Cellular Opportunities - How your business can help close the digital divide in Ireland

NIAMH CULLEN O’REILLY CEO, Novatel

In the previous edition of the magazine, my company Novatel featured an article detailing the benefits of and solutions available for enhanced Cellular Connectivity. With the use of professional mobile phone GSM repeaters and Fixed Wireless Broadband antennas and routers, Novatel provides solutions that make your digital connections faster, easier and more reliable. I would like in this feature to give you an insight into our business and to present to you an opportunity that exists for your business, as we move forward in this digital age and as the demand for fast reliable connectivity continues to grow. The advancement of cellular technology opened up a new era for communications and the network operators began investing millions of euros each year into cellular infrastructure throughout the country. The demand for mobile communications was growing at an unprecedented rate, the operators had a clear focus to invest and expand 3G, 4G & now 5G coverage. We saw an exciting opportunity for our business Novatel Communications.

We opened as a mobile phone store in 2007, also providing computer repairs and IT solutions for homes and small business. Our premises was and still is, based in our hometown of Buttevant.The store which is on the main street had its internet connection through DSL. The available bandwidth used to get us through the day but once school was over, contention issues would start to affect the download and upload connection and by 6.00pm we would experience total drop off. I was then trying to work from home but could not as my rural home had an old DSL line as well as very poor phone coverage, so I would have to call it a day.

Novatel was involved in the roll out of the National Broadband Scheme and the opportunity that mobile broadband presented was immediately apparent. It was going to change the broadband landscape and was fast becoming the alternative for traditional DSL broadband. It was also creating a new “on the move” connectivity, which fits in with the changing culture where the internet was required to be “on demand,” it also enabled services such as remote monitoring, basically anything or anywhere that needed to be online, MBB (mobile broadband) was the solution. It was early days and the product had its issues but it was the beginning of an exciting new era for internet and for Novatel.

The biggest problem that we identified was as follows; there was signal outside the house but not inside the house. The phones and routers inside the house were not receiving the signals that were being transmitted from the local cell tower. Also, the signal outside was not strong on ground level but generally improved once we went up a few meters to roof level. Knowing that if we could solve this problem, we would have a solution that would not only solve our connectivity problems but those of our customers. And so, the hunt began, we started ordering and testing antennas from around the world. I found Poynting Antennas, who immediately came across as industry experts, so I eagerly made contact with their European office and ordered a small quantity of their XPOL 2 antenna. Having anxiously awaited its delivery, Frank, my husband and business partner, installed it on our home and we had immediate success! We now had reliable internet for the first time that was stable throughout the day/night. Upload and download speeds were immediately improved, our rural home had joined the digital age. That was over seven years ago, since then we have sold and installed thousands of Poynting antennas to homes, business, vehicles, boats, for many different applications throughout Ireland and beyond. We partnered with Poynting to become an authorised distributor and learned the correct installation procedures, learned about how the product works and the specifications of the different models. It was a big learning curve but with little to no failures, it has been and continues to be a tremendous success.

We quickly went on the search for a high-performance router to accompany the antennas and having tested many brands we found Teltonika and we again struck gold. A combination of these winning products gave us the next generation technology to supply and deliver first class broadband solutions to everyone, everywhere! These products solved internet connectivity problems, but one problem remained Mobile Phone calls and data, we struggled as did many of our customers, having to stand outside the door to take a call, missing calls, call drop offs all an absolute nuisance, especially when you rely on that phone to ring to increase your sales and conduct your business. In 2018 Stella Doradus, based in Waterford, who are manufacturers of world class repeaters became licensed by ComReg for the sale and installation of their repeaters in Ireland. We immediately partnered with them to supply the repeater solutions into Ireland. Since then, we are proud to say that millions of phone calls have been made as a result of the products that we sell. As the level of insulation goes up in a building, the signal goes down and that’s where our DIY ready kits deliver an instant solution. We distribute to resellers across Ireland, the UK, Parts of Europe, Dubai and Africa. Please contact us If you would like your business to become a retailer of DIY next generation technology solutions. This solution gives businesses and homes a real answer to poor data connection & poor phone coverage regardless of their location. They offer a service at affordable prices and are ready for DIY installation. Be part of the Cellular Communications solution and become a Reseller in your town and city. www.novatel.ie