Free commercial building-wide cell repeater booster

[SwampNut]

Pay for shipping, it's a medium-large box and probably 30 pounds.  My guess is $40-60 to ship.

 

WARNING:  It's ONLY for the 800 and 1900 bands, LTE.  This means mostly rural Verizon and AT&T.  You need to find out whether this works in your area.  Verizon, and to some extent, still have a lot of 800 deployed for long range coverage.  I can get model numbers and details if someone thinks they want it.  I removed it from a client site to replace with a 5G all-band repeater, was working.  I stuck it in a box and it sat for the last year or two.

 

Has:

Amp box (the brains)

Two inside antennas, with splitter

Probably around 60' of LMR400 to run the outside antenna

A bunch of LMR for inside, probably about 25' and two of those

Power supply

Not sure on outside antenna, but probably

 

This has to mount like this so the outside antenna can see the signal, then the box, then the inside antennas where you want coverage.  This will take a good outside signal and make a great inside signal.

 

[lordzarkon]

Interested, but how do I go about finding if I have   the 800 or 1900 bands, LTE. 

 

I have AT&T.  Also have a neighbor with Verizon.

 

Never paid much attention to this sort of stuff before, but out here in farm land the carriers are making noise about maybe not taking as good care of us as before.

 

 

[SwampNut]

Sorry, I really don't know.  I used to have a very expensive paid service for that, and no longer do.

 

https://phonetonetech.com/check-frequency-band-on-iphone-or-android-phone/

 

https://signalbooster.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004705354-How-To-Check-What-Frequency-Band-Is-Used-By-The-Cell-Phone-

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=find+out+what+bands+are+used+in+my+area&oq=find+out+what+bands+are+used+in+my+area&aqs=chrome..69i57.5402j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[SwampNut]

Also, the more I think about it, the more I realize this equipment is probably insane to install in a house and to do so without previous RF experience.  Probably not logical to do.

 

[Zero Knievel]

35 minutes ago, lordzarkon said:

Never paid much attention to this sort of stuff before, but out here in farm land the carriers are making noise about maybe not taking as good care of us as before.

 

Scary as they don't do shit for rural customers as it stands.

[SwampNut]

Rural customers only have service at all because:

 

a.  The rest of us fund it for you via RUSF and related government schemes.

 

b.  People from the city want coverage when they travel and basically subsidize it.

 

c.  A few brave people have fought the FCC to be allowed to put up small private sites in areas that aren't profitable for big business, and collect from the above.

 

If part A above is any measure, you guys should start getting much better service.  Cheeto's FCC increased the USF fees by double, from about 16% to about 33%.  So don't forget to thank him.

[Zero Knievel]

7 minutes ago, SwampNut said:

If part A above is any measure, you guys should start getting much better service.  Cheeto's FCC increased the USF fees by double, from about 16% to about 33%.  So don't forget to thank him.

 

Except, nothing happens unless the carrier requests those funds and implements the upgrades.  Were running on 50-year-old phone lines, and the carrier just won't bother to upgrade.  Meantime, people MORE rural have fiberoptic broadband because they are with a different carrier.

[SwampNut]

Yes, that's exactly how it works.  Source:  Was one of those people doing high end rural services.

 

Here's the thing, even "free" money can't make everything possible.  And the FCC prioritizes bringing NEW services to a place well over bringing upgrades.  So you have a wire, someone else has nothing, they get fiber.  In live in a place with fiber gigabit, closer into town they have copper 100-300 meg.  It's just all about timing and funding.

 

When I was doing rural internet we were constantly fighting about the fact that this is a brand new service unlike the existing service, so it could be funded.

 

[SwampNut]

Also, addressing item B above, that can happen in ways that don't do much inside a home.  That's where repeaters can help.  If they did outdoor coverage decently.