Verizon Extender

[Stephen Hart]

Our cell phone reception has deteriorated recently in the house.
Any SMUG members have experience with cell-phone boosters for the home? They typically have a small outdoor antenna and an plug-in box inside. They're pricey enough to warrant some research into effectiveness.

[Norrie Johnson]

Stephen, I have the ATT version called MicroCell and it works really well in our house and within 50ft or so outside of the house. You hook it up to a router and too initially set it up you have to place it near a window until it connects to the system. I had too register my telephone number and the numbers of the other users that will use it. I am allowed up to ten numbers. They usually charge for the usage of the MicroCell but I complained that we didn’t have any reception at our house so they gave me one to use free with no monthly charges. You might complain to Verizon and have the same result. The only real problem I have had is when I lose my internet connection I have to do a restart on the MicroCell which sometimes ends up being three or four restarts.

Have you tried the wifi calling feature on you’re iPhone?

Norrie

[mapaw]

I too have had an ATT Micro Cell and it worked very well for me and I got it at not cost like Norrie did. I am in Main's Farm in Dungeness Valley and had to call and go thru about 3-4 levels of ATT even tho at the first level they could tell I had not reception. My problem was that I drove all over Sequim and Clallam Co every day so there are many place that I have no or poor reception. So when an opportunity arrived to get a newer iPhone I switched it Verizon. Still no reception at my house but SOOOOO much better everywhere else. I'n in a cell tower 'shadow'. Not as nice as the Rain Shadow. When I called Verizion for their equivalent of the ATT Micro Cell they got me to a different dept (after about 3 calls back and forth) that set me up for the WiFi calling feature and I have to say it is the BOMB! The only quirk is that you HAVE to use the area code ALL OF THE TIME. Not a big deal since pretty soon all calls will have to include AC anyway. Do try it Stephen Hart/others. Tammy White

[Stephen Hart]

After one more call lost on entering our house, we contacted Verizon by phone.
Verizon's solution was to turn on WiFi calling on both our iPhones (as some have suggested here). We'll have to see how that works out.