having iffy service in the bedroom. So, this fixed that. She want's to be able and call the police with gun in hand... not have to go outside to make a call after she drops the bad guys
Not cheap - $300 but worth every penny. Saved me having to get a land line.
And as a fringe benefit - it seems to improve the
air card (Verizon Jetpack) signal too - this is our internet service... although it seems on an off....
But the main thing is the constant cell improvement.
Not all of these boosters are created equal from what I understand. The people at Best Buy told me the brand/model that they had previous to this one had a lot of returns from dissatisfied customers.
I will say - you do need to read the directions and pay attention to the distances that are needed between the outside antenna, inside booster box and inside broadcast antenna. There are lights on the booster box that indicate proper signal, etc., so very easy to see if you're good.
Living out like you do, we have spotty cell reception as well, and have wondered about the booster. Nice to see a good report. For the internet, we had the Verizon MiFi for about a year and a half then switched to satellite which wasn't much better, for speed or reliability, UNTIL they finally got Excede satellite service up and running.
http://www.exede.com/
I have no affiliation other than being a customer, but I regularly get down load speeds in the 10GB or higher and uploads of 2GB. On occasion it slows but all in all pretty darn good. Compare that to the first satellite service where we were lucky to get a 1GB download. We were getting about a 1GB download with the Verizon as well.
The have several plans, all the same speeds, just varying bandwidth limits. We have the bottom one of which allows 10GB a month of downloads for $49.95 a month. Between midnight and 5AM it is free, if you are a subscriber. In other words, the bandwidth usuage is not affected at ll during those hours.
The bandwidth limit does not really allow us to do something like Netfliks unfortunately, because a 2hr HD movie would eat about 5GB alone, leaving the other 5 for the rest of the month. There is more bandwidth available at higher prices. Just depends on your budget.
I mounted my dishes for Sat TV and Sat internet, on poles cemented into the ground, per their specs, and ran the lines under ground in 2" conduit into the house. The house is new and no way was I letting these yahoos drill in my roof.
Anyway, thought I would mention this option to ya to compare. Not sure how Exede compares to 4G plans for speed and usage. We still only have 3G available in my area, so it was a no brainer.
