Solved

Signal Booster for Sprint Clients

S
Badge +1

I used to use Sprint’s Magic Box Gen 3 as a signal booster as I live in a rural area and the reception is very poor. Since T-Mobile took over Sprint, they discontinued the Magic Box in March which left me with no signal booster at all (unless I want to spend hundreds of dollars to buy one). Whenever I asked T-Mobile, they said because I am still a Sprint client, I am not eligible to get a signal booster (the non wi-fi one since I don’t have a wi-fi router). I’ll be able to get one once T-Mobile switch my account from Sprint to T-Mobile, but they do not know when. 

Does anyone has any comments/suggestions? I hardly get one bar and the data reception is always poor. Every time I tried to stream any shows, it buffered every 10 minutes or so, very annoying!

Thank you.

icon

Best answer by fireguy_6364 20 April 2022, 22:01

View original

18 replies

S
Badge +1

I feel that once T-mobile took over Sprint, they treated Sprint customers like a bunch of chop livers. They ruined the Sprint towers and spent long time to upgrade them to T-mobile towers. My internet used to be very good with the Magic Box, T-mobile completely ruined it.  Shame on them!

J
Userlevel 1

Good luck on the Signal Booster. I am a Tmobile customer and they sent me the CellSpot which is great til I find you need internet which I don't have. I asked about a Signal Booster and was told by Customer Service and Tech Support they don't have those anymore. I live in a strong 4G LTE and surrounded by strong 5G Ultra Capacity service. I get 4 bars on my 5G line and 4 bars on my 4G LTE line. They both run like 3G in mud. They haven't been able to solve my issue. I have solid phone and text, it's just my data I'm not getting. Good luck to you. 

S
Badge +1

I usually have about 2 bars and LITE data, only that I usually get slow data reception. I used to get 5G in my house, and now only LITE. In order to get 5G, I have to go outside and 5G will come back. T-Mobile/Sprint kept telling me there was a tower issue but that issue has been ongoing for years. I guess T-Mobile is not in any hurry to fix it since it’s still a Sprint tower and the T-Mobile tower is further away from me and always have problems as well. However since both of my phones have T-Mobile sim cards, I don’t know why they will be affected by the Sprint tower.

I noticed that on Amazon and eBay, they sell T-Mobile cellspot. Has anyone tried them?

F
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

I However since both of my phones have T-Mobile sim cards, I don’t know why they will be affected by the Sprint tower.

 

because as a former Sprint customer youre able to use both Sprints network still as well as TMOs..as long as they gave you a new SIM card...which should be the R15 or maybe it was the R115..

 

meaning if the Sprint towers are the main ones you connect to youre going to see issues..especially if the next connecting tower is further out.

***I like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
S
Badge +1

Thank you, how do I know if my sim cards are R15 or R115? And what is the difference? Strange enough, after I swapped my sim cards, I got 5G for almost a month, then all of a sudden, it went back to LITE and have been LITE since then.

F
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

if you were all of a sudden picking up 5G then where you never did before with Sprint then you are now connecting to TMOs 5G. same with my area..never had 5G before the merger. some Sprint towers they are removing because they over lap a TMO tower to much..or they keep it and convert it over

***I like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
S
Badge +1

The problem is I am getting LITE now instead of 5G in the house. T-Mobile has no idea why, kept blaming my phones which I told them my phones are not problems as I was able to get 5G outside the house. Then they blamed the towers but they said there were no tower problems, such a mess.

F
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

did they by chance mention how far away the 5G tower is? was the phone brought over from Sprint or did  you purchase new after the merger?

 

also which phone do you have?

***I like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
S
Badge +1

They said it's about 8 miles, the closest one to me is a Sprint tower, 3 miles

 

Both are Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G. One is from Sprint upgrade, the other one I bought from Samsung directly.

 

Both have the same symptoms,  inside only LITE but get 5G outside.

F
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

at 8 miles out a butterflies fart could affect the 5G signal lol. figure usually by 5ish miles your phone should be switching to a different tower..

 

in most cases that i have seen so far 5G is a bit hit and miss..some places the speeds will be screaming..if youre in a more rural area you’ll have it but it’ll be right on par with 5G speeds if that..for the moment you can switch to 4G only and see if your speeds improve or if you travel quite a bit you might just opt to keep it on 5G and let it switch to it when its available.

 

how are your 4G speeds?

***I like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
S
Badge +1

Hello fireguy_6364,

I just saw your reply, thank you. Since then I have bought a signal booster (not cheap) and I have 5G on all of my phones now, as well as 4 or 5 bars. I have been thinking of getting a signal booster but didn’t want to spend so much money as I am not sure if that’ll work. I decided to try it and have no regrets whatsoever. The only problem is that the phones have to be close to the booster (about 5 feet). But that’s not a problem since I work at home and I can put the booster next to me. Even if I am not near the booster, I still get better reception with 4G Lite. And my streaming has been improved tremendously.

When I travel, I usually have no problem getting 5G.

F
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

a bit odd that you have to be that close to it in order to get the signal. you sure there isnt an antenna or something that must be connected to it to push the signal through your home?

***I like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
S
Badge +1

There’s an outside antenna that connected to the booster in the house, another inside antenna connected to the booster where you put the phones close to the inside antenna to get better signals. It’s a signal booster, not a signal extender, so it won’t work for the whole house.

F
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

i cant remember if i asked before..but was wifi calling ever an option for you? i cant remember if Sprints booster was just a plug and play type set up or if it had to be linked into your home net.

***I like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
S
Badge +1

No, it’s not. Sprint doesn’t have any boosters anymore, they have discontinued the Magic Box, and I am not eligible for the T-Mobile Cellspot (no wi-fi required) since I am technically not a T-Mobile customer. No one knows when can I actually become one.

J
Userlevel 1

Hello fireguy_6364,

I just saw your reply, thank you. Since then I have bought a signal booster (not cheap) and I have 5G on all of my phones now, as well as 4 or 5 bars. I have been thinking of getting a signal booster but didn’t want to spend so much money as I am not sure if that’ll work. I decided to try it and have no regrets whatsoever. The only problem is that the phones have to be close to the booster (about 5 feet). But that’s not a problem since I work at home and I can put the booster next to me. Even if I am not near the booster, I still get better reception with 4G Lite. And my streaming has been improved tremendously.

When I travel, I usually have no problem getting 5G.

Man I really hate when T-Mobile lies to their customers. You're past that already since you bought one but they discontinued the boosters and won't bring them back. 

 

As for your booster I'm glad to hear you have descent signal now but remember you're getting up to LTE Signal boosts because they aren't allowed to boost the signal bands T-Mobile uses for their 5G. I've looked into it and you'd have to get commercial grade boosters to do that but I'm not positive if they do either based on my research. 

 

I did the same as you and spent $$$on a booster. Not set up yet but be careful. You say within 5 feet from booster/antennae. There hasn't been enough publicly released studies on the harm these waves do to the body. I know that the new 5G tech has been weaponized in the military for many years now so be careful hanging too close to your booster/antennae. 

 

I don't know about you but I'm on the highest plan they have and to need to purchase my own booster is ridiculous and at the very least should get some kind of monthly plan discount. Currently my download speeds average 0.5mbps and float around the - 105 to - 120 dbm and that is ridiculously slow but phone and text are 100%.4 and 5 bars of 5GUC all day long but crappy data signal in an area flooded with 5GUC/Extended Range and LTE

Makes no sense. 

J
Userlevel 1

i cant remember if i asked before..but was wifi calling ever an option for you? i cant remember if Sprints booster was just a plug and play type set up or if it had to be linked into your home net.

Not sure if it changed but when I was with sprint many years back it had like a GPS Puck you stuck to your window and no internet hookup required. 

F

Came on here to find more info on a MagicBox alternative. Ok...I consider myself an expert in this arena as I have 2 MBs and have been a Sprint customers forever. Now a T-mobile customer by force altho they have been good as of late. I literally just got off the phone to return the CellSpot as it 100% requires an internet connection. This is NOT the same as WiFi as WiFi is an extension of "Internet Connection" which you need 1st BEFORE you can use WiFi. So technically yes...the CellSpot doesn't "need WiFi" but is DOES need an ethernet hardline...otherwise it won't work. For most, the CellSpot becomes redundant since most new phones will offer a togglento turn ON "WiFi-calling". Check your phone and use it if you have a WiFi network in your home or business. This WiFi calling pretty much works anywhere with a WiFi signal. I have a Samsung A71 phone and Im pretty sure most later Samsung phones have the feature. The CellSpot uses your internet connection (Xfinity in my case) and doesn't use a drop of the T-mobile exterior network to give you a signal. The CellSpot ALSO turns into a T-mobile cellular repeater meaning it will (or has capabilities to) connect outside cellphones THRU your internet for their benefit. That's a NO for me. Nevermind the creeper chold molester driving past on his/her phone pinging off my internet...T-mobile isn't paying me to make their system work better, right?

So...onto you having a few bars signal and no internet...introduce the T-mobile Gateway. Great piece. We had TWO whole bars of signal and the Silver Cased (new one is black) Gateway grabbed that signal and gave us 40+mbps flow...enough to watch 2 TVs worth of shows with minimal glitches. They say to use an external router and turn the Gateway settings from router to modem...and the flow will be even better (as the Gateway antennas and RAM gets bogged down when all your devices latch onto it). Call T-mobile for the device, do NOT check online as it may tell you it's not available...because they can see you have a weak signal tower, etc. I called...BOOM! Sent me one in 2days. Found my signal after trying a few windows. Set it up on the TWO bars we had... Ran great! $40-50 a month no contract no cancel fees. Literally you become a guinea pig for testing and that's a good thing. This held us over til the Xfinity came outnfor connection after a year wait. T-mobile took the Gateway back no probs. No issues. I plan to buy P2P wifi extenders for my metal shop. So there is that. Perhaps you folks can get an indoor WiFi extender for work etc if you can figure out your WiFi-calling deal...or dig in your phone settings to turn on other features to grab your work or home wifi signal better. Internet is your friend. 

Now...lets pop open this MagicBox and see if a T-mobile SIM Carb will wake her up…

E

Reply


New badge winners

Show all badges
Terms & Conditions