As mobile networks become more heterogeneous in order to support ever-increasing indoor and outdoor capacity needs, testing must take into consideration operators' infrastructure choices. In advanced wireless networks, that can include LTE macro sites, indoor or outdoor small cells, and distributed antenna systems (iDAS...
California's Department of Motor Vehicles knew that cellular coverage was inadequate at its Sacramento headquarters. The 500,000-square-foot facility needed to support not only its own workforce but also the hundreds of people who use cellphones while waiting in line each day, many of whom...
Boca Raton, Fla.-based SBA Communications (SBAC) announced third fiscal quarter total revenue of $393.3 million, beating the tower company’s estimate of $385.6 million.
That growth was driven by the 2012 purchase of 2,300 tower sites in the United States and Central America, along with acquisition...
AUSTIN, Texas – High-speed broadband takes on a whole new meaning in the world of Formula 1 racing, where data delivered a second too late can mean the difference between life and death, or between winning and losing. When driver Sebastian Vettel experienced a...
Like San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner, the wireless network at San Francisco's AT&T park put in some major-league overtime during the World Series. The carrier said its customers used an average of 447 gigabytes per game during the three World Series games played...
CHICAGO – AT&T's Paula Doublin was one of the most memorable speakers at this year's HetNet Expo. The company's AVP for antenna solutions, DAS and small cells did not shy away from questions about AT&T's budget for heterogeneous networks, nor did she sugar coat...
CHICAGO – Mobile subscribers usually don't know whether they're connected to a macro site, a distributed antenna system or even a Wi-Fi network. They just want to stay connected, everywhere and all the time. If connectivity is a problem, venue owners are often the...
CHICAGO – The HetNet Forum welcomed more than 600 companies to Chicago this week for its HetNet Expo, and most of the companies exhibiting at the show were focused on distributed antenna systems. Several made time to talk with RCR Wireless News about skill...
Small Cells, ranging from Femtocells in domestic applications, through Pico, Metro and Micro Cells in enterprise, and urban applications are revolutionizing the coverage, capacity and availability of wireless data services.  The apparently insatiable demand for more and faster data is driving increasingly rapid deployment of...
AT&T Mobility is targeting international travelers with its Passport packages, which provide a bucket of calling minutes, text messages and data access for a flat rate.
The packages begin at $30 and include unlimited text, picture and video messages, 120 megabytes of cellular data, unlimited...
The Federal Communications Commission is set to consider rule changes this month that will expedite wireless infrastructure deployment. The new initiative singles out small cells and distributed antenna systems, noting their "minimal effects on the environment."
The goal of the rule change is to make...
A town in the heart of Silicon Valley looks like a pioneer in facilitating outdoor distributed antenna systems (oDAS). The city council of Mountain View has voted to allow AT&T and DAS provider ExteNet Systems to place antennas atop utility poles, even though it...
Wireless infrastructure services providers see distributed antenna systems (DAS) as logical extensions of their businesses. Like a cell tower, a DAS can be designed to support one carrier's spectrum, or it can support several carriers and create multiple revenue streams for the system owner.
The...
The University of Phoenix Stadium, which will host the 2015 Super Bowl, is getting ready for February with an upgrade to its distributed antenna system (DAS). Most of the largest sports stadiums and convention centers in the United States already have a DAS, but...
RF engineers are learning that experience with DAS can open doors when it comes to finding a new position. Twenty-seven percent of the RF engineering jobs posted on telecomcareers.net include DAS (distributed antenna systems) in the job description. Employers like KMB Design Group and...
ABI Research names CommScope, TE Connectivity, Axell, Corning, and SOLiD as the top vendors of distributed antenna systems (DAS) based on implementations. More than half of all DAS deployments to date are in North America, and four of the five companies are based in...
Several years ago passive intermodulation (PIM) was a virtually unknown performance
metric in distributed antenna systems (DAS). Today it is recognized as one of the most critical
requirements for optimum system performance. Hypersensitive antennas and radios, multiple
frequency overlays, and more components in the RF path create...
International Speedway is one of several American Tower DAS customers boosting demand for engineers who have experience with distributed antenna systems.
DAS skills in demand
Experience with distributed antenna systems is in demand as tower companies and infrastructure service providers win new contracts and upgrade existing...
Stadium DAS deployments continue
Infrastructure providers say the DAS RFPs keep coming from public venues, especially sports arenas. This week JMA Wireless said that Crown Castle will deploy JMA's Teko distributed antenna system at Rutgers University's High Point Solutions Stadium.
The Rutgers DAS will be ready...
Intelligent wireless routing ensures that peak demand will be met
More than 70% of mobile calls and more than 80% of mobile data usage today occurs indoors. The demand now is for reliable services and connectivity inside buildings in order to provide the same quality...
The rapid growth in wireless data use is placing capacity burdens on the traditional large (macro) cell site capacity. The number of users within a cell's coverage area competing for bandwidth has prompted the growth of small cell and DAS. These systems provide similar...
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...
BlueStream Professional Services has purchased parts of Tempest Telecom's DAS business, and will bring one of the industry's most experienced distributed antenna system professionals onboard to manage its DAS and small cells business. Darlene Braunschweig, former president of Tempest's DAS and small cell division,...
Distributed antenna systems provide connectivity behind the scenes, out of sight, even underground in some cases, and at times they have been as hard to find in corporate financial results as they are in some of the venues where they're deployed. But that's starting to change....
