Comment Femtocell? (Score 2, Interesting) 199
Since the problem seems to be one of coverage (i.e. his basement gets none) a better solution (that would allow him to keep the phone with him) would be to install a femtocell in his house so he can get coverage. Vodafone are launching them in the UK, people like IP Access (http://www.ipaccess.com/picocells/index.php) produce them.