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Boosting Cell Phone Signals in Strange Places?
hedgemage asks: "I work at a retirement home and we have trouble with the cell phones that our nursing and maintenance staff use. The problem is that our nursing home area is built into a lower level that was originally constructed as a fallout shelter in 1960. There's a lot of solid concrete in the walls and ceiling. We have paid out tens of thousands to try and get an on-site mobile to work using NEC Dterm PSII phones, but they have proven absolutely unreliable (not just in the bomb shelter but throughout the campus) and the only solution our telecom provider has is to install several thousand dollars more in transceivers. If we could use ordinary cell phones, it would be ideal for everyone. Is there an off-the-shelf solution that could boost regular cellular signals in our bomb shelter?"
Just use wifi phones and put wifi repeaters on the campus.
Dunno if it actually does anything but there used to be such mode that would supposedly use more battery to produce stronger signal. In some phones you activate it with *3370# (phone will switch off) and disable it wih #3370#.
Talk to the cellphone carrier(s) about this -- I know Telus in Canada had a program where they would install RF equipment (boosters or micro-cells, I'm not sure) for use in warehouses, etc. (though of course I can't find the page right now!). If your volume is small, you might pay, but if you have enough users they might put in a micro-cell on their dime. If they are aware of the business opportunity they will probably figure out how to accomodate you.