Despite being the most important commercial sector in the city, today there are still many areas where the cell phone signal does not pick up well or pick up at all. Even in cities like Rome it may be difficult to have a stable cell phone signal, which does not cause the sudden drop of the line or the intermittent voice during phone calls.In addition to the difficulty of telephoning, due to a poor cellular signal it is also complicated to connect to the Internet and send messages from your smartphone. Furthermore, in addition to these inconveniences, there is also to consider the fact that the mobile phone continually trying to detect a better signal, discharges the battery first. Let's see together how to improve signal reception on modern smartphones, so you can make clear and precise calls and surf the Internet smoothly.
Improve smartphone signal reception
Why do we sometimes find so much trouble finding a cellular signal? The phone connects to a radio transmission cell (repeater), and in turn the signal is sent up to the operator's tower, where the signal is encapsulated and sent to the recipient of the call or encapsulated to surf the Internet (packet switching) . Ideally, all of these repeaters should all be at the same distance within the transmission range of a telephone, and arranged in a perfect honeycomb structure. In reality, however, cell phone towers are numerous in urban areas, but more distant from each other in rural areas or in more difficult to reach areas. Additionally, mountains, buildings and trees can block or attenuate a signal.
The best phones are quick to connect to the tower with the best signal while some smartphones are lazier and once a cell is hooked, even if this is not the closest one or that takes better, unless the signal disappears completely, it does not disengage, remaining with a poor signal. In case of frequent problems, how can we do to improve the cellular signal?
Troubleshoot reception problems
To solve most of the reception problems we advise you to follow the suggestions below, so that you can try to improve the situation.
1) Change smartphone
Among the smartphones on the market there are those that take better and those that take the signal worse when it is weak. Know which are the current smartphones with the best cellular signal reception it is not at all simple, but a recent study can be taken as a reference that comparing some of the best-selling phones of the year, found that among the best in signal reception there are the Samsung Galaxy, while the results are mixed for the Chinese models and for iPhones (the latter have never been reception samples). Generally speaking, if you have a phone that doesn't take much at home, while the older one or that of other people does not seem to suffer like ours, the fault is certainly the smartphone and its poor antenna.
To choose a good phone that takes well we can also read our guide Best Android smartphones ever for every price range.
2) Turn airplane mode on and off
When the phone does not pick up the signal of the data or cellular network well, the first solution is to start the airplane mode, deactivating it after a few seconds. In this way the phone is forced to search for another cell to connect and can find one with the strongest signal in the area.
If this mode does not solve anything we can try to restart the phone, although we will hardly solve anything if the problem is poor reception of the phone or the operator (as we will see later).
3) Recharge the phone battery
In modern smartphones, when the battery is low, the power saving mode is activated, dedicating less energy to transmitting the cellular signal. To solve then we put the phone on charge or disable the energy saving when we have to make a call or try to access the desired Internet page.
If we are away from home it may be a good idea to use a Powerbank, as seen in the Cover and Powerbank guide, also crank and solar chargers for smartphones.
4) Change location, room or area
One of the most effective tricks involves move with the phone in hand to see if it takes better to another point of the house or going to another street. What is less obvious is to know that cellular transmitters are often clogged (especially older ones), so even if we are near a cell, the phone may still take badly. Also, not all repeater towers provide access to all mobile phone operators.
5) Change operator
Not all telephone operators are the same and it is no mystery that some take better than others. For example, in the city, TIM covers much more territory than WindTre (although it has improved a lot after the merger), while Vodafone does very well in some areas and very badly in others that are more isolated or far from big cities.
Testing should be done, perhaps by asking friends or relatives who come to see us how they pick up their phone with an operator other than ours. In another article we also saw where to find the cellular coverage map in the city of Tim, WindTre and Vodafone, on sites like Opensignal.
6) Use Wi-Fi
If the cell phone does not take well, better making VoIP calls from your smartphone using the Wi-Fi connection. At this point almost all messaging apps offer free and unlimited calling with other users who use the same app, making the presence of a very powerful cellular network or with a strong signal unnecessary.
To learn more we can also read our guide Use Whatsapp to make free calls (iPhone, Android, Windows).
7) Optimize signal reception
If we do not want to change operator and still want to obtain good quality in traditional calls (necessary for work), we can try to optimize the signal by reading the tips seen in our guide on how optimize signal reception on Android smartphones, to try to force the smartphone to connect to the most efficient cellular network.
8) Buy a cell phone booster
The cellular signal booster it works as a Wi-Fi repeater, it is placed in an area that takes good and transmits from that point to the area that was little covered or with no signal. If interested in this solution we can buy theANYCALL 4G Cellular Signal Repeater, shipped by Amazon for less than 300 €.
Conclusions
If the phone does not take well in most cases the problem is with the operator or the phone we are using: so let's try to change where necessary and see if the problem recurs or disappears. To call everyone without problems we can also use free Internet calls or, if you really need traditional calls, optimize the signal or use a home LTE signal repeater.
On the same topic we can also read our guides How to check LTE cellular signal strength on smartphone e Why does the mobile phone not pick up (with no signal)?
How to improve cellular signal reception
