Wi-Ex's Cell Booster Helps Cellphone Reception
Cell phones are great- we make our writers purchase iPhones simply so that they can always have access to this site (ok, not really). The problem happens when they walk inside to our office and immediately lose all reception. Our over-enthusiastic resident conspiracy theorist may be partially to blame- tin foil doesn’t really help your signal strength- but it’s easier to blame the fact that we are surrounded by brick walls, in a middle floor.
We’ve previously tested another product that offers to improve your cellular signal, but wanted something a little more robust. So we’ve been trying out the Wi-Ex zBoost YX510. It claims that it can increase performance over a 10000 square foot coverage area (with an extra antenna), but all we needed was a fraction of that to cover our relatively tiny office. It also offers support for CDMA and GSM, which means it will work with most any phone you throw at it- the PCS model for some Sprint and T-mobile customers, the CEL model for AT&T/Verizon, the dual-band model which we tried supporting both. As usual, this type of system won’t work with Nextel or iDEN.
The first and biggest issue we had with the zBoost is the setup. Similar to other systems, you need to ensure an appropriate distance between the base and the primary antenna- in this case at least 15 feet, with a 35-foot coaxial cable running between them. Oh, and you need power to the base unit, but that shouldn’t be a major issue. The primary antenna is fairly large though and requires some real mounting, which is a pain as the included mounting kit is minimal at best. Wait! You can’t place the unit too close to metal, and you’ll want to only do a test mount at first to ensure that you have sufficient (but not too strong) of a signal. You’re not supposed to drape that excess cable nearby (which is nearly impossible to avoid). And the base unit should be elevated.
After all this, you may be frustrated, but the work will pay off. In our low-reception area, our first three tries failed. Blinking lights on the base unit flashed angrily and we decoded the message- signal errors, likely because we had tried to set the unit only a few feet from the antenna. Once we figured this out and had an intern run the cable outside, we were quite impressed with the immediate 3-bar jump in signal and about 100% fewer dropped calls over the last few weeks. Data rates and battery life were better, and multiple simultaneous devices presented no problem.
The moral- city living has downsides and Wi-Ex’s zBoost isn’t perfectly suited for the smaller footprints of our units. However, good things come to those who work for them- and are willing to shell out around $300. Our cell reception has never been better… and we probably won’t even miss that intern.
