Could a T-Mobile repeater & femtocell be moved to a new location outside the Santa Cruz mountains?

THEORETICAL question (not a legal question!):

Given there are *huge* gains to be made in cellular signal strength...

Q: Would T-Mobile *know* if I *moved* the femtocell and/or repeater to a different location altogether than my own house?

I live in the Santa Cruz mountains, where all cellular carrier signal sucks, and I have a big house ... hence, my cellular carrier, T-Mobile, provides me a free femtocell, and since my Internet comes from about 5 miles away over the air via WISP from another mountain, T-Mobile also gave me a free cellular repeater.

Here's a picture of the repeater and femtocell:

Here is a picture of just one of my many access points inside my house:

Given that there is unquestionably a *huge* signal strength advantage:

The question came up in another discussion by "The Real Bev" whether the repeater or femtocell can "realistically" be "moved" to a second or third location.

Ignoring the legality, since, as I recall, T-Mobile made me agree verbally over the phone that I would inform them if I move them, and knowing that the output of both transformers are 12VDC at 1.5 and 2.0 Amps, the question is *theoretical* only!

Theoretical question: Q: How would T-Mobile *know* if I *moved* the femtocell and/or repeater to a different location altogether than my own house?

Reply to
Harold Newton
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This is a response from "The Real Bev" brought over from the other thread so that we can keep the answers together in one related thread.

The ">" denotes "Harold Newton", while lack of ">" is "The Real Bev".

Exactly. Does it have a wall-wart with a USB socket? OTOH, I have a couple of converters...

Why would they bother? Why would they even care?

I have USB and earphone sockets, but no ethernet :-( Does it normally plug into 110V with a wallwart? I have a converter. Doesn't solve the ethernet problem, though, which presumes a router :-( Never mind...

You'd think they'd provide a simple cigarette-lighter plug-in unit. It's to their advantage that you be able to connect with T-Mobile as often as possible -- otherwise you might choose Verizon. Maybe even a rechargeable battery-operated unit so I could phone from the ski slope :-)

Perhaps run a VPN on your phone. No idea how practical this is.

I NEED to visit the T-M store.

Reply to
Harold Newton

It's 12VDC at 1.5 Amps but we don't know how well regulated it needs to be.

However, the end of the wall wort looks like the standard circle:dot plugs. So it's trivial to wire the power to work in a vehicle. (This assumes the EMF isn't too high nor automotive voltage fluctuation.)

Heh heh heh... because everyone would want to carry around their own personal cell tower, I suspect.

But I really do not know why they made me agree, over the phone, as I recall, to not moving it without telling them. Dunno why they would care, but, they did give them to me based on my particular location and they have to cost them money - so - it seems consistent that they'd want me to use it for the same purpose that they gave it to me for.

I'm not arguing against their rationale at all. I'm just wondering what you wondered, which is whether it would *continue* to work, longer term, while traveling.

I feel it's almost certain, if not certain, that it would work anywhere, short term, just as putting a SIM card into a smart phone on the olden days on AT&T would work for a while and then AT&T would slam you with data charges even though you have a data block on the line.

It would just depend on how long T-Mobile would take to catch that you moved it, and whether they cared that you did.

Can they remotely turn it off? The femtocell, probably. The repeater? Probably not.

The wall wart isn't the problem, as long as you end up with reasonably well regulated 12VDC at about 1.5 to 2.0 Amps without too much EMF.

The femtotower would work wonders anywhere where you have a WiFi access point handy, and 120VAC, but if you want it to work inside a vehicle, then the femtocell isn't your first choice becuase it requires an Internet connection via RJ45.

So, for your purpose, of working in a car, only the repeater is potentially viable.

I'm not going to argue with you. Probably the FCC has something to say about "roving cell towers" though, as that's what it would be.

BTW, *anyone* can connect to the repeated amplified cellular tower that is in your house ... (even the femtotower), so in the case of the femtowoer, you're offloading T-Mobile's cellular traffic onto your ISP and in the case of the repeater, you're acting as a free cellular tower for T-Mobile's customers to use.

It doesn't go all that far though. Maybe a few hundred feet, at best for those high-decibel signal strengths I posted earlier.

VPN at the *router* would probably "confuse" T-Mobile, I agree.

I've had these things for a few years, so here's all I can tell you.

T-Mobile offered me three choices, of which I took two (but normally you only get one choice):

  1. Free no-deposit Wi-Fi router, or,
  2. Free no-deposit Femto tower (connected to your router), or,
  3. Free no-deposit cellular repeater (two units, one window, one tower).

The first one "is" a router, while the second connects "to" a router and acts like a tower inside your house, while the third grabs a signal from a tower outside your house and re-broadcasts that signal as a "tower" inside your house.

Anyone in the vicinity on T-Mobile can use that signal.

I don't know more than this, and even some of this "can" be wrong, which is why I asked the folks on s.e.r and a.h.r for additional advice for you.

Reply to
Harold Newton

Yes, there is "supposedly" a deposit, just like there is a SIM card fee of something like $15, but T-Mobile has *never* charged me either, and I get a

*lot* of SIM cards from them, and two of these "cell spot" devices.

BTW, from a branding perspective, "Cell Spot" is sort of like "iPhone". They use that "cell spot" name for *different* things.

Both of my devices are *called* a "personal cellspot:, but they're different.

One is a repeater. The other is a femtotower.

Both make an astoundingly huge difference in signal strength!

No. That's the free femtocell that plugs into your router.

The "repeater" is the two-piece unit called "4G LET Signal Booster":

You see two of them in that photo because I complained to T-Mobile about it not working and they sent me a new one by next-day delivery.

The femtocell is the one on the right called "4G LTE CellSpot".

They "waived" the supposed deposit for me and for *every* one of my relatives who got it (more than one). So I don't think there "is" a deposit, in practice.

I think they said they'd charge me $400 if I didn't return it when they ask for it, e.g., when they sent me a second repeater (aka signal booster).

Reply to
Harold Newton

You do the grunt work this time. Dig into the instructions for the Femtocell box and see if it has a GPS inside. If it's not clear, grab the FCCID and look it up on the FCCID site. If it has a GPS, T-Mobile will know where you're located. Whether they do anything about a change in location is unknown. I've moved a Verizon femtocell box about 50 miles without any problems. However, that was inside Verizon territory. If you move your T-Mobile femtocell to some location where T-Mobile doesn't claim to have service, I have not idea if they will thank you for improving their footprint, disconnect your service, or something in between. Good luck.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Hi Jeff, Thanks for that input.

It's not a big deal because I was answering the question for "The Real Bev", where I'm pretty sure (but not positive) the answer is thus.

  1. Repater
  2. Femtocell

The Repeater "probably" does not report back to the cellular provider anything as it's likely just a "bridge" of sorts that just passes the MAC address (among other things) straight through.

In that case, the cellular provider probably can't tell that you moved the repeater because it likely doesn't even know that the repeater is involved.

The Femtocell is *completely* different.

They know *everything* about the Femtocell; so it's interesting you were able to move it. Perhaps the IP geolocation isn't great enough, in your test, to flag their "movement" algorithm.

Thanks!

Reply to
Harold Newton

I found repeaters to be useless junk for weak signal areas. I think they would be fine for repeating a signal through a steel walled building or something of that sort.

I had an AT&T Femtocell... still do. But I don't have an AT&T account, so I can't test it in my current location. Wonderful thing.

I noticed that Kaiser Hospital has Verizon Femtocell. You can see them in the hallways, and a little house icon appears above the full-bar cellular icon on my phone.

"Everything"? How do they know Everything? I disagree with Jeff L occasionally, but, he's never wrong. As I recall, my AT&T Femtocell did have a GPS, and setup advice included positioning it near a window if it didn't activate correctly.

I didn't have a problem activating it, so I don't know if it needs GPS after a power failure, or IP change, etc.

--
Clarence A Dold - Santa Rosa, CA, USA  GPS: 38.47,-122.65
Reply to
dold

Agreed that Jeff is usually on the money and that you have a point which is that the femtocell comes with a GPS contraption, which you only use during the initial setup.

You can see the stick-on GPS unit bottom right in the photo below.

Why did they ask me to plug that GPS unit in *only* during setup?

Reply to
Harold Newton

Perhaps because they were naive enough to take you at your word that you would not move the device, once installed. Once its location is established, they need not waste the bandwidth any further.

Reply to
pfjw

Harold Newton posted for all of us...

This site is blocked in Malwarebytes

--
Tekkie
Reply to
Tekkie®

Hardly. I probably make more mistakes than others. The difference is that I usually admit being wrong. Feel free to trust me, but it pays to verify.

Good question. It didn't take much for me to find out what happens if one doesn't have a GPS signal with a Verizon nanocellular box: This is 3G only, no LTE. From a cold start, it takes 15-30 minutes for the unit to boot to the point where it will accept calls. If the GPS has a good view of the sky, 10 minutes is about the fastest I've seen. If you have a partial or marginal view (as most of my customers do), much longer.

If I take a working unit (all lights blue), and pull the plug on the external GPS antenna connector, it remains functional for about 20 minutes. It then starts flashing the GPS lock light and will not accept or receive calls. After loss of lock, if I plug the antenna back in, it locks faster than a cold start. I didn't time this, but my guess(tm) is about half.

If I take a working unit (all lights blue), and remove power at the wall wart, it will recover lock in about 5 minutes. However, if I leave it unplugged for over 15 minutes, it will take 10-30 minutes, as in the initial cold boot, to lock again.

So, my guess(tm) is that:

  1. There is no non-volatile storage in the unit to store the GPS position and to provide a faster cold lock.
  2. There is a BFC (big fat capacitor) inside to help deal with power outages.
  3. Without a GPS signal, it will make phone calls for about 15-20 minutes before it quits, after which it will refuse to make or accept phone calls.

Not all devices are created equal. As micro/nano/pico/femto/extender cellular devices go, this Verizon unit is rather old. The T-Mobile devices are much newer and may have improvements in the GPS area, such as battery, supercap, or NVRAM backup. Dunno. Testing is easy enough. Set it up so it works, cover the GPS antenna, and wait for the device to complain.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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