TenXc Wireless makes array technology available
Wireless equipment vendor TenXc Wireless this week announced the availability of its PCS Bi-Sector Array technology, which lets many cellular operators significantly enhance capacity from existing infrastructure, a company official said.
TenXc’s PCS Bi-Sector Array applies the principles of higher order sectorization to almost double the capacity provided by a given antenna at an existing cell site for as much as 80% than the cost of adding another site, said Ross Ernst, TenXc’s vice president of marketing.
“When they have major capacity problems in the network, they either have to add more spectrum or … they have to put in more towers and cell sites, which is extremely costly,” Ernst said. “They can go into an existing site, add this product to that site and increase capacity in that local area in a very targeted manner.”
Indeed, the PCS Bi-Sector Array’s “drop and insert” design lets the solution be deployed in a matter of hours and provides valuable flexibility to the operator, Ernst said. For example, in a typical three-sector site, there may be capacity issues in only one of the three sectors, so the TenXc solution only would be needed in the one troublesome sector without any re-engineering, he said.
“The beauty is that they can make the investment right where the problem is,” Ernst said. “You’re addressing the problem right where it’s needed. With some other solutions, you need to upgrade a network, re-engineer a network or wait for handsets to absorb the feature … and operators almost need instant gratification.”
Although the PCS Bi-Sector Array is applicable for GSM, UMTS and CDMA operations in the 1.8 GHz to 2.2 GHz frequency range, Ernst said the technology can be designed to work at other frequencies and other technologies, including those used by public-safety entities.
“We’ll have other frequency versions down the road,” he said.
