Faster Internet - Is It Possible?

When we came back from our Christmas 2011 vacation, I discovered that Verizon's 4G LTE service had come to town. In town, I measured the connection speeds at 20Mbps down and 7Mbps up. That was really good news! The real question, though, was whether or not I could receive a 4G signal at the house. When I got home, I checked several locations around the house and was unable to receive a signal anywhere. It turns out, if I wait long enough, I can get a 4G connection at our bedroom window.  It was weak and would disconnect and reconnect all the time, but it was there. On a warm (above freezing) day, I stuck the modem outside the window and noticed a tripling of connection speeds. This got me thinking.

How could I bring this stronger outside signal indoors to my router? My 3G cellular repeater works great, but doesn't repeat 4G signals which are on a different frequency. A quick search of the web told me there weren't any 4G repeaters on the market--yet. What about an external antenna? At first, I didn't see any external antenna ports, but upon further inspection, I saw that they were covered with little black stickers. So I ordered a full-band outdoor antenna that works with Verizon's 4G frequencies along with some cabling and an antenna adapter for my modem.

For the last week or so, I've been trying to get this to work. If I put the outdoor antenna in the same spot outside the window where my modem worked, the modem will not connect. Strangely, the RSSI (received signal strength indicator) indicates a slightly stronger signal, but just will not connect. When the snow finally stopped falling and it was safe to go out on the roof, I tried raising the antenna about six feet above the roof. I was able to get a good RSSI along with a decent download speed, but a down right horrible upload speed of about 20Kbps. That's slower than a dial-up connection on the uplink and not suitable for the work I do. I moved the antenna to several locations around the house, and no matter what I did, I could not get a suitable upload speed.

I called the 3G Store, the vendor from whom I purchased the antenna kit, and we talked through everything I tried and they confirmed, I tried everything possible.  They suggested I try pinching the connector on the antenna adapter to create a more solid connection between the antenna and the modem. Back outside I went, trying all my tests again. At best, performance with the outdoor antenna was about equal to using the modem without an external antenna while it was placed inside the house in our upstairs bedroom window.

Based on all this experimenting, I suspect that while the antenna helps me receive a stronger signal, it doesn't help and in fact may hinder my transmit ability. Wilson electronics does make a direct connect 4G signal amplifier. I'm considering trying it, as if it can increase my uplink speed, I will get a significant performance increase. For me, this means two people in the house can each use the Internet without interfering with the other's work.

So until I consult with the 3G Store again and decide whether or not the amplifier will help me, I'm going to try leaving my modem in the upstairs bedroom window and seeing how it works out for me. Just for comparison's sake, here are some Internet speed test results from speedtest.net showing my 4G connection speeds (when it is actually working).

4G speed test results from indoor window location.