Expert: DebiN - 7/8/2010

Question
I work for a hotel which happens to be a total dead zone for cell phone reception. I have been assigned the task of researching options for increasing reception for the entire property. Are you aware of any technology that is capable of doing that? Any information is greatly appreciated.

Answer
Yes, there are many options for you. The first thing to check into is to find out how close you are to cell service. If you can outside of the hotel and get a strong signal, that's a good thing. I would try all of the major carriers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile to see how good the signal is (hopefully, you have employees or friends with these carriers so you can easily see how good the service is). Then, try talking on each of these phones while going from the place where the signal was to inside the hotel so that you can get a feeling for how far away you are from signal.

If you are relatively close to a signal outside the hotel, what you likely need is a Femtocell. First, the carrier has to sell and support a Femtocell and next, it has to have something to connect to through the carrier, like DSL or cable. Sprint has Femtocell service is some areas, as does T-Mobile and AT&T recently started celling Femtocells for consumers.

Your other options are using your hotel's current broadband connection to the internet to create a WiFi network for your hotel guests. You may already have WiFi today for your employees, and if you do, it can be extended to your guests. If you don't, it's pretty easy to add. This would allow cell phone users to access the internet via their WiFi enabled phones, but would not allow cell phone reception to make voice calls, since that requires access to the carrier.

Another option is to install an "in-building base station" through one of the carriers. This would involve a contract with one of the cell phone providers, a cost to do this (they would quote this for you) and would allow guests with that technology only to access their carrier (i.e., if you went with Sprint or Verizon, then CDMA would be available, but it would not work for AT&T or T-Mobile guests).

There's no technology today that would allow cell service for all carriers without you having to install routers, base stations, etc. for both technologies. Unfortunately, the major carriers today are on two totally different technologies.

I hope this helps and let me know if you have more questions on this. Thanks.