Hey just in case this helps anybody.

I moved a few months ago, and as luck would have it, I moved into a dead cell. The Verizon map says I'm good, but I'm not. My signal strength fluctuates between 1 and 3 bars and sometimes calls get dropped. Voice quality varies from quite good to sucks.

I've called Verizon maybe 1/2 dozen times and they sent someone out to "drive the neighborhood" monitoring signal strength which they say is "marginal". The fix they said is a "Personal Cell Tower - normally $200 but they'd let me have it for $50 as their way of saying thank you for being a loyal customer". (Somehow they didn't think it was funny when I told them if they'd just fix their tower I'd hear the thank you better).

The Personal Cell Tower (it said "Samsung Network Extender" on the box) arrived this morning and I've got a steady 4 bars signal strength and calls sound very good.

Oops, I forgot to say that it requires that you have an empty port on a router that's hooked to your cable modem. I'm guessing here but it seems like it's using your cable modem for "the last mile" and transmitting the connection to your cell phone when it's in range.

 

Or you could be like me and live 500 ft from the tower..........and still have trouble getting a signal on my aircard. I think it's due to them changing over to 4G in the area. What's funny is that AT&T owns the tower but has nothing on it, they rent it out to T-Mobile and Verizon. My AT&T cell phone signal has also been bouncing around, they are also changing things over to 4G.

 

If you're using an aircard in your home it won't help you that AT&T also has a Personal Cell Tower because you'd need a cable modem to hook it up. Have you tried an antenna for the aircard? I have one that I've used a few times in my truck and they can help.

 

You misunderstood what I said Michigan which is my fault for not fully stating everything. Lemme try again:

I have a Verizon aircard, 500 ft from the tower that Verizon is renting space on and still have trouble with signals. My AT&T cellphone comes off the other tower 3.1 miles away. AT&T owns both towers but don't use the one 500 ft from me even though it's the highest point in the region.

Part of the current signal losses are from the carriers trying to switch over to 4G. Verizon told me that they wanted to be fully 4G in my area by the end of this year. They already are fully 4G just 40 miles from me. My aircard is compatible with 3G but it's setup for 4G. My old one that was set for 3G only was having major issues with losing the signal just before I got a free upgrade to this current one.