Boosting mobile signal for all four UK networks in a large hospital in London

The challenge

Central Middlesex Hospital needed to boost the mobile signal for all four UK networks in the BECAD building. It was poorly affecting the hospital's operation and the staff's satisfaction, and the hospital constantly received complaints from its visitors. BECAD has an area of around 36,500 sqm over 3 floors.

Results

UCtel installed CEL-FI QUATRA systems with DAS throughout the BECAD building to boost the mobile signal for Vodafone, O2, 3 (Three), and EE, achieving an excellent improvement in signal on all four networks. It positively affected the staff and visitors' satisfaction.

Summary

Central Middlesex Hospital needed to boost the mobile signal for all four UK networks in the BECAD (Brent Emergency Care and Diagnostic Centre) building. UCtel installed CEL-FI QUATRA systems with Distributed Antenna System (DAS) to boost the mobile signal for Vodafone, O2, 3 (Three), and EE mobile networks achieving an excellent improvement in the signal.

The Challenge

Central Middlesex Hospital is located in the centre of the Park Royal business estate, on the border of two London boroughs, Brent and Ealing. It is managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. The hospital had a poor mobile signal for all four UK networks.

There was a need to boost the mobile signal for all four networks throughout the BECAD building, which has an area of around 36,500 sqm over 3 floors.

The poor signal was negatively affecting the hospital's operation and the staff's satisfaction, and the hospital constantly received complaints from its visitors.

The picture below shows Brent Emergency Care and Diagnostic Centre of the hospital:

Aerial view of the hospital site with the installation area marked

The Solution

UCtel installed CEL-FI QUATRA systems with a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) throughout the BECAD building to boost Vodafone, O2, 3 (Three), and EE mobile signal.

The Installation

The installation comprises CEL-FI QUATRA Network Units (NU), Coverage Units (CU), and Passive DAS segments. CEL-FI LPDA-R Antennas, which are designed to reduce out-of-band noise and improve overall signal quality, were used for the donor antennas.

Donor antennas mounted on the hospital roof

The schematic below shows the system architecture for one floor.

Ground-floor diagram of the distributed antenna system at the hospital

The Results

UCtel installed the system with minimal disruption to the hospital’s operations. The solution positively affected the hospital’s staff and visitors’ satisfaction and achieved the objectives of the project.

The images below show the pre-install and post-install Vodafone network signal on one floor of the BECAD building. Other networks had nearly the same signal quality improvement.

BECAD Ground floor pre-install and post-install VF signal:

UCtel provides proactive management of the solution together with onsite support to ensure that the system remains optimised.