Picocell applications

Filling in coverage holes in business parks

Recent years have seen an explosion in office developments at new business parks around the world. These modern sites frequently house some of the most dynamic, expanding businesses – and nearly all of them have demanding communications requirements. They represent lucrative opportunities for mobile operators that can get their services right.

Many business parks are found on the edge of towns and cities where network coverage is poor or even non-existent, because the location is far from the nearest macro BTS. Customers will simply not subscribe to a service if their phones do not work where they do.

Frequently in the more distant locations, new macro deployment is uneconomic – there may not be enough traffic to warrant building new cells. And even if there is a case for building out the macro network, it will generally not be possible to do this quickly.

Picocells are a simple way to fill coverage holes and signal strength challenges:

• Deployment of picocells is fast and unobtrusive.
• Provides high quality in-building coverage that meets any customer requirements.
• Customers feel the operator has responded directly to their needs, building confidence and long-term loyalty.
• Unlike DAS systems, the capital cost of picocells is not lost if the customer moves or changes suppliers.
• All new sites will have modern fixed line infrastructure offering accessible broadband for backhaul.