Maximize your Mobile Signal Strength

When I worked for a healthcare organization, managing the day-to-day technical and financial issues related to our company’s several hundred cellular devices, the biggest complaint I fielded from our users was that their phones simply wouldn’t make calls, send text messages or connect to the internet when and where the users wanted. And even though technology has continued to blow forward at warp speed, this issue persists today. Many of my friends and colleagues who know of my cellular background continue to use me as their guru/mentor/therapist for all things cellularly broken, and the common answer I give to lack of signal complaints remains the same – the word “mobile” does not mean you will have coverage whenever you want it, wherever you go. Let me give you a few practical solutions for either avoiding the signal issues from the start, or working around them as necessary.

The number 1 signal strength issue I’ve heard: My cell phone does not work in all/part of the building I work in. This was, by far, the most common complaint I fielded, and one I’ve dealt with myself. Here’s the bad news: when you’re surrounded by millions of tons of concrete and metal, it’s most likely going to interfere with your ability to make and receive mobile calls and/or use other mobile functionality. The good news: there are a million viable solutions to this issue. I worked with one manager who always joined a conference call from his cellular phone instead of his office phone because he was often scheduled to leave the office halfway through the call to head to an outside meeting or the airport. His biggest worry was leaving the office too early for a meeting or a flight and missing something important that might be going on. Our solution for him was quite simple – we added mobile technology to his laptop and sent him along his way. When he had a conference call scheduled for a time that needed to be spent partially in-office and partially in-transit, he would leave for his set location early enough to put himself in a good reception area so that he didn’t drop off conference calls accidentally part way through. If he was headed to the airport, he could log back into his computer at one of the newly created mobile hotspots designed for busy multi-tasking travelers like himself. If he was headed uptown to a meeting, he could use the new wireless card on his laptop to gain internet connectivity through the very same service provider as his mobile phone and work unhampered in his car prior to arriving at his meeting cool and unflustered after a successful conference call.

I’ve just given a very specific solution to a very specific problem, but what about other common signal strength issues we all deal with? If you are lucky enough to work in a metropolitan area and within certain buildings, major relief to your in-office mobile signal strength issues is on the way. Organizations and property management companies throughout the country have begun installing amplifiers or repeaters inside their buildings to ease the professional lives of their tenants. In a nutshell, these devices capture signals and enhance them for very specific locations. In one building in Dallas, Texas, individuals are now capable of sustaining cell phone calls while in the building’s elevator, a task completely impossible before the addition of the repeater. Some companies also claim to be able to provide this technology – of course, at a price – for individual cellular users, as some type of patch that attaches to the rear of the phone. If this tempts you, walk away! These products might work with a handset to slightly enhance or focus your mobile ability, but they cannot guarantee any real improvement in service.