RUSH: Here is James in Indianola, Iowa. Great to have you, sir. How are you doing?
CALLER: Doing great. How about you?
RUSH: Very well. Thank you.
CALLER: I had a question about the cell phone signal boosters. I deliver mail in the country, and I don’t get good reception at home, but I use my phone for basically everything. I don’t have cable or anything like that. And I was just wondering, they range from like $20 up to like a thousand, and, you know, I don’t know much about them. How much do you think you would need to spend to get one that works or, you know, do you have any suggestions?
RUSH: You’re talking about a cell signal booster that is mobile, that travels with you? On your mail route, for example, or at your house?
CALLER: Well, on my mail route, too, if possible. If they don’t make those, just one for the house would be —
RUSH: I have, in fact, a cell signal that is very weak where I live, and I do have two boosters in the house, and they work. They routinely show me three bars, sometimes four. They’ve worked, and they weren’t that expensive. I don’t remember what they cost; I got them a long time ago. One’s AT&T, one’s Verizon. I have both in case one bombs out. But do you have Wi-Fi in your home?
CALLER: No, I do not. I have unlimited data on my phone, and I actually have found a way to get around paying ’em extra for Wi-Fi off my phone. I can use my unlimited data and Wi-Fi to my TV or computer if I wanted to.
RUSH: So you do have —
CALLER: — anything but my phone.
RUSH: You do have Wi-Fi at home?
CALLER: Well, it comes from my phone.
RUSH: Right. What you’re telling me is, you’re not paying for it? You’ve cut the corner?
CALLER: Um.
RUSH: Don’t be afraid to admit it. Nobody knows who you are out there. We don’t have any drones over your house.
CALLER: I pay for my cell phone, but other than that I pay for nothing as far as internet or TV or anything.
RUSH: Right. Well, I have found the cell signal boosters — they work in my case. I don’t remember what mine cost. They weren’t exorbitantly expensive. I know the price range for these things is rather high. I’m sorry to say, I’m not aware of mobile cell boosters. Neither is our broadcast engineer here aware of any such thing as that.
CALLER: Well, do you know — I’m not much of a tech guy, either.
RUSH: It sounds to me like you are. If you don’t have Wi-Fi at home and you figured out how to get some without paying it, it sounds to me like you are a tech guy.
CALLER: Yeah, I had a tech buddy when I was in college.
RUSH: Well, I know a couple tech blogs that would probably hire you.
CALLER: Well, do you know when you look at those, like, what stats am I actually looking at to tell — does that make sense? Like a computer you look at processor speed. For those, is there —
RUSH: No. There’s not much variance in them. They boost the signal or they don’t. It’s technical to describe what they actually do, but the practical result is that they have the ability to take a weak cell phone signal and amplify it within a certain range in your house. Like my booster only covers the room that I have it in. It doesn’t do the whole house.
CALLER: That’s probably why some are more expensive ’cause they have different ranges?
RUSH: They are wide-ranging in expense, but I imagine the expense has come down from the day they were introduced, like is the case in tech. In your case, you know, go out and price them, and, if you’re depending on a cell signal in your home and it’s weak and there is a way to amplify it, and it’s the only way you can do it, you’re kind of a prisoner to the cost if you want to change your certain circumstance.
If you don’t want to spend the money, you’re gonna have live with your current circumstance, which is a weak signal, jury-rigged however you can do it. Other than that, you can move. I mean, there’s any number — (interruption) well, don’t laugh. There’s any number of ways to fix this! You gotta be open to options here. But check the pricing of these things. They’re not expensive anymore. I mean, not exorbitantly, and they, in most cases, do the trick quite well.