For example, a worldwide consumer products company based in the Pacific Northwest has built out WiFi infrastructure in conference rooms and lobbies for mobile data access, but does not have blanket coverage across its 2.4 million-square-foot headquarters campus. Rather than shelling out another $400,000 to $500,000 for the dense wireless LAN infrastructure required to successfully support mobile voice sessions without interruption, the company had its mobile operator, AT&T, pick up a $750,000 tab to extend coverage indoors with micro base stations and distributed access systems (DASs), according to the company’s global network manager.
AT&T chose the components, built the indoor network and manages it, he said.
“The hassles of voice over WiFi, multiple devices, battery life, and shifting back and forth between WiFi and cellular [when roaming in and out of buildings] make my head spin,” the company’s global network manager said. “I’d rather deal with the carrier in filling their black holes than building and operating a voice WiFi infrastructure myself.”
When Will The Carrier Pay?
In the case of very large companies like these, carriers find it’s often worth their while to finance and manage such projects because of the additional cellular usage revenues the carrier will reap when indoor calls are made on the cell network instead of on the internal corporate network. Smaller companies, however, often don’t have the luxury of simply handing over their mobility problems to their carrier, because the return on investment (ROI) for carriers is simply not strong enough.
“If the customer is willing to pay [for the in-building equipment], I’m happy,” said Jim Erickson, director of in-building solutions in the wireless unit of AT&T. “But we decide what we’ll spend based on what revenue we are likely to get on our investment, like any other business transaction. We treat each customer situation as an independent evaluation.”
Companies not large enough to make the cut either pay for the equipment themselves or share the equipment and deployment costs with the carrier. Sometimes they negotiate these deals themselves; in other instances, an integrator or the in-building equipment vendor might step into the picture to remove some of the complexity from the shoulders of the enterprise.
K&L Gates, an international law firm in Washington, DC, sprang for a $50,000 Verizon Wireless base station and a $20,000 T-Mobile base station as part of its effort to push cellular signals indoors. The DAS component—supplied by LGC Wireless and installed by integrator Glasgow Group Inc. of Great Falls, VA—cost between $80,000 and $100,000, according to Rodney Carson, K&L’s local director of administration. Carson noted that the overall DAS cost was lower than it might have been because it was installed during initial construction of the firm’s new 13-story DC office building.
“The building was wide open with no ceilings or walls” to drill or break through, lowering labor costs, he explained.
