Cell phone booster amplifier setup

Rorymax · 21 Apr 2025 at 23:28

I am in UK, am looking for a cell phone booster amplifier setup to be used possibly anywhere in the UK, but most likely is needed in the more remote parts of Scotland where coverage can be and is in some areas very limited or very poor.

I think I need a device that ideally covers the frequencies betwen 700 MHz and 4000MHz, I think that I can live with only Bands 1, 3, 20 and 21 in the UK if I cannot have the 'full monty'.

The main network providers here in the UK are Three, Vodaphone, O2 and EE, something compatible with all of those providers would be ideal.

I would really like to know what to specify when I search online for suitable equipment, any help with that will be great.

Any and all comments and advice very much welcome and appreciated.

Thank you.

Terminal_Boy · 21 Apr 2025 at 23:51

Will you be using a vehicle or will the booster need to fit inside of rucksack?

Will an AC supply be available?

Do you just need to be able to receive and make voice calls or do you need a data connection?

How long do you need it for?

Rroff · 22 Apr 2025 at 00:08

Bands 3 and 20 are the most useful - I believe supported by all the networks and give the best combination for long distance coverage and performance.

It is a bit of a minefield legally in the UK, the networks used to have their own boosters you could buy but were often quite limited, not sure if they are still available.

Terminal_Boy · 22 Apr 2025 at 08:20

I think they got rid of the indoor femtocells a while back.

Wouldn’t suit the OP anyway as they needed a live internet connection to link them with the cellular network.

Rorymax · 22 Apr 2025 at 10:05

Terminal_Boy said:
Will you be using a vehicle or will the booster need to fit inside of rucksack?

Will an AC supply be available?

Do you just need to be able to receive and make voice calls or do you need a data connection?

How long do you need it for?

Hi Terminal_Boy,

The device will be fitted to and used in a caravan.

I can have AC supply either by electric hook up or by using an inverter with my 12v battery. The option of a 12v powered and AC powered unit would be nice but far from essential

I need both voice and data.

I would like to be able to use the equipment for say seven hours per day ideally, essentially I do not want to be limited in use.

Thanks for replying.

Rorymax · 22 Apr 2025 at 10:19

Rroff said:
Bands 3 and 20 are the most useful - I believe supported by all the networks and give the best combination for long distance coverage and performance.

It is a bit of a minefield legally in the UK, the networks used to have their own boosters you could buy but were often quite limited, not sure if they are still available.

Thank Rroff, this is very useful information for me, if Bands 3 and 20 can give me voice and data in the UK, then that would be fine. 5G is not important to me if that is not a readilly available option.

I'm thinking of purchasing online and when I know what I am looking for I may visit various sites looking for best options.

Right now I am very much struggling to accurately define\identify the type of equipment that I will require.

Thank you for your reply.

Terminal_Boy · 22 Apr 2025 at 10:53

Rorymax said:
Hi Terminal_Boy,

The device will be fitted to and used in a caravan.

I can have AC supply either by electric hook up or by using an inverter with my 12v battery. The option of a 12v powered and AC powered unit would be nice but far from essential

I need both voice and data.

I would like to be able to use the equipment for say seven hours per day ideally, essentially I do not want to be limited in use.

Thanks for replying.

That rules out a satellite phone then.

Caravan use is good as it allows you solid mounting points for the external and internal antennae as well as the amplifier box.

External antenna should be directional (shaped like a shark fin) and the internal one omnidirectional (round like a bowl).

Make sure you pick a system with 12V DC power as a option and the number of bands is down to what you can afford.

You’ll need a paper map, a magnetic compass and an app like Open Signal on your phone to point towards the nearest cell for your network operator. If you know where you’ll be staying, you can work out the bearing to the nearest cell in advance.

Mount the external antenna aboute the roofline of the caravan so you can rotate it 360° to point at the nearest serving cell.

If you’re not happy drilling holes in your caravan, you’ll have to find a way to feed the RR cable to the external antenna which doesn’t involve feed the cable out of a window as it’ll get crunched at some point doing that.

Rroff · 22 Apr 2025 at 12:21

Terminal_Boy said:
I think they got rid of the indoor femtocells a while back.

Wouldn’t suit the OP anyway as they needed a live internet connection to link them with the cellular network.

I might be misremembering but pretty sure Vodafone at least sold an official signal booster, not just the femtocell which used broadband, at one point, not something I've paid much attention to though.

Rorymax · 22 Apr 2025 at 15:30

Terminal_Boy said:
That rules out a satellite phone then.

Caravan use is good as it allows you solid mounting points for the external and internal antennae as well as the amplifier box.

External antenna should be directional (shaped like a shark fin) and the internal one omnidirectional (round like a bowl).

Make sure you pick a system with 12V DC power as a option and the number of bands is down to what you can afford.

You’ll need a paper map, a magnetic compass and an app like Open Signal on your phone to point towards the nearest cell for your network operator. If you know where you’ll be staying, you can work out the bearing to the nearest cell in advance.

Mount the external antenna aboute the roofline of the caravan so you can rotate it 360° to point at the nearest serving cell.

If you’re not happy drilling holes in your caravan, you’ll have to find a way to feed the RR cable to the external antenna which doesn’t involve feed the cable out of a window as it’ll get crunched at some point doing that.

Thank you T_B,

That is most helpful.

Any chance you could link me to one or two options that would work for me, so that I can get a better understanding of the specifications\types that I am looking for?

I really appreciate your help in this.

Disco_P · 22 Apr 2025 at 21:21

I live and frequent the very remote parts of Scotland. An EE main sim and a 4 network second sim in my phone has had me covered almost everywhere. From my experience, you'd struggle to find a place you can get a caravan but couldn't get signal.

Terminal_Boy · 22 Apr 2025 at 21:24

Have a look here:-

EE Mobile Phone Signal Boosters in UK

Check our EE GSM/4G/LTE mobile signal boosters to resolve your network problems. Get one suitable for you! Use your mobile phone freely. We make Express delivery.

www.mobile-signal-boosters.shop

As you can see, more bands = more money.

Rroff · 22 Apr 2025 at 22:10

Terminal_Boy said:
Have a look here:-

EE Mobile Phone Signal Boosters in UK

Check our EE GSM/4G/LTE mobile signal boosters to resolve your network problems. Get one suitable for you! Use your mobile phone freely. We make Express delivery.

www.mobile-signal-boosters.shop

As you can see, more bands = more money.

Interesting the lower end ones use band 8 and band 3 - I thought band 20 and band 3 were the most commonly supported and most useful combination - band 20 gives you ability to at least receive something at all in poor conditions while 3 gives a good compromise of coverage and performance.

Terminal_Boy · 23 Apr 2025 at 09:47

8 and 3 is cheaper and easier to do as you are simply doubling the frequency of 8 to work on 3 as well.

Having hundred of MHz separation between the bands means you can use cheaper, lower performance filters as well.

Doing 20 and 8 only is the next cheapest solution as they probably just put slightly better, wideband filters in their Band 8 circuitry and binned the Band 3 components.

Once you start supporting 3+ bands whole GHz apart, you need multiple channels inside the amplifier and this means more components.

The important thing to understand is that mobile communications systems are almost always “uplink limited” in that the base station is throwing out enough power for your mobile to received and decode messages from it, but your mobile doesn’t have enough power to make the base station hear its response.

Zero service / no bars doesn’t always mean that your phone can’t hear the network, it means the network can hear the phone to register it onto the system.

So your 2/3/4/5g booster is doing most of the heavy lifting boosting the signal from your mobile towards the base station.

Base station max transmit power = +43dBm or 20 Watts

Mobile phone max transmit power = +24dBm or 0.250 Watts or 1/80th of base station transmit power.

Nikumba · 28 Apr 2025 at 12:38

As another option not sure how viable this is, but wifi calling over Starlink might be an option, assuming you can wifi call over starlink.

I know it has an ongoing monthly cost but might work in more remote places where you can not find a cellular signal.

Rorymax · 28 Apr 2025 at 19:23

Nikumba said:
As another option not sure how viable this is, but wifi calling over Starlink might be an option, assuming you can wifi call over starlink.

I know it has an ongoing monthly cost but might work in more remote places where you can not find a cellular signal.

Hi Nikumba,

Thank you for this.

The cost of Starlink is prohibitive for me (I'm Scottish).

The other options appear to be practical and feasible and at a much reduced cost compared to Starlink.

Nonetheless, I do appreciate alll sugestions.

Nikumba · 28 Apr 2025 at 20:43

Rorymax said:
Hi Nikumba,

Thank you for this.

The cost of Starlink is prohibitive for me (I'm Scottish).

The other options appear to be practical and feasible and at a much reduced cost compared to Starlink.

Nonetheless, I do appreciate alll sugestions.

No worries was not sure based on the cost of Starlink, hope you get a system sorted out.