Page 10 - RC19 RealcommEDGE 2019 Fall Issue

SPOTLIGHT: Cellular Solutions

CELLULAR COVERAGE: SOLUTIONS FOR

THE CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT

MOST BUILDINGS HAVE cellular coverage issues—dead spots, poor call quality, and low
data rates are common issues that may impact subscribers of a single carrier or all of
them. Extending quality cellular coverage throughout an entire building has always been
a challenge for corporate IT and facility managers. This is particularly true for buildings
ranging from 15,000 to 500,000 square feet, referred to as the ‘middleprise’. Good
solutions exist in the SOHO context and for stadiums, airports, and large shopping
areas. But solutions for the middleprise have been either too complex or costly to
install, limited in their capability, or over-engineered for the use case—making ROI a
challenge to achieve.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to cellular coverage inside a building, but thanks
to recent technology developed specifically to meet the cellular coverage and budget
needs of the middleprise, a variety of solutions are now available with different costs,
performance, functionality, installation timing, and maintenance requirements.

Here are the available options:

Wi-Fi Calling (WLAN) – This can be a cost-effective way to extend coverage in small
office environments where there is no available cellular signal, as calls are made over
the Internet via the WLAN. However, it has limitations. Wi-Fi is a ‘best-effort’ service

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