Michael Rodgers sensed he was on the right track after hearing what people went through just to use their cell phones. While researching the commercial viability of a technology that would boost wireless signals, people talked about having to stand on cars or outside in the cold, some wandered up the street or drove blocks away from home and perched themselves on the highest hill for a clear call.
Rodgers began his investigation to develop a wireless signal booster in 2000 when a neighbor needed to get a strong cellular signal to a basement-home-office and came to him for help. The initial solution, to connect an external antenna to an internal antenna with a coaxial cable, didn’t work. It did, however, set the wheels of his engineering mind to turning.
After various iterations of indoor and outdoor antennas and signal repeaters, the design shaped into an amplifying unit that made considerations for carrier network integrity. In the process of initial development, Rodgers became aware of network interference. He created a - patent-pending - equipment design that protects the integrity of a carrier network and then focused on building a product that his neighbor would use. It had to be affordable and easy to install.
By 2002, with the help of two investors and a life’s savings, Wi-Ex was launched. Wi-Ex, (Wireless Extender), today develops, manufactures, and distributes zBoost, a cell phone signal booster for the home, office or car. The zBoost product line of extenders improves signal strength and gives wireless access in areas that were once impossible due to environmental obstructions, building materials, metal roofs and high-speed data transfer that reduces signal performance.
The product-line works so well that in 2005, CIO Magazine featured it as a “technology to watch”. The magazine’s product testers kept the booster samples because they were finally able to get a signal from home allowing them to receive network calls that had been impossible before. But CIO Magazine’s product testers aren’t alone at having had an annoying problem solved by Rodgers’ boosters.
A real estate brokerage firm in Georgia had moved their offices and suddenly found themselves with limited cell service in the new building. In the real estate industry, every call is a potential sale so they had to make do. The strategy was to line the phones along a window that had the best reception. Each broker’s phone was then set to a different ring tone. When a phone rang, chirped or chimed the race was on to reach the call before the caller hung up. The distracting orchestra of ring tones on a busy day was yet another problem all together. Needless-to-say, the office cheered when the Wi-Ex solution arrived.
Wi-Ex is a company who has set the bar high with regard to their future. They have seen the overwhelming need for clear wireless service grow exponentially as the dependency on wireless communication is crossing all sectors. Consumers are placing greater demands on the mobility of everything from email to entertainment. They are sending and receiving larger and larger data bits while the technology for downloading music, video, and email becomes more accessible. Wi-Ex knows that devices are just one part of the equation fuelling the demand for wireless bandwidth, however.
Wireless technologies are far more attractive than landline technologies in developing countries. Wireless is also used more commonly in Europe than in the U.S. Countries with large, developing economies like China, India, Africa and even Mexico all have an interest in advancing technologies, but lack landline infrastructure. As a result, wireless has helped to leapfrog communications capacities in those developing economies. Penetrating these markets are not easy, so Wi-Ex depends very heavily on research and information from analysts, customers, vendors and partners. By mid-2007 they will be launching models for worldwide use.
Rodgers says that he prays “a lot” because having faith in ones product is one thing, believing that one can weather the storms of entrepreneurship is yet another. “Everyone who works for this company believes in the products” says Rodgers. “Each has struggled with the problem that our products solve”. It is with this, that leaps of faith are possible and every dollar invested is returned in solving the problem that millions of wireless signal users have on a daily basis.
To find out more about Wi-Ex signal boosters and to purchase dealer kit or to become an Authorized Wi-Ex Dealer visit: www.wi-ex.com or call 1-800-871-1612.