How to Improve The Quality of Mobile Communications?
Currently, mobile communications have almost reached their maximum penetration – not only megacities and small towns are covered by mobile communications networks, but also small settlements. Coverage areas continue to expand and improve to ensure network continuity and allow subscribers to use mobile communications anywhere, anytime. However, some rural areas, basements, shopping centres, and office areas may have communication problems. In this case, installing a 4G signal booster for big spaces and offices can help. You will learn more about the features of using boosters in this article.
Causes of Poor Mobile Communication
A poor signal from a mobile operator is the main reason for poor quality communications and low mobile Internet speeds.
In urban areas, communication problems can be related to the location of the building, the material from which the walls of the building are made, and the distance of the building from cell towers. Thus, communication problems are most often observed in basements and semi-basements, in underground garages and parking lots, on the first and last floors of high-rise buildings, in rooms surrounded by tall buildings that block the passage of radio waves from the nearest tower, in apartments and houses with thick reinforced concrete walls, as well as metal roofing.
All these factors interfere with the propagation of radio waves in rooms and buildings, which causes problems with both voice communications and mobile Internet.
In rural areas, as well as at facilities located at a great distance from base stations (industrial facilities, warehouses, gas stations between cities, etc.), the main reasons for poor voice communication and mobile Internet are long distances to transmission towers, terrain, natural barriers in the form of dense forest plantations, the design and materials from which buildings are built, etc.
In such conditions, the internal antennas of phones, 3G/4G modems, and routers cannot pick up a weak signal, which leads to interruptions in communication, poor audibility, and low speed of mobile Internet, or to the absence of any mobile network signal at all.
Signal Level Determination
The first step to solving the problem of mobile communication quality is to determine the available signal level. It rarely happens when there is no signal at all in an apartment, country house, industrial, or warehouse building. As a rule, it is there, but perhaps weak and not sufficient for the connection to be of high quality.
So, first, you need to determine the level of the available signal, the places in the building or room where it is better and where it is worse, and the frequencies and types of networks that are in your room – 2G GSM, 3G UMTS/HSPA or 4G LTE. The choice of equipment to solve the assigned tasks of strengthening the signal and ensuring high-quality mobile communications and wireless Internet will depend on this. It is best to entrust this task to professionals.
Indicators and values of mobile signal quality:
- RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) – an indicator of received signal strength or signal strength. The value is measured in dBm with a minus sign. The smaller the minus, the better the signal strength (For example: a signal – 58 dBm is better than a signal -92 dBm). Excellent RSSI from -30 dBm to -50 dBm, good from -50 dBm to -70 dBm, fair from -70 dBm to -85 dBm, and poor from -85 dBm to -110 dBm. With RSSI values of -120 dBm and below, there may be a lack of signal, interruptions in voice communication, and a lack of Internet connection.
- RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power) – signal level received from the base station. RSRP is measured in dBm. If the RSRP value is -120 dBm or lower, the LTE connection may be unstable or may not be established at all. The higher the RSRP, the higher the signal level and the faster the data transfer speed. Normal values are from -50 dBm to -95 dBm. Poor performance is from 110 dBm and below.
- SINR is the ratio of the level of the useful signal to the noise level. If this parameter is below 0, then the signal quality will be quite low. This indicates the presence of a high level of noise in the signal. It is important that this indicator is above 0 to ensure high data transfer speed.
- RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) – the quality of received pilot signals. The RSRQ value is measured in dB. This indicator characterises the noise level. The smaller it is, the better. With a good signal, RSRQ tends to zero or a positive value.
- CQI (Channel Quality Indicator). It is generated for each subscriber station and each frequency block of the carrier. This value starts from 0 and can reach 15. You should strive for a high value.
How to Strengthen the Mobile Signal?
The most effective solution to improve mobile signal is to use 3G and 4G signal boosters. They are suitable for both big spaces and offices and country houses.
Such mobile signal amplification kits have gain factors of 40 – 75 dB and are capable of covering areas from 100 to 1500 m² (depending on the booster model and broadcast frequency). With their help, you can not only activate a practically absent signal but also use internal antennas to distribute it throughout your home or office, thereby ensuring stable and high-quality communication where it is needed.
Wrapping It Up
Currently, in the field of strengthening mobile communications signals, there is practically nothing that is impossible. In problem areas both in cities and in suburban areas where mobile communications leave much to be desired, you can significantly strengthen a weak signal, improve the quality of voice communications, and increase the speed of mobile data transmission over 3G and 4G LTE channels. If you intend to test 4G signal boosters for big spaces and offices, we recommend contacting UCtel, a company that is focused on improving the mobile signal of popular British operators such as Tesco, O2, Vodafone, etc. You can improve the signal quality in almost any building that has minimal signal.