Cellnex to provide indoor mobile coverage for The Social Hub

Cellnex, Europe’s largest independent telecommunications infrastructure provider, will deliver indoor mobile coverage to The Social Hub, formerly known as The Student Hotel, at two key locations for the next 10 years.  Cellnex realizes optimal mobile coverage by means of a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) and in close cooperation with the (national) mobile network operators. Implementation has now been completed at the Delft (The Netherlands) and Vienna (Austria) locations.

Hybrid hospitality model

Founded in 2012, The Social Hub as The Student Hotel led the model known as hybrid hospitality. Now evolved from a student hotel to a global concept putting ‘social’ at its core, guest and community connection is a key part of is its business offer. The Social Hub’s current sixteen locations in six countries – including Delft, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bologna, Florence, Madrid and Vienna – offer a wide range of facilities and services. These include large, shared spaces, student housing, hotel rooms, co-working spaces, meeting rooms, gyms, bars, restaurants and community event programs.

Social impact and sustainability

The Social Hub is embarking on retrofitting existing and fitting new locations with increasingly sustainable materials. However, high-quality insulation materials are characterized by low permeability for mobile signals. At the same time, good indoor coverage is important to offer guests an optimal experience.

European footprint Cellnex

With 138,000 sites, spread over 12 countries, Cellnex is the largest independent provider of wireless telecommunications infrastructure in Europe. In each of these countries, Cellnex maintains intensive contacts with the local mobile operators and is familiar with the technical specifications that the local operators set for the design of a DAS system. Cellnex makes flexibly per country and per location an inventory of the needs and requirements of the client and delivers each project turnkey.

Henk Jan Boer, Director IT Infrastructure and Support at The Social Hub commented: “We are pleased to have completed implementations in Delft and Vienna to digitally connect our members wherever they are in our Hubs. With enhanced connections of 4G and 5G inside we can meet and exceed bandwidth and capacity expectations for our growing co-working, co-living and guest community that use our spaces to work, learn, stay and play.”

Hugo Brandhorst, Commercial Developer at Cellnex Netherlands and International Key Account Manager responsible for The Social Hub: “Cellnex has the right expertise and works closely with local partners in each country. By mapping out the connectivity needs as standard at a very early stage and including this in the very beginning of the construction or expansion, synergy is also created, which results in additional cost savings.”

DAS as-a-Service: scalable and flexible

The DAS solution is offered in an as-a-Service model.  The intensive provider process is also carried out by Cellnex. Hugo Brandhorst explains: “The as-a-Service offering is tailor-made per location, tailored to the specific wishes of our clients. The solution is flexible and scalable.“