Brendan Hourihane, senior director at connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider Freshwave looks at indoor mobile connectivity.
Organisations looking for premium office space now expect their facilities to have an element of smart design built in, especially financial and professional services companies. These firms want sleek sustainability, connectivity and smart functionality. But increasingly, there’s one flaw even the most advanced buildings can’t escape – poor mobile phone coverage.
The reasons are quite literally structural. Reinforced walls, energy-efficient glass, and insulated façades do wonders for sustainability but severely weaken mobile signal penetration. Add in complex or sprawling floorplans, and the result is a patchwork of “not-spots” that leave entire sections of otherwise cutting-edge offices disconnected.
In industries where productivity is measured in time, those dead zones carry serious costs. Mobile connectivity underpins a host of daily operations in financial and professional services such as carrying out deals, managing client communications, running compliance tools, and multi-factor authentication protocols. Every second counts, and when the signal drops, business slows. Reputations, productivity, and revenue all take the hit.
The wider economic impact is eye-watering. Research shows that poor indoor mobile coverage could be draining as much as £100 billion from the UK economy each year. Around £24 billion of that is lost from the financial and professional services sector alone with 87% of organisations saying that poor indoor connectivity causes daily disruption. Employees expect the workplace to perform at least as well as their home setup, and won’t tolerate infrastructure that underdelivers, especially in spaces branded as “smart.” If you’re an organisation looking to attract employees to the workplace, it’s essential they experience the same level of technical ease that they do at home. Fixing the indoor not-spots issue could recover £17 billion for the financial and professional services sector and encourage staff to continue to return to the workplace.
Mobile connectivity also keeps smart building systems working. Essential features like building access, security monitoring, meeting room bookings, and energy management are all enhanced with real-time data flowing over mobile networks. Without reliable indoor signal, these systems become fragmented, slow, or stop working altogether.
Small cell technology is one of the most effective answers to this challenge. These low-power wireless access points bring mobile coverage deep into buildings, ensuring strong, secure signal throughout – even in hard-to-reach areas like lift shafts and basement levels. The latest generation supports multiple mobile operators from a single compact unit without compromising on signal performance.
They’re already proving their worth. At SIDARA’s flagship smart building in central London, a small cell solution was installed as part of a future-ready technology infrastructure plan. The result? Strong, all operator indoor mobile coverage across all floors – delivered with lower energy use and a significantly smaller hardware footprint.
Private mobile networks offer an additional option depending on an organisation’s needs. Using licensed spectrum like with a public mobile network, but dedicated exclusively to a single organisation, these networks give businesses full control over their mobile infrastructure – ideal for data-sensitive or compliance-heavy environments like trading floors, legal teams, or executive suites.
If you’re marketing a truly smart building, then you need to walk the walk and make sure indoor mobile connectivity is no longer just a ‘nice-to-have’. It’s as integral to the modern workplace as heating, lighting, or aircon. For landlords and asset managers, getting it right isn’t just good service. It’s what makes buildings commercially resilient in a digital-first economy.