Cell Phone Service on Lake

[TheTimeTraveler]

Originally Posted by SAB1

All I can add is that out of frustration my phone is not far from getting tossed in the lake! Should never have cancelled the landline................

It's easy enough to get it back. In fact, you may even be able to obtain the same landline phone number that you use to have!

I agree, a landline is nice to have, especially during a long power failure.

[SAB1]

Figured I bring this around again. I may have a workable solution. I mentioned my problem to a friend that’s a techy guy and he had had the same poor cell service with Verizon. He told about a Gadget he bought, a Verizon 4G LTE Network Extender 2 that fixed his issue. I hesitated at first but said what the heck. Order directly from Verizon for $269 and got in three days. I hooked it up last Friday morning and man what an improvement. Can call from anywhere in the house now and walk around while talking. Haven’t dropped a call yet and fading in and out. Hoping it continues but we’ll worth the money so far. Plugs right into the router.

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by SAB1

Figured I bring this around again. I may have a workable solution. I mentioned my problem to a friend that’s a techy guy and he had had the same poor cell service with Verizon. He told about a Gadget he bought, a Verizon 4G LTE Network Extender 2 that fixed his issue. I hesitated at first but said what the heck. Order directly from Verizon for $269 and got in three days. I hooked it up last Friday morning and man what an improvement. Can call from anywhere in the house now and walk around while talking. Haven’t dropped a call yet and fading in and out. Hoping it continues but we’ll worth the money so far. Plugs right into the router.

That requires WiFi, right?
We don't have, nor think we should have to have, nor want to pay for WiFi to use our phones.

Last Saturday, I was able to use my AT&T phone to host a Google Meet with some students. Looks like I'll be remotely teaching remotely in a few days—sweet!!!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

[WeLoveTheLake]

We tried most, Verizon network seems to have the most coverage.

For example, if you camp around kancamagus highway, only Verizon network seem to work.

[Slickcraft]

Originally Posted by SAB1

Figured I bring this around again. I may have a workable solution. I mentioned my problem to a friend that’s a techy guy and he had had the same poor cell service with Verizon. He told about a Gadget he bought, a Verizon 4G LTE Network Extender 2 that fixed his issue. I hesitated at first but said what the heck. Order directly from Verizon for $269 and got in three days. I hooked it up last Friday morning and man what an improvement. Can call from anywhere in the house now and walk around while talking. Haven’t dropped a call yet and fading in and out. Hoping it continues but we’ll worth the money so far. Plugs right into the router.

As near as I can tell this extender uses your internet connection and generates a local cell format signal that your cell phone can use. So it is a form of VOIP.

Our Verizon phones have a "WiFi calling" feature that accomplishes the same thing at zero extra cost. The only downside is that you have to setup the feature with your physical address to meet 911 requirements and if you use WiFi calling at another location you have to do that setup again. The WiFi calling does work well at our house where cell service is marginal.

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

As near as I can tell this extender uses your internet connection and generates a local cell format signal that your cell phone can use. So it is a form of VOIP.

Our Verizon phones have a "WiFi calling" feature that accomplishes the same thing at zero extra cost. The only downside is that you have to setup the feature with your physical address to meet 911 requirements and if you use WiFi calling at another location you have to do that setup again. The WiFi calling does work well at our house where cell service is marginal.

We use "WiFi Calling" at our home as well. We have excellent coverage at our property, but our house started out as a 40X8 ft mobile home with a 22X8 ft porch. Mom and dad did some expanding, and it's now a 10 room house. The aluminum skin is still on the trailer.

Before WiFi calling, walking through the trailer portion, it was a high likelihood that the call would be dropped. That stopped us from using our cell phones as our only phone. Now, with the tower on the east side of Alton Bay, with line of sight to our house plus WiFi calling, no more landline, and no dropped calls. Woo hoo.

Dave

[SAB1]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

As near as I can tell this extender uses your internet connection and generates a local cell format signal that your cell phone can use. So it is a form of VOIP.

Our Verizon phones have a "WiFi calling" feature that accomplishes the same thing at zero extra cost. The only downside is that you have to setup the feature with your physical address to meet 911 requirements and if you use WiFi calling at another location you have to do that setup again. The WiFi calling does work well at our house where cell service is marginal.

We tried WiFi calling before we purchased the Extender. It improved a bit but still dropped calls and broke up if you moved around. The extender corrected all of that.

[Slickcraft]

Originally Posted by SAB1

We tried WiFi calling before we purchased the Extender. It improved a bit but still dropped calls and broke up if you moved around. The extender corrected all of that.

That indicates that you do not have good WiFi coverage through your house, a common issue with non-mesh routers. So you would have needed either the extender or a router upgrade.

[Weekend Pundit]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

That indicates that you do not have good WiFi coverage through your house, a common issue with non-mesh routers. So you would have needed either the extender or a router upgrade.

Indeed! I use WiFi calling at home and was using an older NetGear dual band router. Coverage was spotty in some places (using 5GHz). Switched over to a newer Linksys AC1900 router and now coverage is great wth no dropouts.

As a note, I use 5GHz because 2.4 GHz has a lot of Wireless routers/access points in my neighborhood, specifically during the summer months, but only one other 5GHz user. No co-channel interference to deal with.