At the mercy of a dreadful cellphone connection in Mindanao... is there anything I can do?

At the start of September K moved back from Manila to live in her home town, Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, for several reasons including cost of living. She planned to rent an apartment in Molave, but moved in with her parents in their farm house a few miles out of town to begin with.

The farm is a rice farm which means of course it is in a valley on flat land but there are significant hills not so far away.

As often happens, she has now pretty much decided to stay put with her parents - this seems to suit everybody, including me, as I like her family, but for one thing - the cellphone reception is absolutely dire.

It is the rainy season, of course.

Smart is marginally better than Globe, but even Smart seems to allow me to get through to K's phone and get a ringing tone for about five minutes out of twenty, in a random sort of way, and I suspect that sometimes I hear the ringtone, which is of course digitally generated, but it does not actually ring. Then when she does pick up we get cut off - usually after two minutes; today after 38 seconds - and often we cannot reconnect. We manage to speak about one day in three.

(this is a couple who once spent three and half hours on Skype...)

She has a Globe "pocket wifi" which I believe uses the cellphone signal (?) but the last time that actually worked was September the 27th!

The power supply is a bit better (this is Mindanao!) with just the usual evening brownouts, so I was wondering about repeaters, signal boosters, etc?

I would be willing to spend a bit, because her parents and her brother and sister who live nearby could benefit as well.

I use Skype to mobile, but a "steam" telephone call is no better.

Can anyone offer advice?

Hmm not sure I can help any but I know the wife has difficulty calling the province also getting alot of "out of coverage area" messages. the only thing I can suggest is maybe if she can get to slighlty higher ground when she knows you're going to call. I've got no ideas on the technological side I'm afraid

At least I know i am not alone! K says the rain makes it much worse, and, thinking of what happens to radar in rain, I can see that she is right.

Makes sense to me. There are several radio masts as well in the wifes province which do little to improve things, assuming of course they are to do with communications

My wife phones her mother on Smart with generally pre-arranged days and times.
Her mother has to walk up the "mountain " (actually a hill) nearby to get a connection.

I am now thinking about a "signal booster"

There does seem to be a slight problem with these in that Globe in their infinite wisdom have effectively prohibited their sale:

https://www.techinasia.com/philippi...legal-signal-boosters-improve-network-signal/

Can a more technically-competent person perhaps offer advice?

Maybe these links will help.
The bottom line with everything is to find someone who has used one and can tell you if there was a good boost using the amplifier.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?site=&source=hp&q=globe signal booster philippines&oq=globe signal booster&gs_l=hp.1.1.0l3j0i22i30l7.1862.5052.0.8369.8.8.0.0.0.0.818.2274.3-4j6-1.5.0.msedr...0...1c.1.61.hp..4.4.1880.0.190LIT7plmg

From the article, I understand it's not illegal to buy a signal booster. Globe has probably done a bit of lobbying on the major retail franchises to silence their promotion, but it sounds as if even they are continuing to sell them. For anything, there's always http://www.sulit.ph or http://www.olx.ph/.

I have never been to the Zamboanga province, only Davao City and Gensan a couple of times. The connection seems to be a lot better in highly urbanised areas, so you have all my sympathy.

That does look to be the case. However a search of Sulit and OLX showed no results, so perhaps they have been "leaned on" also.

I need to find the specifications of the Globe and Smart signals and buy a booster either here in the UK or in Hong Kong.

I would not use a GSM/3G/4G booster as they are illegal, virtually worldwide. Governments will not allow just anyone to install a GSM/3G/4G transmitter which is, in effect, what you would be doing.

You already have the answer in the Globe Pocket Wifi - it takes a mobile phone signal (presumably 3G) and converts that to WiFi. Now can that pocket WiFi take an external mobile phone aerial to boost the mobile phone signal? And I don't mean the WiFi aerial(s) - it will have those too.

If it will not take an external mobile phone aerial then a solution would be to get something akin to Globe Pocket WiFi with an external aerial. Ideally, it would also allow the connection of a phone handset so that even if the signal is not strong enough for a data connection, you could still make/receive phone calls over the mobile network (assuming you SIM plan provides this) Here is one such product...

http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-routers-434t.htm

The router covers all the GSM/3G bands worldwide and, as it operates via USB, there are no problems powering it either. It also has the aforementioned phone handset port (US style) Not sure if Philippine phones have US style plugs, but there should be some converter plug if it is needed.

Solwise also sell a suitable outdoor aerial...

http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-antenna-omni-a0121.htm

But you also need to buy the adaptor to connect the aerial...

http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-antenna-omni-a0121.htm


Solwise are just 10 miles away from me and are a wonderful company to deal with. They really know their products and will give very useful info over the phone. I have an older version of the router as a backup when I lose land-line internet.

Thank you, Howerd

I will contact the people whom you have recommended.

The signal is erratic - for more than half of any 24 hour period, there is not even "one bar" of cellphone signal.

At odd moments, the signal can be strong enough for K to use her Skype and Facetalk, but never for very long.

Intriguingly, the Smart signal, usually slightly weaker than the Globe signal, is available when the Globe signal is available and never at other times.

I think the problem is system capacity, not signal strength.

Therefore, someone else is "hogging" the available signal, using a booster which operates on both networks (as most do)...

You need a stronger signal for data than you do voice. So one bar may be sufficient for voice but not for data. On the older model I bought, I don't use an outdoor 3G aerial but I get a reliable one bar signal which is good enough for rather slow internet.

As for aerials, an omni-directional is probably sufficient but for a really strong signal you may need something like a 'yagi' aerial which is highly directional - but you must know where you need to point it! An omni-directional aerial can pick up signals from transmitters in whatever direction the transmitters are so is better if there is more than one transmitter that can be reached. The ultimate would be a yagi uni-directional aerial with a rotator but that gets a little expensive!

There may also be a limit on the gain allowed on an aerial in the Philippines. If there is a limit (which there probably is) then you should not exceed that. I suspect that the 5db gain aerial from Solwise would probably be within limits.

There some 3G to WiFi devices that have their own rechargeable power pack but you would need one that could also take an external aerial and I don't know if they exist.

I copy out here, for the benefit of others, a conversation with an American friend who lives in the Visayas

Regis:

I have some experience living on remote island. You can legally buy an outside atnenna and router. Will pick up the 3g signal.

http://www.olx.ph/index.php/view+classifieds/id/66062838/3G+%26+4G+LTE+Outdoor+Yagi+antenna?referralKeywords=3g+antenna&event=Search+Ranking,Position,2-6,26

Then you need a wireless modem to connect to antenna. http://www.olx.ph/index.php/view+classifieds/id/68097364/Huawei+B593%2C+E5372%2C+E3272%2C+B970b+Internet+Modems+%28Openline%29?referralKeywords=Huawei+3g+modem&event=Search+Ranking,Position,2-3,23

then you insert sim card into modem. They will work on any sim and provider. First she needs to know where is cell tower? have to aim antenna towards tower. There are many antennas. Just go to OLX and search 3g or 4g antenna

There is 2g, 3g, 3g plus and 4g here. Buy a 4g setup. It is then backward compatible to all

It all depends on what service works best where she is at, Globe or Smart. But the nice thing is that you can simply change out sim card depending

you can buy prepaid, unlimited internet for 1000 peso a month. or limited usage for as little as 20 peso a day.

this is all LEGAL

Me:

she has a Globe "pocket wifi" which I think is. a Huawei model and she gets the 1000 a month prepay

so I guess she just has to plug that in?

Regis:
NO...you need to buy a Huawei B593 4G LTE Gateway modem. It will replace her POS plug in. It will provide wireless to all devices. It has an internal antenna, she can try that first, then can add external antenna if needed.

http://www.olx.ph/index.php/view+classifieds/id/66779267/4G+LTE+Huawei+B593s-22+Router+Free+Ship+OPENLINE+Paypal?referralKeywords=Huawei+B593&event=Search+Ranking,Position,1-3,3

http://www.olx.ph/index.php/view+classifieds/id/65645664/Huawei+b593s-22+ver.B+Openline%2C+Smart+and+Globe+LTE+4g+3g+capable?referralKeywords=Huawei+B593&event=Search+Ranking,Position,1-10,10


That is the best one. Can use on all her wirless devices, phone, laptop any wifi device.


That is the most effective and best modem used here. Then just add external antenna if needed. And if that dont work, she has to move...lol

Me:

think external antenna will be needed She will need to find where the mast is, and use a yagi type

Regis:
there are "plate" type antenna but not as good as yagi and are very directional. here is a complete setup with plate antenna.http://www.olx.ph/index.php/view+classifieds/id/68177469/B593s-22+Huawei+Complete+Set?referralKeywords=Huawei+B593&event=Search+Ranking,Position,1-6,6


you see those all over the place in the city. But once you get that modem then you have many options for antenna

Me:
this is so deep in the rice paddies that the address actually includes. the line "purok palayan"

Regis:
if you want to go crazy then get a parabolic. http://www.olx.ph/index.php/view+classifieds/id/67873840/SkyWave+Zensei+Ultra+Parabolic+Grid+Antenna+4G+LTE+22dbi+Internet?referralKeywords=4g+parabolic&event=Search+Ranking,Position,1-3,3

Be sure to password protect the modem or else every neighbour will be using the signal That modem will easily support 6 wifi devices. PLUS has hardwire LAN connection

With all antennas there is no substitute for height. Also, she can download a signal finder on her android: WiFi Overview 360 is the app.

Smart uses 11 channels. Some are good some are bad, depending on her location. That app will give you the actual signal strength of each channey, then she selects that channel in her modem setup. She cant do that with that POS (piece of ****) stick.

Also that modem has AUTO select. It will scan for the best channel.

But, I do not know how all this will work if someone is using a booster and stealing all the bandwidth.


I have seen them used in Bantayan and Camotes...both remote areas

Think about it....that antenna in tht stick cannot compare withan outside antenna and more powerful modem


LOL...needless to say, I have the best internet on Mactan Island. When Sky came to install, it gave them the wire to use, not their ****. I used a triple shilded Belden cable and a top of line Cisco router. Not their POS. The spped coming in to house is over 14mbps. But the pricks give you a router which chokes it down to 3. My Cisco gives me 7.

I don't think there is a yagi unidirectional aerial. All directional antennas have additional lobes regardless of how many elements . A parabolic is obviously a different story.

Apart from the cost, Regis pointed out that a parabolic has "military" connotations in the eyes of those who see it and in Mindanao we don't want that!

Ah methers I wasn't suggesting such, just making an observation re Howerds post. But yes you don't want to draw attention to yourself in that respect

I think Yagi aerials are pretty much unidirectional, having a 20 dB front-to-back ratio; at least Wikipedia is authoritative enough to call them unidirectional.