Willis lays out the three Fs of in-building wireless: all-fiber, full spectrum support and future-ready
In a recent interview with RCR Wireless News, Zinwave CEO Scott Willis discussed some of the trends shaping the in-building wireless market, as well as discussed his firm’s approach to addressing the in-building needs of enterprise stakeholders.
The current DAS market is marked by limited carrier investment–primarily for high-value customers or in marquee venues like airports, stadia and the like–, which leaves many enterprises driving investment in in-building wireless systems.
“We’re seeing the same pivot and movement that’s taking place in the market,” Willis said. “From an enterprise perspective…multi-carrier is really critical for the enterprise because they need to be able to serve the needs of all their employees,” particularly in light of BOYD trends. DAS really is “the best solution,” he said.
But DAS is expensive, which has prompted new business models like Zinwave’s cellular-as-a-service, which Willis likened to a “utility-based model. It’s very much like your power. When you think about meeting the needs of that enterprise, what I think is important on the vendor side, or on the DAS provider’s side, is how do you bring various innovative business models to meet the needs of the enterprise.” Cellular-as-a-service is “a simple, in-the-box-type solution where we take care of design, we take care of deployment and we take care of any post monitoring or management of the solutions.”
To the 3 Fs, fiber “is a tool that we believe will not only meet today’s needs but meet the future’s needs,” which segues into the future-ready aspect. “An enterprise needs to know that the decision they’re making today is also going to be a good decision three years, five years and even seven years down the road.” Full spectrum support–Zinwave’s Unitivity DAS supports frequencies form 150 MHz to 2700 MHz–rounds out the 3 Fs. “That’s really what we’re focused on,” Willis said.
