C EL- F I

Cel-Fi QUATRA lights up new 2-1-1 San Diego

QUATRA
™

building with high-quality cellular signal

William York, Executive Vice President of 2-1-1 San Diego

As the Executive Vice President of 2-1-1 San Diego, Bill York operates one of the most successful
2-1-1 providers in the nation. San Diego 2-1-1 operates a Connections Center that services
thousands of visitors, and provides a space for the community to gather to incubate ideas to
improve service barriers with partners.

OVERVIEW
2-1-1 San Diego brings community organizations together to help people access
the services they need, while providing valuable demographic and trend information 2-1-1 San Diego
for planning purposes. The organization provides referrals for utility, housing, food, • 160 employees
health and wellness, and military and veteran services, including subsidies and
• Connects 1,200+ people/day to 6,000+
benefits. 2-1-1 San Diego also helps facilitate the enrollment process for accessing
community partners
services at the county, state, and federal levels, such as CalFresh and the Affordable
Care Act. • Offers more than 15,000 community resources
• Provides three tiers of service: Basic
2-1-1 San Diego relies heavily on donor support, which means executives spend
Information & Referrals, Information &
a lot of time having discussions with potential contributors. Although the contact
Assistance, Care Coordination
center is powered by its own landlines, 2-1-1 San Diego otherwise considers itself
a BYOD organization where executives rely on their cell phones to have important
conversations. When 2-1-1 San Diego moved into a new 30,000 sq. ft., two-floor, cement office building, some of the executives using AT&T
as their mobile carrier began to experience dropped calls.
“Although we only moved two miles up the road, the coverage was very spotty,” explains Peter Battistel, Vice President of Technology at 2-1-1
San Diego. “Because we operate a Connection Center, we have partner agencies co-located with us. We also have 12 meeting rooms that we
allow community stakeholders to meet in. We wanted to be able to provide the same level of indoor cellular service for AT&T subscribers who
are among the tens of thousands of guests we host each year.”

A QUICK AND EASY INSTALL

CEL-FI QUATRA IS A SCALABLE, IN-BUILDING CELLULAR SYSTEM THAT ENABLES OPERATORS TO DELIVER A
STRONG SIGNAL IN AN EASY-TO-DEPLOY AND COST-EFFICIENT MANNER.

COVERAGE COVERAGE
UNIT UNIT
SMALL
COVERAGE COVERAGE
C
UNIT UNITELL

NETWORK NETWORK
UNIT UNIT
COVERAGE COVERAGE
UNIT UNIT
Small Cell Off Air
CONFIGURATION CONFIGURATION
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UNIT UNIT
 Battistel was introduced to Nextivity and its latest product
offering—Cel-Fi QUATRA™—through mutual contacts. It is
a hybrid solution that combines the best of active DAS and
Cel‑Fi Smart Signal Booster® technologies.
At the hub of the Cel-Fi QUATRA system is a Network Unit
(NU), which provides the donor signal and provides Power
over Ethernet (PoE) and RF over Ethernet (RFoE) to up to four
Coverage Units (CU) to provide indoor coverage in spaces
up to 50,000 sq. ft. per system (more systems may be used
for larger spaces). Cel-Fi QUATRA CUs are the remote radio
heads of the system that rebroadcast the donor signal.
The 2-1-1 San Diego solution deployed consists of one
NU, four CUs, and a MIMO Panel Antenna to enhance the
donor signal. 2-1-1 San Diego configured Cel-Fi QUATRA to
operate off-air, distributing the external macro network signal
throughout the building into areas it didn’t reach to maximize
coverage and performance.
2-1-1 San Diego was up and running with Cel-Fi QUATRA
within hours following the one-day, third-party installation
to run Cat5e cables between the two floors. “Since installing
the Cel-Fi QUATRA system in our office, we have seen much
faster data rates and are no longer dropping calls,” said
William York, Executive Vice President of 2-1-1 San Diego.
SOLUTION COMPONENTS

Cel-Fi Mount is
an indoor/outdoor
mount designed to
secure a donor signal
antenna for Cel-Fi
Cel-Fi QUATRA Network Unit (NU) Cel-Fi QUATRA Coverage Unit (CU) is QUATRA and work
is the hub of the system. The the remote radio unit that rebroadcasts Cel-Fi MIMO Panel Antenna with the Cel‑Fi WAVE
scalable design works with one to the donor signal. is the only Nextivity-authorized Antenna Positioning
four Coverage Units to provide up indoor/outdoor antenna for Application.
to 50,000 sq ft. of coverage. Cel-Fi QUATRA.

PARTNERING FOR GROWTH

CEL-FI QUATRA WILL PLAY A PIVOTAL ROLE IN HELPING 2-1-1 SAN DIEGO AS IT PLANS TO FURTHER ENHANCE ITS
SERVICES
“Currently, two of the CUs are located in areas that we lease to other tenants,” explains Battistel, “but we have the flexibility to re-deploy them
as needed, and re-position them as we expand. This really enables us to maximize the value of the original investment.”
2-1-1 San Diego will also soon reap the benefits of the Cel-Fi WAVE application, a remote monitoring and management platform. Cel-Fi WAVE
gives both 2-1-1 San Diego and AT&T real-time updates into the state of the Cel-Fi environment. This allows them to proactively manage the
Cel-Fi QUATRA system from the convenience of the cloud.
“Forging long-lasting partnerships with both non-profit and private organizations is key to our success,” says York. “Nextivity understands this,
and offers us an innovative solution that meets our needs today and well into the future.”

CEL- F I • Scalable up to 200,000 sq. ft.

QUATRA
• Easy to deploy at the lowest cost/sq. ft.
™

BEYOND BETTER • Available in off-air or supercell configuration

COVERAGE • Carrier-approved and unconditionally network safe
• Can be monitored and managed using Cel-Fi WAVE

In-building Cellular Coverage cel-fi.com

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