In-building wireless coverage is more important now than ever. In fact, 87 percent of facilities managers and architects consider coverage inside of buildings to be “imperative,” according to a recent study conducted by Coleman Parkes Research and CommScope.
Another study, CommScope noted, was conducted by Nemertes Research and the Small Cell Forum. It found that 94 percent of enterprise IT executives believe in-building mobile performance impacts their business. Currently about 80 percent of wireless usage is indoors, but RAN infrastructure is outdoors, CommScope reported.
The Nemertes study found that growing business dependence on mobile connectivity was emphasized when 94 percent of respondents said that the quality of in-building cellular coverage had an impact on their business performance – on a scale of one to ten, some 42 percent gave it a rating between eight to ten in terms of seriousness, with the healthcare sector notably prominent in these scores.
Many of those surveyed, according to the Small Cell Forum, were also looking beyond the important improvement in coverage and capacity and towards new services and ways of working that could be driven by mobile. Some 48 percent said they were interested in small cells as they would provide better connectivity for app-based services, a figure particularly notable for being ahead of voice connectivity which scored 43 percent. The potential for new services driven by small cells was also shown by the high scores for improvements in security and productivity which both scored 30 percent.
In percentage terms however, the logistics and distribution industry, together with the retail sector, are the most enthusiastic current adopters with more than 20 percent of businesses in those sectors already using small cells, the Nemertes study showed.
October 26, 2016
Reader Interactions