Piss Poor Cell Coverage

I’m sure we’re not alone in realizing that there is virtually almost no cell phone coverage in our neighborhood. I know this is not an HOA or Taylor Morrison issue, after all they don’t own/control the placement of towers in or near the ‘Hood. I decided to write this article to help others who may be experiencing the same problem.

We’re a T-mobile family and have been for years. It seems that t-mobile is not the only carrier with a weak signal in our ‘Hood, but the same is true for Verizon, AT&T, etc. I called T-mobile and asked what they had for solutions and they sent me a “cellspot”.

The cellspot is a device that plugs into a wired internet port and it behaves like a mini cell tower, providing LTE signal on our property. When the cellspot arrived, I plugged it into my network switch, placed the GPS antenna in a window, and hooked up power. Within 20 minutes, I had full bars of LTE cell coverage at our home. I ran a speedtest with the wifi turned off to read how fast data flows through the cellspot:

140mbps down and 38.4mbps up are decent enough for LTE. The signal covers our entire property and ensures that our phones can receive and make calls reliably. I have used the so called “wifi calling” in the past, but that’s hit or miss. This cellspot is much more reliable and provides a more native signal that our phones can use to stay connected to t-mobile’s network.

If you are having problems with signal in your home or around the ‘Hood, call your provider and tell them how bad it is. They may have a solution for you. Even though the cellspot provides a good signal on our property, it does not reach the amenity center, so we still use 2-way radios to keep in touch with people at home because there’s hardly any usable signal at the amenity center/pool area.