Mobile coverage outside the house but none inside
This is the case people find hardest to accept, because it contradicts common sense: if the phone works perfectly at the front door, how can it not work on the sofa six metres away? The answer is that between those two points there are not six metres of air: there is a wall, and that wall is made of exactly what blocks radio best.
What there is in a modern house that the signal will not cross
A house on a Vega Baja urbanisation built in the last twenty years is designed to keep heat out. Everything that does that well also acts as a screen against the mobile signal, and it is no coincidence: it is the same physical principle. The better insulated the house, the worse the coverage gets in.
- Reinforced concrete. There is a steel mesh inside it. To radio, a metal mesh is not a wall: it is a mirror.
- Thermal clay block and thick blockwork. Good thermal insulators, and for the same reasons, serious obstacles.
- Low-emissivity glazing. Modern double glazing carries a microscopic metal coating to send heat back. It sends the signal back too, and turns the window — which was the best way in — into one more wall.
- Aluminium shutters. Rolled down, they close that way in completely. There are houses where raising the shutter gives a bar back: it is the quickest proof that the façade is the problem.
- Solar film on the windows. Very common here because of the sun. It is metallic.
- Basements, garages and ground floors with earth around them and a concrete slab above.
None of those things is badly done and none of them needs changing. They are good building decisions with a side effect nobody mentioned when you bought the house.
How to confirm in five minutes that it is the façade
- Sit on the sofa, where there is never any signal, and look at the bars.
- Raise the shutter and open the window wide. Wait half a minute without moving and look again.
- Step into the garden or onto the balcony, on the same side of the house. Look once more.
- If the reading rises clearly across those three points without you having moved even a hundred metres, the problem is not the distance to the mast: it is the metre of façade in front of you.
This case is by far the one that resolves best, and the reason is simple: there is no distance to fight and no mountain to get round, you only have to bypass the wall. An antenna outside, where there is signal to spare, a cable, and an antenna inside. The wall stops mattering because the signal no longer has to cross it.
It is also the typical case of Ciudad Quesada, of Torrevieja and of the whole Orihuela coast: new houses, good coverage in the street, none in the living room.
We measure › We ask for authorisation › We install › We test
We measure
Indoors, outdoors and on the roof, with a meter. If nothing can be done, we say so before starting.
We ask for authorisation
From your operator, in writing and in your name. Without it nothing is installed, and you pay for no installation.
We install
Aimed outdoor antenna, booster and indoor antenna. Half a day.
We test
We measure again in the same spot and make a call with you before we leave.
Questions about this
Wouldn't it be easier to keep the phone near the window?
Do you have to break a wall to run the cable?
Does it cover the whole house or just one room?
Is this exactly what happens to you?
It is the commonest case in the area and the one with the best results. Tell us the urbanisation and we will answer the same day.
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