Higher education leaders know that mobile connectivity on campus needs to improve to meet current and coming bandwidth requirements. Many schools have made the pivotal decision to augment current cellular and Wi-Fi service with a distributed antenna systems (DAS). Fully 45% of schools are considering technology to enhance network capacity, and 23% are considering in-building DAS.

It just makes sense. Offering seamless connectivity enhances a university’s ability to recruit students, gives event visitors a satisfying experience, and makes teaching in an increasingly digital classroom more effective.

There are significant barriers to offering full coverage. Diverse areas of campus present different challenges, including a variety of physical obstructions to overcome. Connectivity needs are growing exponentially, and it is no longer a question of whether to upgrading to full connectivity.  It is a question of when and how.

Multiple Needs, Multiple ALLIANCE 5G DAS Options

Students see mobile service as a necessary utility, a service that needs to work seamlessly everywhere. Staff needs to accomplish tasks related to registration, tuition, safety, and more. Professors face demands for increasingly digital classrooms, and connectivity ties everything together.

But the campus connectivity reality is far from ideal. SOLiD ALLIANCE^TM 5G DAS is the solution. The platform offers a diverse set of fiber optic-fed remote amplifiers that provide seamless coverage inside buildings, outdoors between buildings, and in large venues like stadiums and arenas.

As technologies like 5G and IoT continue to emerge, every campus will need to upgrade to full connectivity or risk being unable to compete.

Gen-Z is Driving the Need for Bandwidth

Incoming student populations know nothing but a digital world. For these students, dependency on smartphones goes beyond their use as a communication tool: 80% feel distressed without their phones, 70% spend at least two hours each day on YouTube, and 66% use multiple devices at the same time. It’s “not a problem,” but 40% say they’re phone-addicted. Digital services and applications are expanding, and bandwidth needs will only continue to grow.

Gen-Z students are bending the norms of how people learn. Online course enrollment has quadrupled over the last 15 years, students learn more independently with access to the internet, and classrooms are becoming increasingly digital.

Fully 68% of students say technology is a factor in their choice of schools, so implementing ubiquitous, always-on-everywhere connectivity is an investment with real fiscal benefits for higher education.

Safety Is Critical

Campuses are generally considered safe, but recent events in the news have made higher education increasingly security-conscious. The greatest concern for higher education leaders is the ability to notify every student, faculty or staff member, and visitor in an emergency. Active shooter scenarios, lockdowns, tornadoes, building fires, and weapons on campus are the top reasons higher ed campuses send out notifications.

Clery reporting is also a factor, perhaps the reason 100% of higher ed schools have at least one system installed and 70% have two or more systems

Security systems are becoming more complex, training for personnel and students is expanding, remote building locking is gaining popularity, and video surveillance is growing. Consistent, reliable connectivity is more important than ever for higher education security, and SOLiD’s ALLIANCE DAS public safety solutions provide the reliable coverage modern safety systems need.

What Stands in the Way of Full Mobile Service?

A number of factors can cause issues with connectivity on campus.

• The idea that Wi-Fi solves everything. Wi-Fi is susceptible to interference and becomes overloaded with surges in traffic.
• Campus buildings. A campus typically has a combination of heritage and modern buildings. Heritage building materials and architecture can stand in the way of signals, and LEED materials in modern buildings can do the same.
• Multiple diverse locations. A campus needs coverage inside buildings, in open areas, in residence halls, and in stadiums and arenas. The SOLID ALLIANCE DAS platform has a solution for each location, and they all work together to provide coverage everywhere you need it.
• Competing signals. In a densely populated area, multiple cell sites congest the airwaves, and too many signals cause connectivity issues.

 The SOLiD ALLIANCE DAS Solution has the Flexibility to Do It All

Do you need full coverage in a stadium? No problem. Does the Quad have poor reception? We have a solution. There’s no service in the Arts building? We’ll fix it. Do students complain about bad service in the dorms? We make it work.

ALLIANCE is our premier solution for higher education campuses. It offers flexible, scalable capacity with power classes ranging fromsub-1W to 40W. Our modular amplifiers cover every band used for commercial cellular communications, two-way radio, paging, and public safety from 150 MHz to 4 GHz.

When it comes to in-building mobile solutions, the ALLIANCE edgeROU^TM  has the highest output power per band of any in-building DAS remote in its class. The remotes are small, unobtrusive, and aesthetically pleasing, and when installed on the ceiling they have a slim 1.5-inch profile.

 

Partner with SOLiD to Upgrade your Campus-Wide Connectivity

SOLiD has the experience, industry knowledge, and technology to evaluate, advise, plan, and implement a complete connectivity solution for your campus. SOLiD solutions are modular and scalable, so they are obsolescence-resistant, and you can make incremental changes without rip-and-replace.

Get the right partner to implement the always-on-everywhere mobile service you need to compete in today’s connected education environment. Call SOLiD at (888) 409-9997 or email us at info@SOLID.com, and take the first step toward delivering a fully-connected campus.