How do I select the best cell phone signal booster for my needs?

Follow these easy steps to determine which signal booster will work best for you:

1. Estimate the square footage that you want the cell phone signal to cover.
2. Determine the strength of the cell phone signal outside the building:

The bar display on a phone is only an approximation of signal strength, and is not good enough for this purpose. You need to take actual signal strength readings in decibels (dBm).

All smart phones will read actual signal strength in dBm. On most Android phones, navigating to the Mobile Networks screen in Settings will show the real time signal strength in dBm.

On other devices, including iPhones, the phone must be in Field Test Mode to see the dBm reading.

You can read instructions in more detail for measuring signal strength in decibels.

3. Once you know what the signal strength reading in dBm is, choose the cell phone booster model that provides coverage based on the square footage estimate.

If the dBm reading outside is however in the -85 to -95 range, the signal is especially weak and you should probably choose a more powerful booster model to provide coverage for the desired area. This happens quite often in rural areas and remote areas where cell towers are much far apart and tall trees further block the line-of-sight signals.

If the dBm reading is less than -95, we strongly recommend you contact us before buying a booster, as a signal that weak is difficult to boost. For more in-depth knowledge on how to choose the best cell phone booster for your requirements, please read how to choose best cell phone signal booster article that goes into more technical details of specific aspects of cellular amplifier kits and how to differentiate them from one another.

Contact options:

Call 1-855-846-2654 to talk to the technical support team. If you wish to send a text-based email using your email client instead of our contact form, please send it to, "info (at) signalbooster (dot) com" (without spaces). For security reasons, HTML-based emails or those with file(s) attached will have to be disregarded. Thank you.