Cingular improves coverage in the Senate

[Fire14]

Using your cellphone in the US Senate

Cingular Wireless has improved the indoor coverage at the US Senate in Washington DC. This means that Cingular customers can now make and receive calls throughout the Senate portion of the Capitol, along with the Russell, Hart, and Dirksen Senate Office Buildings. Customers will also have improved wireless service in the pedestrian and train tunnels between the administrative buildings and the Capitol, as well as in the Postal Square building.

The network enhancements on the Senate side of the Capitol mark the second phase of Cingular's Capitol Hill project, which brought wireless service to the House of Representatives last year. A similar in-building system allows Cingular to offer quality wireless service in the Cannon, Longworth, and Rayburn House of Representatives Office Buildings as well as the tunnels and parking decks below. In-building wireless service has been available in the House Office Buildings since October 2004.

Cingular's investment in the US Senate is part of the company's ongoing effort to extend Cingular's coverage area and to give customers more consistent access to the Cingular Wireless network in and around the US Capitol, where thousands of people, including legislators, staff, government agencies, lobbyists and tourists, visit every day.

Recently, Cingular Wireless has undertaken several network initiatives to improve in-building coverage including projects at the Environmental Protection Agency and Ronald Reagan Building, Federal Communications Commission, AARP and MCI Center. Cingular also augmented existing coverage in the downtown, DC area in 2004 to enhance service quality by adding 9 new cell sites and deploying software to existing sites to boost capacity. The company has additional network enhancements planned for 2005.

[hillbilly44]

A company called LGC Wireless provided the system for the Capitol. It's a fiber-based distributed antenna system and really cool. It allows UMTS to be deployed easily