HetNet News: DAS deployments require new skill sets

Indoor DAS is a growing business for providers of wireless infrastructure services, as carriers look to distributed antenna systems to densify their networks and boost coverage. Contractors are learning that to serve the carriers in this role they need to deploy workers with specific skill sets. Recruiters that specialize in staffing tower projects are getting more and more requests for ground-based work.
“In the past two weeks I’ve received requests for DAS cable technicians at the new football and baseball stadiums in Atlanta,” said recruiter Ron Deese of TelForce Group. “I have also have received some DAS construction manager positions.”
The focus on engineering and electrical skills can be greater in a DAS deployment than on a macro site project. The tools are different and even the configuration of the work crew may change.
“The traditional macro cell crew structure does not work cost effectively,” said Verticom CEO Jeff Lewis. “We have dedicated crews that have been retooled and configured to address the small cell/DAS projects.” In addition, crews need a strong knowledge of local resources.
“There’s more ground-level knowledge required for these small cell deployments,” said analyst Aaron Blazar of Atlantic-ACM. “If you think about it, the area where you’re going to potentially mount one of these things is so much tighter than thinking about a macro cell, that you’re going to have fewer options, so you’ve got to be working with people that have great understandings of local fiber networks, local attachment possibilities, and local regulatory conditions.”
“On the indoor DAS, having resources readily available to go — local resources — provides you a cheaper cost structure,” added Matt Davis, VP of program management at wireless infrastructure services provider Nexius. “If … the building owner, the carrier, the customer knows that you have local resources there that you can continue to maintain, continue to grow that indoor DAS solution, they’re more willing to give you the work.”
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