Customer Reviews

Cell Ranger USB-Powered Cell Phone Signal Booster

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Who can resist the idea of more bars? Nobody. Unfortunately, the snake-oil salesmen know this and there are a lot of bogus products out there that boost the seller's bank balance but not your cell phone reception. I was really hoping someone would review this before I bought, but I took the plunge and I'm happy to report that the Cell Ranger does what it says it will do, for the most part. I deducted two stars for the need to really fuss with placement to enjoy its benefits.

If you are looking for a booster that will take a really weak signal and bathe your room in cell reception so you can wander around with the phone in your hand and talk away with no drops, this is not the right product for you. You will need to spend more and get a powerful booster that amplifies both up- and down-stream frequencies. Such devices are costly and not very portable.

But if you want a very portable device that you can take on vacation and use in the car and are willing to keep your phone within a foot or two of the "transmitter," the Cell Ranger turns a weak 1-2 bars into 4-5 with great call quality. I recommend getting the "PORT" model because you can power it with a huge variety of USB power supplies (not included) - basically you need 5 volts at a minimum of 250 ma.

I have tested it with a Gen 1 iPhone and a Moto Razr, both on AT&T. While I realize that "bars" are not accurate measures of actual signal strength, they can at least indicate improvement. With very careful placement of the antenna and transmitter, I saw improvement of 2-4 bars. This was the very first time I've seen maximum bars on both phones at my house. The best results came with the antenna outside my window and mounted on a cookie sheet (as a ground plane). The worst results (no added bars) were caused by having the antenna and transmitter too close and the antenna inside the window (they need 6-10 feet of separation) and/or moving the phone (especially the iPhone) more than a foot away from the transmitter. If you have a Bluetooth headphone, this will make the phone placement problem a non-issue.

Next week I plan to take the Cell Ranger to the Adirondacks, where cell reception is marginal at best, and give it a torture test. If there are dramatic differences in performance there, I'll edit this review.

Here's my edit: The Cell Ranger worked beautifully in the cabin where we stayed. If I prop my iPhone in the window I get one bar, maybe two, but it is not very convenient to talk that way. With the Cell Ranger and a BT headset (so I could leave the phone right next to the amplifier), I got minimum 3 bars and often 4 or 5, with no dropped calls or audio quality problems. With such weak signal, it was not possible to move the phone more than a few inches from the amp without dropping to 1 bar or dropping the call, so again, be aware that this is not a "whole room" solution.

-dan

I've had the Cell Ranger PORT USB Signal Booster for about a month now and am very satisfied with it. I use T-Mobile and when at home I usually had to walk out into the sun room to use my phone because the reception in most of the house is too poor to maintain a connection. I plugged the Cell Ranger USB transmitter into the computer I use in the kitchen and ran the antenna line out into the dining room and placed the antenna on the window sill of the dining room window. This now gives me 3-4 bars in the kitchen as long as I keep the cell phone close to the transmitter. I don't think there are any less expensive or simpler ways currently available to boost a weak cell signal. I also like the USB and portability aspect because it makes it convenient for me to take it along when I travel.

We went from 2 bars to a consistent 4 bars, get a little faster downloads nothing remarkable. A liitle cumbersome to use, when trying to locate the antenna in an appropriate place. Not sure if it is worth the 150$. Have used it about 1 month and once you get the antenna in the right place the improvments are consistent.

I use this while driving to and from work. Before, I would always get at least one dropped call (going through a short tunnel) and often 2-3 dropped calls. I now get NO dropped calls! It even works in tricky spots in hilly San Francisco. The only thing is that I need to place my phone within inches of the plug-in signal booster. If I don't, calls still get dropped, though not as many as before. This is well worth the price!

Works a little better than it did before. My office building is an absolute dead zone for ATT (my phone; other carrier customers--Verizon and T-Mobile--don't seem to have that problem). I installed the antenna booster about 20 inches from where I sit. Now I can receive calls from Verizon customers (didn't get any before). And every once in awhile, from ATT (e.g. my family), but not always.

If I put the phone right next to the signal booster, within 6 inches level, I get 3 to 4 blue bars. If it's hanging on my belt loop 20 inches away and 6 inches below, I get a couple of semi-raised yellow bars, but I can still receive the Verizon calls (and when it feels like it, a couple of ATT calls). That seems odd to me, since it's supposed to boost MY phone, and the technical aspect doesn't make sense, but there it is.

Perhaps a more expensive booster would work, but I'm not willing to spend my money for an antenna at work, and neither is my boss with company funds, since he has T-Mobile and no problem. Obvious solution is not an antenna booster, but a new carrier once the contract expires.

Installed the antenna, but it produced no boost whatever. I still have 1 bar -- or no service at all -- on T-Mobile's GSM network at home. Sigh.

Newly moved to a apartment on the Pacific Coast. Using T-Mobile as a carrier. The signal was weak. I bought this on a whim, hoping to save over major purchase. I followed all of the instructions for use. I got maybe half to one bar of better reception. I did not call for customer support as it does not exist. The only reason I did not rate this a one was that I remain hopeful it might work better in a different situation.

I followed the instructions for this and moved it to every computer I own, next to every window in my apartment. No luck. It simply does not help reception

this thing is crap i hooked it up on a place where i had one bar and with this so called booster plugged in i went from 1 bar to no bars biggest waist of money ever don't wast your money on this if you want something like this just send me your money and i will send you a rock to use as a paper weight because thats all this thing is an expensive paper weight

What a complete waste of money. It's too bad that in this economy retailers will sell something just doesn't work!