You might have seen a signal booster in a vehicle but could not recognize it. The design varies depending on the manufacturer or model. Some devices look like an antenna, while others might resemble a small microphone. Others might look like your regular Wi-Fi receiver.
But primarily, a vehicle cell phone booster works just as it sounds. Its main function is to make sure that getting dead zones or dropped calls will be minimized, if not eliminated, depending on where you live. According to a study by Pew Research, more than 70% of mobile phone users occasionally experienced a dropped call. Meanwhile, more than 3 in 10 of those who participated in the 2012 survey revealed that they had a similar experience several times a week.
How Does a Car Signal Booster Work?
You will find that if you break down the standard vehicle cell phone booster, it consists of four parts. You have the unit’s body or the amplifier, the antenna, cables, and the interior antenna.
Basically, the exterior antenna will automatically monitor the area for existing cell towers in case of dead zones. If the signal is weak, the unit will immediately amplify it so you could still use your mobile phone. Those people who are always on their road for their work, like marketing representatives or truck drivers, would love the booster.
If their usual routes take them to dead zones, the vehicle cell phone booster will look for even the farthest tower to make your device usable. The signal can be amplified as much as thirty times.
Once the exterior antenna picks up a weak signal, it is then amplified and transferred to the interior antenna to be redistributed to the cell phones inside the car. The device can support multiple cell phones at once, although that one is more expensive. If you want to save money, you can opt for a single user device since the price difference can be as high as $300. You may think that multi-user support is useless if you are the only one on the road most of the time.
How Does it Help?
Your cell phone works like a two-way radio. The voices are sent on the radio waves as electrical signals and converted against to legible noise when they pass through the devices. Since the radio waves operate on the ether, you might expect some interference.
Cell towers operate through decibels, with a range from -30 to -110 decibel-milliwatts (dBm). The lower the dBm, the stronger the signal would be on your phone. So, the closer you are to the network tower, the stronger the signal will be.
When you drive through a mountain range or a thick forest, it is most likely that you will end up in a dead zone. There is no way for the radio waves to penetrate through the tall trees and hills to be picked up by your cell phone.
While in some areas the vehicle cell phone booster might be useless due to the obstruction, you are less likely to get stuck in a dead zone for a long time since the device will try to monitor for network signal al the time.
Whether or not the cell phone booster is worth the money is up to you. But if you are out on the road a lot, having continuous signal will increase your safety as you can call for help in case your car dies, or you’re stuck in an accident.
