Shephard’s Beach Resort in Clearwater Beach, Florida has deployed a small cell system that supports all four nationwide operators. Each operator has provisioned its own small cells and the nodes share Ethernet backhaul. The system was designed by ClearSky Technologies, which now hopes to deploy similar systems in other venues. ClearSky said this 4-operator, enterprise-class small cell system is a first for the cellular industry.
The Florida resort has a total of 95 small cells, according to ClearSky co-founder Dean Fresonke. AT&T has 18 LTE nodes and eight 3G nodes, all made by SpiderCloud Wireless. Verizon has 26 SpiderCloud LTE nodes. Sprint has 21 LTE nodes made by CommScope, and T-Mobile US has 13 LTE nodes and 9 3G nodes, all made by Nokia.
“Our guests constantly have their smartphones with them and having proper cell phone coverage is extremely important to their overall guest experience,” said Paul Andrews, general manager of Shephard’s Beach Resort. “We have gone from mediocre cellular service to five-star coverage throughout our property, and both the guests and staff are ecstatic. In particular, our meeting room clients have given us rave reviews about the great coverage inside our meeting rooms.”
As ClearSky’s pilot site, Shephard’s Beach did not have to finance its system. In addition to sourcing and deploying the small cells, ClearSky handled the system design and implementation, working with each of the nationwide operators. The company also worked closely with the three small cell vendors. ClearSky noted that future deployments could include small cells made by Ericsson, as well as the vendors that were part of this deployment.
ClearSky will operate the system as a managed service, meaning that Shephard’s Beach Resort will pay for the small cells as a monthly operating expense. More and more enterprise customers are buying in-building wireless as a service because it moves the equipment off their balance sheets and gives them an easier path to upgrade in the future.
Many of the resort’s 95 small cells are installed in the ceilings so that guests never see them. ClearSky placed some of them out in the open, which makes for a stronger signal and leaves the nodes visible to other potential customers who want to tour Shephard’s Beach.
SpiderCloud Wireless small cell installed in a ceiling at Shephard’s Beach Resort
Follow me on Twitter.
