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Eighty percent of cellular connections originate indoors, but most enterprise users complain about spotty service in their offices, and they typically blame their company or the building owner rather than their wireless operator. In a recent Zinwave survey, seventy-four percent of 1000 office workers polled complained that they either “frequently” or “sometimes” had problems with poor cellular coverage in the workplace, which can lead to frustration and lost productivity. It’s up to enterprises to deal with this problem, but most enterprises lack the technical expertise or budget to implement an in-building wireless system. What’s needed is a new business model for in-building wireless that addresses the technology and cost issues to provide a simple solution.
In-building wireless coverage has become the “fourth utility” in enterprise office space, along with water, power, and wireline voice/data service. Connecting is no longer a luxury, and the necessity is driving demand for constant coverage. Many employees use their cellular devices as their primary means of communication, and they use their personal devices at work. It’s rare to see an enterprise user with a corporate mobile account with one operator. So, an office space must support service from the major wireless carriers.
Business challenges for enterprise wireless
Mobile operator spending on in-building commercial cellular systems is being done very selectively, so in the majority of cases it’s up to the enterprise to address their own needs. But while there is pent-up demand for in-building wireless services, enterprises face two key barriers to solving this problem: they are in the early stages of learning about in-building wireless technology, and they are looking at ways to budget for the capital outlays needed to deploy in-building connectivity solutions.
Enterprises may be interested in tackling the in-building wireless challenge, but they are daunted by the range of technology choices available. Vendors offer distributed antenna systems (DAS), small cells, and Wi-Fi options for mobile service indoors. Moreover, the industry itself is in the midst of a transition from 4G LTE to 4.5G (Gigabit LTE) and 5G, with technologies such as License Approved Access (LAA), LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U), Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS), and MulteFire. Given the range of options and uncertainty about technology directions for the future, many enterprises opt to do nothing, which is not a solution at all.
The other issue is financial. In most cases, enterprises haven’t allocated the necessary capital to purchase an in-building wireless system, and they are concerned that they will invest heavily for a solution to today’s problems, only to find that additional large outlays may be required to upgrade the system down the road. Enterprises are concerned about making significant up-front capital expenditures on solutions that potentially have a limited shelf life and may require repeated costly upgrades over time. And they don’t want to pay a high entry-level price for a system that could possibly be over-engineered to accommodate possible downstream changes.
Simplifying the business model
What’s needed is a business model that shifts spending from Capex to Opex, enabling a lower cost of entry and the ability to pay as you grow. This “Cellular-as-a-Service” (CaaS) model works through a monthly charge for the wireless system, and removes the concerns regarding high upfront costs as well as recurring downstream costs due to system changes and additions. In the CaaS model, the solution can be engineered to meet today’s needs (and possibly any identified near-term future needs), and offered on a monthly, per-square-foot cost basis. Similar to offerings such as Software as a Service (SaaS), CaaS would be offered on a contract basis over a set number of years, and it would include deployment as well as on-going system monitoring and maintenance, thus taking the learning curve burden off of the enterprise IT team. Any new frequency or operator additions on the system or additional coverage areas might cause a slightly increased monthly charge, but it would not involve any capital outlays by the enterprise as they would be covered as part of the service.
The CaaS model moves the budget allocation to an opex model where it fits more easily into an enterprise budget. It also allows for the system to be optimized for near-term needs, thereby keeping first-in costs low while downstream system growth is accommodated.
The entire CaaS approach is all about simplification. It simplifies the entire decision-making process because it removes the risk of both large capital outlays as well as the risk of investing in a solution which could undergo technology changes in just a few years. It also eliminates the headache of navigating complex technology choices and possible trade-offs as well as downstream support requirements.
Making the CaaS model work
Making the CaaS model work requires the right in-building wireless solution. If the in-building wireless system doesn’t meet the service requirements or is too expensive or complex to deploy, the business model won’t be cost effective. A solution with fewer components and streamlined architecture is needed to make the system easier to install, maintain and upgrade. To further reduce deployment costs, the solution should use existing building fiber cabling and be able to handle a wide range of radio frequencies and wireless operators to solve for today’s requirements and tomorrow’s changes.
If we accept the premise that in-building wireless service is a necessity for the enterprise, then it becomes easier to see the acquisition of such a service as a utility problem, not a capital outlay problem. With the right in-building system, CaaS allows enterprises to solve the problem with a business model that works for them as well as for the wireless system provider.
John Spindler joined Zinwave as VP Marketing and Product Management in November 2015 and has over 30 years of product management and marketing experience in the wireless and telecommunications industries.
Zinwave’s UNItivity platform is the only truly future-proof, universal wireless access solution on the market. UNItivity’s unique wideband architecture breaks the cycle of endless DAS upgrades because it supports any frequency from 150 MHz to 2700 MHz, accommodating current and future wireless services without hardware upgrades. In addition, UNItivity’s streamlined, all-fiber architecture makes it more reliable and much easier to install than traditional DAS solutions. Zinwave has a global customer base. For more information about Zinwave, please visit www.zinwave.com
