For those who have a poor AT&T signal at home, have you tried the zBoost

While Verizon works fine in my home, the AT&T signal constantly varies between 4 bars to nosignal. I get quite a few dropped calls and call failed. In researching the Internet I located the zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL - Dual Band device which looks like a solution. Not cheap at $400.00 (list). Found some reviews which indicate it can help boost a weak signal. Just wondering if anyone here has a zBoost or knows of someone who has tried it out.

Thanks.

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 13, 2007 6:29 PM

25 replies

Phredd

Level 1

17 points

Jul 15, 2007 6:29 AM in response to brad1240

I have had the zBoost for verizon for the past 2
years and it has worked great. I recently bought the
510 PCS for my apple phone and it also works decent.

I bought the 500, because ATT told me it's only 1900 MHz. I don't know if that's just my area. Is the 510 really better for the iPhone?

It seems to be working -- I unplug it and my signal drops -- but I the signal still goes from 4 bars to no services. Meanwhile, my daughter never complains about lack of service with her Blackberry, so maybe it's a combination of ATT and the iPhone.

Phredd

Jul 15, 2007 11:17 PM in response to Phredd

I have a working blackberry pearl with ATT service, and a new iphone. iphone continues to show no service at many places in my house where pearl gets reasonable signal. i"m sending back the iphone for replacemen, hoping it is a unique problem. If it can't match the signal strength of the blackberry, it's pretty useless as a phone for me.
other than an inferior antenna, what technical reason could there be for ATT blackberry to get phone calls in the exact place that the iphone cannot?

TVSound

Level 1

0 points

Jul 15, 2007 11:48 PM in response to ScottEdward

Why don't you save yourself some money and do what i did. Call ATT and have them change call forwarding to your home # on their network when your phone is turned off or has no service. Whenever I come home I just turn my phone off or go to airplane mode and my calls automatically go to my home phone. Turn it on and (in my best Steve Jobs voice) Boom......... Back to my cell.

Easy and free solution.

Jul 16, 2007 12:49 AM in response to ScottEdward

so i think that people responding in this thread, in general, do not understand how over the air communication works. if you have a horrible signal at your house, a cell amplifier is not going to work for you, it will only amplify that poor signal and you will get a crappy call (as many have noted) however if you have a house where, say on the 2nd floor in the far east corner you get excellent service, then placing an amplifier in that spot will produce a great signal in your whole house, the key is, however, that the amp must be placed in a region that gets not just some signal, but a signal with decent call quality!

in this case the saying "poop in poop out" is somewhat true.

🙂

fanghorn

Level 1

9 points

Jul 16, 2007 8:55 AM in response to TVSound

Why don't you save yourself some money and do what i
did. Call ATT and have them change call forwarding to
your home # on their network when your phone is
turned off or has no service. Whenever I come home I
just turn my phone off or go to airplane mode and my
calls automatically go to my home phone. Turn it on
and (in my best Steve Jobs voice) Boom......... Back
to my cell.

Easy and free solution.

The problem with this is that all calls received while you're in a dead zone will go to your home. You'd have to call your home answering machine to get your messages. (Assuming a family member didn't answer the phone and take the proverbial message.) This might prove irritating if you're on the road days or weeks at a time.

Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.6) iMac G5,MacBook

ScottEdward Author

Level 1

13 points

Jul 16, 2007 5:07 PM in response to ScottEdward

OK - I said I'd provide a review of the zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL - Dual Band after I installed and used it for a couple of days. First, in my home, I get anywhere from NO SERVICE to 3/4 bars (4 is rare). I can't make out the pattern, but the signal does vary a lot. The net result is I very frequently experience dropped calls (many, many, if not in all cases) and sometimes I can't even redial because of "call failed" problems (with AT&T service. I've had a Razr, two Blackberry(s) and now the iPhone with Cingular and AT&T). Verizon works best but once in a great while, I'll experience a dropped call.

I installed the zBoost in my attic and pulled the coax cable to the repeater box and plugged it into the outlet. Immediately, my iPhone registered 5 bars. As others have stated before, the zBoost can't make a signal where none exists. However, the worst signal I've experienced so far is 1 bar and I've only had one dropped call (almost equivalent to Verizon). Last night, I spent a couple of hours on the iPhone and did not have any problems (no dropped calls or blackouts). At one point during the evening, I did show only 1 bar for about 30 minutes (which is a longer duration than usual) -- so I turned the iPhone off and back on again. It immediately registered 5 bars. One thing to keep in mind, I tried placing the zBoost in different locations and rooms in my home. When it was in the kitchen, I couldn't get a good signal in my master bedroom (they share a common wall). I finally put the zBoost on top of a very tall (7ft) dresser in the master bedroom. From there, I get a good signal in all parts of my home (I live in a 1500 sq ft bungalow) -- your mileage may vary.

It also works with my Verizon phone -- now I get full bars most of the time.

I purchased the zBoost at a local Radio Shack for $340 plus taxes -- they have a 30-day no questions asked return policy which was important in case the zBoost didn't work out.

(now all I have to do is run the coax cable down the wall vs. stringing it along my hallway)

If you have any questions, let me know.

Jul 16, 2007 5:41 PM in response to TVSound

Wait, I can call AT&T and tell them to forward any calls to my cell phone where the phone is off or I am out of a service area to another phone number?

If this is true, this is great.

If my phone is on and I don't answer, will it still go to voice mail? Or will it ring to the forwarded phone?

Jul 16, 2007 7:55 PM in response to ScottEdward

I do not know about this zBoost product but I can recommend a Digital Antenna cell booster. I have the DA4000SMR and it works great. As already mentioned, if you don't have good cell service outside your home then a repeater isn't going to help. I had nearly full service on the 2nd floor but no service on the 1st floor and patio. I installed the antenna on the 2nd floor and the repeater antenna in the kitchen. I've had in installed just over one year and it has worked flawlessly. This is a dual band 850 and 1900.

Around $400

I also tried a cheaper product which did not improve my reception at all.

YMMV
🙂

Sep 1, 2007 5:01 PM in response to ScottEdward

I had a very similar problem. my iPhone signal would bounce all over the place from 1 to 4 to no bars. sometimes I would receive calls other times I couldn't. Sometimes I could make calls sometimes I couldn't. then to top it al off I would get frequent dropped calls. Just outside my house everything is fine.

Unfortunately I returned the iPhone before I heard about the zBoost. Hopefully people will report back any experiences

Derald

Level 1

69 points

Sep 1, 2007 5:20 PM in response to ScottEdward

I have the yx500. I purchased it before I got my iPhone at the end of June. The booster greatly improved my Razr and when I activated the iPhone, It went right to 5 bars and it has not varied from that for the last two months. I have not had a dropped call at home. I routinely get around 200KBS on the EDGE network as well, although, I usually use wi-fi around the house.
Just for info, a friend of mine has the car extender version and it worked for me on a South Texas ranch ten miles from the transmitter.

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For those who have a poor AT&T signal at home, have you tried the zBoost