In the connected world we live in, we expect to be able to use our cell phone wherever we go – home, school, in the car, shopping, the gym, or restaurants.
You name it. Wherever we go, we expect our phones to work.
Bad cell signal at home isn’t limited to rural locations but can also affect people living in urban areas. This is all thanks to obstacles that block cell signal from reaching our phones.
When you’re at home you expect to have strong cell signal so you can easily stream movies, browse the internet and call/text friends. So, how can you boost your cell phone signal at home? Read on for our 10 best tips to improve your cell signal.
What causes bad cell phone reception at your house?
To increase cell signal at home, you first need to understand what things can cause poor cell reception. If your home has energy efficient windows, a metal roof or siding, or is made from concrete or brick these materials can all block signal.
If your home is in a rural area, you are likely very far from the nearest cell tower, which can lead to poor signal. Other factors that contribute to poor signal are lots of network traffic, a strain on bandwidth or even weather.
#1 Tip: Cell Phone Signal Boosters For Homes
One of the most reliable ways to increase mobile network signal in your home is to get a cell phone signal booster. A home cell phone signal booster amplifies the outside signal into your home, so you start getting faster data, better voice quality, and strong signal for everyone in your home.
How does a home cell phone booster work?
A cell signal booster doesn’t create a cell signal. Rather, they collect and amplify existing cell signal, then redistribute the amplified signal inside your home so your cell phone picks it up. So, to use a signal booster you must have an available cell signal outside your home. To learn more about how home boosters work, check out this cell phone booster guide here.
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, 5G
Check out our best home cell phone boosters to start boosting cell signal in your home:
weBoost Installed | Home Complete – weBoost’s Most Powerful Signal Booster
- Entire Home Coverage
- 1st booster made for the residential market to include professional installation at any address in any U.S. zip code
- Reaches cell towers at distances up to 26% farther with up to 46% more coverage area than the Home MultiRoom
- Turnkey residential solution for fixing bad cell signal coverage for good
- Best performance for rural areas
- Get faster data speeds, better streaming, and improved hotspot capability—all without the hassle of a DIY installation.
- Multi-User
Home MultiRoom – Best for Mid-Sized Homes
- Boost signal in 3 large rooms or up to 5,000 sq. ft.
- Up to 65 (dB) system gain
- Reaches cell towers at distances up to 23% farther with up to 91% more coverage area—as compared to the Home Room
- Multi-User
Home Room – Best for One Room
- For One Room – Up to 1,500 sq. ft.
- Up to 60 (dB) system gain
- Most affordable home booster
- Multi-User
Will a cell phone booster for home work for me?
If you have any available cell signal outside your home then the outside antenna can pick it up and the booster will amplify it into your home.
We also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on our products so you can set it up and test it out at your home. weBoost cell phone boosters work with all cell carriers like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular so you won’t have to switch your carrier.
How to Boost Cell Signal at Home for Free
Go outside
Building materials like brick, siding, stucco, and even coated ‘energy-efficient’ glass block cell signals. So, to get a better signal, just step outside of your home. By reducing the obstructions between your phone and the cell tower, your reception will usually improve.
Check Your Phone Case
If you have a case on your phone, try taking it off to see if the cell signal improves. 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.
Check Your Phone’s Battery
Make sure to keep your phone battery charged up. A low battery can negatively affect your phone’s ability to receive and hold onto cell signal.
Find the Nearest Cell Tower
There are many apps and websites you can use to easily 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 better cell signal inside your home. For example, move to the side of your home nearest the cell tower to see if that will improve your cell service at home.
Change Location to See if Reception is Better
Cell signal strength is not uniform throughout buildings, including your home. So even if you don’t know where the nearest cell tower is, you can move to another room of the house to see if the signal is better there. Or try your call next to a window, where signal may (but not always!) better penetrate the exterior walls of your home.
Increase Your Elevation
As previously discussed, many things between you and the cell tower can block your cell signal. So, try moving to the top floor of your home. A higher location reduces the chance of obstructions blocking the cell signal. If you live in an apartment building, you can even go up to the roof to try your call.
Use a Hotspot
Most phones allow you to create a hotspot that is essentially a Wi-Fi signal that cellular-enabled devices can connect to. When you’re at home you can try connecting to the hotspot instead of the cellular network and see if that improves your connection.
Try Wi-Fi Calling
Admittedly this doesn’t do anything to increase your cell signal, but it may improve your calling capability. Most smartphones allow native Wifi calling and texting, which is supported by all major U.S. cell carriers. There also are a bunch of messaging apps now for audio and video calling. So, if you have solid Wi-Fi coverage in your home, the Wi-Fi network can be a good substitute for the spotty cellular network.
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 the network you are on can become too congested and slow so changing the network to a less crowded one can help strengthen your signal.
Try a Microcell or Femtocell
This option isn’t free but can help with your specific carrier’s cell signal strength in your home. Microcells actually 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, which transfers the traffic to the cell signal it generates so your phone can pick it up. These are typically sold by your phone carrier and will work only with that carrier’s network.
Why Boosting Cell Signal In Your House Can Lead to Better Data Speeds
In any home, car, or office, there are many obstacles that prevent us from getting the best signal from our mobile devices. Sure, there are the physical obstacles, such as hills, buildings, bridges, trees and poles — but that’s just outside. Once we head in, there are countless walls, panes of thick glass and other solid construction materials such as steel and concrete that wreak havoc on the quality of a wireless cell signal. Next, there’s the existence of all our electronics, such as TVs, computers, tablets and phones, as well as thermostats, doorbells, and other IOT devices, all competing for bandwidth and airspace, and it’s any wonder we get reliable data on our phones at all.
With a cell phone booster for home, however, you can reclaim your lost data speeds by boosting or increasing the signal that your phone sees, even if the connection is essentially non-existent where you need it.
It all goes back to Shannon’s Law, which states that a network’s transmission rate is a function of its signal-to-noise ratio or the ability of a signal to overcome electromagnetic interference or noise that prevents it from accurately transmitting data. Whether by distance, as in your physical distance to a cell tower, or by interference, such as that caused by a physical barrier like a wall or digital interference caused by too many electronic devices in the area, a poor cell phone signal can dramatically slow your phone’s max internet speeds.
It does this by clogging the signal you can get with noise such as packet loss and other data transmission errors that require bandwidth-stealing retransmission. So while the network capability hasn’t changed, needing to send the same data over and over reduces the transmission of valid data over a given period of time.
When you boost your cell signal in house, you’re giving more of that valuable signal to your phone, which enables it to overcome the existing noise inside the building, providing you with a faster, more stable internet connection. With the right product and installation, the strong signal that a booster gives you means reliable coverage in every nook and cranny of your home, office or other environment.
Cell phone signal boosters can keep you connected with reliable data speeds in your home, your car or your backyard office and won’t fail you during an important phone or video call. To find out more about the right cell phone booster for you, click below.
