Distributed antenna system providers and systems integrators are sourcing active radio equipment in an effort to provide turnkey solutions to their enterprise customers. Using small cells or miniature base transceiver stations, these companies are trying to create “one-stop shops” for enterprises that want to boost cellular connectivity.
Zinwave says it will be the first DAS vendor to offer enterprise customers a complete end-to-end solution. The company has partnered with Cheytec, which has purchase and distribution agreements with radio vendors Ericsson and Nokia, as well as agreements with the wireless operators to bring their spectrum into buildings. Zinwave says that getting radio equipment from Cheytec instead of through the mobile operators will expedite deployments.
“In the past, it was problematic to install an RF base station for some DAS users because operators would not commit without a certain number of preexisting connections in the building,” said James Martin, VP of operations at Zinwave. “By adding the base stations to our solution, the process is streamlined and the customer has control over what and who comes into the building.”
Zinwave is not the only company to offer enterprises direct access to radio equipment. Systems integrator Communication Technology Services (CTS) also has a partnership with Cheytec, meaning that it can integrate licensed small cells from Nokia and Ericsson with passive DAS components from other vendors.
DAS vendor Corning also wants to offer its customers complete systems that do not require equipment purchases through the mobile network operators. Corning recently agreed to buy small cell developer SpiderCloud Wireless, and said it will use SpiderCloud small cells as signal sources for distributed antenna systems. Corning said SpiderCloud’s equipment has been certified by Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.
“What we will create with SpiderCloud is an enterprise-friendly, end-to-end solution that can be purchased by the enterprise, so that they don’t buy a DAS and then have to wait for a carrier to provision a circuit and bring in a very expensive capacity source,” said Corning’s Bill Cune, VP of wireless market development. “Now an enterprise can actually define and purchase that complete end-to-end solution, backhaul it on their own backhaul, and have kind of control over their destiny. The carriers are supporting this approach. They also realize that if you’re ever going to deploy 10,000 buildings a year, you have to have this sort of model.”
Follow me on Twitter.
