Now that many of us are working from home, cellular dead zones aren’t just annoying, they’re mission critical. If you have weak or no cellular signal in your home, a cellular signal booster can really help.
The basic principle behind signal boosters is simple: A big antenna is better than a small one. Instead of relying on the tiny antenna in your phone, they capture cellular signal using a large antenna in your window or outside your house (or car), then pass that signal through a device that cleans and amplifies it, and out through a rebroadcaster inside your home.
That’s the basic plan, at least. Booster makers have to add various tricks to detect the best signal from various surrounding towers, and then especially to amplify the signal without messing up the carriers’ own systems. That’s why you need to stick with boosters from the big four companies: Cel-Fi, HiBoost, SureCall, and WeBoost. Cheaper boosters sold on Amazon often aren’t FCC-certified, which means they can cause trouble with surrounding cell sites and networks.
We last tested signal boosters in July of 2020. This roundup was updated in March 2021 with additional background research.
Do You Need a Cellular Booster?
Boosters help the most when you have weak, but not absolutely no signal. Where your phone shows bars, wireless industry folks measure signal in -dBm. A number higher than about -90dBm (like -80 or -70) is a strong signal. Get down below -110dBm and it’s definitely a weak signal; below -120dBm and you’ll have trouble holding onto any signal at all. Apps like CellMapper can show you the signal you’re receiving on your phone.
There is one key trick you can try before investing in a home booster. All of the wireless carriers have Wi-Fi calling now, so you can hook your phone up to your home Wi-Fi network and make phone calls. Unfortunately, we’ve noticed T-Mobile has a big problem with sending picture messages and group chats over Wi-Fi.
Types of Home Cellular Boosters
Boosters generally have three main components: an external antenna outside your home; the booster itself, which cleans and amplifies signal; and an antenna inside your home. They’re all connected by coaxial cable.
SureCall’s products combine the booster and indoor antenna into one unit. That makes SureCall’s boosters easier to install and place, which is part of why the SureCall Flare 3.0 is our Editors’ Choice for in-home boosters. But if you have a larger home, and you’re willing to run some coax cable, you can greatly extend the boosters’ range throughout your home by getting a three-part solution, some splitters, and multiple panel antennas. This can get complicated, so at that point you may want to get a professional installer to set the system up (especially to reduce interference between multiple, in-home antennas.)
Recently, WeBoost came out with its first two-piece booster for small homes and apartments, the WeBoost Home Studio. It looks good, but we haven’t tested it yet.
Most boosters handle bands 2/4/66, 5, 12, 13, and 17. That includes base coverage bands for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The important missing band is 71, T-Mobile’s 600MHz rural coverage band. Because it took a while for TV stations to get out of that band, the FCC hasn’t approved any consumer boosters for band 71; you’re just not going to find one.
Most home boosters also boost between 64 and 71dB of signal. Once again, that’s due to FCC regulations. If you need more of a boost than that, you need to go to Cel-Fi’s single-carrier booster line, which can get to 100dB by boosting only the frequencies used by one wireless carrier at a time.
The booster store Waveform has a comprehensive guide to how boosters work on its site.
In-Car Cellular Boosters
Boosters for your car are similar to in-home boosters, with one exception: You can get single-device, in-car cradle boosters. These are much less powerful than in-home boosters (the ones we tested boost by 23dB instead of 65–75dB) but are less expensive, take seconds to install and remove, and don’t radiate beyond the cradle that grips your phone. We like the WeBoost Drive Sleek as a single-device booster.
RV owners and people who need to boost multiple devices in a vehicle can get in-car boosters with small radiating antennas that can handle several devices. These can be tricky, though, because of how close the output antenna is to the input antenna.
Self-Install or Trust a Pro?
All retail cellular boosters can be self-installed without any drilling, although ideally you’ll want to hide the cables against your baseboards, and you’ll need to find a way to get the antenna properly positioned on the outside of your home.
Both SureCall and WeBoost have options which let you lean on a professional installer to do the tricky bits like sticking the antenna on your roof and orienting it properly. SureCall works with Dish subsidiary OnTech to install any of its boosters at an extra fee. WeBoost has a specific product, the Installed Home Complete, which comes with OnTech installation. The installation costs $200 for the WeBoost product (it varies for SureCall products) so whether it’s worth it really depends on your budget and DIY ability.
Can You Boost 5G?
Cellular boosters generally can’t boost the “good parts” of 5G networks. Verizon and AT&T carry a small amount of 5G signal on the old cellular band b5. Boosters handle that, so a booster may summon you a ‘5G’ icon, but that signal doesn’t give you an experience that’s different from 4G. Verizon’s faster 5G network is currently on band n261 and will soon be on band n77, and those are not supported by any consumer booster. AT&T will activate band n77 in 2022.
No booster can handle any of T-Mobile’s current 5G networks, which are on bands n41 and n71.
Here are our top picks for 4G boosters for homes, apartments, and cars.
