How To Choose The Right Signal Booster For Mobiles?

When facing different degrees of cell phone connection issues, a cell phone signal booster is the only aid that can help most people. Workarounds work well around the issues without actually helping fix them. Meeting the demands of the people, many brands of signal boosters have recently flooded the market. Surely with so many varieties available for use, most consumers should find their cellular woes gone, yes? Unfortunately, signal boosters aren’t really that common. They can only be found in a few households and corporation buildings to boost weak signal strength. Adding to that lack of general awareness, first-time buyers of signal boosters can also be misled.

Purchasing a signal booster for the most part can be a costly affair. Which doesn’t help if the consumers aren’t aware of how a signal booster works, or what aspects they need to be aware of to actually make use of one. That is why this article exists, to educate first-time consumers about signal boosters, and why any of it actually matters. Before that can be explored, however, the functions of the signal booster must be explained.

What Is A Signal Booster, And How Does It Work?

If anyone is looking to use a booster, like say a 4G mobile signal booster for home, then it helps to be aware of how it works. A signal booster is also not just one device. It actually consists of three main components - the amplifier unit, the exterior and the interior antenna. The amplifier unit does the actual job of boosting, but without the antennas, the signals wouldn’t go to and from the cellular devices at home. The exterior antenna is installed outside, preferably somewhere high, so signals can be used for boosting. The interior antennas can be installed inside a building, and on multiple floors to extend the reach.

How To Choose A Signal Booster?

That being said, any first-time buyer of a mobile network booster for home or for other purposes, should keep in mind the primary aspects that decide how a signal booster might benefit them. It is a long-term investment after all. Then again, the good ones are feature-rich and will keep serving for a long time, also with little need for maintenance. Without further ado, it’s time to take a look at the deciding factors for purchasing a signal booster.

Radio System Technology Support

Cellular signals are also radio signals, and for cell phones to communicate with each other, the signals have to travel through a medium. Every generation of such a medium has seen significant improvement over the other for aspects such as signal quality and network data speed. However, does the signal booster provide support for the correct radio system technology? That is exactly why it’s a good idea to know if the network carrier uses GSM, CDMA, CSMA, or any other. If a signal booster does not support the radio signal system in question, then it won’t boost anything at all.

Frequency Compatibility

Cell phone signals are still radio signals and also function like them. They are all broadcast at certain frequencies for different radio signal technologies. Each carrier uses their own frequency and that is what’s responsible for signal transmissions to cellular devices. Usually, there is no such thing as a universal signal booster that supports all frequencies across the country. That is also why, a first-time buyer of signal boosters should figure out which band do their carriers use.

Distance Covered

All signal boosters only cover up to a certain distance, whether it is up to a thousand or five thousand. Depending on the use case a booster will be needed for, as in is it for a house or a workplace, the right booster needs to be selected. It is also possible to extend the distance by using more interior antennas. However, this way it should only be extended vertically, as horizontal extensions might introduce interferences and feedback loops.

These side effects can only make the signals perform worse and make signals unusable. Different boosters come with support for different ranges of distance covered, usually, the high distance covered means the more power a booster has to use. This also makes them more expensive.

Auto-Gain Control

This feature is really important for signal boosters at locations that suffer from signal fluctuations. Auto-gain can help with regulating fluctuations so that there is always seamless network connectivity. Signal fluctuations can occur due to many different reasons. Some are natural, like seasonal effects on blossoming or withering trees directly in the path of transmission. Or it could just as well be a bad climate.

Signals can also fluctuate when the number of mobile phone users increases within the range of the booster. The signal quality dips significantly, and when they leave, the signal quality goes up again. How does this affect a signal booster? Well, there are two ways fluctuations can make it inconvenient for a signal booster as well as those using it.

Without auto-gain controls, a booster may provide weakened signals. If the booster can’t compensate for higher loads either, it might overload instead. In both of these scenarios, connections could have interruptions and end up with dropped calls or bad network quality. To ensure this does not happen, a signal booster needs to have an auto-gain control system present.

Conclusion

India is a land of social people and it does not help when signal quality drops in the middle of a call or data speed dip suddenly, interrupting communication. Network carriers can’t really help with that. This is why people have to help themselves in this scenario and get a signal booster. Signal boosters on the other hand can be quite expensive, and people will need to be careful with what they purchase. The above aspects and decision-making factors should come in quite handy when choosing a signal booster worth investing in.