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You might be familiar with it. At your work, there are only a few spots where you have good mobile reception. Very annoying if you need to be easily reachable. How can you ensure that you have good mobile range inside an office building? Especially when you know that 40% to 60% of mobile calls take place from within buildings.
Causes of poor coverage
The most important cause of poor range is the increasingly strict insulation requirements that make new office buildings almost impenetrable fortresses for mobile signals. During the construction of new office buildings, too little consideration is often given to this problem. Good mobile communication inside an office building is not (yet) high on the agenda of real estate developers.
In addition, modern smartphones, such as the iPhone, often have worse range than old mobile GSMs. Due to all the technical gadgets, the smartphone has lost signal strength.
Solutions for poor coverage
Fortunately, there are a number of solutions to solve poor range inside a building.
Go investigating
The simplest way is to go on a scavenger hunt inside the building. Hold your smartphone upright and investigate using the coverage bars where the connection is best. Then try to avoid the spots with a weak signal.
Other phone or provider
Did the investigation yield little or only spots where you don’t want to or can’t work all day? Then it is an option to look at another smartphone that has a stronger antenna. Or investigate among your colleagues whether there is a provider that provides a better connection in the places where you use your phone the most.
Get a signal booster (Femtocell)
There are also signal boosters for sale with which you can improve the range inside the building. Such a booster consists of a main/outdoor antenna and 1 or more indoor antennas. Compare it to Wi-Fi repeaters. You place the main antenna in a spot with good coverage. You place the other antennas in spots where coverage is actually needed. By linking the two antennas, there is now also good reception in the spots with weak coverage. There are various webshops where you can buy a signal booster.
Distributed Antenna System
A signal booster can be a solution, but when the mobile signal really leaves much to be desired or is not even present, then a more professional solution will have to be sought. Think of a so-called DAS system. DAS stands for ‘Distributed Antenna System’, where all mobile signals from different providers are distributed via one internal antenna system. With a DAS system, it is possible in every building to ensure an optimal signal for the communication equipment present. Many hospitals, stations, and the entirety of Schiphol are equipped with a DAS system.
Such a process always starts with a measurement that provides insight into the range inside the building. The result is a floor plan on which the 3G and/or 4G signal strength and quality is indicated for every desired provider. Take into account a price tag starting from 1500 euros.
The future? Voice over Wifi!
The latest technique to prevent poor coverage comes from telecom providers themselves and is called ‘Voice over Wi-Fi’ or ‘VoWIFI’ for short. With this technique, in case of poor range, the mobile caller’s smartphone is automatically switched to the Wi-Fi network to handle a phone call. You must have a smartphone that supports this technique.
Vodafone is the only provider that has already activated VoWiFi in its network. KPN will presumably follow in the first half of 2017.
In addition, you see many frequently used smartphone apps being equipped with calling functions. For example, you can make and receive calls via WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger. Apps for which you only need a data/WiFi connection.
Increase your telephone accessibility now!
Voclarion has helped many customers with providing insight into and literally and figuratively improving telephone accessibility. Do you have questions or do you want to know more about the possibilities? Then feel free to contact us without obligation.
