How to Get Cell Reception on Your Property

We get hundreds of emails from property and landowners who are interested in leasing their land for a cell tower. Here are some ways we have discovered that are effective at getting a new cell tower.   These factors will come into play when carriers are considering your property:  distance to adjacent towers, population density, broadband providers in the area, customer density, city zoning laws & public safety.

If you are experiencing poor or no cell reception on your property, there are several steps you can take to improve the situation:

Stuck in Dead Zone During an Emergency - Dial 112

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112.   See Wikipedia for further details.   

If you find yourself in a dead zone during an emergency and are unable to connect to your regular emergency services number, such as 911 (in the United States) or 999 (in the United Kingdom), you can try dialing 112.

112 is an emergency number that is widely recognized and can be dialed in many countries, including the United States, Canada, and most European countries. Dialing 112 can potentially connect you to emergency services even when you have no network coverage or are in an area with a weak signal.

When you dial 112, your call is routed to the local emergency services in the country you are in. It is important to note that while 112 is generally available in many countries, it's always advisable to familiarize yourself with the emergency contact numbers specific to the region you are in, as there may be country-specific emergency numbers in addition to 112.

Additionally, in some cases, your mobile phone might be able to connect to another available network in the area, even if your primary carrier has poor coverage. It can be helpful to enable the "carrier selection" or "network selection" feature in your phone settings to allow it to connect to alternative networks in case of emergency.

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American Roamer Changes Name to Mosaik

American Roamer Unveils New Corporate Name and Branding Strategy at Mobile World Congress - Branding strategy better represents the company as the global leader in geospatial network intelligence

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - BARCELONA, Feb. 27, 2012 – American Roamer, the global source for geospatial network intelligence, today unveils its new company name, Mosaik Solutions, at Mobile World Congress (Hall 2.0, Booth #2D26). The new name and brand launch is a culmination of efforts over the past several years as the company expanded its talent, scale, capabilities and clientele globally. The new name will help better reflect the company’s position as the leading source for coverage solutions for the global network ecosystem.

Mosaik Solutions maintains the largest mobile network coverage catalog in the world, including all common mobile technologies. In order to provide its clients with the most current intelligence available, the global coverage catalog is evaluated and updated each quarter.

Mosaik Solutions also provides telecommunications coverage patterns, wireless spectrum depth, network configurations, and licensing data. The company’s geospatial, analytical, creative and web solutions are tailored to meet each client’s needs. As the most comprehensive and accurate source for geospatial network intelligence, Mosaik Solutions helps clients acquire and retain customers, make sound business decisions and execute with a solid information base.

With more than 20 years of experience in the geospatial network intelligence industry, Mosaik Solutions has a team of graphic designers, computer scientists, GIS specialists and telecommunications industry experts. The company works with large clients such as Verizon, Time Warner, On-Star and Comcast while supporting the needs of smaller companies as well. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recognized Mosaik Solutions as the best available choice for wireless coverage intelligence in the United States.

“Mosaik Solutions has grown well beyond America – it is global. Our capabilities are beyond mobile and roaming – we have intelligence solutions for the entire network ecosystem,” said Bryan Darr, CEO, Mosaik Solutions. “As a company that provides the most robust, creative and technical solutions on the market, we wanted a name that clearly conveyed who we are and what we provide. We take disparate pieces of intelligence and create elegant solutions to help clients manage customer expectations and empower them to make better strategic and tactical business decisions.”

For more details, please visit www.mosaik.com.

About Mosaik Solutions Mosaik Solutions is the global source for geospatial network intelligence. The company maintains the largest mobile network coverage catalog in the world, including all common mobile technologies. To provide its clients with the most current intelligence available, the global coverage catalog is evaluated and updated quarterly.

With more than 20 years of experience, Mosaik Solutions also provides telecommunications coverage patterns, wireless spectrum depth, network configurations, and licensing data delivered through geospatial, analytical, creative and web solutions tailored to meet client needs. This comprehensive and accurate geospatial network intelligence helps clients acquire and retain customers, make so und business decisions and execute with a solid information base.

Pandora vs Sirius XM: Which is Best?

I recently had an epiphany on two recent two hour road trips that made me start to rethink my assumption that Satellite radio is more reliable than 3G / 4G radio.  I drove from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara on the 101 Freeway along the coast that notoriously has poor cell reception.  I also drove from Los Angeles to Palm Springs during rush hour and a heavy usage period.

I tested both Pandora streaming on my HSPA+ G2 Android phone and Sirius Satellite radio that comes with a factory installed radio inside my Volvo XC90.  Which did you think dropped fewer signals and had the best streaming audio experience?  Your intuition would make you think the Satellite performed better but you would be wrong.  T-Mobile's 3G HSPA+ network worked excellent the entire way along the coast and on the 10 Freeway without stuttering a song once.

So, why is Sirius XM starting to lose signal in areas that you would least expect.  Sirius also loses a signal in an area you would expect under bridges and in areas blocked by buildings or a parking structure.  Its can be annoying at times when listening to Howard Stern who has funny punch line every few minutes. Is it their terrestrial repeater network that is being congested?  Do their satellites need an upgrade or is it interference?

My speculation is that Pandora does a better job of downloading more content and caching songs ahead of time.  Pandora caches songs so when you enter areas of poor cellular strength you have radio content to stream.  Sirius on the other hand only caches a few seconds of the song or show and therefor if you lose signal you are likely going to lose some of the content.

I also tried something new using my cars new Bluetooth streaming feature that sends audio from my phone into my car stereo speakers.  I used the Pandora app on my G2 T-Mobile phone and it work great.  Keep in mind I have an unlimited data plan with T-Mobile so I am not worried about going over my data plan.  Pandora streaming doesn't use as much data as you'd think so it begs the question, how much data does Pandora use on cell phone?

In conclusion, I think that 3G / 4G / 5G streaming in the car radio has a lot of promise in the future as more consumers realize its pretty easy to do.  However, carriers are going to have to be more lenient and transparent about data caps and usage for customer in order to not scare people off.  Fore those who have unlimited data plans enjoy your Sirius or Spotify mobile apps as much as you want.  The experience is going to have to be cheap for the masses to use it.  Therefore, other services will have to be embedded into the car radio like Direct TV, Navigation or OnStar emergency services in order for consumers to pay a premium.