One of an airport’s most important non-aeronautical assets worldwide is parking. But with the rising popularity of ridesharing apps (such as Lyft and Uber), airports are seeing a decline in parking market share and revenue. One solution is boosting the passenger experience.
Passenger experience starts even before customers board a flight. It starts as they pull up to the terminal. A lot of people check their flight status and travel necessities as soon as they reach the parking lot.
At Raleigh-Durham Airport, the situation was the same. But there was one big problem. Data coverage in parking garages was poor. In fact, lower parking decks had zero coverage. This meant that passengers weren’t able to have a seamless boarding experience from the moment they arrived at the airport.
So, how do you perform wireless infrastructure upgrades in an airport with growing passenger traffic while still keeping the parking spaces open to the public?
Having a dedicated DAS team and an on-site command center helps—something that was executed flawlessly by Betacom.
Addressing Coverage Without Impacting Parking
The airport had parking garages and three outlying buildings that were managed by a separate facility. To improve data coverage, Betacom installed a Distributed Antenna System throughout the garages, sometimes requiring the temporary closing of parking sections.
This was not an easy feat. When there’s a flight to catch or arrivals to greet, airport users show little regard for closed parking spaces. Betacom overcame this with the help of a rotating rover that would block off sections of the parking garages for short periods of time to carry out installation work.
But the real recipe for success was careful planning and constant communication between Betacom, the parking garage, and airport management teams.
Mobile Command Center for Seamless Upgrades
With a team of experts, Betacom had the bandwidth to dedicate an experienced construction manager on site. Betacom also set up a mobile command center to oversee and manage all upgrade work.
The on-site supervisor reported at the airport daily and met with airport and parking management to get approvals prior to starting anything. Any concerns raised by the rotating rover were discussed openly between these three parties. Important decisions were also made by the manager on the spot—a testament to Betacom’s expertise.
Constant communication and an active presence on-site helped to minimize disruption to the schedule. With vast experience deploying wireless solutions at airports, Betacom was able to anticipate technical issues and maintain a smooth upgrade process for everyone involved.
If you’re planning to have your premise transformed with next-gen wireless services, get it done by a team of wireless infrastructure experts. With over 30 years of in-house expertise in telecommunications infrastructure solutions, we deliver dynamic turnkey solutions for improved data capacity and coverage. Contact us today for a free consultation.
