I need to know if there is likely to be much difference between a recent Smartphone (iPhone Xs) and an external 8dB omni-directional antenna when in a weak signal area BEFORE I end up spending money on something that may not actually give a usable result.
On the Three network I am in a low signal area. The map square I am in reports "4G : No Indoors, Variable Outdoors" and one square over is "4G : No Service".
Coverage :
http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/misc/ThreeCoverage.jpg
The iPhone shows 0-1 bar of 4G indoors, dropping back to 3G often with speed test results of 2.0 down, 0.5 up when possible to complete them. Outdoors I see 4G of 1-2 bars, usually staying on 4G with speed test results of 2.5 down, 1.8 up.
Considering an 8dB cross-polarised Omni outdoor antenna right next to a Cat6 outdoor modem (1m cable), am I going to see similar results or will it be likely to get a decent signal?
Is there any way I can test to confirm the expected result?
I don't think I can get a line of sight on an actual mast for a directional antenna because I am in a hilly area There is supposed to be one "rural" mast around 1.5 miles away, one 4 miles away and a big one 10 miles away according to the "good" areas on the Coverage Checker. A directional antenna is not likely to help much in my situation I don't think.
I need to beat a landline broadband speed of around 5.0 down, 0.9 up. I also need the SIM to be 4G Unlimited as I currently use 125Gb a month and I expect that to rise because most of the traffic is YouTube at 480p/30 and once it detects a better connection it will start to serve 720p/60 and 1080p/60.
I am not in a Virgin Media area, Vodaphone is just as weak as Three. O2 and EE are reasonable here but do not offer high usage SIMs.
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