Possibly.  But isn't the booster and antenna going to cost MORE than the
contract buyout cost?

First question though: does your phone have a physical antenna plug?
Many do not. Without a physical jack you're stuck to either a proximity
connector (lossy) or an expensive active repeater.  I personally won't
buy a phone without an antenna connector (which is current impacting my
new pda/phone choices!).

Are you talking car or home?  An external antenna by itself might be
enough--it would give you the equivalent or slightly better than
standing beside the car or where you'd put the antenna. I've used
external antennas on cars for years since I do quite a bit of rural
travel.  But only after I got a motorhome did I need a booster since I
couldn't just drive on a few miles to a better signal.

I've had good results using a Wilson "Trucker" antenna (with builtin
groundplane) on the roof of the motorhome with a SignalReach booster
between the antenna and the carkit.  I looked at several brands and all
are NOT the same. The SR constantly adjusts the output power to keep the
tower transmitting at full strength--otherwise the tower would think the
phone is close and would reduce its output.  As you get closer it
reduces power and eventually gets to the point where it's not boosting
at all--otherwise the tower will detect a problem and drop the call.
I've not seen any problems at all near a tower and never turn the
booster off. Some of the models I looked at appeared to always boost at
max--I think it's these models that have problems and have some people
here saying that boosters don't work.

The antenna alone usually makes a 2 bar difference in rural areas.  With
the booster it usually pegs out except when I'm in a really really bad
spot. I can't even guess at the number of times the setup has made the
difference between the phone not working at all vers having a solid
signal.

I'm using a GAIT phone that does TDMA and AMPS as well as GSM.  I've
noticed the booster maintains a strong GSM signal where the phone
outside was repeatedly switching back and forth between GSM and TDMA
(the network menu options were removed on the Nokia 6340i so there is no
way to force it to stay on TDMA if there is even a marginal GSM signal).

There is a bit of a hassle involved connecting the antenna--you've got
to either manually plug the connector in and out (which could result in
a broken cable) or use a carkit that supports an external antenna so
that as the phone is put into the cradle the antenna connects.  And of
course it limits the phone use to that area.  The Nokia carkit doesn't
have a horn alert exactly but it does have a wire that goes hot when the
phone rings or is in use.  I ran that thru a toggle switch to a "backup
alert" beeper under the hood--I have to flip the switch to silence the
beeper for an incoming OR outgoing call but it works fine and I can hear
it "ring" in the next campsite.  I think if I was using an antenna in a
house I'd get a phone supported by one of the devices available that
feeds the cell call to normal wired phones (like Dock-N-Talk or
CellSocket)--that way the cell phone would be at one place taking
advantage of the antenna/booster but could be "used" anywhere in the
house.

Probably more info than you needed right :-)