Wade4Wireless

Could Neutral Hosting be the Indoor Solution?


I have been in more talks about neutral hosts in the past month than ever. I can’t believe how much interest this is drawing in the industry. Not only with venues and contractors, but with OEMs and private communication companies. This is a great story for the CBRS spectrum as well. Even 2 of the 3 big carriers are jumping on board, T-Mobile and AT&T, according to Kajeet. 

In fact, I am thinking that for the first time, neutral host could become a top choice for medium to small venues. Mainly for financial reasons on all sides. Don’t get me wrong, DAS is still first choice for many cases and the preferred option for larger venues, but medium venues in the US have been frustrated with lack of carrier interest and investments in their systems. I believe real estate companies may look for partnering with someone instead of making that hefty investment themselves moving forward. 

The neutral host solution using CBRS is being deployed by Kajeet already. Others are moving into this space but Kajeet made it public. They have T-Mobile and AT&T on board.

There are companies moving towards neutral hosts because they want to solve the problem of indoor cellular coverage. It seems the carriers don’t want to pay for any of it, their lack of investments is troubling. It appears there are third parties willing to solve this problem and it won’t involve pulling the carriers into multiple projects. 

First, let’s go over why small to midsize venues are moving aways from DAS networks. There is no secret here that carriers no longer want to pay for the setup in small to midsize venues. This has pushed places to pay for their own DAS in hopes that the carriers would connect to it. (FYI – hope is not a strategy!) 

In a recent conversation with a DAS installation company, they said a major customer is frustrated because after paying thousands of dollars to install a DAS system not all carriers will support it. (Specifically, Verizon). I can’t get into details but let’s say the DAS system could consist of power, coax and fiber cablings, power supplies, air conditioning, radios, backup power and/ or DC power to support the carriers. They still need the carrier to add their BBU and network, an investment I believe the carriers are tired of making. I think the carriers don’t see the payback to be worth the upfront investment. 

As you can guess, the building or business owner that paid for the DAS is pissed off that any carriers would refuse to participate. However, they should have gotten carrier commitments prior to building. Unfortunately, the old adage from the Field of Dreams movie, “If you build it, they will come” didn’t apply here. I get the feeling this is the trend going forward. Customers, specifically in real estate, will learn about this shortly. While end users are frustrated, (no device coverage indoors), the DAS installers along with the venue owners feel like they got screwed over by a carrier! Don’t worry, we’re already coming up with alternative solutions. Sadly, they called me after the fact. 

Moving forward we intend to work with a neutral host provider and MVNO for support. If it makes sense, they would build it at no cost to the carriers. Literally no cost to the carriers. Let me say it a third time, no cost to the carriers. They have their own core and SIMs, but they have roaming agreements with only 2 of the three major carriers in the US, T-Mobile and AT&T. What about those jerks at Verizon? 

Apparently, Verizon has no interest in participating at this time. Why? Maybe they’re jerks, but let’s not jump to conclusions. I talked to several people who work with and for Verizon and the conclusion I came to is no one knows for sure. Lots of theories mostly pointing at executives and financials. Without a public statement, it doesn’t mean much. That is until someone with a Verizon device can’t call 911, then it will matter. Luckily the device should fallback to another carrier who has indoor coverage.  

Since Verizon is still funding larger DAS networks, I have questions around why they are not participating in smaller DAS and neutral host agreements. 

  1. Is Verizon’s focus only on larger corporate customers? This is something that makes sense businesswise, but what about their small business customers?
  2. Even though DAS vendors are willing to do 90% of the work that the venue owners are pay for the DAS, why does Verizon show minimal interest? 
  3. Neutral host vendors will build the network and just want Verizon to sign an agreement to roam onto their network like they did with AT&T and T-Mobile. Why won’t Verizon? (Verizon also uses CBRS spectrum in their network, it’s not like their devices won’t support it. They will.)
  4. Does Verizon still think they’re the telecom GODs they once were? My take is that those days are behind us. 
  5. Where is the Verizon innovation and industry leadership I once saw?

Here’s what I think, Verizon has a big telecom mentality, but so does AT&T. Yet, AT&T is willing to let neutral host vendors build the network for them. Verizon will not. It appears to me that Verizon has an old telecom mentality. How do you think that will play out going forward?

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