DAS or a ton of femtocells?

Posted by byrontheconqueror@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 11 comments

We're looking to increase the cellular coverage in one of our buildings. I've spoken to a few different vendors/installers and getting a DAS is big money, like hundreds of thousands of dollars. For $250 I can get a femtocell from Verizon or AT&T. I figure I need 24 in total, 12 from each carrier. That brings the grand total to $6000. We already have more than enough ethernet drops in the ceiling to support this. It seems like a silly idea, but is it silly or genius level frugal?

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11 Comments

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Chihuahua4905@reddit

What is the use case for cellular? Is it for voice coms or something else? My reason for asking is, if it's for voice, can you use WiFi calling on mobile devices?

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byrontheconqueror@reddit (OP)

For public use. We have total WiFi coverage and all employees are good, this is for patients and families that are unaware or don't want to use our public WiFi.

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dan4334@reddit

> this is for patients and families that are unaware or don't want to use our public WiFi. A few posters on the walls would fix that and those who won't use public WiFi will just live with the consequences.

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ThorThimbleOfGorbash@reddit

Absolutely. Unless this is a celebrity rehab center where people really can’t be bothered but then you could afford the DAS.

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sryan2k1@reddit

Look into Hotspot 2.0 or pony up for the DAS.

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shikkonin@reddit

> It seems like a silly idea Because it is.

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LordRevan@reddit

Not the cheapest solution, but consider a cell-fi from Nextivity. We use them in smaller buildings. The caveat is you been available macro capacity in the area. Still tons cheaper than a big iron DAS, like a CommScope ION-E.

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CountGeoffrey@reddit

no, you can't. you want a bunch of enterprise femtocells, which are $2500 each or thereabouts. buy 2 for each carrier to start, and see how it works. no brainer to try it before going all in on DAS.

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MayoDeftinwolf@reddit

There is a DAS in place where I work - a large manufacturing plant that is otherwise pretty much a faraday cage. From my perspective, it is completely hands off. They have some rack space, and we get ahold of them when it's needs to be tuned. Otherwise we don't touch their stuff. No responsibility, no monitoring, just solid coverage everywhere antennas are up. I can't really speak for the budget side as it was in place before I started there. But I wouldn't want anything to do with managing people's cellular connection.

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sryan2k1@reddit

You will have more issues doing your on the cheap solution than doing nothing at all. Is this for the public? Do you need all 4 carriers?

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byrontheconqueror@reddit (OP)

The femtocell we have from Verizon has some visibility, I think it even allows us to poll it with SNMP. It's for public consumption. I spoke to carriers and that was so stupidly expensive. Verizon's quoted us $1 million to bring it onsite.