Dec 1, 2003 12:00 PM,

FALLING COSTS PUT INDOOR COVERAGE IN REACH

By Vince Vittore

The development of more wireless data services riding on Wi-Fi networks is making in-building coverage one of the more important emerging issues for carriers. What's more, when a company like Verizon Wireless bases an entire marketing campaign on providing ubiquitous coverage, customers expect to get service regardless of the physical structure they happen to reside in.

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Though carriers' existing outdoor macrocells and rooftop microcells can provide acceptable coverage in many buildings, particularly in towns with little RF congestion, the increasing need to keep enterprise customers connected at all times regardless of location is giving carriers economic incentive to make sure their coverage extends to the indoor environments. And while some carriers have taken on the project themselves, many are relying on third parties such as Inner Wireless to build out facilities that will be leased by multiple carriers.

In still other situations, large enterprises or owners of buildings in high-profile locations are taking the initiative and deploying the infrastructure themselves and charging carriers a “rental” fee.

“Our view of the world is based on the belief that all access is moving toward wireless,” said Jeff Brown, president and CEO of RadioFrame Networks, which is providing equipment to Nextel. “Indoors or outdoors doesn't matter.”

The sudden and furious eruption of interest in Wi-Fi over the past year has simply added to the urgency. Many indoor coverage vendors are adapting their platforms to pass through 802.11 signals.

“Instead of just looking at just PCS or cellular, we're looking at the applicability of the wireless utility,” said Ed Cantwell, president of InnerWireless. “I might be driven solely by the 802.11 applications in some cases.”

Of course, like all technology deployments, the greatest driver is economic. With six national wireless players and a handful of regional operators all grabbing for market share, the impetus for investing in facilities to cover every nook and cranny of indoor space previously was not possible in all but the most high-traffic locations like airports. However, as net subscriber growth has slowed and equipment has matured, costs and economic requirements are starting to converge.

According to an independent study sponsored by Spotwave — which supplies equipment to AT&T Wireless, Sprint, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless, among others — North American wireless carriers can justify deploying repeaters in buildings with corporate accounts with 10 or fewer phones. Under traditional models, carriers need to have at least 100 users in a building before being able to justify a build.

In fact, falling costs and increased competition for new wireless data users is also responsible for some unlikely deployments. In Chicago, for instance, the Chicago Transit Authority is in the midst of an 18-month project that will provide coverage in the 11 miles of subway tunnels running below the city.

Allgon, the company contracted to set up the Chicago system, is running a network of repeaters and antennas through the tunnels. U.S. carriers, which have not traditionally targeted mass transit riders as much as their European counterparts, have good reason to start looking at the market now, said Magnus Friberg, CEO of Allgon.

“When you put ads out that say ‘can you hear me now,’ you better have coverage in all of those locations that you're marketing to,” he said.