There’s a dark cloud behind every silver lining. Two wireless carriers reported record profits in Q4 2007, but the fine print read that their traditional landline sales were in decline. It’s no secret as to why, but there are still technical problems for consumers who may want to eliminate hard-wired telephony in the house altogether; namely signal problems.
According to a survey1 that the company commisioned last year, Wi-Ex - a leading developer of cellular signal boosters - found that 69 percent of mobile phone owners have poor signal reception or dead zones in their house. Once people leave their homes for their cars however, 65 percent of those who use their cell phone have missed or dropped calls due to poor signals on the road.
Wi-Ex will be at CTIA 2008, and in addition to displaying their complete product line of boosters, they have added a new dual-band car unit that works with both 1900MHz and 800 MHz phones. The new car unit creates what the company calls a “Wi-Ex Cell Zone” for multiple users in the car, without need for a physical connection to the phone.
Wi-Ex President and CEO, Lloyd Meese, said, “Our recent survey findings show the challenges people face when using their mobile phones at home and on the road. I for one, have a 40-minute commute each way to and from work and prior to our new car unit, I would hit three dead zones twice a day. It is hard to have a conversation when you are in and out like that, but now I don’t experience dead zones anymore.”
Wi-Ex’s study reports that as many as 90 percent of consumers use their cell phone while on the road. And while 89 percent of those calls are personal calls, the zBoost Car Survey found that consumers also rely on cell phones in their cars for emergency situations.
(1. Source: 2007 zBoost Cell Phone Signal Survey commissioned by Wi-Ex and conducted by Harris Interactive®)
Car Usage Survey Findings
55% of those polled have used mobile phones for emergency situations
73% of those emergency situations are calls for help
63% of emergency calls for help are because of car trouble
48% of emergency calls were to report an accident
Emergency situations where there are cellular dead zones can be life-threatening. Wi-Ex says that dead zones in the car can be caused by two issues: driving through an area where the signal is weakened or nonexistent; or the car itself may be blocking part of the signal.
The new zBoost Car Unit captures the signal outside of a car and amplifies it on the inside to create a better signal. It supports voice calls or data services and works with all phones and carriers except Nextel. the zBoost extends cellular range up to 10 times the signal strength with no wires connected to the phone. This allows miles and miles of uninterrupted voice and data transmission. “Although safety is a good reason to have a cell phone in the car, the cellular signal has expanded beyond voice applications for many drivers and commuters; they still need a continuous signal to make phone calls, but now they also check mobile content for news, weather, traffic, or sports scores,” said Meese.
The car unit is easy to set up and the package includes everything needed to improve a mobile signal from the road. The product consists of a bi-directional amplifier unit housed in a sturdy, lightweight ABS plastic enclosure that can be located under the seat or in the front console. The amplifier connects to the vehicle’s 12V power through a supplied Cigarette Lighter Adapter (CLA). Like all Wi-Ex products, the zBoost Car Unit uses patent-pending technology to protect the carrier network.
Wi-Ex also has a suite of zBoost products for in-door applications through the creation of Cell ZonesTM. Just to address what the 2007 survey revealed about quirky things people have to do in their own homes to talk on a mobile phone. Below are some of the responses captured verbatim:
“Stood in the closet with the light off”
“Stand in my daughter’s room while touching the chain from her ceiling fan”
“Stand on higher things like a couch or chair”
“Stood by metal”
“Lay perfectly still without moving”
“Run back and forth”
“Moved my arm around”
“Held my head at a funny angle”
“Gone upstairs”
“Hang out the window”
“Kept moving my cell phone until I got a signal ... and ended up pulling a matrix move as I tried to keep the signal”
Find out more at www.wi-ex.com or toll free 1-800-871-1612