The hottest new accessory in the Hamptons this summer doesn’t come from Hermes or Loro Piana.

It’s a clunky cell phone signal booster that disgruntled Hamptons residents attach to their cars to improve their reception in the notorious dead zone.

“There is better cell reception in Bangladesh than here,” a Sag Harbor resident complained to The Post.

The devices, from companies such as weBoost, Wilson Amplifiers and Cel-Fi, cost around $500. They have long been popular with truck drivers on long-distance cross-country trips or adventurers crossing the Rocky Mountains, but now they are also in vogue with a more upscale crowd.

However, there is a catch: the devices are bulky and ugly.

They consist not of one but of three parts.

There is a 7.5-inch antenna that extends over three feet and must be attached to the outside of the car near the center of the roof.

The cable from this antenna is then fed into the car – either by awkwardly feeding it through the window and rolling it up or by drilling a small cut in the car roof – and connected to a booster box that is slightly larger than an iPhone and is usually located on the back seat or the floor.

The box is connected to a small internal antenna that can be attached to or placed on the dashboard of a car. It works best when placed 45 to 90 centimeters from where the cell phone in use (and hopefully amplified) is placed.

Theoretically, the car owner could install the boosters themselves, but many choose to pay a mechanic a few hundred dollars to do it.

The hassle of setting it up can be worth it. Wilson Amplifiers claims its boosters increase signal strength by “up to 32 times.”

Residents of the Hamptons are faced with the decision of whether they want better cell phone reception and the immaculate condition of their luxury cars.

“It won’t fit on the Ferrari,” sniffed a classic car collector who keeps eight cars in his Southampton home. He plans to order a booster but will only fit it to one of his more “practical” cars, such as a 1977 Ford Bronco, he said.

A middle-aged man A Bridgehampton resident told The Post he had purchased three cell phone boosters but had not yet installed them in his cars, which range from off-road vehicles such as Jeeps and a Land Rover Defender to vintage sports cars.

He can hardly get over having to drill holes in the roofs of his cars.

“Everyone in the world is looking for an alternative (to the poor cell reception out here), but this is a commitment,” he said.

Cell phone reception has long been a problem in the Hamptons, especially during busy months when city dwellers with their iPhones flock to town for the weekends and the population in some areas temporarily triples or even quadruples.

Over the years, numerous towns in Suffolk County, including East Hampton and Southampton, have tried to expand their wireless infrastructure and internet. But wireless companies that want to build new cell towers or install additional microwave antennas face resistance from groups like Citizens for 5G Awareness, who claim that radio frequencies cause health problems.

Some residents also fear that proximity to a tower could reduce the value of their property or cause ice or debris to fall on their home.

“The terrible service is a direct result of the NIMBY principle and now residents are paying the price,” said the Sag Harbor resident.

The growing year-round population in the East has exacerbated the problem. According to U.S. Census data, the full-time population in East Hampton County increased 32% from April 2011 to 2021, while the number of residents in Southampton increased 22% over the same period.

In East Hampton and Sagaponack, cell towers that have been approved for operation are facing lawsuits from residents and it is unclear if and when they will be operational.

The residents have had enough.

“It’s a big security risk as more and more households are having their landlines cut off and the problem is exacerbated by the (increasing) number of visitors,” said a year-round resident of Noyac in Southampton.

“People are so desperate,” the Sag Harbor source added, “(that) even the vainest people are willing to put an ugly addition on their car.”