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Our Baja Sur location is far from cellular repeaters and on almost a daily basis folks do not have cell phone service until the evening or unless the tide is just right. The only ones with reliable phone service have an antenna on their house.

I don't know anything about this stuff so it's hard to shop and research this topic.

-What do you call this kind of cell phone/antenna set up?

-Is it a regular cell/mobile phone with a wireless link to an antenna on your roof or does it sit on a desk with a wire to the antenna?

- Is it possible to hook up a fax to this system?

- Does this equipment need to be purchased locally or can I buy it in the US?

- Pros, cons, and opinions about this type of system?

The only experence I have had with cell phone atnenna was with a roof mount in a car.

It was hard wired in that the cable was routed into the car and plugged into the phone.
I greatly extended the range of the phone. At that time I was living in a valley in the mountains and it worked great for me.

I would assume a car mount would also work in a home and could of course be used for both.

I believe they are called "boosters".

We've had couple people people here in N. Central WA install them in their homes. Don't know a whole lot about the system except they usually involve an outside antenna to pick up the signal, the exterior antenna is hardwired to an interior unit which boosts the signal and distributes it throughout the house.

A price I've heard batted around is $250-300usd. Our neighbors have been looking at this for a while and I expect them to get one soon and eliminate their landline. With a basic landline phone bill of $32/month, it won't take long to recoup the investment.

We know of 2 other houses who have them and the boosters will take a 1-bar signal and boost it to full strength.

Don't think they can do faxes, unless somehow your regular fax machine is set up to be connected to the cell phone. HOWEVER! there are remote fax servers that accept a regular phone fax and send it to your computer. (not sure if this is available in MX)

We had a couple business associates who had that kind of fax service and it kinda bugged me cuz we were faxing something to a local business and I had to send it via a long distance phone call to a regional city (where the server was).

You should be able to buy a cell phone booster in either place. I'll do a quick search and edit if I find something.

links for cell phone booster-

tigerdirect-
zBoost YX 510 Dual Band Cell Phone Signal Booster at TigerDirect.com


newegg-
Newegg.com - zBoost YX510PCSCEL White Dual-Band cell phone signal booster extends - Cell Phone Accessories

the newegg reviews have some great hints as to placement of receivers/antennas that are good reading no matter what you end up getting.

ps- notice price difference!

I also saw something called a "cell phone amplifier" but I'm not sure that's what you're looking for.

hope some of this helps~~~