weBoost Drive Reach - Vehicle Cell Phone Signal Booster | 5G & 4G LTE | Magnetic Roof Antenna | Boosts All U.S. Carriers - Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile | Made in the U.S. | FCC Approved (model 470154)

I was tentative to buy this product but wanted to give it a shot and my friend recommended it. I also upgraded this with the "Wilson Electronics 19-inch 4G Truck and RV Spring-Mount Antenna", you'll need an "SMA Male to SMB Female" connector to make it work. Limitations: - I don't use this in a moving vehicle. - If you have no reception (no bars), this won't help you. Cell reception is predominately line of site which is why cell towers are on mountain tops. - The little antenna this comes with is ok and provides a bit of a boost. The upgraded antenna made a huge difference! - I'm tethering a laptop to my phone most often rather than using my phone. The best reception you will get from this is by taking your phone out of the case and laying right on top of the internal antenna and not moving your phone around. My setup: - I work remote out of my van and often times I have much better reception out of my van than inside. I'm often in mountainous or forested areas on the outskirts of town with 1 bar. Having a half way decent connection is the difference between me being able to do my job and not so this product is worth the expense for me. - I've been in areas where I show 1 bar of service but practically have no data. Turning on the booster gives me enough data to run streaming services on my phone reliably. - The biggest boost on speed tests show that I can get boosted upload speeds from 2x to 10x. I've seen it go from no upload speed to 2Mbps and 2Mbps to 40Mbps!! Download speeds are less affected. I use every extension on the big antenna and lay it flat on my roof rack while travelling. When stopped I drop it into one of the holes on the rack and get about a 4' extension but it takes about 1-2 minutes to get on the roof and set it up.

First, I purchased this because the opportunity to work remote with my vehicle data/wifi package. I really tried to find information on this unit and the dependability, reliability, and quality of signal boost. Very difficult to find any real simple good accurate info and even when I called there number, weboost, they were not helpful before or after purchase. Should have "saw the writing on the booster". I didn't like the lack of information on how this unit really works. Difficult to find what really does boost. They make it sound like this will pick up any cell tower signal and boost it, it wont. It doesn't increase bandwidth, it takes a minimum 10ms ping signal strength to be able to boost, no where can you find this information. WeBoost makes it sound like hook it up plug it in start driving down the road and any signal, the strongest signal, it will pick it up and boost it, i.e. semi truck driving. Not true. You need a cell plan. I have a purchased data plan through my vehicle that sends out a Wi-Fi signal. It should boost the signal that it takes in to get a signal to boost, what they don't tell you is you have to have a cell plan to get a signal, no cell plan no signal, no boost, no good. I would not recommend this unit to anyone unless you are some kind of communications/electronics engineer that can really understand and troubleshoot fix improve this system. I think that I should have done something else to try and boost my Wi-Fi signal. Don't waste your money as they have a lot of excuses why there equipment doesn't work. If you do, buyer beware. Fully understand what you are getting into and understand the operation of this unit. I was really hoping that this unit performed and worked the way all of the reviews said it was going to. I am very disappointed it didn't. And then extremely disappointed in the lack of technical support afterward. In my opinion.

I previously had a weboost cradle type booster, which worked decently well but we wanted to be able to use more phones at the same time and so we purchased this booster. It is more expensive but works really well, much better than the cradle booster that I had before. Yes, you have to be near the inner antenna, but I installed it between the front seats of the car and it works really well. We like dispersed camping in national forests and are often out of cellular range but using the we boost always goes from no service to 2-3 bars at our favorite campsite. We don't always leave it on as it chews through the deep cycle battery which also powers our fridge/freezer but it totally worth it when you need the connectivity to download maps, make contact with family, get texts and emails, or just get on Facebook/insta/etc. I have also added the OTC antenna to our setup as well as using the fin antenna that came with my original driveSleek cradle (since I mounted it in the car already and the connectors/impedance are the same). With the new booster, we haven't had to pull out the OTC antenna yet but if we get really deep in the backcountry and need signal, we will get it that way. Keep in mind, if there is no signal at all, you won't have any signal. If there is a very weak signal, this thing will help the tower hear your phone. There are still a very few places that we don't have any signal (deep hollows in the woods, etc) but it definitely extends the reach of the phone, enough that spending the money was worth it to us.

I go camping and hiking a lot where cell phone signal usually is very spotty, and I also live in an area that practically is dead for AT&T and T-Mobile and barely registers a bar for Verizon. A cell phone booster was provided by T-Mobile for home use and though the receiver shows 1-2 bars, we still only get spotty coverage inside the home. There is something VERY important to keep in mind about signal boosters: they are exactly that... BOOSTERS. They can only BOOST wherever some signal exists. If there is NO signal, then there is nothing to boost. Stronger signals get a stronger boost. With all that in mind, let's go over my quest to find a cell booster that would work for me. For the Superbars, HiBoost, and WeBoost, I installed them according to the manual's and online video instructions: the antenna outside the car away from the windows/glass as much as possible, cable connected to the booster unit found underneath the driver (or front passenger) seat, then hooked up to the inside antenna that is mounted at least 8" away from any human being. In my case, that interior antenna was tested at both the front dashboard and on the ceiling at the center of the car. All claim to work with T-Mobile/Spring, Verizon, AT&T, and other carriers, and that the major 4 already pre-approve these cell boosters for use within their networks. Approval is required per FCC regulation. Mind you, the antenna included is an omni-directional one: meaning, it'll boost signal from any direction but won't be as strong as the types that must be pointed towards the cell tower. 1. SUPERBARS [UPDATE 7/12/2021: Superbars reached out to me, sent a replacement, and had a technical support rep get in touch with me to go over the setup and usage. I was actually quite impressed by that service. Turns out, Superbars is indeed a rebadge of HiBoost. The results of the replacement Superbars were identical to that of the HiBoost -- no surprise since both products are practically the same.] First, I tried a SUPERBARS one. Turns out, it's a rebadge of the HiBoost. Both look virtually identical, down to the manual. It was a disaster. The Supercell did not increase any speed. The app was clunky to use. I had no idea how to use it to determine where to point the antenna to for the best signal. All it showed was a bunch of radio frequencies and how good their signals were. I could not figure out how much of a boost I was receiving. I returned it. 2. HIBOOST Second, I tried the HIBOOST. I knew that it would likely perform as poorly as the SUPERBARS one since both products looked identical. To my surprise, the HiBoost actually WORKED. This leads me to believe that either the Superbars one was a bad copy of the HiBoost, or it was a defective unit I had received. [UPDATE 7/12/2021: Indeed, the Superbars was defective. The replacement worked very identical to the HiBoost.] There were 3 tests performed with and without the booster on. Both times, I'd set the phone into Airplane mode and turn back on so it would grab the closest signal "tower" (or booster antenna). Without booster, I received about 7.15 Mbps down and 0.62 Mbps up on average. The first test had 0 up. This was done in an area near my home where cell phone coverage was spotty despite showing 2 bars on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S21+ phone. With booster, LTE tests averaged 17.17 Mbps down, 1.18 Mbps up. That nearly doubled both directions. Nice! The app was the same as the one used by Superbars, and frankly, I do not understand how to use it. It does not give me information in a friendly way to help figure out where the signal is strongest (to point the antenna towards) and how much of a boost the product was providing. Thankfully, I found another app that was a bit more useful than Superbars'/HiBoost's. That program was what WeBoost recommended. [UPDATE 7/12/2021: HiBoost/Superbars technical support acknowledged my criticism of the app and said they are working on overhauling it.] 3. WEBOOST DRIVE REACH Finally, I tried the WEBOOST to see how it would perform when compared to the HiBoost. I found both products often compared to one another and that there generally is not much of a difference. Some say that the WeBoost amplified the upload speed more, whereas the HiBoost provided a bigger increase for downloads. Depending on what you need your cell phone signal to be, I generally prefer a boost in downloads. Turns out, at the same place as when the HiBoost was tested, the WeBoost gave identical results: a decidedly great increase in downloads and uploads with and without the booster on. I did observe that the WeBoost gave a slight edge in uploads over the HiBoost, but could not increase the downloads as well as the HiBoost. WeBoost recommends downloading the OpenSignal app that is available for both iOS and Android. It draws from a crowdsourced database and can help identify where the nearest cell tower is, how signals have been in specific areas for each of the carriers, and more. Using OpenSignal with the HiBoost/Superbars app gave me a bit more insight into where the boosters might work. CONCLUSION With the tests done, I have found that I'd rather recommend the HiBoost over the WeBoost because I would like to have better download speeds for streaming videos and surfing the Internet faster. Speaking of which, you should be aware that the Internet uses a different frequency as Voice/Text. Just because you have 4 or 5 bars on your phone does not mean you actually have excellent coverage for Internet or Voice/Text. The only, accurate way to verify is to check the phone itself, but that is something you will have to look up yourself on the internet for your particular smartphone (search with "check signal strength"). Apps can help too. Even though HiBoost/Superbars' app was too technical and clunky to use, it does provide dB signal-to-noise ratios for the various frequencies, but how accurate they were, I am unsure. There is a word of caution: even though both the HiBoost and WeBoost worked for the area near my home, neither also worked for many other places -- even where my AT&T/T-Mobile cell phones reported as many as 4-5 bars and 4G or 5G coverage. I could not figure out why. In other words, sometimes the boosters worked, and sometimes they seemed NOT to work. Perhaps signals were very poor to begin with, but for whatever reason, both phones reported excellent strength despite having extremely spotty internet access. Maybe the bars represented the Voice/Text network. Should you get a booster? Are they worth the $400+? Depends on your needs. Well, I'd rather have one in case of emergency than not. Speaking of emergencies, I never leave home without the Garmin inReach Explorer+. Search the internet for "yuenx garmin inreach explorer review" for an in-depth look at how one could save your life and keep your loved ones informed of your whereabouts.

I'll start with the positives. This is a great device that REALLY works well. This is the fourth Wilson Electronics booster I've owned over the years and all of them have worked great. This one is no exception. If you can get the green light to turn on (indicating you do not have oscillation between the indoor and outdoor antenna and the device is functioning nominally), you will see a significant boost in cellular connectivity and performance. The design of the main booster unit is elegant and functional. It has a nice heat sink and is a size that can be easily stowed below the driver's seat so you can pull 12V power from the center console. Install of the interior antenna from this location is easy. However...that leads me to the frustration that caused me to return this unit to Wilson Electronics for a refund. The main issue is that Wilson Electronics tried to save a few dollars by going with an inferior quality cable to the exterior antenna. The low quality (I'll say CHEAP) cable is only 8' long. That's a big problem for anyone trying to install this in a van or SUV. If you locate the head unit under the driver's seat and run the wire for the roof antenna up the B pillar behind the driver's seat...then up onto the roof, you are about out of cable when you reach the roof. It's almost impossible to get the antenna far enough back to get away from the interior antenna to avoid oscillation. At best, you'll get a green light and still have sub-par performance from the unit. I'd recommend this unit all day long for a sedan...because the cable for the roof-top antenna is probably long enough to make it work. In this case, you'd want to mount the interior cable on the center console near the factory radio area, etc. If you have a larger SUV, van, RV, etc....don't get this model. (Or plan to buy a different roof-top exterior antenna that has a longer cable. I have a Lexus GX 460 with an overland build. That means I have a big roof-rack system...so I purchased the Wilson Reach OTR which is designed for over the road truckers. (Big rigs). The antenna is pretty large on the OTR model, but the performance is outstanding...and the cable for the roof-top exterior antenna is 12' instead of 8'. That allowed me to mount the omni antenna at the rear of my roof rack (they provide awesome mounting hardware that even allow you to add up to a 24" mast if you want to go nuts on performance). The 12' of cable was perfect to bring the cable in through the rear tailgate area and run along the bottom of the plastic interior trim (along the carpet and then the passenger door sill) to reach under the driver's seat to the head unit. I tested results with two iPhones. (iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone XR) Both phones had similar performance gains with the booster enabled. I had 1 bar of service at my rural home for both phones. (-111db for you nerds). When I turned on the booster, my signal went to two bars (-90db). I did a Google Speed Test with and without the booster. Without the booster, my download was 9.8Mbps and my upload was a lousy 0.42Mbps. When I turned the booster on, my download jumped to 45Mbps and my upload increased to 12Mbps. This is a stunning result...which we repeated over and over again with subsequent tests. I was connected to an ATT tower on LTE bandwidth (ATT's stupid "5Ge" service). I'm hopeful that this always-on booster will significantly improve my cellular service in town and when I'm up on the mountain highways that I frequent here in Colorado. Hope this review helps!

Just received the weBoost Drive Reach this morning and installed it in my police cruiser. It was easy to install with easy to follow instructions and labeled ports. The external antenna was fixed to the rear of the SUV, via the magnetic base. The cable that leads to the amplifier is a little short, but I had enough to sit it under the driver seat. If I need to I can just open the door and glance down to see the status light. More than enough cable for the power and internal antenna. I had a Wilson Sleek installed previously to this booster that had a cradle, I intend on just leaving in the cruiser on the dash. Prior to turning on the power, my phone was receiving 0 to 1 bars, with around -118 dBm to -123 dBm. The booster increased my signal to 4 to 5 bars, with around -88 dBm to -92 dBm. This means a 30-31 dBm increase in signal strength. I did install the internal antenna about 2 inches away from the phone cradle and notice that the farther I move my phone away the less boost I get, which falls to zero boost somewhere around 20 to 24 inches. I will update this review, once I put it on the road if I need to. So far, I'm a happy camper!!!

I bought this product thinking "Well if it doesn't work, I'll send it back." and Now, you couldn't pry it out of my hands with a crowbar. I would take you down protecting this sucker. I am so tired of in-and-out cellular coverage in Vermont. When tourists flood our state, it's even worse with all the increased cell tower demands. So I installed this thing (even simpler than I expected: it took like 10 min tops) and BOOM, magic. I now have zero drop zones on the way to work. In one spot, it gets a little hairy but that phone hangs on to the connection - where before it would drop for a full minute. On my way up I-91N to visit my daughter at Dartmouth, I have previously counted 14 drops in 65 miles, as you weave in and out of the mountain interference. I only had a few and they were in spots with zero coverage, just the ghost dots and that SOS icon. So this antenna won't magically whip up a signal out of thin air, but it will give you 1-3 extra bars to get you past the annoying 1-bar drop spots. ["Bald spots," I think of them - Making this thing a high-quality toupee that actually works.] Go ahead, you won't be sorry.

I live in an area with patchy coverage. This device did not help at all. Calls drop at all the same places along my route. Spoke extensively with help desk, spend 10 hours driving to various points and testing. Yes if I hold antenna directly against my phone with no case I do see a slight increase in Db according to the app, but calls still drop in the same places - even if the phone and antenna are physically touching!! - And who expected that would be a requirement? I do not live in the remote desert or mountains, 95% of the time I have 4 bars 5G, there are just dead zones and this doesn't help the slightest bit. Signal can be decent but 800 feet down the road it's zero bars and this does nothing, not even 1 bar, to help. Also help desk told me it doesn't help with data, only calls, yet the copy says "faster data." They're correct, it does not help with data, at all. I would not have purchased it if that was clearly spelled out, but it doesn't even work for calls so I'm not keeping it. I bought two of these - $1000 - but it's basically a scam that doesn't do anything. Returned both. Don't waste your money or time. ZERO STARS for product, FIVE STARTS for Amazon because I can return this garbage.