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As more and more employers realize that an office full of cell phone dead zones is not only bad for communication but is equally bad for business, the prospect of adding a commercial cell phone signal booster system makes more and more sense.

Like with many new technologies, a litany of questions and half-truths about the effectiveness of cell phone signal boosters has arisen. Let’s take a moment to address some of these myths, and talk about the benefits signal boosters really can provide.

1. Distributed Antenna Systems are the only boosting solution that work

There’s been much talk that the complex technology known as Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) are really the best way of producing consistent cell phone signal amplification in an office setting.

Active DAS is effective for boosting cell signal in large complexes like hospitals and resorts as well as university campuses. However, for smaller buildings, cellular repeater systems are more cost effective and easier to install. They can provide full-bar voice and data service to both workers and visitors in your building, at a fraction of the cost of Active DAS implementations.

2. My existing WiFi will handle it

While in-office wireless Internet services have certainly come a long way in providing fast data speeds throughout a workplace, they don’t serve as a substitute for wireless telephone service.

Many businesses have successfully switched to VoiP phone services, even utilizing their own Wi-Fi systems to virtually eliminate hardwired connections. But anyone who’s suffered through a total communications outage when the system crashes or the Wi-Fi goes down knows all too well about that technology’s potential shortcomings.

Rather than leaving your employees unable to call or receive important data, emails or other business communication, installing a system to electronically amplify the 4G LTE and 5G signals provided by commercial cell phone carriers can guarantee their ability to stay in touch. It will also boost their productivity, rather than having them idled by spotty in-office Wi-Fi signals.

3. Using a cell phone signal booster will degrade my existing WiFi

Some cell phone signal booster systems, especially those provided by the carriers themselves, do use your in-office Wi-Fi as an electronic platform to piggyback cell signals, which can hamper the effectiveness of your Wi-Fi resources.

However, all of the repeater solutions offered by companies like WilsonPro are freestanding, antenna-based technologies and do not use, compete or interfere with your existing Wi-Fi setup. They work on their own to pick up environmental signals from all of the major cell phone companies’ towers and boost those signals. The process also works in reverse as voice and data streams from your employees’ and customers’ phones are amplified and sent back to those towers.

A cell phone signal booster system frees up your precious cellular bandwidth for regular workplace applications, and the  boosted phone signals can serve an even broader area in your work space—whether it’s on one floor of a high-rise office complex or in a sprawling medical or educational building.

4. Commercial cell phone signal boosting systems are illegal

Finally, there’s some confusion – perhaps a bit understandable, given the complexity of the electronic communications business – that installing a cell phone signal boosting system at your office or workplace might actually be illegal.

Individual cell phone companies would certainly prefer you to use a single booster system proprietary to their particular branded service, and many carriers do indeed offer booster solutions good for enhancing their signals only. Mobile providers like Verizon also require individual consumers to register any secondary, aftermarket boosting systems that they choose to employ. But a truly agnostic, commercial-grade cell phone signal boosting system works to take in and enhance the signals of all carriers, big and small, providing your employees and your visitors with equal access to the carrier signal of their choice at your workplace.

All of WilsonPro’s cell phone booster systems are FCC regulated and approved for use by all carriers and, as a result, completely legal for use at your worksite. Individual cell phone carriers might prefer you stick with a booster system that’s set up for their brand only, but WilsonPro carrier-agnostic solutions level the playing field and provide fair service to your staff, no matter who they subscribe to.

If you’d like to find out more about WilsonPro’s solutions to enhance the cell phone signals at your worksite, visit /product-categories/in-building-cellular