SURECALL FUSION4HOME Cell Phone Signal Booster

I spend approximately half the year in my RV, and half at my home base in Livingston, Texas. I have marginal cell service at home, and often camp in fringe areas when RVing, so I began to look at cell boosters early last year. I wanted something I could use both at home and on the road.

I have recommended Wilson cell boosters in the past, and I was about to buy one when I ran across the SureCall Fusion4Home Cell Phone Signal Booster.

I was not familiar with the brand, but the capabilities of this system intrigued me. First off, it has a simple LED display that allows you to see which bands are in use, and also which are experiencing issues with signal overload. You can also selectively attenuate various cell bands with the manual gain adjustments for each band. This can be handy when you are close to a tower that you can’t use (not your provider or network), and the strong signal is interfering with a more distant tower (or weaker signal) that you could use.

The home version can be ordered with a Yagi highgain antenna for the house roof, and that’s a significant advantage. Yagi antennas are super-directional, so they must be pointed toward the tower you want to use. Using a cell-tower locator online, it was easy to figure out where the tower was located and point the antenna toward the tower for the best possible signal strength. The outdoor antenna connects with RG6 coax cable, and the 100′ that came with the booster was plenty for my install at home.

I installed the amplifier, with its rubber-duck style antenna, in a closet that is pretty much in the center of my 1,100 sq. ft home. The antenna is omni-directional and mounts directly to the amp, which is made of metal and seems sturdy. A couple of cup hooks allowed me to hang the amp on the wall and to easily remove it if desired.

Before the booster, I had only one to two bars of signal strength on my phone and sometimes had trouble making calls. Dropped calls were common as well. After the booster was installed and the outdoor antenna was adjusted, I had a solid four bars on my phone throughout the house. There was a substantial improvement in call stability and quality! My phone is a Tracfone, but it uses Verizon towers.

I also use a Verizon MiFi, and it was typically showing one to two bars, and data speed testing showed that, on a good day, I was getting 12mbps downloading, 6.5mbps while uploading. After the booster (and mounting the MiFi device close to the booster and its antenna), I’m now getting 80–100 percent signal strength on the MiFi, and seeing max data speeds around 24mbps down, 12mbps up. That’s an impressive gain, and I have verified it by running multiple tests, turning the booster off and on.

SureCall Omni Antenna
Wait, it gets better! For another $60, I bought an omni antenna from SureCall and mounted it on my RV and ran some coax for it.

Now, when I head out in the RV, I just bring the booster along and hook it up in the RV. It runs on 12-V DC, so it was a simple task to wire up a power connection for it. The omni antenna isn’t as impressive
as the Yagi, but it eliminates the need to locate cell towers and aim an antenna. I used the system quite a
bit as I traveled over the summer, and in most situations where I was out on the fringe of cell coverage, it made a beneficial difference. Even when the signal is pretty good, running the booster seems to improve the data speeds across the MiFi.

With all that being said, understand that cell boosters must have enough signal to work, so in areas where cell is essentially non-existent, a booster won’t help. Also, the booster improves the cell phone’s ability to communicate with the tower but does nothing to make the Internet work better. If the cell tower is overloaded, the Internet speeds will be terrible, with or without a booster.

I like this booster a lot! It wasn’t cheap, but I’m happy with the purchase and would recommend it, especially for the ease of moving it from house to RV and back.

Complete Product Name: SureCall Fusion4Home with Yagi/Whip and Omni Antenna

Company Name and Info: SureCall | 48346 Milmont Drive, Fremont, CA 94538 | http://www.surecall.com | 888-365-6283 | support@surecall.com

Online Shopping Links: https://amzn.to/3ugJ1MU

Average Street Price: MSRP: $450, avg street price under $400 Additional Omni antenna: around $60

Original Publication Date: MJ/21