Background
Costco Wholesale Corporation is a well-known American retail giant with 858 warehouse type shops all around the world. In Europe, there are 37 Costco stores. Stella Doradus repeaters were installed in 4 large Costco warehouses located in Madrid, Seville, Bilbao in Spain, and 2 in Paris, France. The size of these Costco warehouses is 155x100m.
The challenge
The management had noticed that customers experienced difficulty while using mobile apps for payments at the checkout. As it often happens, the mobile signal outside the premises was excellent, but as customers entered the store the signal became weaker and weaker. This is primarily caused by the construction of modern buildings. The double glazed windows, steel structure and concrete walls completely block the mobile signal from entering. Delayed payment transactions poorly reflected on Costco management and negatively affected overall customer experience. The long queues at the cashier’s desks discouraged customers from returning. The management decided to take action in order to promptly resolve this issue.
The Costco management contacted Density Networks, a trusted Stella Doradus installer, for professional advice on connectivity issues.
The objective.
The management requested a strong mobile signal throughout the floor area. The area adjacent to the cashier desks was their primary concern. It was of crucial importance for Costco management to be able to promptly process digital payments via mobile phones. Furthermore, Costco stores are famous for their members-only special deals. So customers heavily use the Costco mobile app while inside the store to locate the best offers.
Considering the size of Costco warehouses and variety of items sold, customers spend on average, at least 40 min inside the store. Therefore, Costco management were interested in customers having excellent mobile signal for phone calls and using mobile apps while shopping, rather than having to hurry outside for their signal to reconnect.
The solution
The equipment installed in this 155x100m warehouse:
- 1 x iR6 iRepeater
- 5 x iL6 iLineAmps
- 1 x Parabolic antenna – Laser
- 37 x Yagi antennas
- 7 x Omni ceiling antennas
- Splitters
Installation time: Late night work. 5 nights. 2 men.
Important aspects of this installation.
- The External antenna was the Laser parabolic antenna. This was to ensure a high quality and high powered signal was received from all operators.
2. This warehouse is comprised of long aisles, filled with pallets from floor to ceiling. The goods on the pallet racks block the mobile signal from passing from one aisle to the next. Because of this, 1 antenna was required to point down each aisle, resulting in a large number of antennas required to cover the building.
3. Yagi antennas were chosen as the indoor antennas because of the very high ceilings ( 12m high) and because the signal from the Yagi travels further in 1 direction ~ 40m.
4. Because of the high ceilings and long distances to be covered in the warehouse, it was decided to amplify the lower frequencies, 700, 800 and 900Mhz. The signal at these lower frequencies travels much further than at the higher frequencies.
5. The most important area to have fast data was at the cashier’s desks. Here, the ceilings were only 4m high, so ceiling mount omnis were installed every 10m. The iL6 Line Amps were installed in this area because they amplify all 6 frequencies and this ensured 4G at the higher frequencies was amplified for fast data speeds.
The result
The management were very pleased with the successful installation. Now customers can seamlessly use their mobile phone apps while shopping in all areas of the warehouse. High speed data ensures that at the checkout and at the cashier’s desks mobile payment apps promptly process all the transactions with no delay. Also, customers can check special deals in Costco mobile app and stay connected.
