As originally written by J. Sharpe Smith and published on AGL Media Group
June 25, 2015 — Enterprises that are neither marquee event venues nor small businesses have special needs when it comes to technology and business cases. SOLiD’s Mike Collado refers to these venues, which range from 100,000 to 500,000 square feet, as the “middleprise” segment.
“It’s a large and underserved in-building market that represents millions of square feet requiring coverage and capacity and includes hotels, hospitals, class A office space, high rises and retail space,” Collado told AGL Small Cell Link in a phone interview. “Increasingly, coverage and capacity in the middleprise are being viewed as a competitive differentiator, and the stakeholders are exploring their options.”
During the DAS and Small Cell Congress in May, Collado and SOLiD led a tour of the 122-year-old Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, citing it as an example of a middleprise. A discussion ensued about the market challenges and trends of the middleprise market segment. Among the speakers were Bob Johnson, Duke University; Earl Lum EJL Research; and Nazim Choudhury, iBwave; as well as Collado.
“It’s generally accepted that in a large enterprise the solution is DAS, and in a small buildings the solution is small cells. But the middleprise opportunity is complicated by multiple variables such as funding and ownership, design and compliance with public-safety mandates. Solving for the middleprise requires a toolkit approach,” Collado said.
In-building technology and business case models must change to meet this vast market opportunity, according to Collado.
“The current densification toolkit – DAS and small cells – doesn’t do a really good job of scaling down or scaling up to bring a cost-effective, multi-operator coverage solution for the middleprise,” Collado said.
Conventional technologies – both small cells and DAS — and business models are changing to address this market opportunity, according to Collado.
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