topic New mast / repeater options in Mobile Network discussions

New mast / repeater options

YingaTech — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 16:17:27 GMT

Hi everyone,

We run railway infrastructure for heritage railways in the UK, our main product being a system of custom trackers getting data over GPS and then sending that back to us over the mobile network. We have a new client down south, and have largely good coverage over the full railway line - but there's one section where we'd like to improve the network for our trackers.

We're working on repeaters using radio, but I wanted to exhaust options to improve the mobile signal:

Does anyone know of any repeater options? (something we could just plug into Ethernet, I don't think anything exists/can be used in the UK)
How difficult is it to convince EE that a rural part of the country would benefit from a mast where it doesn't get mobile coverage from any network?

I've seen people be DM'd previously - we have a willing landlord (the railway owners) depending on the difficulty/circumstances.

Thank you 🙂

Re: New mast / repeater options

bristolian — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 17:36:21 GMT

A different spin on the usual "can I apply for a mast" type query - it's not an application process!

Legal repeaters are not cheap, an indoor solution can be several hundred ££

Your issue will be that most new site installs/coverage rollouts are network-driven, i.e. demand comes from within an MNO's network planning area. Usually, the only time when a new site is driven by customer "requests" are when a large corporate or public-sector customer is deemed to need it, after a coverage survey of a specific location. The following link may be worth reading..

https://business.ee.co.uk/large-business/esn/coverage-solutions/

Depending on your location, there is a cross-industry drive to improve rural coverage and if you have a "Total Notspot", then the Shared Rural Network may be of interest - https://srn.org.uk/

Without wishing to dampen your admirable enthusiasm, a landlord should only be considered "willing" if legal agreement has been reached. It's the local authority planning process that's often the stumbling block!

Out of interest, is the railway passing through a cutting or other physical obstacle? Or that there's no coverage even at outdoors, ground-level next to the line?

Re: New mast / repeater options

YingaTech — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 20:12:14 GMT

Evening,

Thank you for the info & the link! Very helpful & another thread to pull
Yes - I'll be the first to admit that I don't know much about this process, but I found this forum & people getting some mysterious DM's and thought it worth an ask.

On the majority of the line we get pretty good coverage & have been able to get a full picture with some antenna work/one local repeater in a single station. But our existing repeaters only have a range of ~300 metres. This is a larger section (interestingly not in a cutting - but there is a bit of dense woodland) & would incur the cost/blocker of digging up roads to lay cables for our repeaters anyway so - two birds one stone?

It's a local area of ~1,500 people that gets no mobile coverage indoors and sometimes mobile coverage outdoors in very specific areas - we have an enthusiastic local authority (despite being told that it was unlikely) and a land owner with some vacant space.

I've had a quick look at the SRN, but I agree it's worth a deeper dive - thank you 🙂