Bands 12 and 71 have similar (long) range. If you're a T-Mobile user, it's worth loading the CellMapper app on your phone, looking at, and seeing which bands your nearest tower radiates. The FCC never approved consumer boosters for T-Mobile's band 71, which the company uses in many rural areas, or band 41, which will be the backbone of T-Mobile's upcoming fast 5G network. That handles the broad coverage bands for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon (Sprint customers can now roam on T-Mobile's network).

In the US, boosters typically boost frequency bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17 and 66. It's less expensive than a booster, it doesn't require an external antenna, and there's a 14-day return policy, so it's worth a try.

It gives your calls priority over other traffic within your home, but may not help if your home network, or your neighborhood network, is congested. This attaches to your home internet and transforms it into cellular signal. If you have fast in-home wired internet and a Verizon Wireless phone, you should first try Verizon's own LTE network extender, which the carrier sells for $249.99. Many phones also have problems with transmitting text or picture messages over Wi-Fi, especially on T-Mobile. Cellular voice calls have a higher priority than other traffic, so you get a better, more reliable quality of service than you do with Wi-Fi calling, where your calls don't get priority over Netflix streams or Fortnite games.

So why do you want a booster instead of using Wi-Fi calling? One reason is quality of service. Why Boost?Īll the major phone carriers have Wi-Fi calling now, so if you're in a dead zone you can lean on your home internet. But the $379.99 Flare is more flexible and easier to set up, making it our Editors' Choice. Both rely on basically the same idea of putting a big antenna outside your house and a tiny cell site inside. We tested two affordable boosters from major brands, the SureCall Flare 3.0 and the WeBoost Home MultiRoom. So for years now, rural users have relied on boosters that magnify signals using large antennas to give you better coverage from faraway towers. Outside big cities, cellular speeds can be wobbly and calls can drop. As we work and school at home, we're finding that we need many ways to connect. In a COVID-19 world, cellular dead zones are more frustrating than ever.

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