The University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) is a nationally recognized university with 15,000 students located on 2,000 acres between Monterey Bay and the Silicon Valley. UCSC is the single largest employer in Santa Cruz County and generates $1 billion annually in local economic activity and has an annual operating budget of $400 million.
"The NextG DAS sites we installed increased coverage and filled dead zones in a difficult area, without hazardous emissions or large capital costs."
Ed Titus, UCSC Telecommunications Manager
Facts
- 15,000 students, 519 faculty, and 30,000 university extension registrations
- Area covers 2,000 acres in the coastal hills with dense foliage and Redwood trees
- 70 percent of students and 90 percent of faculty and administration have cell phones/wireless device
- Landlines in every dorm get minimal to no usage
- No towers or cell sites on campus due to community opposition; two nearby cell towers provide inconsistent coverage
Challenges
A challenging geography combined with large-scale opposition to traditional tower sites by both the City of Santa Cruz and UCSC community required a wireless solution that was unobtrusive, very low power yet ubiquitous enough to cover the majority of the campus inside and out.
- Inconsistent wireless coverage both inside and outside campus facilities
- No budget for improving wireless coverage
- Located in difficult terrain for RF
- Community opposition to traditional wireless sites
- Student and faculty dependence on mobile phones
NextG Solution
NextG Networks provides a turn-key solution to UCSC by designing, implementing, monitoring and maintaining a campus-wide multi-carrier network. The network features multiple DAS sites that capitalize on the campus' existing fiber optics and supports ubiquitous coverage using unobtrusive, low power antennas.
Benefits
- Distributed architecture throughout campus provides maximum coverage and capacity
- No cell phone towers necessary
- No capital cost to UCSC because NextG and carriers pay for the system
- One single point of contact for all wireless carriers
- Improved coverage for emergency calls
- Provides a reasonable revenue stream to UCSC and an economical cost model to the carriers
Typical Network Topology
