September 29, 2006
By ERIC COHEN
Computers
You either have it, or you don't. For an estimated one-third of the U.S. population, that refers to reliable cell phone service inside their own homes supposedly within their carrier's coverage areas. If you rely on a cell phone but find yourself without coverage in your office, at home or on a work site, there are a number of solutions that will make your cell phone more reliable. Looking to reduce the "my cell phone doesn't work there" excuse? Read on.
I have a "world phone." My service provider, T-Mobile, and my phone make it possible for me to send and receive phone calls almost anywhere in the world. I have caught up on e-mail and surfed the Web with no issues while being driven at 140 kilometers per hour between Lisbon, Portugal, and Huelva, Spain-but getting a signal in my own home or when waiting at the counter of my local bakery is a problem.
It isn't just my home office. When I sit in an office at my employer's place of business, I likewise more often see "Searching for Network ..." than "T-Mobile." The same holds true in lower-floor conference rooms throughout the United States.
For me, it is mostly just embarrassing to have to beg work colleagues to try my land line first, or explain that I missed their call because they called my cell phone and not my land line. My cell phone was either off or left by a window in an upper floor to get any signal.
I know it isn't just me. I had a colleague call me just today to apologize about a dinner invitation I left on his voice mail-on his cell phone-three days ago. He hadn't checked it because it doesn't work in his house.
An informal poll on a conference call found a number of people on their cell phones, awkwardly standing by the window or in the children's room, or otherwise in just the right place in their home to use their cell phones. In many businesses, you will see people lined up by the window, or shivering outside in the parking lot, or sitting in their cars so they can take or receive a call on the cell phone.
And then there are mobile craftspeople and professionals. A group of auditors are on-site at a client headquarters and given the cafeteria to work in-where there is an unreliable signal. A plumber or HVAC person winds up in a home and loses touch with his or her office or customers.
Yes, you can forward your unanswered cell calls to your land line. Yes, you can purchase a cell phone booster for $5 - $20 that sticks on your phone with dubious results. Yes, you can buy a Bluetooth headset, leave your cell phone by the window and have up to 30 feet of mobility. But can you get a real solution at a reasonable price that doesn't require an expert to install or implement?
The same solutions that shopping mall and office building owners have been using to keep their tenants happy are finding their way into consumer-friendly solutions. Prices are also dropping 50 percent a year for the last few years, making an investment in coverage viable for small businesses and users who want to drop their wired phone and only use their wireless.
Some options are designed specifically for automobile use; some other stationary solutions require a direct connection to your mobile phone. (These obviously are more geared for a single user in a "stationary" position.) More elaborate solutions require the installation of an antenna in an attic or outside.
We reviewed the new Zen Coverage System, Z1900, from Spotwave Wireless Inc.-www.spotwave.com-which lives up to its slogan, "coverage made simple." It supports the 1900 MHz band (PCS) used by Sprint, T-Mobile and other carriers in the United States.
Setting it up is simple enough that-well, simple enough that even I can do it. Inside the box, you will find a coverage unit, which you place in the room or area in which you wish to improve the signal; a network access unit, which is placed somewhere where a reasonably strong signal is available; a 35-foot cable; and a power adaptor for the coverage unit. You will also find mounting hardware, covers and substantial user guides.
Using your cell phone as a guide, you find someplace where you have a two-bars-or-more signal, and place the network access unit there. It is directional, so you can try turning it to improve your coverage. It is also weatherproof and can be placed outdoors if necessary.
For those with the need for more separation than the 35-foot cable provides, other cables-even up to 90 feet-can be used as specified. The components should also be no less than 10 feet apart to avoid interference, but for those who don't like the excess cable, you may want to get a shorter cable as well. The network access unit has an indicator light that helps you place the components to avoid that interference between them.
While it may seem counterintuitive, sometimes placing the network access unit farther away from you-and closer to a better signal-will result in a stronger signal throughout your office or home. While you may only get 250 square feet of coverage with a weaker signal at the network access unit, you may get up to 2,000 square feet or more of strong internal coverage with a strong signal at the network access unit.
For the unhandy amongst us, running cables through floors or walls or actually installing the bracket hardware may be a challenge, but my experience showed that it was also not necessary to get the benefits. The ease of picking it all up and moving it make it a great solution for that mobile craftsperson or team of professionals to set up temporarily to insure a workable signal in their transient workspace.
At a suggested retail price of $399, the Z1900 is not the least expensive solution on the market. Also, I am not an engineer, so I cannot judge the representation that something that differentiates the Z1900 from its primary competition is "the only network-protecting, intelligent coverage system available for the consumer market" that leverages Spotwave's patented technology from their commercial-grade products to constantly monitor indoor signal strength, "preventing oscillation (radio network feedback) and interference while ensuring the best signal possible for users."
The Z1900 cannot bring signal indoors where there is little available outside. It is limited to the 1900 MHz band. (Is there a Z850 soon to come?)
However, the results speak for themselves. With our test BlackBerry 7730, reception was indeed significantly improved and data speeds-loading Web pages-increased in both a closed space-a basement office-and an open space, such as a work environment. We did not experience any obvious interference with our Wi-Fi network or cordless phones with this unit. And I lost my excuse to tell people that if they call my cell phone I might not be able to return their calls for days.
If your home or office has at least one place with decent wireless coverage, you can bring that signal to the rest of the building with Zen. Be careful what you wish for-and remember that the off switch on your cell phone isn't just to save batteries when it can't find a good signal; you may soon need it to actually not get calls.
(Eric E. Cohen, CPA, of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, is spending his time reinventing how accounting information is shared, with XBRL.org.)
09/29/06 © Rochester Business Journal
