Case Study
King's College Cambridge - Phase 1
Mobile Connectivity Improvement Project
King's College, University of Cambridge
King’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King’s College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King’s Parade in the centre of the city.
King’s was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI soon after he had founded its sister institution at Eton College. Initially, King’s accepted only students from Eton College. However, the king’s plans for King’s College were disrupted by the Wars of the Roses and the resultant scarcity of funds, and then his eventual deposition. Little progress was made on the project until 1508, when King Henry VII began to take an interest in the college. The building of the college’s chapel, begun in 1446, was finished in 1544 during the reign of Henry VIII.
Established
1
Endowment
£
50
m
students
600
The Challenge
Kings College engaged with Boost Pro to improve the mobile phone signal for all four networks in six new student accommodation buildings. Two of the buildings were completed in 2021, with four in the construction stage. All six are Passivhaus buildings, which is a voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing the building’s ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.
Due to the materials used in the construction of these buildings, mobile phone signals are unable to penetrate to a satisfactory level for users to be able to make phone calls. This led to health, safety and wellbeing concerns for students living in the new accommodation.
Dmitry Tonkonog, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Solution
Working in conjunction with the estates team, architects, and M&E contractors, phase 1 has included installing the cabling infrastructure in all six buildings included in the project, and bringing live buildings C & D with fantastic results. Phase 2 is due for completion in Q3 2022.
Due to the weak external signal, high-gain directional antennas were installed in order to maximise the donor signal and ensure optimal performance of the system.
With no operator licence required, this smart cellular solution delivers the industry’s highest gain, at the lowest cost per square metre.
This project leverages our license-exempt Passive DAS Industrial Signal Boosters. These products benefits from:
✓ 3G / 4G / LTE Voice and Data
✓ Multi-Carrier Support with Carrier Switching
✓ Indoor / Outdoor NEMA 4 Rated
✓ Network Safe
The Results
Student accommodation now receives stron and consistent LTE voice and data coverage across all four networks.
Staff and students now benefit from the health and safety, productivity and operational advantages of being able to use mobile devices on the move within the buildings.
Our products are license-exempt and fully comply with Ofcom’s UK Interface requirement 2102 (IR2102) (UK) and ComReg S.I.No.283 of 2018 (Ireland).
