Is anyone else using one of these Samsung Network Extenders with Verizon? I just bought a new house and shortly after moving in found that I couldn't stay on the phone for more than a minute or two without dropping the call. I was talking to one of my neighbors about the crappy service and they told me about the Network Extender. I complained to customer service and they gave me one for $150 instead of the standard $250. It sucks to have to pay for equipment just to use their service but I don't have a landline and I sometimes work from home so reliable cell coverage in my house is a must.
The current model only supports 1X and 3G but I connect my iPhone 5 to WiFi when I am home so LTE isn't necessary for me. It allows 6 active calls at any given time with a 7th channel always reserved for 911 calls. There is no way to keep other Verizon customers from using your signal but you can manage the access from the website. This lets you add up to 50 Verizon numbers to your preferred access list. If all 6 slots are taken up and someone from the preferred list tries to make a call it will bounce a non preferred caller back to the native coverage. If there is no native coverage available for them they will get the all circuits busy message and their call will disconnect.
The device looks kind of like a wireless router but it is actually a mini cell phone tower. You need to place it somewhere near a window so it can get an initial GPS lock on the first bootup. This is for 911 purposes and also to insure that you aren't broadcasting their signal anywhere they aren't licensed to provide service. Mine is near my router about 12 feet from the nearest window and got the GPS lock with no problems. I plugged mine in to an open ethernet port on my network and had it up and running within about 15 minutes of opening the box. You will hear a short double tone when you make or receive a call to let you know that you are connected to the Network Extender instead of the native service. Your calls are then routed through your broadband connection. Only Verizon customers are able to make calls through this device and unfortunately my new house seems to be in a dead zone for all carriers.
I am now getting a solid 4 or 5 bar signal throughout my house and most of my yard. I was on a 2.5 hour conference call yesterday with no issues. My neighbor on the other side who did not already have a Network Extender is now getting a solid 3 bar signal in her house. She is a single mother with 4 kids between 2 and 8 years old so I am glad she has reliable phone service now in case of emergence. The fact that you can't keep other people off your connection is a big turnoff for some people. As long as my phone has priority and is always able to connect it doesn't bother me one bit though. I have plenty of bandwidth and a couple extra calls through my broadband won't affect me.
The current model only supports 1X and 3G but I connect my iPhone 5 to WiFi when I am home so LTE isn't necessary for me. It allows 6 active calls at any given time with a 7th channel always reserved for 911 calls. There is no way to keep other Verizon customers from using your signal but you can manage the access from the website. This lets you add up to 50 Verizon numbers to your preferred access list. If all 6 slots are taken up and someone from the preferred list tries to make a call it will bounce a non preferred caller back to the native coverage. If there is no native coverage available for them they will get the all circuits busy message and their call will disconnect.
The device looks kind of like a wireless router but it is actually a mini cell phone tower. You need to place it somewhere near a window so it can get an initial GPS lock on the first bootup. This is for 911 purposes and also to insure that you aren't broadcasting their signal anywhere they aren't licensed to provide service. Mine is near my router about 12 feet from the nearest window and got the GPS lock with no problems. I plugged mine in to an open ethernet port on my network and had it up and running within about 15 minutes of opening the box. You will hear a short double tone when you make or receive a call to let you know that you are connected to the Network Extender instead of the native service. Your calls are then routed through your broadband connection. Only Verizon customers are able to make calls through this device and unfortunately my new house seems to be in a dead zone for all carriers.
I am now getting a solid 4 or 5 bar signal throughout my house and most of my yard. I was on a 2.5 hour conference call yesterday with no issues. My neighbor on the other side who did not already have a Network Extender is now getting a solid 3 bar signal in her house. She is a single mother with 4 kids between 2 and 8 years old so I am glad she has reliable phone service now in case of emergence. The fact that you can't keep other people off your connection is a big turnoff for some people. As long as my phone has priority and is always able to connect it doesn't bother me one bit though. I have plenty of bandwidth and a couple extra calls through my broadband won't affect me.
