xG Mobile "Inside the Building" Could be Moving in the Direction of Private Networks

Mobile coverage inside the building has been one key differentiator between mobile and fixed communications. Fixed networks terminate on the side of the building: the public network ends there. 

The premises network has always been the domain of private networks: cabled local area networks or Wi-Fi, for example. 

Use of higher radio frequency spectrum has, over time, created more issues for mobile operators in terms of indoor coverage. In the 4G era, all those neighbors of yours talking on their phones on their porches provide testimony that higher-frequency signals have a tougher time passing through brick, for example. 

As the global industry starts to use mid-band frequencies, those issues will intensify. When we start using millimeter and eventually teraHertz frequencies, the issues will compound. 

The big takeaway is that mobile networks increasingly will function as outdoor networks. Indoor networks increasingly will become private networks. As building tenants now expect infrastructure for inside wiring and connections to high-speed, high-capacity public networks, demand will likely intensify on building owners to enable indoor mobile coverage. 

Some period of customer uncertainty and unhappiness is sure to precede such developments at scale. The resolution can take several forms, including better and faster Wi-Fi infrastructure (though that primarily rests on each tenant and perhaps secondarily their chosen access provider). Perhaps Wi-Fi offload becomes more important in the 5G and subsequent eras of mobile platforms. 

Perhaps mesh networks will suffice in some cases, aided by indoor signal boosters and range extenders as now exist for Wi-Fi. Maybe fixed wireless can be configured to help, using window-mounted receivers that then rebroadcast signals indoors. We already retransmit using Wi-Fi. Will we be ble to--or want to--retransmit directly in mobile signal format?

Customers will expect their devices to work indoors. Precisely how we enable that--at scale--is yet  undetermined. Even as Wi-Fi has become the default indoor interface, the value of Ethernet cabled connections remains. 

In some cases, might xG use both Wi-Fi and Ethernet for indoor signal distribution? Might the indoor xG  realm become a private network venue as has been the case for fixed networks and private networks?