We’re all familiar with retail parks, groups of large shops nestled beside a dual carriageway half way between a town and an outlying village or the next town, close enough to be convenient by car but a little too far to walk to or even cycle to. Frequently including a carpet shop or car accessories shop, pet store, or drive thru fast food outlet, and with plenty of space to park, they are like the opening scene from Back to the Future.
Unfortunately, the other thing that typically characterises retail parks is poor mobile coverage. When network operators roll out a network they initially concentrate on providing coverage to the major cities and towns, then the arterial transport routes that link towns and cities, and finally they address the final areas required to fulfil their obligation to provide coverage to 98% of the population. Retail parks, which are generally located away from residential areas, tend to fall into the final category.
To offer retailers a cost-effective alternative to having a high street presence, developers buy out of town sites for retail parks and sell plots to retailers to site their retail sheds – buildings that can be erected, operational, and contributing a return as quickly as possible. Generally, these generic buildings are long and low and constructed with steel and glass, which is an ideal solution to achieving quick construction but not great for radio signals. The low emissivity glass typically used is designed to be thermally efficient. Fluorinated tin dioxide (or SnO2 ) is added to the glass during its manufacturing process to improve thermal efficiency. This glass keeps the heat in the buildings when it is cold as well as keeping the building cool during the hot summer months, but it is also very effective at blocking mobile signals.
Retailers taking advantage of the advantages of out of town sites who wish their customers or employees to have robust mobile coverage within their buildings are faced with the challenge of poor mobile reception outside made weaker inside by the building’s fabric. The mobile operators charge tens of thousands of pounds to land their base station equipment and transmission to an inbuilding site, this is not a cost-effective solution. This was the challenge facing the retailer who approached Pan RF for a solution.
The only viable solution to ensuring seamless coverage was to use an OFCOM compliant off-air repeater in each store.
To provide this solution Pan RF carried out a survey of each store and completed a detailed design. During the design process we established the following:
- Existing coverage in the store using TEMS.
- The location of likely donor sites
- The position of the donor antenna on the roof of the store
- Feeder cable routes
- Equipment location and power supply
- Internal antenna positions
- Detailed bill of materials
Once the detailed design had been approved by the client Pan RF arranged access with the client, providing the store manager with the scope of works and health and safety documentation to allow us to install the system safely and without interrupting the day-to-day operations of the supermarket.
The system was installed and integrated in two nights with minimal disruption to the store’s operation.
"Over the past three years, Pan RF has proved to be one of our most reliable service providers. They have shown great care and attention to detail when designing and implementing radio frequency solutions. Their professionalism has been consistent throughout our working relationship, and I remain fully confident in their abilities to propose and deliver high-quality services to the customer. Myself and my team consider Pan RF to be a solutions-driven organisation. Working closely with their highly skilled representatives has been a pleasure and no doubt will continue to be in the future."
