A disruption in cellular service can cost businesses millions of dollars and cause numerous issues across a wide-range of industries, as revenue-generating, business-critical, and even life-critical devices in the field are unable to communicate. Imagine loss of connectivity for a security system that is now unable to notify the police, utility meters that can no longer transmit billing data, medical devices that cannot send patient information to their doctors, or an automobile that can no longer request assistance in case of an accident.
Until now, companies utilizing remote devices that rely on cellular communications had to upgrade or replace each device every time a service provider decommissioned an existing network in favor of new technology. This activity comes at a significant cost and disruption for cellular customers, not only for the device upgrade itself, but the labor, time, and logistics needed to perform these upgrades in the field. Traditionally, trained field technicians would need to be dispatched to upgrade or replace each device. In most cases, they would need to schedule appointments with homeowners or business owners in advance, which is time consuming. This process comes at a high cost, while diverting resources from critical customer service calls and other activity that can contribute to poor customer satisfaction.
We are now faced with another shutdown. Cellular providers around the world are planning, or have already begun, to shut down existing 3G cellular networks. Over the past 12+ years more than 200M 3G devices have been deployed. Most carriers plan to turn off the service that allows these devices to operate within the next two years. Because of this, companies are faced with a major disruption in their business at the worst possible time, given the on-going pandemic with many struggling just to maintain current staffing levels through this period of decreased revenues. Not only are they now tasked with an activity that requires additional resources and investment beyond normal business operations, scheduling an on-site technician appointment where it is necessary to enter a home, building or property is no longer a routine process.
Thankfully, there is now a cost-effective solution that can benefit both carrier and consumer. A solution that allows service providers to move forward with their migration plans, while minimizing the impact this migration has on their customers. With the CellBounce solution, there is no need to schedule appointments or dispatch a technician at all. Existing customers are shipped a CellBounce Gateway and simply plug it in. The Gateway does the rest as it automatically provisions and configures itself on the cellular provider’s standard 4G network. Then, acting as a 3G femtocell / base station, connects to the existing 3G device as its source of 3G communications on the other. The Gateway uses a standard 4G SIM card and appears like any other 4G device on the provider’s network going forward.
The CellBounce solution allows existing 3G devices to remain fully connected and functional for years beyond the pending 3G network shutdown, without the need to physically touch the device itself or deploy a field technician.