As the battle for network supremacy rages on, wireless carriers are targeting places with minimal wireless coverage, including highly trafficked indoor spaces like airports, shopping malls, casinos, office buildings, healthcare facilities, government buildings, convention centers and public transportation systems.
Carriers are still deciding how best to deploy these sought-after networks. In the meantime, in-building wireless has attracted new players to the field and broadened traditional equipment providers’ offerings.
Regardless of how segmented the in-building wireless market is, it is likely to surpass $1 billion by 2010, fueled by competition and the battle for network supremacy, according to recent research from ABI Research.
However, ABI warns operator control and deployment costs could stunt growth in the market, despite the fact that carriers are warming up to the neutral host model, which forces them to give up control of their infrastructure.
“Early on, operators were reluctant to cede network control to these providers,” explained Edward Rerisi, vice president of research at ABI. “Now that macro networks are more complete and neutral host providers have a more realistic view on carrier revenue-sharing agreements, we are starting to see a resurgence in this business model.”
Indeed, several models exist for deploying in-building wireless systems, explained LGP Allgon’s Tormod Larsen, vice president, sales and engineering, who said his company has plays in more than one of them.
Neutral host systems are comprised of one company that deploys the network, recruits multiple carriers to offer service on it, and acts as a middleman between the service providers and building owners. In another scenario, one carrier may act as the “anchor tenant” on an in-building system by partnering with the building owner, and then recruit other carriers as it sees fit to also use its system. In another scenario, a facility owner acts as the neutral host, eliminating the third party.
LGP Allgon has deployed systems on subways and railways throughout the world, on campuses, including the Microsoft Corp. corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., in government buildings, including the California State Capitol, in medical centers, shopping malls, office buildings, fairgrounds and in road tunnels.
LGP Allgon also plans to focus future efforts on connecting multiple buildings in one geographic area via a centralized base station, said Larsen. The idea is for multiple carrier in-building networks that would ease expenses for carriers and make effective use of capacity on the network. These progressive in-building deployments are “changing the way carriers are building their networks,” said Larsen.
For example, if a shopping mall and several office buildings shared a central base station, the office buildings likely would see higher traffic during daytime hours while the mall would capitalize on off-peak times. Larsen suggested tower-owner companies likely are looking to extend their networks in similar ways rather than viewing the buildout as competition.
SpectraSite Inc. provides a concrete example. Traditionally known as a wireless tower owner, SpectraSite attacked the in-building market about four years ago. The company saw a natural progression from tower to rooftop to in-building as a way to bring the antenna closer to the end user, explained Robert Glosson, senior vice president of sales and marketing at SpectraSite, who was part of the company’s original in-building team.
SpectraSite chose to go after casinos first. Deploying networks in Las Vegas casinos fit the company’s objectives, explained Glosson. After all, casinos represent a unique market: large properties that host crowds of people, including visitors and convention attendees, who account for high mobile-phone usage.
After spending more than a year procuring properties in which to put its neutral host networks, SpectraSite in 2002 built out in-building systems in all MGM and Park Place properties in Las Vegas. According to Glosson, every carrier in the Las Vegas market now offers service in at least some of the SpectraSite-enabled properties.
Next SpectraSite targeted shopping malls with its in-building model. The company last summer launched a “Talk On” marketing campaign dedicated to educating consumers on the benefits of in-building and encouraging use of the systems.
The mall model works, according to Glosson, because of the typical location of malls at major intersections of highly trafficked interstates. Carriers like the model because it offloads some traffic from the macro network.
In all, SpectraSite has deployed in-building networks in 15 markets and plans to add 10 to 12 more markets to that list this year, according to Glosson. In-building is “not just for the L.A.’s and New York’s of the world,” said Glosson, admitting even he was surprised initially at the interest in in-building in regions like the Midwest and Texas.
In addition to cellular technologies, there is widespread evidence that companies are banking on wireless LAN technologies, including 802.11, being key to in-building systems going forward.
Nortel Networks Ltd., for example, offers WLAN products to enable in-building wireless systems. The company’s products coexist with and leverage existing networks to allow users to roam within the enterprise. “Savvy carriers see it [WLAN] as another way to drive usage and control churn,” rather than as a competitor to cellular systems, said Anthony Bartolo, director of WLAN solutions at Nortel Networks.
Interest in WLAN-based in-building systems is gaining traction in the enterprise, according to Bartolo. Recently, deployments have grown from departmental-sized trials to overall strategies for enterprise productivity. End users are driving that growth, said Bartolo, and, in deference to 802.11,”you’ve got to thank the standards bodies for coming to the party.”
Syntegra, a systems integration company, also designs and manages in-building wireless systems primarily based on Wi-Fi technology. As a systems integrator, the company offers four services to its customers: assessment, deployment, value-added services and lifecycle support. The company has implemented wireless network solutions in 5,000 buildings and has deployed 40,000 wireless access points.
Carriers are eager to deploy Wi-Fi in private spaces, but have been reluctant to do so because they lack the systems integration experience necessary, explained Stephen Bruce of Syntegra. In response to that dilemma, Syntegra partners with carriers to deploy Wi-Fi in private locations.
Syntegra has focused on implementing its networks in large retail chains, hospitals and clinics, and in government facilities-all of which quickly realize increased productivity, according to Bruce.
Most recently, the company supplied an in-building network for the E-Gov Homeland Security Conference that took place in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington D.C. Interestingly, government organizations like the Department of Defense have become frontrunners in the Wi-Fi space, said Bruce, adding that those agencies realize security problems with Wi-Fi can be overcome.
