Higher educational establishments are well aware that cellular coverage on campus needs to evolve with current and future demand because Wi-Fi only systems don’t meet all connectivity requirements.
Students take reliable mobile coverage as a given because the concept of a pre-Internet world is completely alien to them. They spend more time with their smartphones than they do their families and it’s easy to understand why.
These portable devices are their primary source of entertainment, their wallets, their travel cards, their banking tools and over the last two years they’ve been integral to maintaining some semblance of normality.
Such is this dependency that according to an industry survey, 68 per cent of students regard mobile coverage as a key when applying to universities and access to a strong 4G/5G signal ranks highly when accepting offers.
Higher educational establishments must take this requirement seriously in their bid to attract talented students and assure it forms part of their digital transformation. Moreover, the digital learning practices introduced during the pandemic are here for the long haul, with cellular taking central stage as it is the gateway to collaborative and app-based learning.
Professors and lecturers are also being pushed to embrace digitisation to enable collaborative learning via multiple devices and technologies.
The critical backbone
In a post-pandemic world, digital transformation and its underpinning communications infrastructure are now imperative to the very essence of all higher educational establishments. That includes attracting and retaining high calibre students, enrolment processes, welfare, finance, accommodation, international students, student learning, staff communications, campus-wide safety and security, wayfinding, and digital signage.
Requirements are endless and the underlying digital infrastructures and wireless networks needed to effectively handle these complex requirements are immense. In addition, university digital transformation isn’t just about responding to the pandemic either. It will continue to reshape teaching, learning, and wider educational experiences for years to come.
Whilst routine notifications may be communicated via platforms such as WhatsApp, all safety critical communications will require 4G connectivity once the new ESN network goes mainstream. Seamless cellular connectivity is also central to smart building technologies because of its long transmission ranges, universal availability, and greater security over Wi-Fi.
Security considerations
Access to systems within higher education often require software applications to be loaded on to personal mobile devices for said devices to use the in-house Wi-Fi network.
There is some reticence among lecturers to load these work-related apps for fear of functionality and privacy issues, which means all on-campus messages need to be received via SMS/MMS, particularly if those messages relate to student/staff safety and wellbeing.
Cellular converge is also imperative to 999 calls, so any area within the facility void of a phone signal poses serious health and safety risks.
Whilst some universities may be considering operator-connected distributed antenna systems (DAS) to overcome connectivity challenge, they should be aware that the mobile operators are now offloading the high costs associated with these installations to the end-clients. This means universities need other options to assure mobile connectivity.
Guiding staff
If universities are unable to secure the upfront Capex needed to commission a DAS project, they have to consider alternative options such as mobile repeaters. Although they’re highly compelling compared to DAS, assuring seamless mobile coverage involves a good deal more than sourcing and installing them at will.
A number of factors must be taken into account, including the university location, the outdoor network, number of students/staff requiring connectivity, and the number of connected devices.
If these considerations are not carefully thought through, standalone mobile repeaters randomly installed in different locations will not only make a poor indoor coverage situation even worse, they will also impact the external network. This can have serious repercussions.
Large universities require a system that delivers DAS benefits without the associated long lead-times or high costs. To select appropriate options, they require third-party support because their facilities management staff are not telecoms experts.
Digitisation and seamless mobile connectivity are driving innovation across the board in higher education. From digital learning, distance learning, paperless learning and other sustainability initiatives, to assuring student/staff safety and security in an emergency situation.
This demand is providing systems integrators and the wider ICT channel with lucrative a opportunity to source solutions that will assure the ubiquitous coverage needed to support these campus critical applications at an affordable price point whilst satisfying Ofcom’s stringent mobile repeater rules.