Novatel proudly serves the rural communities of Ireland, bridging the digital divide, helping to create new opportunities for homes and business with innovative cellular technology. 

Over the past 15 years, we have delivered thousands of solutions to customers who live in remote areas. Novatel customers get connected, are online and making crystal clear voice calls even in the most challenging of locations.

The following, is wonderful feedback that we received from one of our recent customers who lives in the very rugged and very beautiful West Cork.

The customer purchased the Stella Doradus Multi Band domestic repeater kit and a second antenna kit. Amplifying 700-800-900-1800-2100Mhz frequencies, the repeater, sometimes also called a booster, amplifies all networks at once and has unlimited capacity in terms of the number of users that can be online and on calls at the same time. The equipment is ComReg approved so it is compliant and licensed for sale and installation. The repeater has a 3 year manufacturers warranty and is manufactured in County Waterford by the World Renowned Stella Doradus, making this a guaranteed Irish product, something Novatel is very proud of, supporting Irish jobs and Irish business.

The customer was a savvy DIYer who bought a ready to go kit and successfully installed it on his own, with some advice from the Novatel team.

Here’s how he did it:

  1. An internal antenna was placed over the open plan sitting room. The kitchen extends out the back, so I placed the antenna at an angle to cover the room below and the Kitchen extension.
Reference Image: Internal antenna placed over the open plan sitting room
  1. A second antenna pointing down, above the centre point of the four bedrooms, covering all.
Reference Image: A second antenna pointing down, above the centre point of the four bedrooms, covering all
  1. Repeater installation.
Reference Image: Quint Band Mobile Repeater Installed
  1. Great signal on all bands with the external high gain aerial pointed towards the cell towers.
Reference Image: All Frequency Bands Boosted
  1. Outdoor aerial installation
Reference Image: The Donor Antenna Is Installed Outdoors

  1. To find a signal, I initially brought the external aerial, cable, and repeater box up to the roof, with a power extension cable.

    I used the repeater led’s to figure out the best signal. My phone was showing the south east was the best signal but the aerial was saying west.

    It was only then that I realised that the aerial was picking up a better signal from the mountain in the distance, where all the big comms masts are. You can see them in the distance on this photo, hence the full signal on all bands of the repeater.

Reference Image: The Donor Antenna Is Installed Outdoors
  1. Testing using a third party app, with and without the repeater turned on.
Reference Image: Speed Test On The Same Phone and Location
Speed Test On The Same Phone and Location.

Final thoughts from the customer

The system is working perfectly and we all have great coverage in the house.

I’ve noticed that 4 of the various bands can be active at different times, so covering all the relevant options was a good call out. Customer has noted to us that he initially used a third party app on his phone which advised the signal was coming from a particular mast, however when he carried out his own tests at roof level using the Yagi antenna and the repeater, he found that a much stronger signal was coming from a totally different mast and he installed the antenna to face that direction, resulting in superior performance.

Conclusion

The team at Novatel are delighted to have delivered another premium Cellular, legal to use system to a customer who had been suffering with poor signal coverage at their home, adding frustration to simple online tasks, calls and texts.

We are very grateful to this customer for taking his time to offer us amazing photos and description of the installation and the end result.

Thank You from all of us!