Cutting The Cords – Four Ways A Distributed Antenna System Can Save Your Life

Do you ever find yourself wondering what would happen if you, or someone you love, was in an life-threatening emergency situation? It’s an incredibly scary thought, but we’ve all had it. It usually doesn’t just end with that one question though. Like eating a potato chip, you just have to have more. Your mind starts throwing contingencies at you and going through all the possible what ifs…

What if disaster strikes and you’re in a place that you’re unfamiliar with, or a place that has no cell reception? What if there’s a major emergency situation developing in your area and you don’t know about it? What if first responders can’t communicate with each other during an emergency because the network is congested with everyone’s calls? Have you ever thought about how first responders would be able to find you? Or what it would mean if they can’t…?

Why you NEED to read this article!!!

I hate to play devil’s advocate here, but the fact of the matter is, if we don’t ever think about these things then we won’t be prepared if they happen. Anyone who knows anything about risk management and contingency planning knows some form of the 5-P Rule, “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.” Words to live by. And you don’t have to actually be in risk management to live by these words because you’re a human being, and as a real-life human being you need to actively manage risk in order to continue being a human being.

The unfortunate fact is, bad things can happen to anyone, and they can happen at anytime. Especially when you least expect it. One second, you’re day is perfectly normal. It’s just like any other day. You’re sitting on the train, or eating lunch at your desk (if you’re lucky it’s a reuben from Katz’s), minding your own business and just doing what you do, and before you know it disaster strikes. In the blink of an eye you’re thrust into an emergency situation and desperately need help FAST! Naturally you call 911. But sometimes help from 911 may be harder to come by than you would think.

This is an issue that everyone needs to pay close attention to because it applies to all of us. Nowadays, our lives tend to be a lot safer than they used to be. Thanks to advancements in science and technology, the average life expectancy has gone up 46% in just the last 100 years! Life is pretty safe now when compared to “back in the day.” It truly is a great achievement for our species and it really is a beautiful time to be alive.

But don’t let the comforts of modern life and the most recent life expectancy numbers fool you into thinking you’re completely safe. Most of us have a false sense of security. We tend to ignore or downplay our own mortality. Like if maybe we don’t think about it, it might not ever happen to us. It’s uncomfortable to think about these things though, I know. Even now you’re probably thinking about how you really don’t like where this article seems to be going and you might even be coming up with an excuse for why you’re not going to continue reading. DONT DO IT!!! KEEP READING!!! Because reading this article could make all the difference. Literally. I’m not saying this is going to be easy, but I can guarantee this is going to be helpful.

Distributed Antenna Systems & Safety.

Now that you have confronted the demons and decided to keep reading lets start to connect the dots between Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) and saving lives. At face value, it may seem a bit asinine to associate a structured deployment of antennas for enhanced wireless telecommunications capabilities with the power to save a life, but in many ways it’s absolutely true. Allow me to explain.

There are four incredibly important reasons why a DAS can help save lives. All of these reasons are of immediate significance and will adequately highlight why installing a DAS in your building should be (and will be) considered a necessity. There are also a few exciting life-saving implications for DAS technologies in the not-so-distant future, but we’ll discuss those at another time. For now, let’s start with the basics.

#1. Network Coverage When You NEED It!!!

The first and most straightforward reason to have a Distributed Antenna System is actually also the most important life-saving aspect of having a DAS in your building; uninterrupted indoor cellular network coverage. Without an in-building DAS, you will need to get your wireless network coverage from the outside environment. And that can be tricky.

Everyone with a cellphone knows of the dropped call phenomenon. And most people know that this phenomenon is significantly more likely to occur when going from the outside of a building to the inside of a building. This is because the Radio Frequency (RF) waves that carry your signal can get blocked by everything that buildings are made of. Building infrastructure is designed to shield you from more than bad weather and wild animals, it also blocks the sun’s UV rays. But the sun’s light is actually carried on a wave, kind of like your cell signal. The walls and windows that make up your building are actually really good at keeping these waves from getting inside your building and they tend to not discriminate. They’re equal opportunity wave blockers.

Sure, your building may get some service from outside, but probably not of every floor, and definitely not in every room. And when an emergency happens and you don’t have service that means you can’t call 9-1-1. This means a situation that could have been resolved easily can quickly turn into a tragedy. This is why Distributed Antenna Systems were invented. It really is that simple. An in-building DAS means having uninterrupted cellular network coverage in every nook and cranny of your building. And when you have that reliable and uninterrupted signal you can rest assured knowing that you’re covered, and that help is only three numbers away.

#2. Being Able To Find Help & Have Help Find You.

The safety aspects of a DAS goes far beyond having coverage when you need it. Having service means being easily located by emergency-response personnel. Here’s a tough question: if you’re in an emergency situation and you need help, you are you going to call? No, not ghostbusters. You’re going to call 9-1-1. And you’re going to pray that the person on the other end of the line sends help to your location as soon as possible.

But what if you don’t know exactly where you are, or you’re not physically able to provide that kind of information at the time? Everyone assumes that 9-1-1 can trace your calls and provide your exact location to first-responders like police, firefighters and EMS-personnel. While that assumption may be 99% accurate, the 1% of why it sometimes isn’t can have dire consequences. So how would they find your location if you’re on a mobile phone? Lets explore.

Like all great leaps of social progress in America, it all started with a bill. A bill called H.R. 438. The purpose of this bill was to “promote and enhance public safety through use of 9-1-1 as the universal emergency assistance number, and for other purposes.” H.R. 438 became The Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act, and after being quickly passed through both the House and the Senate, the act was signed into law by Bill Clinton on October 26, 1999. This law is formally known as Public Law 106-81 and we should all be thankful we have it.

More commonly known as the 911 Act, this law requires that 9-1-1 serve as the emergency number for non-landline phones as well as landline phones. It also required the establishment of something called Enhanced 911 (E-911). There are a few key features of E-911 but the most important feature has to do with the “other purposes” part of the bill. It’s the ability to determine call location for mobile phones.

Determining the location of a call to 911 is an incredibly complicated process, but it essentially requires communication between your cell phone and a cell tower. Mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2012, the specific coordinates (latitude and longitude) of all wireless 911 calls must be provided to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP, also known as a 911 operator) within 6 minutes. By working through the antennas of a DAS, your mobile phone can be accurately located when dialed in to 911 (and this is where the future technology gets exciting). But this location information isn’t just used by emergency-response services to locate the caller, it’s also used to route the incoming 911 call to the appropriate PSAP to ensure a speedy response.

Location information is incredibly important for emergency services to quickly respond and locate the scene of an emergency or 911 caller. However, if the call originates inside of a building without a DAS the location can be unclear and the margin for error in finding the caller becomes significantly greater. This breakdown of potentially life-saving location information can mean all the difference in the world to the person on the dialing end of that phone call. And that person could be any of us.

#3. Staying Safe Through Wireless Emergency Alerts & Notifications.

It used to be that, in order to find out information on what was going on in the world around you, you would have to either find out from someone by word of mouth or be constantly paying attention to the news on the radio or television. Nowadays, we get emergency notifications on our phones instantly. All immediately important emergency notifications and public safety announcements are now proactively communicated to you in the form of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs).

This system of providing spontaneous emergency notifications to wireless devices in specific geographical locations in response to emergency situations is a mandated by the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act. The WEA system is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). According to FEMA, “WEAs are emergency messages sent by authorized government alerting authorities through your mobile carrier… Alerts received at the right time can help keep you safe during an emergency.” Truer words were never heard.

You get these WEAs free of charge and without the requirement of any specific app to be downloaded on your wireless device. These notifications will provide life-saving information regarding natural disasters, severe weather alerts, national security alerts, AMBER alerts and information regarding other life threatening emergencies in your area. But once again, without adequate in-building wireless network coverage, it can be difficult to pass along these messages. Having an in-building DAS network with integrated public safety capabilities isn’t only the smart choice, it’s now becoming mandatory. Which is a perfect segway to #4.

#4. Reliable Communication For Emergency Response Agencies.

During emergencies, like 9/11 or the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, wireless traffic spikes and becomes highly concentrated in specific areas. This leads to insufficient network capacity and a significantly limited ability for first responders to communicate with one another and coordinate emergency response efforts.

After 9/11 we knew that we desperately needed a designated national public safety broadband network in order to facilitate communication between emergency response agencies. The establishment of this network would be a major step in the direction of increased safety and security of our communities and our nation. The good news is, progress is already being made. In fact, in 2009 the International Fire Code (IFC) established Section 510, which calls for all buildings to have adequate in-building radio coverage for emergency responders. But wait, there’s more…

Signed into law in 2012, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation (MCTJC) Act of 2012 created the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). This designated network provides the public safety community with reliable communication capabilities so they can help save lives, keep our communities safe, and perform their duties more safely. Congress has actually allocated $7 billion and 20 MHz of valuable radio spectrum in order to help states build this much needed network. Still in the development and testing phase, FirstNet will be driven by super fast Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and it will be coming to your state soon.

The moral of the story is, an in-building DAS with public safety features is a requirement for all large buildings with poor indoor reception (call to find out if your building qualifies). You may even have an in-building DAS, but are the public safety network specs up to date? Most existing Public Safety DASs are currently operating on the 800MHz spectrum, but FirstNet’s Radio Access Network (RAN) operates on the 700MHz frequency, so these existing systems will need to be updated. If your building has a DAS with these old public safety network features you can start upgrading your system right now by implementing multi-band 700/800 MHz Bi-Directional Amplifiers (BDAs). Contact us about how we can help.

Distributed Antenna Systems Really Can Help Save Lives.

Let’s face it. Times are changing rapidly. Technology is improving at an exponential rate and the human race is being thrust into a new era of existence. Even though technology will continue to improve and enriched our lives in ways we can only imagine, we are all still just as vulnerable as we’ve ever been to the inherent dangers of life as a living, breathing person.

As we move forward into this new age of improved global security through enhanced technological capabilities, changes will have to be made. We will have to adapt. In order for our society to continue, old ways of doing things will need to be improved upon and outdated systems will need to be replaced. Change is inevitable, but progress is only possible through effective communication of information.

Everyone knows the importance of reliable information. But this information can only have a positive impact if it’s effectively and properly communicated. Information without a voice is just as useless as a voice without information. A Distributed Antenna System can give information a strong, reliable and uninterrupted voice. And with the communication of that information through an in-building DAS, you can rest assured knowing that getting help when you need it is ALWAYS going to be just as easy as pushing a button.

Moving Forward

In our previous Cutting The Cords articles you’ve learned about the emergence of wireless technology and how it can enhance our lives and our businesses. You’ve learned about Distributed Antenna Systems and how they can improve the functionality and productivity of your business. You’ve even learned some basic ways you can improve your building’s existing wireless infrastructure. But this article touched a little bit closer to home. And now that you’ve read it, you know how an in-building DAS can help save lives.

The ball is now in your court. Chances are, your building needs a DAS. And if you’ve been paying attention, you know all the reasons why. Now you’re faced with a decision that could significantly affect countless lives, including your own. You can either get on with your day and try to forget about Distributed Antenna Systems, or you can find out how Telecom Infrastructure Corp can help you save lives with an in-building DAS. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.

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