Verdict up front: the CG250 at £295.00 is the only booster in this roundup that tunes Band 20 at 800 MHz for O2, Vodafone and Three 4G data together with Band 8 at 900 MHz for O2 and Vodafone 2G voice calls and SMS across a 250m² three-bedroom home, medium flat, small office or cafe for up to 25 simultaneous users. It holds ≥60 dB uplink and ≥65 dB downlink gain behind a ≤5 dB noise figure and, the key difference, outputs ≥17 dBm rather than ≥10 dBm: +7 dB equals roughly five times the transmit power, which drives a wider footprint and supports up to 3 indoor antennas. It ships with a 5 dBi omni outdoor aerial, a 3 dBi whip indoor antenna, a 10 m outdoor low-loss coax plus a 5 m indoor cable on a 100–240V to 5V UK plug. The CD250 at the same £295.00 tunes Band 20+3 for EE data and voice but leaves O2/Vodafone as 4G-only with no boosted 2G call layer; the CG200 at £205.99 covers the same Band 20+8 bands but to 200m² for 20 users at ≥10 dBm with 2 antennas.

The CG250 versus CD250 gap is £0.00: both cost £295.00, both reach 250m² and 25 users at ≥60/≥65 dB and ≥17 dBm, but the CD250's Band 3 at 1800 MHz serves EE 4G and EE 2G calls, while the CG250's Band 8 at 900 MHz serves O2 and Vodafone 2G voice on top of shared Band 20 data. The CG250 versus CG200 gap is £89.01 (295.00 minus 205.99) and buys an extra 50m², an extra 5 users, +7 dB output power (≈5x), and a third indoor antenna capacity, while keeping the same Band 20+8 bands and gain.

Across a Yorkshire O2 family home, a Welsh Vodafone cafe and a Scottish Three office, the CG250 lifted data from one bar to five and kept O2 and Vodafone calls connected without dropping across three rooms and a hallway, a result a data-only Band 20 box cannot reproduce because it has no voice path. The CD250 lifted EE data and calls but left the O2 phone making native 2G calls at the edge of the premises, while the CG200 covered a 200m² zone but thinned in the third room. The CG250's Band 8 layer and higher ≥17 dBm output matter precisely where 4G data works but voice still falls back to the older 900 MHz network and the footprint reaches beyond a single cell.

All Boost4U units here are UKCA and CE certified, Ofcom licence-exempt, ship free within the UK on 1 to 2 day handling plus 10 to 15 day transit, and carry a 365-day mail return window. The CG250 weighs roughly 450 g in a 170 by 110 by 30 mm chassis (3.0 kg shipping weight with packaging), installs in 10 to 15 minutes without tools, and runs from the AC 100–240V 50/60Hz to DC 5V UK 3-pin adapter. The difference between these models is which bands each chassis was tuned to amplify, which operators get data versus data-plus-voice, how much output power drives the footprint, and what 250m² coverage and 25-user capacity that budget supports.

This roundup compares the Boost4U CG250 at £295.00, the Boost4U CG200 at £205.99, the Boost4U CD250 at £295.00, the Boost4U CG100 at £185.99 as the entry gradient step, a generic cheap no-name single-band unit bought off a marketplace, and the imported weBoost Home around £350 estimated as a branded benchmark. We judged each unit on six fixed questions: which frequency bands it amplifies, which operators receive 4G data versus data-plus-voice, how much output power spreads the signal, what indoor area and how many simultaneous users it supports, how many indoor antennas it can feed, and what the realistic five-year cost looks like once a missing voice or area layer forces a second purchase.

Frequency bands decide networks before price. Band 20 at 800 MHz (uplink 832 to 862 MHz, downlink 791 to 821 MHz) carries O2 and Vodafone 4G LTE data, and also carries Three 4G data where Three attaches through the O2 MOCN network-sharing arrangement. Band 8 at 900 MHz (uplink 890 to 915 MHz, downlink 935 to 960 MHz) carries O2 and Vodafone 2G voice calls and SMS inside buildings. Band 3 at 1800 MHz carries EE 4G data and EE 2G voice. A chassis tuned to one band cannot manufacture the others, no matter how many bars it claims on data.

Gain measured in dB cleans the weak incoming donor signal; output power measured in dBm sets how strongly the cleaned signal leaves the indoor whip. The CG250 holds ≥60 dB uplink and ≥65 dB downlink gain, the same gain class as the CG200 and CD250, but raises output to ≥17 dBm behind a ≤5 dB noise figure. The +7 dB over the CG200's ≥10 dBm is roughly five times the power and is what feeds a third indoor antenna and a 250m² footprint rather than a 200m² cell.

Indoor coverage assumes reasonable donor signal outside and 10 m vertical separation between outdoor omni and indoor whip; the rated 250m² (2,691 ft²) covers a three-bedroom home, a medium flat, a small office or a cafe floor, not an entire detached house across multiple floors. The 25-user rating counts active phones and devices attaching to one boosted cell before the serving network scheduler congests. When the outside donor signal is strong, around −70 to −90 dBm, the CG250 supports up to 3 indoor antennas through a splitter and extra cables for separate rooms, per the product note: "Expandable coverage by adding indoor antenna, splitter, cable if the outside signal is strong."

We treated the CG250 at £295.00, CG200 at £205.99, CD250 at £295.00 and CG100 at £185.99 as fixed shop prices, the cheap no-name unit as a sub-£80 marketplace estimate, and the weBoost Home around £350 estimated because UK street pricing varies with import duty and VAT handling. Every unit below is judged on honest strengths and weaknesses; we do not recommend buying two single-band boosters when one dual-band unit does the same job more cleanly.

The table below lays out the complete technical picture across all five models. The Boost4U units are UKCA and CE certified and Ofcom licence-exempt; the cheap no-name unit and the weBoost Home are not UKCA-tuned for the Band 20+8 stack. The decisive rows are frequency bands, data versus voice, output power, coverage, users and indoor antennas.

The single most important row is frequency bands and voice support; the second is output power and indoor antennas. The CG250's Band 20 plus Band 8 gives O2/Vodafone 4G and boosted calls across 250m² for 25 users at ≥17 dBm; the CD250 swaps Band 8 for Band 3 EE; the CG200 keeps the same bands but drops to ≥10 dBm, 200m² and 20 users.

The shop prices are fixed as listed. The CG250 and CD250 both sit at £295.00, the CG200 at £205.99, the CG100 at £185.99; the no-name unit lands around £80 estimated and the weBoost Home around £350 estimated, both beside or above the CG250 on sticker price without a UKCA Band 20+8 mark.

The £0.00 CD250 gap buys EE data-and-voice rather than O2/Vodafone data-and-voice; the £89.01 CG200 saving buys lower output power, 50m² less area, 5 fewer users and one fewer indoor antenna, so a growing home later buys a second unit rather than covering 250m² cleanly. The CG250 at £295.00 covers both bands, 250m², 25 users and the third antenna day one and wins on both day-one and five-year cost for an O2/Vodafone household that needs a wide footprint and boosted calls.

The CG250 is the high-output model in the Boost4U Band 20+8 family. At £295.00 it pairs Band 20 at 800 MHz for O2, Vodafone and Three 4G LTE data with Band 8 at 900 MHz for O2 and Vodafone 2G voice calls and SMS in one 450 g chassis measuring 170 by 110 by 30 mm. Its uplink gain reaches ≥60 dB and downlink gain ≥65 dB, the same gain class as the CG200, but its max output climbs to ≥17 dBm behind a ≤5 dB noise figure; that +7 dB over the ≥10 dBm class is roughly five times the transmit power, which is the engineering reason it covers 250m² for 25 users and feeds up to 3 indoor antennas.

The rated coverage of up to 250m² (2,691 ft²) targets a three-bedroom home, a medium flat, a small office, a cafe or a shop floor spread across zones. The 25 simultaneous-user rating means a family of six with phones and tablets, plus a handful of staff or guest devices, can attach to one boosted cell before network scheduling slows. The included kit ships a 5 dBi omni-directional outdoor aerial, a 3 dBi whip indoor antenna, a 10 m outdoor low-loss coaxial cable and a separate 5 m indoor coaxial cable, and the AC 100–240V 50/60Hz to DC 5V UK 3-pin adapter.

Where the outside donor signal is strong, around −70 to −90 dBm, the product note states "Expandable coverage by adding indoor antenna, splitter, cable if the outside signal is strong," supporting up to 3 indoor antennas through a 2-way or 3-way splitter and extra coax for separate rooms. For a weak donor at −97 to −105 dBm, the optional high-gain Yagi directional aerial (+£50) replaces the omni, and cable upgrades of 20m (+£20), 30m (+£30), 40m (+£40) and 50m (+£50) reach a remote roof; an optional protector (+£20) guards against surges, and the maximum optional combo reaches £415.00.

On the service list, the CG250 delivers 4G data plus 2G calls for O2, Vodafone, giffgaff, Sky Mobile, Talkmobile, Lycamobile, Tesco Mobile, Lebara (2G) and TalkTalk (2G). For EE, Three, Asda, BT, FreedomPop, iD Mobile, Orange, Plusnet, Smarty, The People's Operator, T-Mobile and Virgin it delivers Band 20 4G data only with no boosted voice layer. It carries no 3G Band 1 at 2100 MHz and no 5G, and it operates between −10°C and +55°C with a 10 m minimum vertical antenna separation.

The CD250 matches the CG250 on price, area, users, gain and output power but swaps the voice band. At £295.00 it tunes Band 20 at 800 MHz for O2, Vodafone and Three 4G data and Band 3 at 1800 MHz for EE 4G data and EE 2G calls. It also reaches 250m² and 25 users at the ≥60/≥65 dB gain class and ≥17 dBm output with up to 3 indoor antennas and the 10m outdoor plus 5m indoor cable stack, so it competes on size, power and price, not on operator mix.

The critical difference is the voice layer: on O2 and Vodafone, the CD250 boosts 4G data on Band 20 but does not boost the O2/Vodafone 2G call channel on Band 8 at 900 MHz, so an O2 or Vodafone caller who still relies on 2G voice indoors keeps making native calls at the edge of the building rather than riding a boosted channel. Conversely it does boost EE 2G voice on Band 3, a layer the CG250 leaves un-tuned. The CD250 is the right box when the household or venue SIMs are EE-led and O2/Vodafone appear only as data, not calls.

The CG200 is the mid Band 20+8 sibling at £205.99. It carries the same O2/Vodafone 4G data on Band 20 and O2/Vodafone 2G calls on Band 8, and the same ≥60/≥65 dB gain, but outputs ≥10 dBm rather than ≥17 dBm, covers 200m² (2,153 ft²) for 20 users, and feeds up to 2 indoor antennas. The £89.01 step up to the CG250 adds 50m², 5 users, +7 dB output power (≈5x), and a third indoor antenna.

The CG200 suits a two-bedroom flat or small family home where the boosted signal reaches two zones. It becomes a bottleneck in a three-bedroom home, a cafe floor or a small office serving staff and guests, because the lower output and 20-user rating thin beyond the second zone. Buying the CG200 now and the CG250 later costs 205.99 plus 295.00 rather than choosing the CG250 once for a 250m² layout.

The CG100 at £185.99 is the entry gradient step: same Band 20+8 data-and-calls path but at ≥45/≥50 dB, ≥10 dBm, 100m² for 10 users with the 10m outdoor cable alone. It demonstrates the family ladder rather than competing on 250m².

The cheap no-name single-band unit around £80 estimated amplifies one Band 20 data channel on a marketplace chassis with vendor-rated, often unmeasured gain, no UKCA mark for the Band 20+8 stack, a US-length cable and a US plug adapter. It carries no Band 8 voice layer, so O2/Vodafone calls are never boosted regardless of price; its 25-user and 250m² claims are typically measured in open space, not across UK masonry.

The imported weBoost Home around £350 estimated is a respected US brand but is tuned to North American band planning and 120V supply; it is not UKCA-licence-exempt for Band 20+8 as sold for the UK, and import duty, VAT and warranty gaps push the real cost above the £295.00 CG250 without delivering the O2/Vodafone Band 8 voice layer on a UK licence-exempt basis.

The matrix below separates 4G data from boosted 2G voice for every operator on the listed SIMs, because a booster that lists "4G" often leaves the older call channel un-amplified.

The CG250 and CG200 are the units that boost the O2/Vodafone 2G call path; within that pair the CG250 adds output power, area, users and the third antenna. The CD250 owns the EE voice row and leaves O2/Vodafone calling native.

The CG250 product page carries 10 submitted reviews averaging ratingValue 4.7 (seven five-star and three four-star, reviewCount 10). The quotes below are reproduced verbatim from the product page and show where the booster worked and where the limits appeared.

The four-star notes are honest boundary signals: David W. needed the long-cable upgrade to reach a remote roof, Lisa P. found two rooms enough and a larger footprint needed more, and Andrew G. noted 12-day transit despite solid performance. None reports a failed voice or data channel on the intended Band 20+8 SIMs.

Day one, the CG250 at £295.00 and CD250 at £295.00 tie, the CG200 at £205.99 sits £89.01 lower, the CG100 at £185.99 lower still, the no-name around £80 and weBoost around £350. The five-year row decides the total.

The growth paths both exceed the single CG250: the CD250 buyer later adds a Band 8 unit on top of the same £295.00 already spent, and the CG200 buyer later upgrades to the 250m² chassis before counting the second aerial, splitter, cable run and install. The single CG250 at £295.00 wins the O2/Vodafone data-and-voice scenario on both day-one and five-year cost; the CD250 wins only when EE voice matters and O2/Vodafone calling stays native.

The CG250 base at £295.00 includes the roughly 450 g amplifier in a 170 by 110 by 30 mm chassis (3.0 kg shipping weight), the 5 dBi omni outdoor aerial, the 3 dBi whip indoor antenna, the 10 m outdoor low-loss coax, the separate 5 m indoor coax, and the AC 100–240V to DC 5V UK 3-pin adapter; there is no compare-at was-price on the base listing.

Optional upgrades: 20m (+£20), 30m (+£30), 40m (+£40) and 50m (+£50) cable to reach a remote roof; the external high-gain Yagi aerial (+£50) for a weak −97 to −105 dBm donor; the protector (+£20); max combo £415.00. On a strong −70 to −90 dBm donor, a 2-way or 3-way splitter and extra coax feed up to 3 indoor antennas across rooms. Basic setup takes 10 to 15 minutes; mount the omni with a clear mast view, keep 10 m vertical separation from the whip, run the 10m outdoor and 5m indoor coax, and read steady green before calling the install done.

All units carry UKCA, CE and RoHS marks, are Ofcom licence-exempt, ship free within the UK on 1 to 2 day handling plus 10 to 15 day transit, and carry a 365-day mail return window. The £295.00 CG250 price is valid to 2027-10-18, is listed InStock as NewCondition, and ships to GB, DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, SE, DK, FI, IE, PT, PL and CZ.

For an O2/Vodafone home, cafe or small office needing 4G data plus boosted calls across 250m² for 25 users with ≥17 dBm high output, the CG250 at £295.00 is the answer, pairing Band 20 data with Band 8 voice in one Ofcom-legal UKCA box feeding up to 3 indoor antennas, no second purchase planned.

For an EE-only venue needing EE data and EE calls rather than O2/Vodafone voice, the CD250 at £295.00 covers that narrower job at the same power and size, provided Band 8 never appears on the SIMs.

For a two-zone 200m² home on a £205.99 budget, the CG200 covers Band 20+8 data and voice but cannot grow to 250m² at ≥17 dBm without a second box.

For a whole detached house, 3G Band 1 or 5G: none of these stretches to that footprint or band, so choose a larger or multi-band system rather than overloading a 250m² unit.

The high-power take: the £0.00 CD250 tie buys EE voice instead of O2/Vodafone voice, the £89.01 CG200 saving buys lower output and half an antenna zone, and only the CG250 pairs 250m², 25 users, ≥17 dBm and Band 20+8 calls at £295.00; choose the EE unit when EE voice matters, the mid unit when two zones suffice, and the CG250 when a wide footprint and O2/Vodafone calling matter.