Bringing a Fort Worth Hotel's Cell Booster System Back to Life

The problem

Hotel management told us guests and employees had been complaining about poor cell service throughout the entire building. That was surprising, because the hotel had already paid for two CEL-FI QUATRA systems, enterprise-grade equipment designed for exactly this kind of property.

When we arrived, the building was effectively a dead zone, from the guest floors all the way down to the basement parking garage.

What we found

As a Nextivity CEL-FI certified installer, we got access to both systems through Nextivity's WAVE management portal. The cause was clear: the equipment wasn't broken. It was set up wrong.

• The radio broadcasts were turned off. The systems were powered on but weren't transmitting signal into the building.
• The systems were set to the wrong signal source. They were configured for a small cell instead of the rooftop donor antennas they were actually connected to.

Thousands of dollars of equipment had been sitting on the wall doing nothing.

The fix

We reconfigured both QUATRA systems through WAVE: turned the radios on, set them to use the rooftop donor antennas, and brought them online properly. No equipment had to be replaced.

The results

Is your building's system really working?

This is more common than most property managers realize. If you already have a cell booster or DAS and are seeing any of these, it's worth having it checked:

• People still complain about dropped calls or no bars after the system went in
• The original installer is gone or doesn't return calls
• Coverage got worse after a carrier change, renovation, or power outage
• Nobody on staff knows how the system is set up or who manages it
• Parking garages, stairwells, or back-of-house areas are still dead

Common questions

Can you service a CEL-FI system another company installed?

Yes. As a Nextivity CEL-FI certified installer, we can take over, troubleshoot, and reconfigure existing CEL-FI GO and QUATRA systems, regardless of who installed them.

Do I have to replace my system if it isn't working?

Not necessarily. In this case the equipment was fine and the problem was configuration. We check settings, donor antennas, and cabling before recommending any new hardware.

Do you work with hotels outside Fort Worth?

Yes. We serve hotels and commercial properties across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex.

See more of our work on the commercial booster installation page, or read how we took a Fort Worth law office from no calls to full signal.