For indoor 5G coverage, limitations of DAS performance, cost-effectiveness, and scalability are driving enterprises to a new model
Indoor cellular coverage in office buildings, campuses, or hospitals is no longer a “nice-to-have” option. It’s expected these days, a must-have, and critical for daily operations. Businesses, employees, customers, and visitors all rely on similar cellular coverage outdoors as they do indoors, especially considering that we spend approximately 90% of our time indoors. For years, Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) were the go-to solution for extending cellular coverage and capacity indoors.
But the landscape is changing. As data demands increase and 5G brings new levels of performance, DAS is showing its limitations. Neutral host networks — shared infrastructures that enable multiple mobile operators to deliver coverage through the same system — are increasingly turning from DAS to 5G small cells as the more flexible and future-ready choice.
Why reliable indoor cellular coverage matters more than ever
For many enterprises, poor indoor cellular coverage has quietly become a serious liability. Commercial and industrial buildings often struggle to deliver strong, reliable cellular service, leaving employees, customers, and visitors disconnected at critical moments. Business needs and user demands converge indoors because:
- Customers expect seamless connectivity, allowing them to use their phones everywhere, whether to access loyalty programs, redeem digital coupons, or interact with apps that enhance their in-store experience. When coverage is inconsistent, businesses risk frustrating their guests and weakening customer engagement.
- Employees rely on connectivity to work effectively: for essential tasks such as sending and receiving emails, using collaboration apps, and participating in teleconferences.
- Safety depends on signal availability: employees, guests, and students must be able to make emergency calls and get emergency alerts. Gaps in coverage create serious risk and can lead to reputational or regulatory consequences.
- Multi-operator complexity is a growing burden: coordinating infrastructure that supports all carriers is expensive and resource-intensive, especially as 5G adoption expands.
Yet, this challenge is also an opportunity. By addressing coverage gaps with neutral host and 5G small cells, enterprises can transform indoor connectivity into a competitive advantage, boosting customer satisfaction, empowering employees, improving safety, and leveraging connectivity as a valuable property asset.
The limits of DAS performance in a 5G world
DAS has been the most common option for a long time. DAS is a legacy solution that improves cellular coverage but requires digital-to-analog conversion and extensive infrastructure, which is both expensive and difficult to manage. They require extensive cabling, specialized equipment, and constant coordination with carriers. Upgrading them for new frequency bands, 2×2 MIMO, or expanding coverage to new areas often requires disruptive and expensive work. Even when fully operational, DAS performance struggles to meet the requirements of advanced applications that depend on high capacity, low latency, and flexible spectrum use.
Why neutral host 5G small cells make sense for enterprises
A more modern, future-proof approach is to deploy a neutral host network with small cells, such as Ericsson’s Radio Dot System. This DAS alternative provides multi-carrier wireless coverage, leverages shared and existing infrastructure, minimizes complexity, and reduces time to deployment and total cost of ownership. The Radio Dot System also has a dramatically smaller hardware footprint compared to legacy DAS and uses less energy. The Radio Dot has dual-mode capabilities, supporting both 4G and 5G simultaneously, or it can support only 4G or only 5G as well.
The Radio Dot is a completely digital, modern solution with end-to-end visibility to the edge of the network. Because they can support multiple carriers on the same shared infrastructure, enterprises no longer need to worry about whether employees, guests, or customers use the “right” carrier — everyone benefits equally.
Small cells also offer agility. Enterprises can start small, focusing on critical areas first, and scale up as demand increases. And unlike DAS, upgrades are straightforward: as 5G evolves into 5G Advanced and beyond, 5G small cells can be refreshed without disruptive overhauls, ensuring that today’s investments continue to deliver value well into the future.
5G small cells, big opportunities for enterprises
Neutral host small cells also create a bridge, complementing private 5G networks, which enable enterprises to utilize a private network for sensitive or high-performance industrial applications. Meanwhile, small cells are used for general communication and to enhance the user experience.
Future-proofing your indoor 5G coverage
Neutral host and small cells not only address current indoor coverage issues but also future-proof enterprise connectivity for the 5G era and beyond. By offering a neutral host network that is easier to upgrade and expand, enterprises gain the flexibility to support new spectrum bands and evolving standards like 5G Advanced. Instead of undergoing disruptive and costly overhauls every few years, businesses can adapt gradually, staying in sync with innovation while safeguarding their investment. In this way, neutral host networks deployed with small cells ensure that indoor cellular coverage remains a valuable asset for the long term.
This unified approach simplifies deployment, reduces costs, and ensures that today’s investment in indoor coverage will also support tomorrow’s dedicated enterprise services.
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