Wilson Electronics is a company that specializes in wireless signal boosting. Their DB Pro Wireless system is designed for home and office buildings that have had trouble getting signal throughout the building. For those who are unsure what model to get for your needs, Wilson’s customer support will talk to you about your needs and your applications and mechanical inclination to figure out the right product for you. For my purpose it was to have a permanent installation in a very rural area with poor cell phone coverage across the major cell phone carriers for a large brick and concrete ranch house with a basement. I was recommended the DB Pro Wireless kit for being mechanically adept, as it requires mounting and searching for the best area to install. The way it works is that the antenna will pick up weak signals and transmit them to your phone, while being able to amplify the signals from your phone. The price is not cheap however, as this kit costs $341.19, so I went about testing it to see if it is worth the price tag.
When I received my package it was a little bit daunting, but the instructions were simple and everything was available to install less the tools. With my particular kit I had the directional Yagi antenna for outdoor use. To figure out where to place your antenna you need to determine your nearest cell phone tower location and set your phone up to determine your signal strength. I used http://www.antennasearch.com/ to figure out which tower was optimal for the carriers that I was targeting. It takes awhile to “aim” the antenna in the ideal spot, but I found the directions given to be sufficient enough for my purpose. For those who want multiple carriers amplified might want an omni directional antenna.
For the most part my signal strength inside was anywhere from -95 dBm to -115 dBm or lower, which will equate to about 1 bar at best in a few locations close to the window. Installation I found that I was getting about 4-5 bars or -75 dBm for the part of the house that was under the signal booster and about -88 dBm for the farthest parts of the house. Overall, it was great to finally have coverage all over the house for once without having to place my phone next to a window. I feel that this would definitely be worth it if you wanted to switch from a wired to a wireless only carrier or if your workplace relies a lot on wireless calls as well.
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