Success Story: In-Building Cell Boosters connect Howard Community College

December 2022 News

MABC

Technology Solutions

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Howard Community College turns to MABC for Cellular Boosting Solution

The Howard Community College 120-acre campus is located in Columbia, Maryland.

Founded in 1966, HCC is a public two-year, post-secondary educational institution serving 22,000 students annually. The college employs approximately 2,600 faculty and staff to provide services to these students.

Offering a wide range of academic programs, HCC prepares students for degrees, certifications, and four-year college transfers. Vocational programs prepare students for immediate employment upon graduation.

HCC's sprawling, lakeside campus features several academic halls and commons. Other campus facilities include the Science, Engineering, and Technology Building, the dining Galleria and student center, the Physical Education complex, the Library, the Visual and Performing Arts Building, the Health Sciences Building, the Administration Building, and the Visitors Center.

HCC faced several challenges related to its in-building cell signal coverage:

Poor connectivity was creating user and stocking issues with LTE-enabled Vending machines deployed across campus and in the Galleria dining space.

Spotty coverage was frustrating customers and HCC's new food service vendor who had rolled out a smartphone app to enable mobile orders intended to ease long queues for service in the Galleria.

HCC provides all staff with smartphones. This benefit is intended as a perk supporting their professional and personal communications, but bad connections were frustrating employees.

HCC had been evaluating Active DAS systems to address these issues until they learned that MABC’s In-Building Cellular solution could offer much better coverage at a significantly lower cost.

The business case to go with MABC was a slam dunk:

MABC offered a carrier-agnostic technology that supports Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. DAS arrangements can only support a single carrier.

MABC’s 8-week rollout was completed over the slow summer term. DAS can take years to coordinate and deploy.

Clinching the deal for MABC were windfall savings. The DAS bids were 4 times the cost of our solution.

During the summer project schedule, donor antennas were deployed on the rooftops of HCC campus buildings and connected to cabling infrastructure and boosters deployed throughout the campus buildings.

The new technology is now reliably connecting HCC's vending machines, food service apps, and mobile users across campus. When the college needs to deploy a new app or IoT system, they can count on strong cell signals to keep their devices connected.

From the client's perspective...

"We feel fortunate to have met our MABC account manager earlier this year. The DAS technology we'd been exploring was costly and would be cumbersome to implement. We were intrigued when we learned that MABC could roll out their solution in just 8 weeks. The solution’s ability to support all of the wireless providers made our decision even easier. When we learned how much the college would save, we were willing to implement the solution. Our students and employees now enjoy better service. Partnering with MABC was a great decision."

Mike Heinmuller

Associate VP of Technology Services

Howard Community College

Still standing by your office windows? Grappling with IoT devices that need better cellular connections? We can help.

Contact your MABC technology experts today at Portsmouth: (757) 673-2200, Richmond: (804) 273-6500, DC/MD/NOVA: (301) 882.7760 or info@mabc.com.

Is your building stifling your cell phone signal?

The need for reliable cellular communications doesn’t end at the entrance of a building…

Demand for in-building coverage is growing exponentially and will continue with the proliferation of mobile devices, cloud-based services, and IoT - all of which require reliable communications inside buildings.

Remote monitoring systems, ATMs, self-service kiosks, and even consumer applications such as smart homes and cars require mobile cellular signals to operate effectively. All these devices and more make up the Internet of Things or IoT and they all help provide the modern conveniences we use every day. With the increasing challenges to cellular signals, it can be hard for these devices to stay reliably connected.

According to industry surveys, 80% of all mobile calls and data connections occur indoors. Now there’s an affordable solution to lost calls and slow data connections that offers stronger, more reliable signals, clearer voice quality, and faster data uploads and downloads.

Smart businesses are turning to affordable cell phone signal amplifiers to empower their on-the-go employees to become more efficient and productive in every corner of their buildings.

MABC's network infrastructure team designs, installs, and supports industry-leading cell phone signal boosters that increase 5G, 4G, and LTE signals from carriers and service providers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Cell signal boosters are powerful enough to support voice and data connectivity for busy offices, multi-unit buildings, warehouses, and commercial spaces. Advanced software automatically and continually optimizes gain for maximum performance.

Download MABC’s 8-page Overview

Don't let spotty in-building cell signal coverage put your business on hold. MABC offers signal boosters that have the flexibility to accommodate any building or floor plan.

Contact your MABC experts today at Portsmouth: (757) 673-2200, Richmond: (804) 273-6500, DC/MD/NOVA: (301) 882.7760 or info@mabc.com.

Get Rewarded… $250 for Your Referrals

Know someone who is moving or looking for a new phone system? A friend who needs faster broadband or better in-building signal coverage? A business partner who wants to add Video Meeting collaboration?

Tell us about it... Just mention "Newsletter Referral Program" when you make the referral - we'll take care of the rest. MABC rewards you with $250 when we get their business. And there's no paperwork hassle or hoops to jump through.

Contact us with your sales tip. Call MABC today at Portsmouth: (757) 673-2200, Richmond: (804) 273-6500, DC/MD/NOVA: (301) 882.7760 or info@mabc.com.