Cellular Antenna Guide
Cellular antennas come in many different varieties with every combination of features your project could need. It can be a daunting task to choose what antenna your project needs. We have outlined a couple considerations for your business when choosing an antenna below.
Why Your Business Should Invest In High-Quality Antennas
If you drive a Ferrari, you don’t try to save money buying tires at Wal-Mart
Owners of high-performance sports cars know that tires are one part of your vehicle where quality counts. The reason? Tires are the only part of your car that is touching the road, so they make a big difference in performance.
The same goes for your cellular antenna. It is the only part that is "touching" the network.
Using the right antenna for the application can be the difference between having a reliable solution and having to drive out a site at 2:00 am when you cannot connect to it.
Benefits of a High-Quality Antenna
Maximum Reliability
Just because you may receive 5 bars in your office, it does not guarantee coverage in the field. Some areas are further from a cell tower or may have things that interfere with cell signal (such as a lot of exterior walls). As well, cellular networks dynamically react to a high level of usage. You may be in coverage today and find less coverage tomorrow.
Lower Power Usage
Sure, we all want to reduce our power usage, so this can benefit everyone, but if you are powering your location with either a battery or a solar panel, it will be much more essential for you too. Devices in stronger coverage use less power than those that are in lower quality coverage.
Better Coverage Means Faster Data Speeds
Ever notice that your data speeds on your WiFi network get faster when you move closer to your home router? The same thing happens on a cellular network. By using a better antenna, you will see a strong signal which can have dramatic results on your throughput speed.
Using A Better Antenna May Not Cost More
Higher quality antennas can last many times longer than lower quality antennas, meaning that over the life of your projects, you'll pay about the same (or even less). That's right, using a better quality antenna may not cost any more over the life of the cellular gateway or cellular router. Not only are there multiple benefits to investing in higher quality antennas, it could be your most cost efficient option!
Why Your Business Should Invest In High-Quality Antennas
You can easily argue that any cellular deployment would benefit from a higher quality antenna, and you would be right. However, using an antenna in one the following deployment is vital:
- Remote deployments (Oil/Gas, Forestry, Mining, etc.)
- Utilities / Smart Energy
- Retail, Restaurants, and Hospitality
- Government
- Temporary Events (especially if you do not know the coverage before you arrive)
- Mobile applications
Novotech's Antenna Linecard
Novotech represents some of the leading manufacturers of antennas. We invite you to look at the product lines from some of our partners including:
Historically, our customers have relied on Mobile Mark for industry-leading hardware to meet most any need.
With 25+ years of experience designing Mission Critical automotive fleet and mobile antenna applications, Airgain is an easy choice for those in fleet management.
Our customers trust PCTel for their mission critical projects and applications.
Semtech has designed AirLink antennas to connect a wide range of mobile and fixed applications in public safety, utilities, and industrial IoT applications.
Protempis provides a wide selection of GNSS antennas, including high gains for timing applications. Protempis’s Bullet and Bullet 360 series of antennas are hardened with advanced technology filtering capabilities to provide reliable performance in hostile RF jamming environments. The Bullet series of antennas offer customers the flexibility and choices of constellations and configurations, and unmatched reliability.