In-Building Wireless
In-building cellular coverage on every carrier, every floor
WZC finds the dead zones, engineers the fix and handles the carrier approvals required to bring your system on air.
How it works
How the signal gets to every floor
Each carrier's signal comes into one headend, rides fiber up the building, and leaves a remote unit on every floor.
How it works
Our process
Assess
Three-carrier benchmark testing and carrier analysis: what reaches the building today, from which macro sites, on which bands.
Design
iBwave model, system sizing and component selection.
Carrier coordination
Retransmission consent, carrier-specific requirements and rebroadcast agreements. WZC handles the paperwork: a signal booster put on air without it is an unlicensed transmitter.
Install
Headend, cabling and antennas.
Verify
Coverage testing, carrier acceptance and handoff.
Annual maintenance
Performance check, firmware, carrier band changes and 24/7 monitoring, so the system that passed acceptance keeps performing.
The WZC approach
Sized to your building and carrier mix
Dropped calls and cellular dead zones cost productivity and frustrate occupants. WZC engineers in-building cellular that covers every floor and every carrier.
We deploy Nextivity (Cel-Fi), SOLiD, and Corning systems sized to your building and carrier mix.
How it works
Capture
A roof donor antenna is aimed at the strongest carrier macro site.
Amplify
A multi-carrier BDA lifts every operator band at once.
Split
Passive splitters divide power evenly across each floor.
Radiate
Indoor antennas deliver usable bars in every occupied area.
System components
Donor Antenna
Roof directional antenna aimed at the carrier macro site.
Multi-Carrier BDA
Amplifies every operator band simultaneously under carrier approval.
Coaxial Distribution
Low-loss cable in fire-rated pathways with proper grounding.
Passive RF Components
Splitters, taps and couplers balancing level floor to floor.
Indoor Antennas
Ceiling antennas placed from an iBwave coverage model.
- Carriers
- All major U.S. carriers
- Distribution
- All-RF over coax
- Core unit
- Multi-carrier BDA
- Bands
- 600 MHz – 2.6 GHz
- Approval
- Retransmission consent, handled by WZC
What you get
Multi-carrier coverage
Carrier-agnostic systems for full-building reach, on all major U.S. carriers.
BDA & booster systems
Right-sized amplification for your floorplate: off-air booster, passive DAS or hybrid, whichever the survey says.
Carrier approval handled
Retransmission consent and carrier-specific requirements are ours to obtain, not yours to chase.
One RF plan
Cellular, Wi-Fi and public-safety coverage designed together, so the systems share pathways and headend space instead of fighting for them.
System architecture
The carrier signal chain
From the carrier macro site to full bars in the basement: WZC engineers gain, loss, and antenna placement at every link in the chain.
Why it matters
Coverage your occupants can feel
Dead zones in stairwells, elevators, and low-E glass offices are not an inconvenience, they are lost calls, lost productivity, and frustrated tenants. A properly engineered DAS makes them disappear. And we design cellular, Wi-Fi and public-safety coverage as one in-building RF plan, so the systems share pathways and headend space instead of fighting for them.
“Working with WZC took our company to another level in every regard. Their efficiency and customer service is unmatched. The best there is.”
Glenn EtienneOperations Director, Anchor Hocking
Which approach fits
Three ways to cover a building
The survey decides this, not a preference. What it comes down to is how big the building is, how much signal reaches it now, and whether the traffic is phones or machines.
Off-air booster
Small and mid-size buildings with usable signal on the roof. A Cel-Fi or similar system re-broadcasts what the macro network already delivers. Fastest to approve and to install.
Passive or hybrid DAS
Large footprints, or buildings where the roof signal is weak on one carrier. A headend feeds antennas over coax, or over fiber to remotes on each floor. This is what a campus, a hospital or a high-rise usually needs.
Private LTE / CBRS
Industrial and campus use, where the traffic is scanners, AGVs and cameras rather than phones. Your own network on shared spectrum, with coverage and capacity you control. WZC designs and installs these today.
After acceptance
Keep it covered
A cellular DAS drifts. Carriers re-farm bands, macro sites get re-pointed, tenants put up walls. WZC Managed Network Services watches the headend around the clock, catches the alarm before the complaint, and keeps the firmware and the band plan current.
FAQs
Will this work for all carriers?
Yes, we design carrier-agnostic systems and coordinate carrier approvals when needed.
Is this the same as ERCES?
No. Cellular DAS serves commercial carriers; ERCES serves public-safety responder frequencies and is code-mandated. We do both.
Who pays: the landlord, the tenant or the carrier?
Usually the building. Carriers fund in-building systems in a small number of very large, very high-traffic venues and almost nowhere else, so for an office, a hospital or a hotel the cost sits with the owner or is shared with an anchor tenant through the lease. It is worth settling before design, because it changes who signs the carrier paperwork.
Booster or DAS: how do we know which we need?
Square footage, how many carriers you need, and how much signal there is outside to start with. An off-air booster suits a small or mid-sized building with usable donor signal; a passive or hybrid DAS suits large footprints, multiple buildings, or anywhere the outside signal is too weak to amplify. The survey answers it, and it is the wrong question to guess at: a booster in a building that needed a DAS fails in the same places the phones already failed.
How long does carrier approval take, and who handles it?
WZC handles it. Retransmission consent is a carrier-by-carrier process with its own paperwork and its own queue, and the timeline is the carrier's rather than ours, which is exactly why it starts the day the design is agreed, in parallel with everything else, rather than at the end.
Can the same infrastructure carry public-safety and cellular?
Parts of it, and that is the point of designing them together. The pathways, the riser and the headend space are shared; the systems themselves are separate, because public safety is life-safety equipment with its own listing, its own monitoring and its own inspection. Designed as one plan they fit; designed by two firms they compete for the same shaft.
Do we need this if we already have good Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi calling helps some users on some handsets. It does not help a visitor who is not on your network, a delivery driver in the loading dock, a member of staff whose phone hands back to the carrier at the door, or anyone making an emergency call. Those all ride the carrier, which is what a cellular DAS is for.
What ongoing maintenance does a cellular DAS need?
An annual performance check, firmware as it is released, and attention when a carrier re-farms a band, which happens more often than most owners expect and can quietly cost you a carrier. 24/7 monitoring catches the faults in between.
Let's solve your wireless challenge
Tell us about your building and goals. A WZC engineer will get back to you within one business day.