Boingo said it has 78 DAS venues and 11,500 DAS nodes in backlog
Revenue from the distributed antenna system (DAS) segment accounted for 37% of Boingo Wireless’ overall revenue in the second quarter of the year, slightly down from a contribution of 38% in the year ago period, CEO David Hagan said during a conference call with investors.
DAS revenue totaled $21.9 million in the first quarter, up 18% compared to the second quarter of 2017. DAS revenue for the quarter was comprised of $16 million of build-out project revenue and $5.9 million of “access fee revenue.”
“We entered the quarter with 25,700 DAS nodes live, which we believe makes us the largest provider of indoor DAS networks in the world. We now have 78 DAS venues and 11,500 DAS nodes in backlog,” Hagan said. “This means that we have more DAS venues ahead of us than what we’ve deployed in our entire company’s history. So we’re expecting a long runway of growth ahead.”
Elauwit Networks acquisition
Commenting on the recent acquisition of Wi-Fi provider Elauwit Networks, Hagan said that Elauwit provides high-speed WiFi to more than 2,020 properties across the country.
“A vast majority of those properties are student housing, which is the same demographic we serve on the military bases,” the executive said.
“Today, when property owners hire Elauwit to deploy their wireless network solution, Elauwit has paid a one-time fee to architect and built the network and then a recurring monthly fee to manage and operate the network, which is very similar to our DAS business model,” Hagan said.
“Under the standard Elauwit model, there is no direct billing relationship with the end consumer. Rather it is bulk-billed back to the property owner who includes the high-speed WiFi service as part of the lease. As such, there is no consumer acquisition cost or consumer churn, and penetration rates are in effect 100% per property,” he added.
Hagan also highlighted that Elauwit has recently expanded beyond student housing to multi-family or multi-dwelling-unit properties. “Here, the experience is very similar to our military broadband business except it’s still a B2B relationship, not direct to the consumer. If new tenant moves in and the Elauwit high-speed WiFi service is already there, it can be activated immediately,” he said.
The executive said that that this provides a competitive advantage over cable operators or telcos who may also service the building, because the service is instantaneous rather than having to wait for an installation appointment or a truck-roll from a cable firm.
