I live in a rural village that dips into a fairly steep valley. My house is right on the viable edge of where a weak signal is, or at least half of my upstairs is. The signal strength I get varies on the weather, I can normally get texts in most conditions, or if I 'force' a signal by calling out, then hanging up before it connects, in less favourable conditions. Voice calls are less easy, but they can come through, though the speakers on my PC goes bonkers with interference, and moving my phone around can loose the signal. The voice quality is not that great. But I have managed long calls.
I have always found I get better signals on Sony Ericssons, particularly the K800i and the J230i (by the by, the J230i virtually always had a relatively great signal). I had tried Nokias, but it'd just fail or rarely work. The Nokia 3310
didn't work at all. The Nokia 7210i got a signal, maybe once a week for about 5 minutes. I'm on the 02 network, the seemingly only network that works in my village.
So, to sum up, I know I have a signal, that fit's the criteria for this product - namely, a weak, but viable signal, that has been proved enough to make and receive texts/calls, but is highly variable.
I don't normally fall for these kind of "as seen on TV" type products with amazing claims, indeed, I did a lot of research on it. There were impossibly glowing reviews everywhere on the net, written by sycophantic people - that all seemed written by the same hand lol. But if you visit techie forums, or anywhere you can check out the real science on this, then the reviews are not so favourable, and indeed an eye opener.
Lets be logical, if all one needed to boost their signal was this little product, then surely mobile phone makers would employ this 'technology' in some form - creating phones with better signal capacity, and that cope well in weak signal areas is the holy grail of mobile phone production. But, I am an optimist, and I fell for the sales hype. Also, it is only a few pounds, so thought it was worth a go. Maybe there really is some undiscovered technological worth to this product?
My Sony Ericssons were out of use for a while, and I was left with my Nokia 7210i. After lots of research, and blind optimism, I thought this product was worth a shot, so I ordered. It arrived quickly enough, BUT, my heart sank, the minute I took this product out of its packaging and saw those infamous words indicative of all products crapulent - "as seen on TV".
But not to be deterred, I remained optimistic.
I followed the instructions carefully. I put the 'signal booster' on, and left my phone in a spot on my desk that has proven to get a relatively good signal in the past. I waited. Nothing.
It was quite stormy, and I know from experience that meteorological conditions effect my signal. So I waited for days for the low pressure to clear.
A clear day arrived, the pressure went up. Nothing. No signal, and no signal improvement.
But I am a die hard, and kept waiting for my promised improvement in signal. Three weeks later, no improvement. Four weeks, no improvement. Five weeks, etc etc. I tested and tested. Nothing.
I tested in areas where I know there is a better signal... no noticeable improvement. It is now nearly seven months later, I no longer use the 7210, but when I had last used it about a month ago, there was still no improvement at all. If anything, the phone seems to have a worse signal than before, but that can be due to many things.
One of this products claims is that, even though you might not see a visible increase of signal on the mobile phone. It can increase it, even if it's just half a bar, but because it's half a bar, it just doesn't show on the phone. A rather convenient claim.
Another part of the sales patter: after long paragraphs of hard selling the virtues of this products, is, 'it might not work for you, but for such a small outlay, it's worth a go". Again, another classic sales tactic. Indeed, this is what this product seems to rely on, its price, vs. the 'it's worth a shot' mentality, after it's spent some time trying to convince you it's worked for others. In my personal experience, I have never found a 'quality' product in something that uses long sales hyperbole and sales tactics to convince you to buy.
I mentioned to the person I bought it off, that after several weeks I had received no improvement in signal; my response was " you buy this product at your own risk". Which kind of sums it all up for me really.
I mean, lets face it, if someone is in a varying signal strength area, there are going to be times when the signal is stronger than others! Whether they are using this product or not! It seems this is another tactic this product relies on in its sales patter. The outlay of this product is so small, that it is playing on the fact that most people feel it's worth a go for such a small price.
But seriously, I mention again: getting good signal strength in a phone is the holy grail of mobile phone manufacturing. If this product works as it claims it does, why are mobile phone makers not using this 'technology' in some form or other?
It may work for some. It should have worked for me. It didn't. I should have known better.
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Jun 13th, 2008
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