A few mobile phone questions.

[anonymous-user]

The signal bars are indeed an indication of signal strength, it's just they are not absolutely definitive.

Easiest thing to do is get someone else round on the same network and see what they get signal wise , and data speed. The same phone would be even better.

I have one of those signal booster and it works perfectly. You have to put the effort in of mounting the external antenna high, and the internal one a good distance away from it.

[anonymous-user]

Turbo Snail said:

Regrettably I have nobody I know on O2.

How far away please?

You'd have to ask them. They have a live chat. I think it's 5m from memory. Can't be sure.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 25th August 11:06

[techguyone]

I've a signal booster at home because EE in my immediate area is shocking reception wise, works well, and all phone companies are either reducing or combing their masts to share with each other, this makes overall coverage a bit shonky.

If you can get past the cheek of using your own broadband connection to get a decent signal, it works well and you won't notice the usage unless you're still on dial up.

Signal bars are a very rough indicator of signal strength, you can get apps that'll give more precise results like: Network Signal Info
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.a...

[anonymous-user]

Turbo Snail said:

Sorry I don't get that.

The signal booster uses your home broadband?

I don't have home broadband.

The signal booster you linked - is a genuine signal booster. It takes a signal from outside, amplifies it, and then repeats it with a second antenna inside.

The booster mentioned above, is not really a booster, it's what's known as a Femto cell. It is a box that connects to your broadband, and then acts like a mini O2 (or whatever network) base station. Your phone sees it as a real network, but the calls are actually routed via your internet connections. They can be a simple solution. I found the Three UK one to be useless as it would often give callers a continuous tone adn not get through. A lot of peopel are happy with theirs so it might be worth a try. Far less involved than installing a real signal booster.

However, you don't have home broadband so it's no use to you at all.

[mouseymousey]

Signal bars show signal strength to the cell you're connected to. They don't show if the cell is congested or if there is an issue upstream so don't really reflect what speed your phone may be able to achieve.

[craigjm]

mouseymousey said:

Signal bars show signal strength to the cell you're connected to. They don't show if the cell is congested or if there is an issue upstream so don't really reflect what speed your phone may be able to achieve.

This