Connected in the snow

Connectivity is taken for granted in big cities, even in rural areas of Europe, but what about at the top of the mountains?

In Europe we can find numerous high mountain ski resorts, such as Val Thorens, in France; Val Gardena, in Italy; Zermatt, in Switzerland; Sölden, in Austria; Baqueira Beret, in Spain… These trails dedicated to alpine skiing add up to kilometres and kilometres of skiable snow, linking valleys and mountains through ski lifts and even allowing you to ski from one country to another.

Skiing as we know it became popular at the beginning of the 20th century. Mountain villages began to change rapidly and the comfort of both trails and hotels improved considerably. Now, when it comes to connectivity, it is the 21st century that marks the beginning of smart ski resorts. A connected resort allows both the trails manager and the skiers to have the best experience.

85% of tourists use their mobile phones during their trip, both to search for information and to share their experiences in real time. But in order to be able to use these devices, both mountain resorts and ski trails must be able to guarantee secure, high-performance, multi-operator mobile coverage. This enables communication before, during and after the experience; it allows access and dissemination of content in real time; it facilitates booking and payments; it enables secure communications from emergency services, even at high altitude; it facilitates asset management… all thanks to telecommunication infrastructures, such as DAS (Distributed Antenna System) and Small Cells installed outdoors that allow extending public mobile network coverage to previously unattended areas, thus guaranteeing connectivity.

DAS systems are fibre optic cabled and rely on a network of mini antennas with minimal visual and electromagnetic impact. “It is a system, built in adverse environmental and climatic conditions, that not only allows users to enjoy a stable and high-performance mobile, voice and data connection, but also guarantees the possibility of emergency communications,” says Giovanni Curione, Director of Operator Sales at Cellnex Italia.

Cellnex Italia has implemented this technology at the San Domenico SKI resort, located in San Domenico di Varzo, in the Alto Verbano region, which straddles Italy and Switzerland. It is a ski resort in the heart of the Piedmontese Lepontine Alps that offers 36 km of trails between the 1,420 m of the village of San Domenico and the 2,550 m of Dosso, while in summer the area, thanks to its unique natural environment and the presence of the Alpe Veglia Natural Park, guarantees countless opportunities for outdoor activities, from hiking to mountain biking.

For Andrea Malagoni of San Domenico Ski, the connectivity provided by Cellnex Italia “is a very valuable result for us, not only for the possibility of guaranteeing all our visitors an efficient and stable communication service, but above all to ensure greater safety in emergency situations, since communication in the mountains, due to the conformation of the territory and the valleys, is not always easy. With this installation we can now cover a vast area that previously had no signal at all”.