The Telus cell network operates reliably across Canada connecting millions of Canadians.
Despite extensive coverage infrastructure, in certain environments you might experience issues like dropped calls, low data rates and even a complete inability to connect to the network. Sometimes the solution is quite simple – move to a location with better coverage. Moving from your basement to the first floor of your house, for instance, might improve connectivity dramatically.
In many situations this might not solve the problem. The quality of connectivity in cottage country, certain buildings and suburban locations can be very poor. And moving from one room to another in your cottage might not result in better call quality. Poor connectivity can leave users feeling very frustrated.
Fortunately though there is a solution to this problem
A cell phone booster increases the strength of signals to and from your phone. This can improve your connectivity significantly resulting in fewer dropped calls, better video conferencing and high quality Netflix streams.
In this post we have researched many boosters to bring you the best – whether you want to stay connected to the Telus network on the road, in your home or while at your cottage. Before we get into the detailed review let’s look at the top signal boosters in each category.
Table of Contents
Quick Summary
- Mid-sized home office / 3000 feet – Amazboost “This booster works well for us in Northern Ontario. We live in a rural area with no service or reception”
- Large sized Home / 5000 feet – weBoost Home Multiroom “Works great. -94 to -104db and a solid signal”
- Apartment / 20 feet – weBoost Home Studio “This booster has done an amazing job of increasing our families cell phone signal strength, all four of us have noticed a major improvement in call quality and data speeds“
- Office / 7500 feet – weBoost complete “My iPhone showed 1 bar or -124 meaning I almost had no signal. I installed this on my chimney (without aiming anywhere like I was supposed to) and hooked it up and my signal jumped”
- Cottage – weBoost complete “The booster really works as advertised. The one unstable bar is now consistently three, and sometimes four bars! This kit will be really good for remote areas where cell signal is low, like cottage areas and basements”
- Car and RV – weBoost Drive Reach “Quality components, excellent Installation guide, easy installation and performed better than expected. Very impressed from installation all the way through to performance and have little reservations recommending it”
Table of Contents
The Detailed Review
Best Telus Booster for mid-sized home office / 3000 feet – Amazboost
Top Features
- covers bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17, 25
- Up to 65 dB gain
- Outdoor directional antenna with 60 ft of RG6 cable
The Amazboost signal booster is designed to boost Telus 4G LTE signals and provide more reliable network connectivity. Customers have used this product to go from a situation with unreliable one bar connectivity to five bars.
The key to making this device work for you is to follow the manufacturer’s instructions on setup. This is well documented in the user manual. The coverage area and the strength of the boosted signal are directly related to two key factors: 1) Signal strength received by the outdoor directional antenna. So, setting up the outside unit where the signal is the strongest will provide the best results. 2) Separation between the outdoor unit and the indoor unit. Placing them too close will result in amplifier oscillations and the signal will not be boosted.
PROS
- Good performance for the price
CONS
- The LEDs on the device don’t provide an indicator of signal issues if any
Best Telus Booster for a Large sized Home / 5000 feet – weBoost Home Multiroom
Top Features
- covers bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17, 25
- Tool-free installation
- Coverage for two to three rooms
The weBoost kit is easy to install and works with multiple users and devices. A directional antenna is included for outdoor installation and users have pointed out that it must be adjusted in the direction of the cell tower in order to maximize the level of the received signal. Even a few degrees can make a big difference to performance. However, once the outdoor antenna is positioned, the results are nothing short of amazing.
The amplifier provides up to 65 dB of gain and the kit includes the hardware you need to get set up – no tools required! The manufacturer provides a 30 foot cable along with two separate 15 foot cables. This might be inadequate for some installations and you might consider buying some additional RG11 cables.
PROS
- Designed, assembled and tested in USA
- Extend the battery life of your mobile device by up to 2 hours through a strong connection
CONS
- Expensive
- LED lights provide little information on device state and operation
Best Signal Booster for your Apartment / 20 feet – weBoost Home Studio
Top Features
- Covers bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17, 25
- 60 dB amplification
The weBoost home studio is a compact booster that features up to 60 dB of gain – adequate for single room or studio environments. The device comes with installation instructions, has remarkable build quality and offers consistent performance.
This signal booster includes an outdoor directional antenna which is to be pointed in the direction of the cell tower with the strongest signal.
PROS
- Extend the battery life of your mobile device by up to 2 hours through a strong connection
CONS
- The unit gets unusually hot to touch during operation
- Expensive
Best Telus Booster for Cottage or Office up to 7500 feet – weBoost complete
Top Features
- covers bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17, 25
- Up to 72 dB gain
One of the most powerful signal boosters on the market, this device boasts 72 dB of gain. Enough to provide reliable coverage across a large area of up to 7500 feet. This booster is able to provide coverage at signal levels lower than most of the cheaper units on account of the higher levels of amplification. At least one user reported amplifying signals as low as -124 dBm to a point where it’s usable at three bars.
PROS
- Expensive
- Extend the battery life of your mobile device by up to 2 hours through a strong connection
CONS
- No attachments to mount the external antenna
Best Telus Signal Booster for your Car and RV – weBoost Drive Reach
Top Features
- Able to boost signals when the vehicle is either stationary or in motion
- Works with multiple users and devices
- Covers bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17, 25
The weBoost Drive Reach is ideal for vehicles like your car, truck or RV. The product has an external omnidirectional antenna. This is important as while you’re driving around, signals from cell towers can come at you from all directions. An omni antenna will allow you to receive and transmit signals from anywhere.
If you’re planning on parking your RV in a camp site for an extended period of time, we recommend investing in a directional antenna like this one and pole mount to augment your booster kit. You can boost your cell signal even more by pointing it in the direction of the cell tower.
Alternatively if you only need the booster for an RV when it’s parked or stationary at a campsite, the weBoost Destination RV would be a more appropriate choice. It includes a 25′ telescoping pole with a directional antenna for optimal coverage.
PROS
- Easy to install thanks to manufacturer’s clear instructions
- Excellent hardware build quality
CONS
- Expensive
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my cell phone booster work for 5G?
It most likely will. Telus is rolling out 5G in band 66. The cell phone boosters in this article cover band 4. While band 4 is a subset of band 66, the complete range of frequencies to include band 66 will be amplified.
How we picked the top products
A cell phone booster is a device that amplifies the signal between your cell phone and the nearest tower. It’s a sophisticated piece of hardware that is able to detect how much signal you actually need to communicate. Once detected, it provides a level of amplification that improves the link quality significantly. This quite simply translates to a high level of joy.
So let’s take a look at how we picked the products on this list.
Product Specifications
We know how complicated it can get for anyone unfamiliar with radio frequency hardware to read the manufacturers’ data sheets. We’ve done the heavy lifting here by analyzing the hardware specifications. Here’s where our experience in RF electronics comes in handy. How much gain do you need? How good is the antenna? We geek out on this data and simplify the choices.
Usability
The usability of a product is reflected in how it was designed by the engineers. Was adequate thought put into the ease of use and installation? As well, a manufacturer should provide installation options and accessories to make the job easy.
Bands
Every cell phone uses a particular frequency band. While RF engineers might refer to these bands by their operating frequency in MHz, the rest of the world uses a simple number.
Telus uses the following bands for 3G, 4G and 5G.
| Technology | Band |
| 3G | 2, 5 |
| 4G | 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 29, 66, 71 |
| 5G | 66 |
You will see certain bands are reused across technologies. It might be that in a certain part of Canada, band 5 is used for 3G while in another region it is used for 4G.
The important thing here is to ensure that the cell phone booster supports these bands, or at least the ones that are relevant to your region of interest. For this review one of the main criteria was support for the largest number of frequency bands.
Price
The cost of a cell phone booster is an important consideration. However for something as vital as reliable communication, we do not recommend placing a high level of emphasis on saving a few bucks to compromise on product quality. Reliable communication is very valuable.
Summary
In this post we have done the detailed research on the Telus network including various details such as the bands of operation. Whether you are on the road or in your home office, a cell signal booster can improve the quality of your communications experience. We recommend the following products for various use cases:
- Mid-sized home office / 3000 feet – Amazboost
- Large sized Home / 5000 feet – weBoost Home Multiroom
- Apartment / 20 feet – weBoost Home Studio
- Office up to 7500 feet – weBoost complete
- Cottage – weBoost complete
- Car and RV – weBoost Drive Reach
