cellular phones have become an important tool for most accountants. that’s probably because many accounts, whether in public or corporate practice, are among the most mobile of professionals. with the wide availability and increasing affordability of cell phones, it’s a rare accountant who doesn’t have one of these handy devices clipped to their belt or residing in a handbag or brief case.
still, unless you live and work in the midst of a large metropolitan city, it’s a pretty sure bet that your cell phone isn’t your only phone. while there are plenty of individuals who get along just fine with only a wireless phone, the vagaries of site coverage often result in your getting message alerts, rather than calls, on your mobile.
while there isn’t much that you can do about poor coverage while on the road, if you suffer from little or no signal in your office, you might want to investigate a device called a cellular repeater or extender. this is a two-piece device consisting of an outside component connected to an inside component by a cable. the outside piece is aimed so that it receives the strongest signal from a local cell tower, then it is amplified and rebroadcast by the internal component. when you talk on your cell phone, the process is repeated in reverse. of course, the boost in cell signal strength doesn’t just improve voice communications, but data/web browsing capabilities (assuming that your phone and subscription plan offers these) as well.
the net effect is that where you might have had one or two bars of service (or none) inside your office or home before, you could wind up with as much as four or five bars of service after installing a cell phone repeater. that’s enough of an improvement to allow you to receive calls instead of messages. most of these devices require at least two bars of service at the location where the outside antenna will be located. if you don’t get this level of service outside of your office, it may not be worth spending the money.
the cost of one of these units depends on who your cell carrier is, and whether you want a professional installation or are willing to try and do it yourself. the more expensive units are required for nextel service, which operates on a set of radio frequencies much different than most other carriers. this type of repeater can cost upwards of $3,000, before installation charges. this type of unit may also be required for some verizon subscribers.
if you use sprint, t-mobile, or cingular, the cell repeater solution is much less expensive. the units themselves are available from several vendors for $400 or so, and in many cases, can be mounted inside or directly outside of a window facing the cell tower, which makes a do-it-yourself installation much more likely.
if you “google†the term “cellular repeaterâ€, you should get a good idea of what units are available and their costs. be careful if you have nextel service, though. many advertisers do not identify their iden/nextel units, which are almost always more expensive than repeaters used with other services.