Cel-Fi Go | Long Term Review | Phone Signal Booster
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- Опубликовано: 29 дек 2024
- After testing the Cel-Fi Go phone signal booster for over 16 months, in various areas including the Kimberley, Pilbara and South-West of Western Australia, I thought it was time to do a review on the unit.
The booster can amplify one signal band at a time, 3g or 4g. It's perfect for when you are cruising on remote long sections of highway and want to stream music or videos, or just browse the internet.
If you haven't seen my initial Celfi Go review, check it out here : • Cel-Fi Go Review - Mob...
Best review yet - thanks mate!! Too many people sponsored by nearly every make of 4wd/off road products these days, including the cel-fi units... they get these for free and just go on about how amazing they are and do not cover off any cons you've ever mentioned. Overall, appears to be worth of investment. Cheers!
I have one of these units at my house in bush, works great!
Went from 1 bar of 3G too 4 bars of 4G.
I was on a tag along tour a couple of years ago and my phone reception with a Bury car kit plus antenna was zero at 6km from Marble Bar. The guy with the celfi had reception 30 km from Marble Bar. The Celfi works with Telstra, Optus, Vodaphone and Digicell but you have to buy one for each network.
🤚 another long term Celfi owner. Android, older android phones connect a lot faster. iOS seems to be inherently slow. Firmware updates have been very good so far, reckon we will see the 4G/3G switch and iOS delay resolved soon. But in our experience , 3G vs 4G is really nothing to worry about when our remote/country areas.
What about in Mexico
Mate. The Cell Fi Go folks need to slip you a few shekels because I can’t possibly be the only person to have bought one of these on the basis of your review. I’m on the other side of Oz FaceTiming my wife working in Mongolia while everyone else has basically zero bars. Keep up the great work.
you are a genuine Australian mate!!! Love you!!
You can get a Optus version these days. And I also think the app is improving a bit lately with updates and firmware. Is it worth the money? We I think it is. It’s great for those fringe areas when out on the road and it fills in the holes. If you have a business that relies on the internet and you want to work on the road I think it’s a must have.
This guy could sell a book to Floyd Mayweather.
Don't want to be _that guy_ but this website is saying that ALL mobile boosters are illegal with huge penalites for selling or using them www.acma.gov.au/devices-we-prohibit
Peter Knagge except where the repeater is used with the permission of a service provider,, in this case it’s Telstra. At this point Telstra is the only network provider that allows for the use of a signal repeater
Not only do Telstra allow mobile signal boosters they can be purchased through Telstra, how do I know that? I’ve purchased through Telstra one unit for my car and one for my wife’s car..
A simple google search would have cleared that up , I will do the work for you 😄👍
crowdsupport.telstra.com.au/t5/Mobile-Broadband/Telstra-CEL-Fi-GO-Smart-Signal-Repeater/td-p/758301
@@Eric_412 Fine, no need to be a dick. I'm just repeating what the current Australian law says and not going off salesman 3rd party information... (Not that anyone follows the law these days!) You do you, but bossters can cause network damage and penalties include mega fines and years of prison time!
I'm looking at a new CB as they are more what I am after.
Stay safe and good luck!
@@Eric_412 ,
This popped up on my feed as im getting a celfi go tommorow 😊....hope ya doing well mate
I had one of them in my work ute at my last job doing field maintenance in remote areas of central QLD saved my life once when I got bitten by a snake I could call the ambulance before I started heading to town I was atleast 35km beyond the normal phone signal.
And yea I does make you a lot of new friends when they find out about it
Whats the radius around the car like?
Good review Michael. Ive had my CelFi fot a bit longer than you, and i agree with your pros and cons. On the 3G to 4G flip, just bare in mind that the booster only boosts when needed, not all the time. So if the town 4G signal is strong, the CelFi wont do any boosting until it's required to. This is to stop boosters "stealing" bandwidth from people without one, and how this particular booster has carrier approval, unlike a lot of dodgy ebay ones.
I just got the CEL-FI GO from Telstra and I did some testing tonight
I drove to an area that only has 1 bar of 4g yet the CEL-FI GO was saying it had a lot better coverage. My phone doesnt seem to talk to the device? I then when deeper and whilst CEL-FI GO had full 3g my iphone was stuck on 4g.
I am noticing zero difference and wondering if my phone is not setup to talk correctly?
@@troyjansen1 Hey Troy. Don't forget that the CelFi has an external antenna that's better than the phone's. Also, make sure you have your phone set to search for 2/3/4G. You may have your phone set to only use 4G. Not sure what phone you have, but only Android it's in the mobile settings.
Look for a used Telstra smart modem, I got one for half the rrp with a yagi- works great in my shack in the fringe.
zwarst I am may or may not take mine on trips to in-laws in country vic. use the backup mobile connection. 1.2mps is usage for must things.
Also get the gen1 version if you can as has the antenna lugs on the back to attach external leads. Gen2 did away with that
Very useful review guys!
Such a great run down. Keep up the great work.
The problem that you describe can be resolved by changing seting in mob telephone to only use 3G .
Who the hell wants to use 3G 🤣
Definitely run the Telstra celfi version on 3G only and lock your phone on 3G while you're traveling remote. This makes an enormous difference for reliability
But the internet it so much slower Jeremy 😥. I like that it switches between the two depend what band is available, I just wish it did it abit faster 🙂
I rely on calls more so than data speed the majority of the time. If you need the speed then I'd suggest changing it over manually on demand. The new Optus celfi go 2 does both 3 and 4 G at the same time. They're also more than double the price
@@gooneypip Fair enough Jeremy, as long as it works for you 🙂. The phone I have at the moment has the new VoLTE technology, so taking calls while on 4g isn't as issue.
That is cool that it can boost both bands at the same time, but twice the price is insane.
Funny enough, there are some towers where there is only 700mhz lte, so this could actually result in less coverage in those areas.
Is your battery manage a victron battery monitor ? Could you please do a review pros , cons and how it's wired up. 👍
I've got my antenna on the rhino folding mount and have it flat when I not at camp, really saves the damage on the antenna
I cant recommend mine highly enough. Mine's ignition mounted and the antena has a spring base which helps with the obstacles. An awesome piece of kit and I wouldn't go bush without it.
You put a great video together mate.
Top work once again legend.
Try using the gme swivel mount so you can fold your antenna flat when you need to 👍
I thought about a swivel mount, but just getting the detachable whip antenna's has worked well, if the tracks are that rough you dont really need signal 🙂
@@SeekAdventure I'm getting one as it's going to be a permanent fixture so during the week driving around town & through carparks with low clearance I can lay it down & then come weekend I can stand it up 👍
@@Campingdownunder Awesome, that should work great for you.
When I'm driving around town I just take them off, no need for them to be up there 🙂
The antenna, you can get a bracket that can fold it horizontal. So when your not using it, Just fold it down :)
I did look at that option, but if I am not using my antennas, I just unscrew them and pit them behind my back seats 🙂. Even simpler then fold down brackets 👍
Good point! Aha :)
Well done on the clone, good video.👍
You can also get them to carry Optus or Vodafone etc signals now. Getting mine installed soon. I'm with Optus.
Hope you are enjoying yourself! Miss your videos.
@seek Adventure, you mentioned your not sure if there is a difference between bullbar and roof mounting, i can assure you there is a massive difference between the two. on my old patrol it was on the roof and never had a issue, now on the van its mounted on the bullbar, i have noticed a significant drop in performance and the main Arial seems to be directional now :(
Another rad review...👍...Only one problem...Now there's two of you...😫...come on...Ones enough...LOL...👌😎...Great work...
Aw man, I thought that if people could be bothered watching one of me, two would be a hit! 😂. Thanks Rooster, I might find out your real name one day!?
Nice one good bit of information 👍😎
Awesome content, thanks mate. 🍻
Love the special effect of 2 of yourself! How the hell do you do that !! 😁
A Person cheers for that. Excellent outcome on video that’s for sure.
Great vid.... Had me laughing out loud :) Love your work M8... What gear would you suggest for an outback rig for "Streaming" zoom/teams etc if you were working from a laptop in a caravan all around Australia ? Any advice or gear suggestions would be awesome bro :)
Love your videos 💪🏽
Has anyone told you, that you're one funny guy? Thanks for the videos.
The problem with these amplifiers are quality. Notice the warranty periods. One year. Maybe two years max. I've had two and both went bad a few months after the warranty. No fault of my own. In a temperature controlled room with no vibration and clean stable power. Two different manufacturers yet both would only give me a few percent off on buying a new one. They both looked solid with heavy heat sinks and lots of metal. You'd think they'd be just as stable as a stereo or any other piece of electronics we normally buy. They are not though, and that is why the warranty periods on them are limited to a year or two and not something respectable like 10 years.
Very useful advice and well presented! 😁
Can always power it off your aux battery but have a relay from your ignition.
I could, but I don't see how that is any different then having it straight off the ignition? I wouldn't be able to use it when I am parked up at camp without having the ignition on 😦
@@SeekAdventure just slap it in a switch then and turn it in and off when you want to
To hard wire it can you cut the cig plug off and wire it to your fuse box or is there some sort of voltage regulator in the plug
Cel-Fi Go now supports Optus as well!
Made for telstra, voda and optus now. I bought one 2 weeks ago. Defiantly works.
Great vid mate thanks for sharingg
have you seen those signal booster kits on ebay? would be interesting to compare
This is the only endorsed one by Telstra. The other ones are actually illegal to use and apparently can crash a service tower that they are boosting from.
Very illegal and most dont even work
mowie1236 illegal, and can block other users. Do you want to be responsible for someones death ?
No, other than the models endorsed by the carriers - active boosters are illegal. The legal and cheaper way is to have a passive cradle connected to an external antenna.
@@roland985 is a passive cradle with external antenna the same has a corner reflector?
Another great video. thumbs up.
great vid, super useful info and well explained
i know this is an old video but i am considering getting one of these as i work rural areas, have met someone out here with one and seen how well they work for myself but wondering if the will be obsolete when 5g kicks in or if it will be just a matter of a software update and changing the ariel
great informative video btw thanks
Probably obsolete if frequency is different and even if same then unit wouldn’t probably won’t be capable to do 5G anyway. I doubt they can just tweak the software.
Don't believe the Telstra map. I sent out staff based on the map & 80% of them did NOT have coverage, which is very important for safety. It became a huge issue with staff working on their own, even having some bogged on back roads with no service.
Hey Rob, that's interesting, I have always found the telstra map to be very accurate. What kind of external antenna's where you running out of curiosity?
@@SeekAdventure None! Telstra assured us the coverage was correct. Nope!! I travel remotely a couple of times a year now days & I'm more than happy to use my "old school" HF Radio for phone calls & texting (even emails if I want) oh! yes, I can use it as a long distant radio too :-)
@@LimestoneCoastCustoms If you had no external antennas that would make sense why you didnt have service, in remote areas the coverage map shows signal that is available if you use an external antenna 👍🏻.
I didn't think Hf radios are that old school! There seems to be quite afew people that still use them 🙂. It's hard to believe the distances achieveable of a hf radio!
@@SeekAdventure The areas we where working where not remote. we just used the normal Telstra maps not remote. I have a favorite camping spot that is 15mins up the highway & 15mins of easy 4wding away & until recently, there was no service their either! I am talking not far off a National Hwy. Anyway, I don't really care when camping/4wding, I like getting away from phones etc. Remote though, yes I love my HF. love your videos by the way
Great video! Very informative and well presented. Have just followed your channel. Cheers
After latest firmware update don't waste your money on the stationary model. 2 bar's on mobile, but unit says no signal. Currently have a $1k paperweight
I just got the CEL-FI GO from Telstra and I did some testing tonight
I drove to an area that only has 1 bar of 4g yet the CEL-FI GO was saying it had a lot better coverage. My phone doesnt seem to talk to the device? I then when deeper and whilst CEL-FI GO had full 3g my iphone was stuck on 4g.
I am noticing zero difference and wondering if my phone is not setup to talk correctly?
4G is data, 3G is data and voice. Eventually, 5G will be data and 4G will be data and voice.
Currently, priority is given to 4G while there's no phone call.
The drop from 4G data onto a 3G voice call is about a blink of the eye.
Dial a number and it'll hook into 3G lickety split.
That is your phone is old or carrier doesn't support VoLTE (Voice Over Long Term Evolution)
@@Slap0 Yeah, my S10+ is VoLTE
always wonder why my phone went to 3g when on a call, know i know, thanks mate
My provider uses VoLTE so it stays on 4g and calls are crystal clear.
I don't like 5g because it's dangerous but I like it because 1x and 2g is going to be killed off and Verizon confirmed they'll be shutting both of them down this year and replace it with 3g at the minimum.
if you running external antenna, you need to earth the unit. Otherwise, you will cook it, as I had to replace 2 times, and they have asked me to grind the paint off and attach earth to the car..
That's interesting Don, where did you actually attach the earth too on the unit?
@@SeekAdventure any part of body will do.. I have test it with voltmeter to make sure it was negative
The down side is 3g is basically non existent in the eastern state's (my 3g arial stopped picking up signal 18mth's ago) & Telstra a fazing out 4g in the near future. Will b interesting to see how this affects the units price.
Matt Hutch nope. Telstra 3G fais out was only announced 2 months ago, and this process will take a long time. Plenty of customers have 3G only phones, plus thousands of point of sale machines, drink machines, alarms etc, are only on 3G. Telstra 3G won't be turned of anytime soon. No plans atm to turn off Telstra 4G as no one owns a 5G phone.
@@nordic5490 well don't head bush around Mathoura or the Victorian High country. Mathoura has no 3g whatsoever. Vic high country we (3 of us) could only get 4g service. According to Telstra 3g in remote areas will b the 1st to go & l have traveled to more than just the places mentioned & found no service. It totally sux's
Only got a 3G phone and i never have a problem on east coast until im in an area with poor coverage anyway. When its switched i'll just buy a 4G and swap my sim over, don't need 5G to make phone calls.
@@matthutch5919 Well that's definitely not true mate, Mathoura is the closest town to where I live and my phone is locked to 3G
Can you please do a video of everyone that is on the cel-fi go using the app at the same time we have one and can’t get more that one person using the app on the same unit at the same time
Bluetooth normally works on one device only.
Hi, I just want to ask if I can use this booster to Philippines?
Do you need to be in range of a little bit of coverage ?
mate , can i attach this cel-fi go , to my modem router which has simcard , im concern about my weak internet signal and voice call my place is isolate , terrain and valley
How far from the vehicle do you get signal?
Thanks - Great review & I will be getting one ;-)
How do you feel about buying a taller antenna and better dbi gain antenna ? Does it make a different buying a taller antenna. Was gonna get a 1.7m antenna
All I no here in Alice we still run off and on 3G n 4G but once u start heading out of town north or south u go to the 3G net work.most of the time if u go west or east u just about don’t get any phone range at all..the talk is that Alice may not even get 5G at all..so I thinking one of these might be great for me😀
...where the fck is Alice?
Alice springs, NT
Hi mate, Great to hear I like to buy one. Many Thank cheers
www.pippostechnologystore.com.au we've been selling them for years
To hard wire these in can you just cut cig plug off add an inline fuse and wire to your fuse box? Or is there a voltage regulator in the cig plug?
Just cut and fuse 👍🙂 Definitely the easiest way to do it, otherwise you have to go find the right connector.
Seek Adventure cheers
What if you hire one?
Can you use 4 g for down up loads. or does it use 3g for down up loads?
Yep i got one and works great, and I’ve got mine mounted same place, in the back of my 79. And Mine has worked with no signal
Its the cheapest way to get signal. Satphones are ungodly expensive. Pay 900+ for the phone. Then the monthly fee then pay for mins and each text
Will these get reception in dead spots where there isn't any reception
No, it needs some signal to amplify.
@@michaelatkin2562 yeah but say I was going out for a 4x4 trip and I had it on while I had reception and drove into a dead spot. Will it boost the reception I had into the dead stop or still won't work?
@@jasset88 As Michael said, it needs a SIGNAL. You can't boost something that you don't have.
Gday! I want to buy a celfi go for my vehicle and one for my home. Do they help with internet? I use mobile internet for work/gaming. Wondering if it will help speed up my internet connection.
The stronger the signal your mobile device receives, the faster your internet.
What would you recommend to someone who is living off-grid down south? i've seen that there is portable versions of this and stationary versions
/ do you think this would benefit an off-grid living situation? (living on 12V in a caravan with limited telstra coverage)
Probably better off with a satphone. Works everywhere and keeps you off the face in phone treadmill.
I like having the satphone for emergencies, but the Celfi is great when you have thousands of km of driving to do, eventually you do run out of things to talk about, so streaming a comedy show or something always makes things more lively 🙂 Plus you usually run out of music, so it means you can explore some new music too 👍🏻.
You are right though Ein, you are better off with a satphone if you can only choose one for sure 👌
Good Vid man
Will these units become redundant when 5G is rolled out?
They will probably just provide a software update, or as the units are capable of using different mobile networks it will then just continue to use the 3 or 4g network
A bit late in the day for this model given the price. I'll wait for the 5g version and hope for those improvements you talked about. Thanks for the review. I really like your channel.
When do you think they will get 5G in the bush???
You'll be waiting a long time my friend
@@mountainconstructions I live 15 minutes drive from a town of 15000 people. I'm hopeful the town will get 5g and this will help me get reception which I don't currently have.
I think your going to be waiting a while Rob, they still don't even have 4g out in the bush 🤐. Have you check out the Telstra coverage map? If you house is in the external antenna area, you could likely get one of the stationary Celfi units and have signal if your whole house.
@ Ozyrob2I think you need to do some reading on data compression protocols
Being 5G won't make it go any further, in fact it will have less range.
(Sorry, cant change physics)
We had a longest mobile reception 15 years ago, but they closed that band for other purposes!
5G is designed for Metro areas to handle mass communication and data throughput
Antennas will be small but they will be placed in more places
The protocol is designed to high density areas.
15minutes drive isn't far from a Cell Tower, there is obviously an obstruction or no array facing in your direction.
You can look this up on line.
Also, because of Cell Tower contracts, you might find a different carrier works in your location while everyones answer to everything "Telstra" doesn't
Seen this heaps!
@@SeekAdventure cheers mate. I might look into it.
This is a perfect product for #LiteBrite
“More helpful info thanks Michael”👍🏻
Just wondering do you still hang off those tall buildings? 😳
Thanks
Great unit if you use Telstra
Sadly so many don't and Optus is better in the red centre as they won the contract
Shame they dont make these units for other carriers
Hugh Jazz you should stick to stuff you understand. Telstra is rolling out a huge number of mobiles bases in remote communities all accross Australia under the black spot program. In remore areas it is usually Telstra or nothing.
They are units available for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
Hugh Jazz you forgot Cowards Springs. As of 3 weeks ago it was Optus and I have both Optus & Telstra phones. 4g at William Creek. Lyndhurst was the last of the Telstra service.
@ Craig Alick Smith, yeah, i think i did look into them
But were they ACMA approved?
@ Anthony, ah thanks mate, nice to know
Shame we haven't heard from our arm chair expert, seems he might have used Google and ran away
@@mountainconstructions They have a Vodafone unit available and the Optus version is being evaluated now... > cel-fi.com.au/cel_fi_models_optus.html
Poor guy at the beginning was just trying to get a message to his Girl Friend! ;-P
How did you know!? 😋😋
No subtitles? :(
The hulk doesn't need subtitles, he has arms of STEEL!
But anyway, is my accent a little bit hard to understand?
@@SeekAdventure lol, I'm hearing impaired tho,
@@thehulk7360 Ah that is a problem 🤐 Subtitles would help
@@SeekAdventure yep haha it's all good bud!
Mine died after overheating in the car :(
$1300 per unit ouch big dollars
I'm wondering what the difference is between the Cel-fi go and an external antenna can you provide any insight as you have now used both?
Hey Brandon, both setups use external antennas to pick up the signal, so if you were in a fringe signal area, they could both for instance be getting one bar of signal, without them you might have none or very patch signal. The difference is the Cel-fi go will boost that one bar to 4-5 with probably good data speeds. That is my experience with them anyway 🙂
@@SeekAdventure thanks for the reply I'm leaning towards the cel-fi go because of the lack of cradle anyways and you just sold me on it
Argh! price alone is enough to put me off. $1k is almost the cost of a new drone...
Yes... And since when can you do phonecalls and use internet with a drone?!
@@giovannivanhaaren9885 You can't but that isn't my point.
@@WesternAustraliaNowAndThen But why buy only one drone when you can buy 750 kilograms of potato?
@@giovannivanhaaren9885 for the simple reason that a drone is on my list of things to buy...
Great review but personally I think this solves a problem that doesn't exist.
It's only a booster, you still need to be in close distance to cellular coverage for it to work.
What's the point of forking out $1k+ for the sake of avoiding driving 20 minutes or less down the road to get signal?
Where cell signal doesn't exist, where you'd need to rely on it the most, it's useless.
For those on the fringe, these do work fine. Having just one bar of signal is painful if you are trying to do stuff on the net. After boosting to 4 bars or so, no more lagging or spinning icons.
Nice ad. We get it, you gotta make some dollary-doo's!
lol yeah ok champ.
you trying to give the koalas cancer?
Sat phone is cheaper.....we use ours when we have no mobile coverage
Not really, my sat phone cost me almost as much as the Cel-Fi and it has ongoing costs aswell.
I like having the satphone for emergencies, but the Celfi is great when you have thousands of km of driving to do, eventually you do run out of things to talk about, so streaming a comedy show or something always makes things more lively 🙂 Plus you usually run out of music, so it means you can explore some new music too 👍🏻.
You can't really compare the two because they are both good at different things 👌
Idk what brighter. His teshirt or his teeth
his personality ;-)
Bit impatient 7 seconds is nothing in the grand sceam of things
The 7 seconds was the battery monitor app which is great, the Celfi Go app takes over 30 seconds, which is not so great 🙂
Hey bud thank you for the useful information it was very helpful.
By the way, you have a good looking sister, is she single? Cheers from California.
Keep it respectfull on this channel mate.
Ease up turbo
Nice bit of kit. If you've got an spare one you can send me one Cheers mate
Once you ditch the phone your problems are solved.
I've heard that your solution also helps extend the battery life too 😉👍
@@SeekAdventure It's actually more to do with extending my own life, but that's a different topic.
Great when you can still run your buisness out bush.
That's a waste of time totally useless, your better of with a SAT phone more reliable anywhere anytime full stop....
How long have you had your Cel-Fi go? I have found mine to be really handy!
I like having the satphone for emergencies, but the Celfi is great when you have thousands of km of driving to do, eventually you do run out of things to talk about, so streaming a comedy show or something always makes things more lively 🙂 Plus you usually run out of music, so it means you can explore some new music too 👍🏻.
You can't really compare the two because they are both good at different things 👌
Norco Shore a sat phone is next to useless for data isn’t it? ... and most mobile users these days prefer data to voice.