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Many people rely on their cell phone as a primary way to connect with others, either by calling and texting or via the internet. Typically, this has made it so that you can expect your cell signal to stand up and perform wherever you go: the grocery story, the gym, and at work, for example.
However, not everyone has a great cell signal at home. And while this is especially true in rural areas, bad cell signals at home aren’t limited to rural locations alone. As a matter of fact, they often affect people living in urban areas due to physical obstacles that block cell signals from reaching their phones.
So, how can you boost your cell phone signal at home? Get 11 tips for doing so below, including our top tip for creating a reliable and strong cell signal.
1. Go Outside
Building materials such as brick, vinyl siding, stucco and coated energy-efficient glass block cell signals. To get a better signal, try stepping outside. This removed some of the obstructions between your phone and the cell tower, often leading to an improved reception.
2. Check Your Phone Case
If you have a case on your phone, try taking it off to see if the cell signal improves. A very thick case or cases made out of certain types of material might be obstructing your signal. Even if your case isn’t causing you problems everywhere, it can still be a nuisance when the signal is particularly low.
Also, pay attention to how you hold your phone when you make a call. Be sure you’re not inadvertently blocking your device’s internal antenna.
3. Check Your Phone’s Battery
Keep your phone battery charged up. A low battery can negatively affect your phone’s ability to receive and hold onto cell signal. It can also impact a lot of other phone functionality, making for generally poorer performance when your battery is very low.
4. Find the Nearest Cell Tower
You can download apps or visit websites to help you find the nearest cell tower. When you know where the cell tower is located, you know which direction your signal is coming from. Now you can experiment to locate the places inside your home that have better cell signal. For example, try moving to the side of your home nearest the cell tower to see if that improves your service.
5. Change Location to See If Reception Is Better
Cell signal strength is typically not uniform throughout any type of building. Even if you don’t know where the nearest cell tower is, moving to another room might result in better signal. You can also try sitting or standing near a window to see if reducing the barriers between your phone and the exterior signal results in a better connection.
6. Increase Your Elevation
In a home with multiple stories, each level of the structure provides an additional potential barrier between the mobile device and the signal. Moving to a higher floor can sometimes help support a stronger or faster connection.
7. Try Wi-Fi Calling
Admittedly, this doesn’t do anything to increase your cell signal. But it might improve your calling capability. Most smartphones allow native Wi-Fi calling and texting, which is supported by all major U.S. cell carriers. There are also a bunch of messaging apps now for audio and video calling. So, if you have solid Wi-Fi coverage in your home, your Wi-Fi network can be a good substitute for spotty cellular coverage.
8. Switch to 3G
Turn off your LTE service to see if you can get a better connection and improved coverage by using the 3G network. Sometimes, a specific network can become congested, which results in slow speeds. Changing the network can help strengthen your signal.
9. Try a Microcell or Femtocell
This option isn’t free, but it can help with a specific carrier’s cell signal strength in your home. Microcells create a localized cell signal in your home and require a broadband Internet connection. Voice and data traffic is moved over the internet to the microcell.
These are typically sold by your phone carrier and will work only with that carrier’s network. However, they can be a good way to create more local signal if you live in a location far away from a tower. Even if you’re close to the tower, if landscapes such as mountains are causing signal problems, a microcell might help.
10. Upgrade Your Phone
Unfortunately, if your phone is out of date or in disrepair, it simply might not connect well even when a strong signal is present. Most of the other tips on this list won’t help much if your phone is limping along or isn’t capable of running new technology. In this case, you may need to procure yourself an upgrade if you want better performance.
11. Our Top Tip: A Cell Phone Signal Booster
A home cell phone signal booster amplifies the outside signal into your home. It can support faster data, better voice quality and stronger signal for everyone there.
These devices don’t create signal; rather, they take whatever signal is available — even if it’s small — and amplify it to ensure your cell phone can pick it up and properly use it.
Our selection of weBoost cell phone antenna boosters for homes:
- Amplify cell signal for all cell carriers
- Are FCC and carrier pre-approved
- Have no recurring fees
- Don’t require an Internet connection
- Come with a kit of everything you need for a DIY installation
- Boost all networks like 3G, 4G, LTE and 5G
Why Is a Cell Phone Signal Booster Our Top Tip?
We gave you 10 other tips, and many of them are completely free to try. So why is this our top tip?
First, because it works no matter what as long as you have any cell signal coming into your home, office or car. You don’t have to rely on a home Wi-Fi connection to make phone calls or upload or download items on your mobile device. And that can be a big deal. Many people have limited home Wi-Fi connections with data caps. You don’t want to use up your home data with mobile use if you don’t have to.
In other cases, you might have a lot of devices already connected to your home network, such as smart appliances, televisions, game consoles, computers and tablets. You don’t want to gum up the works with a cell connection if you don’t have to.
Second, cell phone signal boosters are more convenient than some of the other tips. Going outside to get a better connection is fine and good on a gorgeous day. But what do you do when it’s raining or when the winter months roll around? No one wants to put on extra layers every time they have to make a phone call.
The same is true for playing musical chairs with every piece of furniture and room in your home to find which spot supports the best signal any given moment. When you have a signal booster, you can place the amplifier to ensure the spots you enjoy most offer the strongest connections.
Whether you’re looking to boost signal in a home office or throughout a multi-room home, weBoost has an option for you.
Check out our selection of home cell phone boosters to find one that works for your family and lets you implement our top tip for increasing cell phone speeds at home.
