FRUSTRATING DROPPED CALLS 
WHY THEY HAPPEN 
HOW TO REDUCE THEM

by Howard Melamed, President of Cell Antenna Corporation

You are on your cell phone and while in the middle of a conversation a couple of things start to happen. The caller's voice starts to change like from some sci-fi movie and you  start hearing every other word. Then a metallic gurgling sound takes over. You go into action by walking around your home, office or neighborhood  looking for the 'Right Spot' where you can once again hear the other person on the line. You say things like 'Can you hear me now?" . You move around quickly and energetically like a chicken pecking corn. "How about now?"  you say again as more people watch you and shake their heads in astonishment.  Almost always, what follows next is the most frustrating part of owning a cell phone: The call gets dropped!

It can happen to you at any time in your home, office or while driving. Dropped calls seem to be the #1 problem with cellular communication. Most of the emails we receive are about dropped calls and bad reception. CellAntenna Corporation might have the answers to your questions and the solutions to your problems. However,  you need to understand  why you get dropped calls in the first place and then see if the solutions that we offer make sense.  Here are some of the more common reasons for dropped calls:

Distance from Cellular Provider Tower
You must be within range of a cell tower to use and continue to operate your cell phone. That range depends on a few factors, namely, how powerful is the transmitter on the tower, and how powerful is the transmitter in your phone. For a call to be placed or continue, both the tower and your phone must be hearing each other. If you are too far away no communication takes place.  This distance from the tower can be between 2-5 miles depending on the height of the tower and your power output. It is easier for you to hear the tower than the tower to hear you. That is because your cell phone is not a powerful transmitting device. The power output of your phone varies from model to model. It is in a range of 0.2 to 0.6 watts. A pen flashlight puts out more energy than that! The cell tower transmitter is a hundred to a thousand times more powerful. Move farther away from a tower while on a conversation, and your call will be dropped.

Direction from Tower
The antennas on a cell tower are very directional. That is, they transmit their signal to a very small area. For instance one antenna on the tower could be covering the area from the north direction to the east. Another could overlap and cover part of the east and the south. You might be in an area that the antenna is not 'Looking' at and therefore you may get a weak signal or no signal at all. Even if the antenna is in sight. Every so often these antennas are 'tweaked' by technicians that go up on the tower and move them ever so slightly. That is why in an area where you normally get reception, they may have moved the antenna enough to miss you entirely so that you now have a poor signal or none at all.  (You must complain to your carrier if all of a sudden you do not get any reception at all after having been ok.) The Antenna is  pointed at an angle towards the ground from the tower. You must also fall within the shadow or beam of the antenna to get reception. It may very well be that the tower isn't pointing any antennas in your direction. Move from a place where the tower is pointing or looking at,  to one that it is not, and you get a dropped call.

Obstructions : Metal Buildings / Mountains Ranges
Microwaves like the ones transmitted from cell towers and your cell phone are blocked by metal and other solid objects. Every building contains some form of metal. Concrete has reinforcing steel in it and interior walls may have metal studs. These types of materials  reflect and absorb signals. Mountains and massive structures directly reflect the radio wave . These obstructions limit your ability to use your cell phone.  However, cell phone signals are crazy buggers. They bounce off of things readily. You may experience some signals intermittently when a door opens or a truck parks in front of your house. We have found that bad weather generally increase the range of the cell phone especially over water. The call will be dropped if you move into an area where there's an obstruction or mountain  between you and the tower. 

Tower Problems: Software and Hardware
This is not a perfect world we live in. The cellular companies can make mistakes and the equipment they use breakdown often enough. Lightning and high winds have been known to knock out a system or two.  All of the cell systems make high use of computer equipment that are subject to glitches.  The glitch can be within your cell phone as well. Programming in your cell phone can cause it to freeze up or experience intermittent failures.  When the glitches happen or a piece of equipment fails  you end up dropping the call.

Tower Congestion
In major cities, and especially during rush hours, you may experience more than usual dropped calls. This is because each tower can only handle a limited amount of users. If the tower gets full, guess what: You have to wait your turn. If you are moving from one area to the other you might also move from a tower with few people connected to one that is overloaded. That is what I call a hard handoff of a call. One tower releases you to the other that can't pick you up. I use the analogy to a football game. You are the football. The quarterback (the tower that you are on) laterally passes the ball over to the halfback( the other tower), who happens to be looking the other way or has a problem handling it. Oops! The ball gets fumbled! Dropped Call!.

Here are our a few of Cell Antenna Corporation's solutions to dropped call problems:

Add an External Antenna.
There are many phones that allow you to connect an external antenna to them . Some, like the Nokia 5100 and 6100 series have a special plug located at the back of the phone. (So that's what that rubber piece is covering). Others do not have any direct connection but have an antenna placed well enough that a passive connector can capture the signal and pass it on. Just by moving your signal from inside a car (for instance) to outside can double your range and lower your dropped calls by 50%. Of course we sell external antennas for cars, boats, buildings and homes.  They can be portable like the magnetic mount antennas, or they can be fixed as in our land/marine and glass mounted products.

The antenna is a passive way of increasing your signal strength. It does not add power to the cellphone transmission or reception. It works due to physics, utilizing electrical characteristics of metals like brass and copper aligned and shaped a certain way. External antennas may have different capabilities and may be used in different situations. We can help you can determine which is best for you.

Add a Cell Phone Signal Booster Amplifier
Unlike the passive antennas, a Signal Booster amplifies the signal similar to your home audio amplifiers do. The strength of the signal  depends on how much power you add. A booster connects to your cell phone on one end and a external antenna on the other. You power it by plugging it into your cigarette lighter of your car, or by using an AC/DC power transformer for 110V house power.

We sell the DA4000 and the BST300 RF signal boosters. They  increases the power of your cell phone's transmission to 3 watts, which is the maximum strength that the FCC will allow. Your cell phone will now have the distance capabilities of the old style bag phones. Also, our Signal Boosters amplify the received signals. That is why we call the amplifiers BI-Directional meaning that it amplifies both the transmission and reception signals of your cell phone.

The BST300  works great with Cingular , US Wireless and those that use a TDMA 800 Mhz signal base. It also amplifies the old style analog signal as well. The BST300 can also amplify CDMA Verizon systems but they are not legally approved for that system. We also sell a BST801 for the Nextel service. The BST300 booster can be used in your car, boat, RV, Home or office. It is easy to connect, and provides you instant relief from low signal strength and most dropped calls.

DA4000 booster is a dual band bi-directional amplifier capable of boosting any cellular service in North America except for Nextel. It can amplify every type of service including AMPS,TDMA,CDMA, GSM used by companies such as Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon and Alltel . Dual band means that it operates at both he cellular bands, regular 824-896 MHz, and PCS at 1850-1990 MHz.  It boosts your cell phone to 3 watts on the regular cellular band and 2 watts on the PCS band, which are the limits set by the FCC.  Cell Antenna Corporation has the solution for every cell phone system used in North America, and most throughout the rest of the world!

All of our boosters are FCC approved and have a FCC License Number on each unit to prove it. (BEWARE OF COMPANIES THAT CLAIM FCC APPROVAL BUT CAN'T PROVIDE THE LICENSE NUMBERS!!)

Add a Building Repeater  

Frustrated about the fact that you can make calls outside of a building but not inside you home, office or warehouse? This is because of the loss of signal through the walls and roof of your building.  It is no wonder since the signal level inside are only 1/64 th (-18 dB) of those outside! This can be worse with metal buildings, or other metallic building materials. Our building repeater systems take the cell tower signals outside of a building, amplify it and distribute it inside the building. It accomplishes this by using an exterior antenna, a high gain bi-directional amplifier and an interior antenna. The repeater also amplifies the signal from your cell phone boosting it and sending it directly to the cell tower.  You then can use your cell phone anywhere inside your building!

Our CA505 package is a great solution for most small offices and homes.  The CA1000 is a good solution for larger buildings. Our other packages handle large areas, multistory buildings and even small communities that lack cellular signals due to 'Dead Spots' and.  Most of the packages can be easily installed and come with all the antennas, amplifier, cabling and instructions needed.  We have a CA package for every cellular system anywhere in the world at every cellular band. We even have repeaters for public service emergency bands as well as Blackberry and other paging systems.

We also provide free engineering services for any customer with buildings that do not fit our packages.  We can provide all of the technical support that you need to insure the successful design and installation of the system.     

Our building repeater amplifiers are used by the major cellular providers. All of our Building Repeater amplifiers are FCC approved and have a FCC License Number on each unit to prove it. (BEWARE OF COMPANIES THAT CLAIM FCC APPROVAL BUT CAN'T PROVIDE THE LICENSE NUMBERS!!)

Conclusion
If you have been reading diligently you will notice that I have not stated that you can avoid every dropped call. That is not possible given the nature of radio transmissions. There may be some instances that you cannot increase the signal strength no matter what you do. You could be out 300 miles from shore,  in the middle of the ocean  or be in the valley of tall mountains where there is no signal at all. You cannot amplify a signal that is not there. 100% increase of nothing is ....nothing.

Finally, don't expect miracles. It is after all only a handheld device connected by radio waves to the telephone system. It is not a direct connected land line. You can minimize the frustration of using a cell phone that all of us are becoming increasingly dependant on. Next time you see someone walking around like a chicken pecking corn screaming into the cell phone saying "Can you hear me now?!", give him a break. The poor lost soul  is after all .... one of us.

comments or questions?

Copyright © 2003, CellAntenna Corporation
All rights reserved. No reproduction of this article of any kind is allowed without the express written permission of its author, Howard Melamed or Cell  Antenna Corporation. Contact for more details.