If Better In-Building Coverage Happens, What Will Drive It?

It is not yet clear how much change is going to happen in “in-building coverage” as Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), using shared spectrum in the 3.5-GHz band, and, if so, for what purposes that will happen.

In past decades, mobile signal strength has become a bigger issue as use of 2-GHz frequencies has become essential, since signals in those ranges do not penetrate building walls as well as lower-frequency signals.

Over time, as 2G networks are decommissioned, that better-performing spectrum will be released for use as part of 5G, so some of the current problems will be partially alleviated. In-building repeaters also have become part of the solution.

Perhaps the biggest issue is how valuable CBRS and new in-building transmission approaches (as well as the business models to support them) will become, and what apps and use cases will drive deployment.

source: Signal Boosters

At a high level, as valuable as in-building voice and messaging is, the maturation of voice and messaging revenue streams means there is little service provider incentive to spend more money on indoors infrastructure. Doing so will mean happier customers, but will not likely boost revenues, other than by holding churn at bay.

Users, after all, already shift mobile data access to Wi-Fi on a routine basis, though problems with voice are not directly helped by doing so. A wider shift to IP voice by service providers obviously will help, in that regard.

The point is that, longer term, it is not so clear what incentives might exist to “fix” indoor voice problems, as those problems might already be heading towards resolution as indoor data access improves (using Wi-Fi, signal repeaters or in-building infrastructure), as better-performing spectrum (reclaimed 800 MHz) becomes available and as voice itself simply becomes a data app (VoLTE, VoIP).

A better case might be made for CBRS and other ways of creating in-building data access to support internet of things and sensor applications, where financial incentives might well exist.

All that will take some time to develop, though.