Cellular coverage
Bridging the cellular small
cell coverage divide
The newly launched Freshwave Group plans to solve indoor and outdoor cellular coverage issues
by bringing together building owners, tenants, municipalities and mobile operators using new
Ycollaborative commercial models. James Atkinson talks to Simon Frumkin, CEO, to find out more ou cannot get cellular coverage everywhere, all of the
time. That is a fact that every mobile phone user knows
all too well. For consumers, this ‘best eort’ service is just
something they are largely resigned to dealing with. But for
many organisations, lack of mobile coverage can be more than just
frustrating, it can have a detrimental eect on the business.
Research conducted by analyst company CCS Insight on behalf
of the Freshwave Group reveals the extent of the problem. CCS
surveyed 500 senior business leaders of UK companies with 100-
500 employees in December 2019. Of these, 97 per cent reported
mobile signal issues in their oces, with most acknowledging serious
knock-on eects.
Some 72 per cent reported the negative eect it had on
employees, including wasted productivity, lower morale and more
complaints. Seventy per cent said they lost sales or were impacted
by direct costs, and 52 per cent believed that client satisfaction
suered or that the business incurred reputational damage.
The three most common problems were: no coverage or a
permanent signal dead zone in parts of the oce (69 per cent);
missed call notifications even when the mobile hasn’t rung (53 per
cent); and dropped mobile phone calls (51 per cent).
Developers, building owners, tenants and municipalities want the
indoor coverage issue solved, and most are willing to pay for the
solution. According to CCS Insight, 39 per cent of those surveyed
will invest to improve mobile signal in their oces in the next two
years, while another 49 per cent are considering it.
The infrastructure side of the communications
industry has played its part. Small cell vendors have
developed multi-operator solutions, and these are
widely available for both indoor and outdoorcoverage.
Slow development
But the market has been frustratingly slow to take
o. Mobile network operators do not have the RF
design and engineering resource to sort out coverage
in thousands of buildings, or a workable mechanism
to bring together all four UK operators, real estate
providers, local and central government.
The Freshwave Group, which launched on 28
January 2020, thinks it has found a way to bridge the
divide and clear the logjam. It already supports over
5,000 mast locations, more than 2,000 connected
buildings and over 200 outdoor networks. Customers
include Workspace Group, several central London
boroughs and London Docklands.
So, why does it think it can solve the small cell
coverage conundrum? Simon Frumkin, CEO of the
Freshwave Group, and previously head of EE’s ESN
Division, says: “I don’t think anyone else is doing what
we are doing in the way we are doing it. I think we
are dierent in three ways. First, we have adopted
an extremely collaborative commercial approach
16 February 2020 | www.landmobile.co.uk | Twitter:@Land_Mobile
/www.landmobile.co.uk