Europe UK : With 3G adoption, smartphones, and mobile data usage on the rise, there is an urgent need for mobile operators to improve the indoor coverage of their networks, says Infonetics Research in its latest white paper "An Evaluation of In-Building Wireless Coverage."

Cellular is still the dominant technology for wireless voice, but it is well documented that cellular signals -- particularly 3G signals -- have difficulty penetrating into buildings. Infonetics' paper assesses the viability of different solutions for addressing this issue, particularly distributed antenna systems, picocells, femtocells, and alternatives such as VoIP over wireless LAN.

"Improving in-building cellular coverage should be a pressing concern for mobile operators if they want to drive up revenue per user, particularly from enterprise customers," said Richard Webb, wireless analyst for Infonetics Research. "If they don't, these high value customers will look to competing operators, or perhaps to competing technologies such as wireless LANs to serve their in-building mobile voice and data needs. If mobile operators can work with the customer to solve current cellular coverage shortfall, they have the opportunity to lock in the customer for the future."

The paper analyzes the various solutions for in-building cellular coverage in terms of their improvement of signal reach and quality, deployment and management challenges, cost of deployment and ownership, handset requirements, and commercial issues.

The white paper addresses:

-- Mobile voice and data usage drivers  
-- The need for improved in-building cellular coverage 
-- In-building coverage challenges  
-- Technology comparisons:        
-- Active and passive distributed antennas systems        
-- Picocells and femtocells       
-- VoIP over wireless LAN  
-- Integration of multiple technologies  
-- Public vs. private networks  

Download the free white paper at www.infonetics.com in the Services, White Papers section, or directly at http://www.infonetics.com/services/green.shtml?whitepapers/whitepapers.shtml