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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (42537)	7/16/2005 12:39:45 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 69853

How to Boost Your Cellular Signal The Wall Street Journal Online By Li Yuan New Equipment Targets Dead Zones, Dropped Calls; Ask About Return Policies Whenever Steve Stasiukonis's next-door neighbors want to make calls on their cellphones, they walk to a spot near his garage door -- the only place on their Syracuse, N.Y., street with good cellphone reception. Mr. Stasiukonis's secret: He installed a $500 signal-enhancing device on his garage after getting fed up with dropped calls and poor reception at home. The device, which combines an outdoor antenna with a repeater, picks up weak signals and amplifies them. "As soon as I installed it, I saw my signal go from zero to full bars," says Mr. Stasiukonis, who was frustrated by the inability to receive business calls on his cellphone. He says his Verizon Wireless phone works well, except in his own neighborhood. Verizon says it investigates problems and does its best to fix them. With dead zones remaining a problem despite heavy investments by the cellular industry, some Americans are taking matters into their own hands. They are turning to a growing number of new products designed to amplify and improve reception. The products were initially designed for the commercial market. Shopping-mall and office-building owners first spent tens of thousands of dollars on equipment to eliminate dead zones. Now, small electronics companies are rolling out consumer versions of these antennas and amplifiers that minimize building and vehicle-interference and boost weak signals. The consumer versions of these fixes range in price from as little as $50 for an antenna to several thousand dollars for a system that boosts coverage for an entire home. But prices are starting to come down dramatically. Spotwave Wireless Inc., of Ottawa, sells an antenna and repeater for $995. Last October, a similar device sold for $3,500. Industry-wide sales figures on sales of these products are hard to come by. One maker, Wilson Electronics Inc. of St. George, Utah, says its sales have doubled from a year ago, to 46,000 amplifiers and antennas a month. Alternativewireless.com, a San Antonio company that sells online, reports its sales have quintupled in the past four years. Most are sold directly by manufacturers or online dealers such as wpsantennas.com. The products are generally not carried by big-name electronics stores. With two-thirds of Americans owning cellphones and 11 million using them as their only phone, dropped calls and bad reception are more than a nuisance. Even with wired home phones, businesspeople often take calls at home on their cells. A J.D. Powers & Associates survey found roughly one of three cellphone calls had some type of quality problem. Others estimate 2% of all calls are never connected. John Walls, a vice president at CTIA, an industry trade group, says subscriber growth and industry polls show service is steadily improving.