Boosters for WIFI/Cell service vs Satellite Dish.

A lot of people will give you advice if you ask about boosters.
Fred (the manager at the local Target store} will give his expert advice – followed up by Margret (the owner of some ever booming new business) – only to be contradicted by Clark (the division manager of the local Ford truck plant).

The common idea here is that NONE of them has any real understanding of electronics and communications. They are simply regurgitating some (likely) faulty info they heard.
I spent much of my career in electronics and as the head of a military tactical communications engineering division. I think I might have something reliable to offer on the subject.
It is really basically pretty simple. NO booster can turn a bad signal into a good signal. At best, it can take a USABLE signal and make it a little better.

Think of it this way….. You are listening to somebody give you directions to the campground but they are talking at a very low volume and completely skipping every other word. Communications is failing. You could BOOST it by putting them in front of a microphone connected to the PA system of a big rock band (which would give you a really loud signal) but the missing words would still be missing. You could hear them quite well but still not understand the directions. The communications still fail.

So many people brag on how strong the signal is on their phone/laptop but that is how strong the phone/laptop is connecting to the booster – not how strong the booster is connecting to the cell tower or campground WIFI . You can actually completely loose the connection between your WIFI booster and the campground hot spot but have a ‘five bar connection’ from your laptop to your booster (and just the booster).

So, are boosters useless. No – it may be quite helpful to boost your signal if it is just weak.
The main factor is when the antenna for the booster is outside your RV which reduces interference plus the antenna is larger and better than what is in your cell phone. This can bump up the quality of your signal and might even make the difference between connecting and not connecting.
Often, the campground WIFI signal may be better in one location of your RV (such as by a window) and a booster in that better spot inside your RV will take that signal and make it stronger throughout your camper, and hopefully campsite.
One thing is for sure : any booster will NOT be bad for your reception and can only help it.

Another benefit can be to combine data from different phone companies. If you have plans with multiple providers (you have Verizon and your spouse has AT&T) and both get OK signals where you are camping, some boosters (like WeBoost) actually combine the data connectivity of multiple carriers to enhance your data connection.
Therefore, the benefit of boosters is to boost an acceptable signal to be a better, stronger signal.

Simply put . . . if the cell, or WIFI , signal at your campsite is NOT sufficient, the booster will not help. It will only give a stronger crappy signal. NO cell phone booster will give you a connection when you are boondocking and have NO bars!!!!

Don’t forget that most phones can provide WIFI hot spots for your laptops so a bad campground WIFI may not be the end of the world. As long as you have a decent cell signal, you might be better off using the phone hot spot.

What should you do if you have to have connectivity? You want to full time it and work from your RV but have to have a good internet connection.
Go with a satellite dish and always camp where you can get a direct, tree free, clear shot to the satellite (the sky). This means no more camping back in the trees and not even tall trees anywhere near your RV. No tall buildings either.
Dishes have to have a clear line of sight to the satellite they want to use.
This is not that bad. Some dish systems are actually cheaper than cell boosters and you can even pay for their service only for the months you need.

It all depends on what you NEED. Personally, I have neither – but I am retired and I can do without my ‘gadgets’ for most of the day and not get upset. Also, we do not boondock but we have camped where we had NO bars on our phones and the free WIFI was useless.
If I am camping with no cell service, I simply go somewhere I can get service each day just to check in.
If I have no WIFI in the site, I take my laptop too and find a coffee shop with free WIFI or set up a phone hotspot.

Happy camping and just let yourself be disconnected – at least once in a while.