Orange to Launch Picocell Based Indoor Coverage Boosters

Orange has announced plans to launch a broadband internet connected picocell based indoor coverage booster for corporate users. Orange is conducting customer trials in a number of countries, and the service will be made available to Orange customers in the UK, France, Spain, Poland and Switzerland during 2008.

Onsite Coverage extends Orange's existing indoor coverage range which already includes mobile repeaters for boosting service across large sites such as business parks. The Onsite Coverage solution, owned and supported by Orange, consists of miniature, low-cost cellular base stations which extend mobile coverage to remote rural sites and indoor areas such as basement offices or conference centres. Onsite Coverage is a scalable offering, with each miniature base station able to provide full mobile coverage for up to 50 mobile users, boosting coverage within a 50 metre radius. Base stations can also be linked together to support more users or a higher volume of calls.

"As mobile adoption in the business market continues to grow, workers who move from location to location or even those who sit at their desks, need more access to mobile coverage in the hardest-to-reach places," says Philippe Bernard, Executive Vice President, Orange Business Solutions. "For example, a distribution depot in a rural or mountainous location may need to give staff mobile telephones so they can keep in touch when they are working anywhere on site, or a city-based trading company may need to provide mobile coverage to their basement offices ensuring employees don't miss vital sales calls when away from their desks."

Posted to the site on 5th October 2007