T-Mobile cellular service - External antenna for use with T-Mobile cell indoors?

Author

External antenna for use with T-Mobile cell indoors?

Charlie Hoffpauir

2005-09-13, 2:21 pm

I've seen the thread about a repeater for using a cell phone indoors.
I'm looking for a different solution.... an external antenna aimed
towards the nearest tower (if need be determined by trial & error) to
improve reception indoors slightly. The situation is that I can get 3
"bars" on my Nokia outdoors, but only one or two indoors. I figure
with an antenna aimed properly, I should be able to get 3
consistently, maybe four. But my old Nokia doesn't have a connection
for an external antenna cable. Does anyone know which phones offered
by T-Mobile do? I've called customer support and they were no help at
all.... basically they seem to have access only to the same
information available on T-Mobile's web site, and it doesn't show that
as a "feature" (or at least I couldn't find it).

I need only a basic phone, no color, no picture capability, not even
text messaging. I'm simply trying to eliminate a land line.

FWIW, I've visited a web page offering external antennas, and they
offer connection kits for virtually any cell phone, but for those
without an antenna connection, they use a pickup coil. I don't want to
use that approach as I would expect it to be bulky and possibly not as
reliable as using a phone with an actual antenna connection.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Joseph

2005-09-13, 2:21 pm

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 13:12:17 -0500, Charlie Hoffpauir
<invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

>But my old Nokia doesn't have a connection
>for an external antenna cable. Does anyone know which phones offered
>by T-Mobile do? I've called customer support and they were no help at
>all.... basically they seem to have access only to the same
>information available on T-Mobile's web site, and it doesn't show that
>as a "feature" (or at least I couldn't find it).

Depends how "old" your Nokia is. The 5190 and the 6190 had an
external antenna connection on the back of the phone that you exposed
by removing a rubber plug. Also the 6310i (which T-Mobile never sold
but which works with the service) also has an external antenna
connector (which I use with my CellSocket to use its external
antenna.)

- -

beley

2005-09-18, 5:48 pm

Why wouldn't you want a repeater? I found one on Ebay for $199:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...mMakeTrack=true

I know it's a little more expensive than an external antenna... but
it's so much easier than standing in the exact same place every time
you want to have a conversation on your mobile phone.

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