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Basements often face poor mobile coverage due to the dense concrete and steel in the basement’s structure, as it is essentially part of the foundations, making it very difficult for outdoor signals to penetrate inside. This creates a ‘Faraday cage’ effect that blocks signals, making a mobile signal booster for the basement essential.
The most important component of a basement mobile booster system is the outside donor antenna. It must be positioned to maintain clear communication with nearby cell towers. The main criteria for placement include;
- Good outdoor mobile signal at the location.
- A viable cable route between the antenna and the basement mobile booster.
- Have landlord approval for external installation, if needed.
Once the antenna is placed outside, a cable will run to the basement where the signal booster can be placed. There are two options for mobile signal boosters for basements; self-install boosters that are suitable for basements, or commercial mobile boosters for basements that are used to power things like Parking meters and electric vehicle “EV” charging units, that need to have connection to the mobile network.
The commercial basement boosters will use a network of Access Points or “AP’s”, that will be spread across the basement at specific areas to ensure there is signal across the entire basement. These AP’s will all be connected into a Distributed Antenna System or a “DAS” with LMR400 low loss signal cables and then into the commercial cellular booster.
It should be noted that for a commercial booster basement installation the Mobile Signal Solutions team will usually need to have access to the roof. This is in order to place the donor aerial on the roof itself, with a full 360 degrees rang to align the donor aerials to the most appropriate base station.
The primary reason for installing a booster in basement areas is to ensure uninterrupted calls for people driving into lower ground levels. This allows them to maintain their conversations without call drops as they enter the basement and continue moving toward the building’s elevator.
Another important reason to provide reliable mobile signal in basements is for lone worker safety. When employees are in the basement working with the machinery located there, for example large industrial compactors for waste, boilers and such are often located in the basement in areas with no signal, should the worker have an emergency a booster installed in the basement will allow them to make important emergency calls out.
Over the past 12 months, the most common reason for installing boosters has been to support the growing demand for EV charging points in basements. These charging stations enable users to park and recharge their vehicles conveniently. However, since the payment systems rely on card transactions, they require reliable mobile network access for merchant approvals via SIM cards in the EV charger modems. As corporate office basements are the typical locations for these charging stations, providing reliable mobile signal coverage has become essential to facilitate seamless payment and connection for electric vehicles like Teslas and other models.
The signal in a basement can easily be resolved with a mobile booster. There are two options available, you can have a signal booster that boosts a single network, or one that does all networks, self-install options are also available. Stop living with poor mobile signal in your basement, contact the team at Mobile Signal Solutions for advice on the best booster for your basement.