Hey SureCallers and Certified Installers!
This week we’ll be talking about cell phone signals in a moderate level of depth to answer
a few questions.
How do cell phone signals work?
What causes dropped calls, broken-up cell reception, undelivered texts, and slow data?
And how can cell signals be improved in homes, buildings or vehicles that have weak signals?
Let’s get into it.
To explain each of these we’ll talk through uplink and downlink, signal penetration and
reflection, touch on some common cell signal blockers, and then talk about solutions.
If you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask questions in the comments below.
So, how does a cell phone signal work?
In simplified terms, telecommunications travel in two directions: uplink and downlink.
The easiest way to think about this is to picture yourself in front of a cell tower.
When you make a call you are sending the call “up” to the tower.
This is called an uplink signal.
When you receive a call, it comes down from the cell tower to your cell phone.
This is called a downlink signal.
These uplink and downlink transactions happen multiple times during a call and the frequencies
used are different for uplink and downlink.
We’ve all experienced dropped or broken-up calls, undelivered texts, and slow data.
These are all caused by interruptions to those uplink and downlink cell signals, which result
from a wide range of different materials and matter.
Some of these materials have a weakening impact, which means they are only partially penetrable
by cell signals.
In addition, some materials will completely reflect a signal, which means the signal literally
bounces off of them, preventing the signal from passing through.
While there are many, some of the most common causes of a weak cell signal include:
Non-Conductive Materials like drywall, plastics, wood, glass, and other materials that don’t
conduct electricity.
Organic and Topographic material like mountains, hills, snow or dirt mounds, foliage, large
lakes of fresh water, and more.
Weather like fog, snow, rain, sleet, hail, dust and others.
RF Interference being around other devices that emit their own RF signal can disrupt
your signal, but usually won’t completely block a strong signal.
User Capacity is not infinite on cell towers and as more phones simultaneously send and
receive signals using the same tower, the amount of power the tower can provide to each
user lessens, until there is nearly none at all.
These last few have a very significant weakening impact on cell signals:
A combination or high density of the cell signal killers we just mentioned
Conductive Construction Materials like tin, copper, silver, aluminum and others.
Salt Water has a serious impact, which means that beautiful plot of land you dream about
living on in Hawaii might need a little help with cellular signal.
A common solution that many people in the US, Canada and Mexico use is a signal booster.
Boosters can overcome many of these issues to improve cellular coverage in apartments,
homes, offices, cars, trucks, and RVs.
Essentially, signal boosters use an outside antenna to capture the signal outside of the space.
The booster strengthens and improves the uplink and downlink cell signals, and the internal
antenna or antennas distribute the signal wherever you need it.
To learn more about how cell phone signal boosters work, click the link in the description
to check out our Master Guide to Cell Phone Signal Boosters or check out some of our other
videos for similar information.
If you found this video helpful be sure to like, subscribe and if you have any suggestions
for future topics, let us know in the comments and you might see a video dedicated to your topic!