MOBILE SIGNAL BOOSTING FOR CAR DEALERSHIPS

A dealership is a very particular type of building.

A modern showroom may combine large areas of glass, steel framing, metal cladding, insulated panels and reinforced concrete. 

Behind it there may be workshops, service reception, offices, parts departments, vehicle preparation areas and customer lounges, all built and finished in different ways.

Those different parts of the building can behave very differently when it comes to mobile signal.

We know that because we have spent years working in them.

Litenet has installed structured cabling in numerous dealerships as part of both new-build and refurbishment projects. That has given us first-hand experience of the infrastructure behind the showroom as well as the practical realities of working in busy, customer-facing automotive environments.

When we carry out a mobile signal survey in a dealership, we are therefore looking at the building with an understanding of both its RF environment and its underlying communications infrastructure.

One of the most frustrating things about poor indoor mobile coverage is that the signal outside the dealership can be excellent.

Walk through the doors and it can disappear.

Modern building materials are often very good at reducing the amount of radio signal that reaches the inside of the property. Energy-efficient glazing, steel structures, insulated panels, metal cladding and reinforced concrete can all contribute.

Large dealerships can introduce another problem: distance.

Even where some mobile signal penetrates the outside of the building, it may not travel far enough into workshops, internal offices, parts departments or other areas deeper within the site.

Different mobile networks and frequencies can also perform very differently.

That is why a mobile coverage map or the signal bars on somebody's phone are not enough to design a commercial system properly.

We survey the actual building.

The showroom is only one part of the business.

A sales executive may need reliable mobile coverage at their desk, on the showroom floor and in a vehicle handover area.

Service advisors may be using mobiles around reception and workshop areas.

Technicians and managers may move between workshops, offices and external areas.

Customers may be sitting in a lounge trying to make calls or use mobile data while waiting for a vehicle.

And dealership management may expect company mobiles to work throughout the site.

A successful mobile coverage system therefore needs to be designed around where people actually use their phones, rather than simply providing a patch of stronger signal somewhere in the building.

Depending on the dealership, that can include the showroom, sales offices, customer lounges, service reception, workshops, parts departments, vehicle handover areas, staff areas and covered or underground parking.

Performance matters, but so does appearance.

Car manufacturers and dealer groups invest heavily in the presentation of their showrooms. It makes little sense to solve a mobile coverage problem by installing equipment in a way that detracts from that environment.

The positions of donor antennas, internal antennas, cabling and equipment are therefore considered as part of the overall system design.

Where practical, coverage antennas can be positioned discreetly while still providing the required service.

And because of our wider structured cabling experience, we understand the importance of cable routes, communications rooms, existing infrastructure and coordination with other building services.

The installation should feel like part of the building's infrastructure — not something that has been bolted on afterwards.

The difficult part isn't buying a mobile signal booster.

The difficult part is understanding what the building actually needs.

Before designing a system, we can carry out a professional mobile signal survey to understand what is happening inside and outside the dealership.

We assess factors such as the available donor signal, indoor signal strength and quality, the performance of the relevant mobile networks, frequencies available at the site, areas where coverage is poor or unusable, how the building is affecting the signal and where antennas and equipment could realistically be installed.

This gives us the information required to design the system properly.

You don't need to know which mobile signal booster you need. That's our job.

Dealership requirements vary.

Some groups provide company mobiles using one particular network. In that situation, improving that network throughout the property may be the priority.

Other dealerships want staff, customers and visitors using different networks to have better indoor coverage.

Where the available mobile environment allows it, a system can therefore be designed around either a particular network or multiple networks.

The decision should be based on what the dealership actually needs and what the survey tells us — not on whichever piece of equipment somebody happens to be selling.

During the design phase we will cover off the requirements specific to each site.

Mercedes-Benz Brentford is not an isolated project.

Litenet has installed mobile signal boosting systems in prestige dealerships, including sites associated with brands such as Bentley, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover.

That gives us direct experience of environments where technical performance has to be balanced with presentation, customer experience and the practical demands of a working dealership.

We are careful not to assume that every dealership requires the same solution.

The construction of the building, surrounding mobile networks, corporate mobile arrangements, required coverage areas and existing infrastructure can all differ considerably from one site to another.

That is why we start by understanding the individual site.

Mobile coverage can be considered at several stages of a dealership's life.

Sometimes we are asked to investigate an existing property where staff have lived with poor mobile coverage for years.

In other cases, the problem becomes apparent after a new-build or major refurbishment.

Ideally, indoor mobile coverage should be considered as part of the building's communications infrastructure rather than discovered as a problem after occupation.

Our background in structured cabling and dealership infrastructure is particularly useful in these environments because we understand how mobile coverage can sit alongside the wider network design.

If a dealership is being constructed or refurbished, involving us early can make antenna positions, cable routes and equipment locations much easier to incorporate cleanly into the finished building.

Dealerships are busy places.

The showroom has to remain presentable, customers are coming and going, workshops are operational and staff still need to do their jobs.

We plan installations around the practical operation of the site and coordinate with the people responsible for the building.

The complete process can be handled by Litenet:

Survey. Design. Installation. Commissioning. Testing. Validation. Support

That gives the dealership or dealer group one team responsible for understanding the problem and seeing the project through to completion.

Installation can be carried out during quiet hours, or even when the dealership's closed.  With weekend and evening works available on request, we can install a system when it suits you most.

Installing equipment is not the end of the project.

Once the system has been commissioned, we can test the mobile environment again to confirm that coverage has improved in the areas the system was designed to serve.

Where appropriate, those results can be compared with measurements taken during the original survey.

That means the outcome does not have to be based on somebody looking at their phone and saying:

“It seems better.”

We can demonstrate what the installation has actually achieved.

We can work with both individual dealerships and larger dealer groups.

For a single site, the objective may simply be to solve one persistent mobile coverage problem.

For a group operating multiple dealerships, there can be considerable value in using a consistent approach to survey, design, installation and validation across the estate.

But that does not mean installing exactly the same system everywhere.

Every property still needs to be considered on its own merits.

One dealership may have poor coverage because of its glazing. Another may be a large steel-framed workshop. Another may have good coverage for one network and virtually nothing from another.

The process can be standardised. The solution should be designed for the building.

Mobile repeaters used in the UK must meet the relevant requirements for lawful operation.

Litenet designs commercial mobile coverage systems around equipment suitable for legal use in the UK and appropriate for the individual project.

We don't approach mobile signal boosting as a matter of simply making the signal as powerful as possible.

The objective is to create a properly designed in-building mobile coverage system using the signal available at the site.

 Ofcom permits certain mobile signal repeaters to be used without a licence, provided they meet the relevant technical requirements. We only design systems around equipment appropriate for lawful use in the UK.