Get good cell phone reception at home

For many people, cell phone reception is poor at home. Don’t worry though, most of us still have a landline which gives us excellent reception there. Of course, that’s an additional cost, a separate number, extra phones, the inconvenience of two bills, etc.

Certainly, many people have used boosters to try to improve their cell phone signal, but these have very mixed results in the home and certainly rarely result in the ability or desire to eliminate the added expense of a landline phone.

However, there are at least a couple of potential workarounds that are still evolving that can eliminate these issues. Both options work by transferring cellular calls to the user’s broadband connection once they’re home. These are essentially VoIP calls, but they’re made through a person’s mobile provider, so there’s a single bill and a seamless transition when moving from a mobile connection to your IP service. This allows mobile phone calls to be made without interruption and the user does not have to do anything to switch calls.

The first option, used by the T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service, requires the use of a hybrid phone that can operate from both a cellular network and Wi-Fi. Calls are switched to Wi-Fi at home and also in any HotSpot Locations that are located in various public and retail facilities. Users must have Wi-Fi/cell phone and a wireless router at home. The cost of T-Mobile HotSpot @ Home is $19.99/mo when added to eligible individual plans and $29.99/mo when added to family plans. It gives users great reception and the ability to save on calls with unlimited nationwide calling over your Wi-Fi network day or night.

Another emerging option is the use of a “Femtocell”; a type of base station that connects to the users broadband connection and allows calls to be made from there. Sprint currently offers these devices to customers in only a handful of test markets, but may be ready to expand the program in the near future. This option gives users a larger selection of cell phones to choose from, but requires the purchase of Femtocell. The Sprint program currently offers the devices for $50 and users then pay $15/month for unlimited calls.

Obviously, the additional monthly fee for any of these programs is significant over time, but it’s certainly less than what most users are paying for their current landline. Of course, for all of this to reach the broader market, other cell phone providers will need to start offering similar services. In fact, Verizon has announced plans to introduce femtocells for customer use before the end of 2008, and AT&T has been known to investigate the possibility for the past year. With all this activity, it seems that getting good call quality at home will no longer require a landline in the near future.