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Looking to increase range of cellular internet (while not moving) as much as possible

Looking To get 20mbs in remote outdoors where there is a weak (but existing) signal.

  • Amplifiers
  • Long portable antennas
Clay Nichols
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  • What you call "amplifier" is better known cellular repeater. Usually they are for repeating GSM calls, but I assume there are also models available which are capable of repeating 3G or 4G signal - but I don't think they will be cheap (and I assume wil will need a permission from your MNO). An easier solution may be a portable mobile-to-Wifi router with a good external directed antenna. – Robert May 22 '22 at 10:43
  • maybe change subject of mobile internet to cellular internet – ron May 23 '22 at 12:58

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what Robert said in the comment... cell repeater... is close. Look for Cellular Booster. Loaded on amazon, minimum price is around $130 currently. You can spend $500 easily on a good one, and upward of $1000. There's plenty of online articles and reviews and you can buy direct from manufacturer if you prefer... weboost, wilsonamplifiers,

The better ones in my opinion are those with the outdoor antenna being a yagi type of directional antenna; use "network cell info lite" on an android phone and it's map feature to identify which direction the cell tower is and then point the yagi antenna that direction (I know kinda catch 22 needing signal to know where the signal is coming from).

The indoor antenna (i.e. repeater) comes in a few flavors and strengths... one room power, whole house power, small business office coverage, etc. That's where the price goes up.

you said mobile internet. If by that you mean getting cell signal on the go... as you move around in your car, they have mobile cell boosters with an omni directional outdoor antenna (because as you move the location of the cell tower changes you wouldn't have a yagi on your car) and then the indoor repeater antenna is much lower power because all you need to cover is the inside of your car or rv.

important : know the carrier and band your phone uses, and who you care about getting service for, not all boosters work on all service providers and bands. For example I am verizon and use band 13... in the specific home location where I have weak signal ... boosters that don't explicitly state covers band 13 will not work in my specific scenario. Plenty of times I've seen.... i've got full bars but he doesn't... elsewhere where there is a booster/repeater being used and it's because one person's phone is verizon and the other person is at&t, or sprint, or whoever else, on different bands that the booster does not work on. So be sure to look into those details regarding band and carriers supported by cell boosters, the cheaper ones will be limited in who they boost, the one's that boost everything are $1000+. Use app on your phone (android = network cell info lite) to identify the band of your cell, what band it is serving and if it is 4G, or 3G; 5G currently is iffy don't expect to simply buy a booster and get full bars of 5G.

ron
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    https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/blog/frequencies-by-provider/ – ron May 23 '22 at 13:08
  • Thanks! yea, based on my experience in Ham radio and electrical engineering, I figured I'd need a directional antenna, ideally one with some height, in addition to pure amplification. – Clay Nichols May 24 '22 at 14:06