When it comes to picking the right vendor for designing and installing a cellular distributed antenna system (DAS), companies often make the same mistakes. Let’s break down the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them, all in a way that’s easy to digest.
1. Chasing the Lowest Bid
Sure, everyone loves a good deal, but sometimes that super low bid comes with hidden costs. Cheap materials, inexperienced teams, and incomplete solutions can end up costing more in the long run. You might save some cash upfront but get ready for upgrades, repairs, or even system failures down the line. Additionally, a DAS installed on the cheap might not meet the carriers’ stringent requirements. If the DAS isn’t up to their standards, it could end up not being approved for integration into the carrier’s network. This means your system won’t connect to the carrier’s signal, resulting in what’s known as a “Dark DAS”—a system that’s installed but non-functional, rendering the investment useless and necessitating further expense to bring it up to standard.
2. Skipping a Proper Needs Assessment
Many companies rush into the project without fully understanding what their building really needs. This often results in dead zones and poor signal quality. A thorough assessment is crucial, and this includes creating a detailed iBwave design and conducting benchmark testing. An iBwave design ensures your system is optimized for your building’s layout, materials, and potential interference. Proper testing confirms these assumptions and helps identify any gaps or issues before you go live.
3. Not Vetting Vendors Properly
You wouldn’t hire an employee without checking their references, so why skip this step with vendors? Make sure to dig into their experience, reputation, and past performance. Picking a vendor with a shaky history or insufficient expertise is a recipe for trouble.
4. Ignoring Future Scalability
Think about the future. Your needs might grow or change, and technology definitely will. Choosing a system that can’t be easily upgraded or expanded means you’re setting yourself up for additional costs and disruptions down the road.
5. Overlooking Integration Capabilities
Your DAS should play nice with existing systems and future technologies. Ignoring this can lead to compatibility issues and reduced performance, which no one wants to deal with.
6. Forgetting About Support and Maintenance
What happens when something goes wrong? Overlooking ongoing technical support and maintenance can lead to prolonged downtime and higher operational costs. Make sure your vendor offers solid support options to keep everything running smoothly.
7. Lacking Relationships with Wireless Service Providers
Too many companies don’t have the necessary relationships with carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. These relationships are key for getting your DAS properly integrated with the carriers’ networks. They help with obtaining necessary approvals and make the deployment process smoother. Plus, having these connections is crucial for vetting and negotiating license agreements with the local market teams of each provider. Without them, you might face delays, extra costs, or subpar system performance due to poor coordination and complex licensing issues.
By focusing on these aspects—value over cost, thorough assessments, proper vendor vetting, future scalability, seamless integration, solid support, and strong carrier relationships—you’ll be in a much better position to choose a DAS solution that’s reliable and effective. Make informed decisions, and you’ll avoid the common pitfalls that many companies fall into.
