Certified Installation Associates was founded in 1988 by William and Janet Lentz. 

The company specialized in service and installation of SMR, cellular and trunked radio systems. Launch customers included the US Marshals Service and Yellow Freight. In the early 1990’s Certified was a launch contractor for Dispatch Communications and Fleet Call, the predecessors of Nextel Communications. Initial services provided to Nextel were installations of iDEN customer premise equipment including base stations.

In 1997, Nextel began to implement in-building coverage solutions to high value customers. As a launch contractor for the in-building process, Certified refocused it’s technical and geographic objectives to support this new initiative. Certified became a primary contractor supporting three Nextel markets and two Nextel Partners markets.

Certified continued growth in the in-building market adding technical proficiency in CDMA and GSM based systems and vendors. A survey and engineering division was added. With the advent of fiber optic based DAS systems, Certified added fiber optic installation and service capabilities. These additional focus areas allowed Certified to provide turnkey solutions.

Certified Installation Associates now has over 1000 in-building systems in service since 1997. Certified supported Nextel at the 2000 RNC, 2000, 2004 and 2008 presidential inaugurations.

After 9/11/2001 the Nextel Emergency Response Team was created. Certified was a launch contractor. Certified installed temporary communication systems for the 2002 DC area sniper shooting Federal/State/local task force. 20 systems were deployed in 3 days. Certified has numerous installations in the DoD, DHS, FBI, DEA & NSA.

Certified added additional CDMA capabilities after the Sprint-Nextel merger in 2005.

Certified was a primary contractor in the iDEN 800MHz re-banding and 900MHz upgrade initiatives. Both passive and DAS system upgrades were performed. Hundreds of upgrades were performed.

Certified upgraded it’s Wi-Fi capabilities in 2007. WiMAX capabilities were added in 2008. 

Certified has been tightly integrated with RF Engineering teams and has assisted in providing design and installation standards.ence to provide