It’s time to get excited about indoor 5G

There is plenty of excitement in the US wireless industry about taking 5G indoors.

“We think the opportunity for indoor is significant,” said Ed Farscht, CEO of cell tower company Diamond Communications, during the “View from the Top” keynote event at the Wireless Infrastructure Association’s (WIA) recent annual trade show.

Indeed, Diamond acquired Cheytec Telecommunications, a company that specializes in in-building wireless networks, in 2019.

Other executives speaking at the WIA event agreed with Farscht’s assessment.

“The size of that [in-building] opportunity is growing every day,” said Brendan Cavanagh, CEO of cell tower giant SBA Communications. “I do think there is opportunity there.”

Cavanagh said the industry collectively will need to work on the business model for indoor wireless networks because it’s sometimes not clear who should pay for the network: the building owner, the wireless network operator, a third party or some mix of the three.

Additional support for the indoor 5G opportunity comes from WIA itself. The trade association recently launched its In-Building Forum to connect the group’s members to indoor wireless opportunities in industries ranging from manufacturing to healthcare.

“I think this is a really big opportunity for the wireless industry,” Patrick Halley, the WIA’s CEO, said during the keynote event.

Other associations are also eyeing the indoor wireless sector. The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) recently formed a new Neutral Host & Infra Sharing Project Group, which has resulted in part from the work Facebook owner Meta conducted with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. As Light Reading previously reported, the companies teamed up to deploy small cells in the 3.5GHz CBRS spectrum band for a neutral host indoor wireless network for Meta’s offices around the country.

Meta remains a driving force behind TIP, despite the company’s recent shut down of its Connectivity unit, which sought to extend the Facebook social network to more users.

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