Author
Erik Lilieholm
Black Friday is approaching again. As you may know, that's the frenzied kick-off of the holiday shopping season in the U.S. on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year I'm looking forward to it with some trepidation.
You see, last year I finally took the leap and bought a shiny new plasma TV to replace our trusty old, not-so-flat screen from 1993. Now I'm afraid what I will see this year is going to make my carefully chosen set look very much…well, "last year."
Ah, 1993. Airlines still had smoking sections, the hot-ticket web browser was Mosaic 1.0, and The Rolling Stones had played for a mere 30 years. As for our wireless networks, most of us had just one frequency band in use at the time. Soon enough however, there would be new 1800/1900 MHz spectrum carrying 2G digital services to expand and complement the legacy 850/900 MHz airwaves. The case for multiband combining was at hand but if my memory serves me, it would be several years before the popularity of the practice began to grow in earnest.
Today we find multiband combiners on nearly every cell site. With three, four, or five bands competing for tower space and antenna placement, there is no longer a question whether we will want to use that space and equipment as efficiently as possible. When you browse our website today you will find a breadth of base station antennas and RF conditioning products designed to support and enable site sharing and co-siting. The question you may ask yourself is, "What solution can I choose that will serve my needs today as well as next year and beyond?"
If you have tried to predict the outcome of next year's spectrum deals and bids, auctions and swaps, I believe you now wish for a solution that will handle whatever that outcome may be. We tried, and our wishes came true in our expanded UltraBand™ product portfolio. The UltraBand solution is ready to perform in your present network while providing extra bandwidth to support an unprecedented range of frequencies. I am particularly pleased to introduce the new family of UltraBand diplexers. They are able to combine 380-960 MHz and 1710-2690 MHz in one ultra-wideband solution that enables high performance cable sharing at multi-technology sites. Consider how this kind of flexibility can help keep your infrastructure optimized even if your crystal ball is as blurry as mine.
Buyer's remorse - the fear of having made the wrong choice. I can't promise it won't hit you later if you brave the shopping throngs this Black Friday. But come Monday, take another look at our UltraBand solution; that's one choice I believe you will not come to regret.
What uncertainties are you facing when attempting to future-proof your site designs? What is on your wish list that can help mitigate the impact of different scenarios?
