Cellular Coverage: Getting a Clear Signal
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 2/28/2005
The days of having to go outside the convention center to use your cell phone are coming to an end — at least at the nation's biggest venues.
As wireless communication becomes ubiquitous, carriers are deploying a variety of options at large centers to make sure customers can use their phones and devices while they attend or exhibit at tradeshows.
However, the picture is a little different at midsize venues. Because fewer wireless customers congregate at the smaller centers, carriers are less willing to spend the time and money to deploy cell sites there. That means those venues must come up with their own solutions or continue to endure complaints about poor coverage.
"Cell phone usage in the buildings has been a very complex issue for a very long time," said Barry Strafacci, vice president of special projects for Global Spectrum, which manages about a dozen midsize facilities. "It's a numbers game. It's a cost to us, but from a customer service perspective, we are concerned."
Generating a clear wireless signal within a convention center — large or small — is difficult from the get-go for the simple reason that radio waves are difficult to propagate in concrete and steel structures such as airports, stadiums and office buildings.
In addition, convention centers are only bustling with people some of the time. "The tough thing about convention centers is that there isn't always something going on there. From a traffic perspective, it's a little harder for the carriers when they look at their ROI models," said John Spindler, vice president of marketing for LGC Wireless, a supplier of in-building coverage equipment. "Maybe three days out of the week there will be thousands of people, then the space will be standing empty for a period of time."
And then there's the fact that wireless carriers are often viewed as competitors by venues hoping to keep telecom revenues to themselves. That leaves venues doing a careful dance to balance revenue and customer-service needs.
"Everybody wants to end up coming out a winner. The carriers obviously want to capture the traffic. Venues want to serve their communication needs. What you don't want is to be booking conventions and have the entity hosting the convention be unhappy because users are spending more time outside than in," said Spindler.
David McKay, chief technical officer for base station supplier EMS Wireless, said coverage in recent years has been beefed up at most of the country's large convention centers. "There's no doubt that the carriers were looking at their return on investment. The big convention centers were booked heavily enough that they could justify the investment," he said, adding that his company has now moved on to smaller convention centers, as well as the government and enterprise markets.
LGC Wireless' equipment has been deployed at the Anaheim and Tampa convention centers, as well as the Gaylord resorts and convention centers in Kissimmee, Fla., and Grapevine, Texas. "We've covered quite a few, from small to large," said Spindler.
It's been several years since carriers stepped in to boost coverage at the Anaheim Convention Center, which features 815,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space. Between 2000 and late 2002, five carriers installed cell sites on the premises.
The agreements ensure that customers of Cingular Wireless, Nextel Communications, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless get service when they visit the convention center. In addition, the venue is able to collect monthly rental for allowing the cell sites to be located on the premises.
Boosting the signals quickly brought an end to the complaints the venue received about bad wireless coverage, said Tanya LaSoya, the center's administrative operations manager.
But the decision to let the carriers locate their equipment on the premises wasn't taken lightly. For one thing, said LaSoya, the contracts contained provisions protecting the revenue-generating opportunities for Smart City Networks, which handles the center's telecom and networking services.
"From a service standpoint, we wanted people to be happy inside our building, but we also wanted to make sure we weren't slicing off revenue," she said.
Although it was the carriers that approached Anaheim, rather than the other way around, LaSoya said the venue had started to receive pressure from vendors and from The NAMM Show, the center's biggest tenant. Cries were particularly loud for improvement of Nextel coverage, since many exhibitors and general service contractor personnel use Nextel for its push-to-talk feature. "They were one of the first ones we got here," LaSoya said.
Before antennas were installed at the Tampa Convention Center, inside cell phone use had its challenges. "Since convention centers are made of concrete and steel, getting a good cell phone signal inside could be difficult from time to time and in certain locations," said John Moors, administrator of convention facilities and tourism for the city of Tampa.
The sketchy service prompted complaints to both the venue and the carriers. But Moors said the complaints quickly died down after the signal was boosted. "Our responses went from numerous complaints to zero," he said. "In today's business climate, you have to be able to serve all your clients. If you don't, they tell you very quickly and very loudly."
Moors said Tampa is pleased with its arrangement with wireless carrier Alltel Communications. "The carrier pays for it, and we make a modest profit too," he said.
Having carriers install individual cell sites at convention centers gives them control over the equipment. But it's also expensive. Consequently, some are signing on to share cell sites in certain venues.
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans — which is on the rotation for CTIA Wireless — pioneered shared cell sites. Don DiMaggio, the facility's director of technology, said Sprint organized the effort in 2000, and enlisted other carriers' support. The $3 million system features a 4,000 sq. ft. cell site on the mezzanine level, supported by hundreds of antennas.
"This had never been done before. There had never been a situation where they shared the space," DiMaggio said. "Sprint came in and got everyone together. It was given to the convention center on completion, and everybody gets a fair share of the antenna system."
The newly opened Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, which benefits from glass construction and the close proximity of cell sites, can accommodate simultaneous use of up to 15,000 cell phones. But the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority plans to install a multi-carrier network that would further improve wireless coverage. The network will also cover the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center.
Strafacci said testing the strength of cell signals is one of the steps Global Spectrum takes when assuming management of new buildings. The results vary depending on the building's architecture and location.
There's agreement that wireless service should be available to all in pre-function areas, he said. But the exhibit floor is another matter, since the rental of telecom equipment is a revenue source for venues and vendors. In addition, some show managers and exhibitors consider cell phones a distraction from the showfloor.
"Do convention centers want good reception on the exhibit floor, when convention centers make money from selling long-distance service, from the local area network charge, from renting the equipment? That's a big income source," Strafacci said.
He added that losing revenue and spending thousands to boost cellular coverage is a difficult proposition for publicly funded venues. "Are we willing to spend $350,000 or $400,000 on a booster system and lose revenue at the same time?" he asked.
And even after carriers have taken care of coverage issues, capacity can still be inadequate at tradeshows that draw large crowds of wireless users. But in cases where both carriers and venues are unwilling to take permanent steps, carriers can always bring in temporary cellular on wheels — called COWs — to ensure adequate capacity at the largest of shows.
