Universal Clip-on 3G Aerial For Dongles< High Gain 3G External Antenna
DIY 3G Antenna
Increase Your Download Speeds With A 3G Booster Aerial
More and more UK web surfers are turning to mobile broadband as their primary internet connection. 3G and 3.5G wireless broadband is slowly gaining ground over traditional DSL and cable internet access. The phenomenal popularity of mobile broadband in the last two years in the UK is partly a result of competitively priced monthly contracts, Pay As You Go options and near ubiquitous geographical coverage. But what do you do if your 3G signal at home is weak, resulting in dropped connections and tortoise like data speeds? Is it possible to boost your 3G signal at home or on the move with your laptop?
Why is my 3G reception weak/unreliable?
The majority of mobile broadband customers in the UK use a 3G modem in the form of a USB dongle. The dongle contains an aerial tuned to the 3G radio spectrum. In urban areas, 3G coverage tends to be uninterrupted and reliable because of the relative number of 3G radio masts or ‘cells’. In less densely populated areas however, coverage can be patchy, may only support 2G data speeds or at worst be non-existent.
UK Mobile Broadband Coverage Maps
The first thing to do is to check the 3G coverage in your part of the country. Select the appropriate link for your mobile network. Once you’ve checked your area for 3G coverage you can determine if you can receive full 3G or 3.5G (HSDPA) bandwidth. If your network only supports 2G or 3G GPRS in your area, you will not be able to take advantage of the high speeds supported by HSDPA broadband (currently up to 7.2 Mbit/s in the UK)
Other reasons for poor 3G reception
Even if you live in the centre of a busy city, it doesn’t guarantee you full speed 3G broadband. You may be able to get a full strength signal outside your front door, but only a limited 2G or 3G data connection indoors. This is a common problem for mobile broadband users and is a physical limitation of the radio network. Another reason for poor connection speeds may be network traffic. When there are too many users connected, the conection may drop down to 2G speeds.
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How To Boost Your 3G Mobile Broadband Signal
The good news is that you don’t have to throw away your 3G USB dongle if you’re in an area with a low 3G signal. There are several solutions available and they all involve improving the performance of your existing 3G radio antenna.
1. Change your location
This is pretty obvious, but if you have a laptop or are able to move your computer, you may be able to get a better signal in another room in the house.
Pros: doesn’t cost anything
Cons: useless if you have no decent 3G coverage anywhere in the house
2. Buy an external antenna for your 3G dongle
3 Mobile Dongle External Antenna Connection
Many of the popular 3G USB dongles sold by the mobile operators have a connection for an external aerial. My ZTE MF622 dongle from 3 Mobile has a small rubber cover on the back concealing a small connector for an external antenna. This will enable you to connect an external 3G antenna which you could mount on your roof or attach it to the outside of the building.
Pros: likely to get a good signal boost from an externally mounted aerial
Cons: need to buy ‘pig-tail’ connector to modem + coaxial cable + external antenna = expensive & fiddly
3. Get a clip on booster antenna for your 3G USB dongle or datacard
This is probably the easiest solution for most mobile broadband users with a laptop or desktop PC. A universal 3G clip-on antenna will work with any 3G data card or USB dongle and can conveniently clip-on to the screen of the laptop, extending the range and boosting the 3G signal.
If you have an external USB dongle, you attach the booster with a universal wrap-around strap . The receiver then couples with the internal dongle antenna and connects to the booster aerial via the coaxial cable. If you have a 3G data-card it's even simpler, you just attach the booster to the coaxial connector.
The clip-on antenna is omni-directional, meaning it works in all directions and is a low gain antenna. This make it suitable for situations where you already have a 3G signal, but maybe it's a bit weak in certain parts of the building. If you have no signal at all indoors, you may need to get yourself a high gain 3G antenna.
Pro: cheap, universal and portable solution
Cons: may not work in situations where 3G signal is too low
4. Use a high gain directional 3G antenna
A high gain external 3G antenna is for situation where you need alot of signal boost ie you have no coverage at home at all. The antenna connects in the same way as the clip-on variety to your dongle or datacard. Once you have found out where your nearest or strongest mobile broadcast cell is by visiting Ofcom , you can mount your high gain antenna. You can get versions available for indoor or outdoor use. Mounting outside will require some DIY but will most likely give you a stronger signal.
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(update)
5. Femtocell Technology
Femtocells sound like they were invented in a bio-tech lab but they're actually miniature, low power 3G base-stations that you can install in you own home. The major drawback is that you'll need a fixed-line broadband in order to use a femtocell - in which case you might as well use your DSL connection. Luckily, femtocells can do much more than boost your mobile broadband signal and exciting applications are planned for the future integration of fixed and mobile broadband services.
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would it work if I connect it to me TV aerial?
the broadbandnd dongle only works for a short time before i loose connection due to a weak singnal in my area.please could you suggest a type of areial that would plug into the dongle as it does have an arieal port on it,
Great article! I didn’t know there were so many options for boosting your mobile broadband coverage. I may invest in a clip on booster myself as I seem to have problems half the time I try to use my dongle.
I have a couple of additional suggestions related to the advice above. I think it’s really important to think about where you are going to use your dongle. If you plan on using it at work and home, in a certain coffee shop, perhaps at Grandma’s house or in a student house that you haven’t yet moved in to then always check the coverage for that postcode in advance of ordering your dongle.
If you have bought mobile broadband and you get it home to find that your home coverage is really poor don’t be afraid to send it back and cancel your contract – as long as you do it within the first few days.
Perhaps start off with pay as you go mobile broadband to test the coverage in your home. Worst case you can sell it on ebay if the coverage isn’t up to scratch and minimise your losses.
Great article! I didn’t realise there were so many signal booster options. I may get one myself.
For anyone considering buying mobile broadband it’s also worth thinking about coverage in places away from your home and checking this before buying. For instance, if you are regularly going to use the dongle at a second location such as at work or at your parent’s/grandparent’s house. Or perhaps you are a student moving into new digs next term?
The other ways to cover poor coverage away from home include using a service that also gives you hotspot access, such as T-Mobile or O2. And don’t forget you can cancel your subscription if the coverage is poor within the first few days.
I’ve ordered one of the antennas from mobilefun for my E160G on three and it does make a difference. It adds 2 bars of signal when I’m at work, and one when i’m at home. downloads seem to come through quicker and i’m not finding that there’s a long delay before the page loads like there is with out it.
cost me £25 + postage.
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/clip-antenna-for-huawei-usb-modems-crc9-connection-p18115.htm
I bought a 3g external antenna for an E160G and it worked very well. The reception in the rural location I’m in is very poor, and the external aerial made a big difference. I think the important thing to remember where there is no signal at all an aerial may not do anything for you and also the antenna if a directional type needs to be aimed towards the 3g transmitter site, so a reasonable line of site is required (no major obstructions close to where you intend to site the antenna).
Before deciding to purchase the antenna I tested various outside locations for (any) 3G reception and also to gauge the best direction of the signal in my location, this is a help with planning for the best possible locations for an external antenna. If you can’t get any 3G signal outside it might be a waste of time buy an antenna. I got mine from Panorama antennas http://www.panorama-antennas.com/shop/ they supply all relevant connections for my card which made it fairly straight forward.
I intend using my 3G modem with a wireless router that can take the 3G USB modem, so that my laptop won’t be tied to one location in the house due to the external antenna connection. Yeah it starts to stack up on cost but when you live in a place with limited broadband options for me long term it’s worth it.
Well i think its stupid that i have to buy extra just to connect today it disconnected at 1 pm and i got back on at 8 !!!!!!
I have got an eeepc with a data card from orange. Will any of the options suggested at the top work for me. I have tried moving to a different room and found out that, that does not work. I’m not sure if i have an ariel port on this notebook. Please advise the best option for me.
What about femtocells? These are now commercially available from Vodafone. See for example
http://www.femtohub.com/search/results/?q=vodafone+access+gateway
Thanks for the comment Josh, I’ve just added a new article on Femtocells here – http://mobilebroadbandblog.co.uk/2009/10/what-is-a-femtocell/
[...] just found this video by accident and I had to post it. As a follow up to our popular post on How To Boost Your 3G Mobile Broadband Signal this has got to be the cheapest (probably free for most people!) mobile broadband signal booster [...]
I wrote these notes up on getting a good signal for mt wireless broadband.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_UrbFjOi5uWMzExMDFjMWItODE1ZS00ZWRlLTk0MTMtODY2MTExYzAxNTYy&hl=en_GB