The Key to Combatting Spotty Cell Phone Reception
“Can you hear me now?”
That question has become a cultural refrain thanks to Verizon’s ubiquitous advertising campaign from several years ago. It still resonates because we all continue to be plagued by spotty cell service and its fallout -- garbled conversations, dropped calls, missed messages, endless waits for Web downloads, and those dreaded no-service “dead zones.”
Weak or spotty cell service occurs almost anywhere. While it’s widely understood that cell service can be unreliable in rural or outlying areas, distance from the nearest cell tower is hardly the only cause of faint signal. Hills and other natural or man-made terrain features, or even trees and vegetation, can block or weaken signals from a nearby tower, leaving many suburban customers with inadequate coverage. Even in urban areas like New York City or Los Angeles that are well covered by cellular networks, a building’s construction materials, particularly concrete, steel, and window films used to increase energy efficiency and reduce the glare from sunlight, will often block a signal from getting inside where people can use it.
Because cell phones are increasingly relied upon in every aspect of our daily work life, and not just for voice or text communications, people need quick, reliable access to Web-based or intranet information. Cellular signal boosters offer a natural solution, letting phone users answer the “can you hear me now” question with a resounding “yes.”
Cellular signal boosters provide an easy, relatively inexpensive solution for hotel managers in search of ways to improve communications within their buildings by ensuring the strongest, most consistent signal available – for customers and employees.
What’s a Cellular Signal Booster?
Cellular booster systems take a weak signal – sometimes too faint for a cellular device to detect – and enhance it so that strong, reliable signal coverage is available inside a commercial building, residence, vehicle, or any other structure.
A typical system for a building includes an outside antenna (usually mast-mounted), a signal booster (also known as an amplifier) unit about the size of a paperback book, an inside antenna, or antennas, to retransmit the amplified signal within the building (mounted on or inside a wall or ceiling), and coax cable to link the components.
Demand for signal boosters is generally for large industrial buildings that are so well built that the cell signal can’t penetrate inside.
Signal booster systems are a natural solution because:
- Boosters work with any cellular-enabled device, including phones, tablets, cellular modems, etc.
- They support multiple voice and data connections simultaneously
- They are bidirectional, amplifying both the downlink (cell tower to device) signal and the uplink (device to tower) signal
- By in large most signal boosters are manufactured to be carrier and device agnostic – they work no matter which operating system and provider network a device employs
- Signal boosters are capable of delivering faster data downloads – up to 20 times faster in some 4G service areas
- They extend battery life for cellular devices, which use less power when receiving a strong signal
- Wilson Electronics offers boosters that incorporate patented technical safeguards to prevent the booster from malfunctioning and causing interference on cellular networks. The company’s commercial products allow the installer to adjust the downlink gain (or amplification level) and uplink transmission power to optimize the booster for the particular structure and location where it’s installed
Often the need for cell signal boosters is huge even in areas where you’d expect signal strength to be strong. They are the most effective, cost-efficient solution to providing the strongest possible signal. You might say it’s something guests will hear “loud and clear.”