If you work in the public safety industry, secure and stable connectivity shouldn’t be optional; it should be required. If your connections are spotty or you lose service in certain areas while on the road, how do you expect to communicate quickly and effectively in every emergency situation?
Stop relying solely on your cellular data plan for communication in the field. Don’t allow your fleet to be vulnerable to serious problems you could otherwise avoid with a better system. Poor connectivity can cause confusion and frustration among fleet members and put civilians’ lives at risk.
Here are some common problems fleets face in the field and how to solve them with cutting edge technology from Sierra Wireless:
Data Limits
Do you tend to run out of cellular data before the end of the month? Those of us who work in the public safety industry often run into this problem while driving around running mission-critical applications in our vehicles on our mobile devices.
Some cellular providers claim to offer unlimited data but actually have a limit. When you reach it, you’ll likely encounter slow connection speeds…sometimes so slow that your devices become unusable. To make matters worse, you could be charged more when you reach or surpass your “limit” and have to pay a higher bill.
AirLink MG90
The MG90 is a multi-network router; it will recognize and connect to the best network available wherever you are located. It doesn’t only draw from your cellular provider’s network; it can also draw from satellites, Wi-Fi, and other cellular networks.
This router is fast and has a sub-second-switching feature that continuously monitors the strength of your connectivity. If the connection weakens, you’ll be automatically switched to a stronger network. The switch is seamless, so you’ll never lose connectivity!
Manageability
Do you ever have trouble figuring out exactly where you’ll have service in the field and where you’ll run into coverage gaps? In remote regions, especially, your connection can become spotty or be completely lost. If you’d like to know for sure when you’ll lose coverage, incorporate a network manager.
AirLink Mobility Manager
The AirLink Mobility Manager (AMM) offers an entire suite of reporting and graphics to show you exactly when and where you’ll lose coverage in the field. You’ll be able to see how effectively your carrier is performing for each vehicle in your fleet.
Coverage Trails
This feature tracks a vehicle’s location and measures its connectivity. If no connectivity is available in a certain location, the gateway will record data locally and be ready to report it to the AMM once it reconnects to a network.
Availability Trends
This reporting feature shows the percentage of time an individual gateway was accessible over the vehicle’s operating period.
Bandwidth Consumption
The AMM tracks the volume of data received and transmitted on each nework.
We know these are just a couple of the many connectivity problems your fleet may face in the field. In our next article, we’ll cover other common problems—limited connections and vehicle tracking difficulty—and how to solve them.
If you’re a fleet manager and you’ve experienced some of these connectivity problems, consider incorporating these Sierra Wireless products to improve communication across your entire fleet. Contact us today for a quote or to receive more information about any of our premier vehicle solutions.
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