Wilson Pro is planning to unveil a commercial repeater for C-band spectrum in the third quarter of this year.
The company has been making repeaters, which are also commonly referred to as amplifiers, for many years. It’s currently touting the multi-tower targeting capabilities of some of its newer repeaters.
Jon Mykrantz, VP of Enterprise Sales at WilsonPro, said its repeaters are commonly used to improve the wireless signals inside large buildings such as big box stores or hospitals. He said if a wireless subscriber can get a signal outside of a building, then WilsonPro’s repeaters will be able to help that subscriber get the signal inside the building, as well.
Donors antennas can be placed on a roof and feed the Wilson Pro repeaters, which can be placed anywhere in the building.
“We essentially take that signal and have a donor antenna that pulls into our repeaters,” said Mykrantz. “It takes that and repeats the signal and amplifies it to antennas that we place in the building.”
WilsonPro’s multi-tower targeting technology can use up to three donor antennas, pointed in three different directions to pick up signals from three different carriers’ macro towers. “We have equipment that shows where towers are and where to place these antennas on top of a building to maximize our equipment,” said Mykrantz.
The repeaters are connected to the building via coax cables, which then allow the signal to be redistributed to indoor antennas throughout the facility.
The company describes the multi-tower targeting in more detail in this blog.
In addition to the new C-band repeater that will be rolled out in the third quarter, Mykranz said WilsonPro has a mmwave repeater, the Network 257, available for order now.
Multi-tower targeting vs. trisector antennas
Although multi-tower targeting can receive signals from three different carriers, it is not to be confused with trisector antennas.
Trisector antennas are cell-site antennas. CommScope’s Marty Zimmerman, CTO of North America for Outdoor Wireless Networks, recently spoke on a Fierce Wireless podcast about trisector antennas.
He explained that a tri-sector antenna is a basestation antenna that offers three sectors of coverage from a single, compact structure. The key applications for trisector antennas are locations where people need coverage, but they need the antennas to be in a discrete form factor.