Knowledge Base
Do cell phone signal boosters improve cellular data speeds?
A cell phone signal booster increases the amplitude (or gain) of cellular signal.
A cell signal booster will, under most circumstances, improve your cellular data rates if your slow data speed is due to insufficient cell signal strength (low RSRP). (Learn more about cell signal strength.)
A cell signal booster will probably not improve your cellular data rates in the following situations:
- Your slow data speed is due to poor signal quality (low RSRQ or SINR). (Learn more about cell signal quality.)
- Your cellular data speed has been throttled
by your carrier. (This most commonly happens because you’ve used too much data in one billing cycle). - The cell tower your phone connects to has a large number of simultaneous users. The tower has a certain amount of bandwidth that must be divided among all the phones that are connected to it; more users means slower data for everyone.
- The cell tower your phone connects to is in a rural or remote area and uses microwave antennas instead of fiber-optic cables to get its data. Microwave transmission is slower than fiber; a tower that has a microwave backhaul will have less bandwidth than a tower with a fiber backhaul.
