Improving mobile signal at home, in order of cost
Free changes first, then hardware. What works, what is a waste of money and what is illegal in the UK.
2 August 2026 · 8 min read · Signal Station Labs
Turn on Wi-Fi calling. It costs nothing, works on almost every modern handset and solves indoor coverage for calls and texts entirely.
Find where signal is best in the building and note which band it uses. Low bands travel through walls; high bands do not.
A 4G/5G router with external antenna ports, placed at the best window, will usually beat a phone by a wide margin.
Passive repeaters and unapproved boosters are the two things to avoid. The first rarely helps; the second is illegal to operate in the UK unless it is an approved model.
Method note
Figures in this piece come from Signal Station Labs measurement. Where a result depends heavily on location we say so rather than reporting a single number as universal.
Read next
Related work
Can 5G replace home broadband?
We ran a 5G home router alongside full fibre for six weeks. Here is where it held up, and where it quietly fell apart.
ReadBest connectivity for rural homes
Fixed wireless, 4G with an external antenna, satellite or a community network — how to work out which one your address actually supports.
Read
Starlink versus 5G
Two very different ways to get online without a fixed line. We compare cost, latency, weather resilience and where each one makes sense.
Read