Vodafone Sure Signal Premium Promises To Boost Indoor Mobile Coverage For Businesses
Small cell-powered Vodafone Sure Signal Premium targets mobile-dependent large and medium sized businesses
Vodafone says its new small cell-powered Sure Signal Premium service can provide mobile-dependent medium and large sized businesses with enhanced 3G and 4G coverage and future proof them against developments in location-based analytics and mobile device management (MDM).
The operator has worked with NEC and small cell specialists Spidercloud to develop the product, which claims to be the UK’s first enterprise grade indoor capacity and coverage service, providing enhanced voice and mobile data connectivity.
It is intended for businesses with 320 or more employees and above 3,200 square metres of floor space, but can be scaled up to support thousands of users. Vodafone promises that Sure Signal Premium can be installed “as easily as Wi-Fi” and that its installers will enable the best possible coverage for each building layout.
Vodafone Sure Signal Premium
LTE will not be available until this Summer, and even then it depends on Vodafone’s 4G rollout, but the operator says that as the only company to offer integrated fixed and mobile networks following the acquisition of Cable & Wireless, it is ideally positioned to provide the best possible connection.
“The rise of the smartphone, mobile apps and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) in the workplace means high-quality, high-speed indoor coverage is no longer just a nice-to-have for business,” says Fergal Kelly, CTO at Vodafone UK. “With Sure Signal Premium, large businesses can satisfy rising indoor capacity and coverage demands in a highly integrated, well managed way.”
Kelly adds that the service is just one benefit from the £900 million it spent last year on its fixed network in the UK, while the company also has plans for small cells in its £19 billion investment programme, which will see a number of improvements to its worldwide network over the next two years.
Vodafone has offered Sure Signal to personal users for a number of years and uses femtocells to boost signal in rural areas by connecting to a home broadband network. Similar technology has been deployed in the remote Shetland community of Walls, with femtocells deployed on public buildings.
