“The real measure of success isn't how fast the network is. It's whether we can operate the store more efficiently and give shoppers a better experience.”
The retailer was looking for a better way to address unreliable indoor cellular coverage across its stores. One particularly challenging urban location became an early proving ground for a new approach.
With high customer traffic, difficult building conditions, and persistent connectivity problems, the location offered an opportunity to demonstrate how reliable mobile service could improve the shopping experience and support more efficient operations.
The Challenge
When poor cellular coverage becomes a business problem
Large big-box retail stores present significant challenges for indoor cellular coverage. Expansive floor plans, metal construction, densely stocked shelves, and thousands of shoppers can make it difficult for outdoor cellular networks to provide dependable service throughout a building.
At this retailer's high-volume urban location, the challenges were especially acute.
The retailer had already tried multiple approaches to improve indoor connectivity, including cellular repeaters and small-cell technologies such as eFemtos. Yet these solutions had failed to deliver the consistent, reliable coverage the store needed.
One fundamental limitation was the need to support multiple mobile operators. Shoppers and employees use their own devices on different carrier networks, making a single-operator solution insufficient. The retailer needed dependable cellular service for everyone, regardless of their mobile provider, without requiring them to connect to Wi-Fi or change how they use their phones.
The consequences extend well beyond dropped calls and frustrated shoppers.
Customers increasingly depend on their smartphones throughout the shopping experience, whether using the retailer's mobile app, comparing prices and product information, sharing photos with family members to confirm a purchase, or completing mobile payments and pharmacy transactions. Poor coverage creates friction at each of these touch points.
For a location already dealing with heavy customer traffic, long checkout lines, and congestion, even small disruptions can make the shopping experience more frustrating and store operations less efficient.
The retailer also needed greater confidence in its connectivity infrastructure. Previous solutions had not only delivered inconsistent results, but network monitoring tools sometimes reported that systems were functioning normally even when service was unavailable.
For this retailer, simply adding another cellular coverage solution wasn't enough. It needed reliable, multi-operator connectivity backed by accurate network visibility, with a repeatable approach that could ultimately support hundreds of locations.
The goal was to remove connectivity as a barrier to better shopping experiences, more efficient operations, and the adoption of newdigital services.
The Solution
Bringing multi-operator cellular coverage inside the warehouse
InfiniG partnered with Viasat to deploy its Mobile Coverage as a Service (MCaaS) solution at the initial location.
Built on shared CBRS infrastructure, the neutral host network brings service from participating mobile operators directly inside the building. Shoppers and employees can use their existing mobile devices and subscriptions without switching networks, installing an application, or relying on a guest Wi-Fi connection.
The deployment was engineered for the location's demanding physical environment and high user volumes. InfiniG worked closely with Viasat to coordinate network design, installation, mobile operator integration, activation, and ongoing performance optimization.
The system also provides centralized monitoring and analytics, giving the teams visibility into network activity, service performance, and potential issues.
This was particularly important to the retailer, which needed more than another connectivity installation. It needed accurate information about whether itsnetwork was operating as expected, along with a repeatable model for supporting additional locations.
Early Results
Immediate, tangible improvement to Shopper experience
Following activation, the retailer began seeing tangible improvements in mobileconnectivity and early indications of business impact.
"We are thrilled to have coverage throughout the property. This has historically been an extremely difficult building to cover."
—General Manager
Improved pharmacy transactions
One of the first operational benefits appeared in the pharmacy.
The retailer offers a pay-ahead service that allows customers to receive a prescription notification, complete payment on their phones, and collect their order without waiting through a longer transaction process.
Previously, unreliable connectivity had interfered with use of this service.
In the first two days following activation, store management reported an increase of more than 50% in pay-ahead usage. While additional data is needed to establish the sustained impact, the early result illustrates how improved connectivity can directly support faster, more convenient customer interactions.
"With-in the first weekend we saw a 50% increase in on-line transaction that's directly attributable to cell phone coverage."
—Pharmacy Manager
Supporting thousands of connected shoppers
During busy weekend periods, network monitoring identified more than 2,000 unique mobile users within a single hour, with even higher activity during the busiest periods.
For this high-volume retailer, however, weekend traffic represents normal operating conditions. Major shopping holidays bring significantly larger crowds, making the ability to support surges in mobile usage especially important.
Built on carrier-grade infrastructure, the solution gives the retailer confidence that its cellular network is designed to handle the capacity requirements of its busiest shopping periods.
Network analytics also provide visibility into usage patterns and peak demand, helping the retailer better understand connectivity requirements and explore relationships between network activity, transaction volumes, and shopper throughput.
"We were able to talk to the entire property streaming live-video and video's calls"
—Retail Executive
"It’s great to have solid AT&T coverage in the building. It'll help increase our sales!"
—AT&T Kiosk Sales
Added resilience
The value of reliable cellular became especially apparent when the location experienced problems with its existing fiber connectivity.
A brief outage disrupted point-of-sale systems, but the improved indoor cellular service gave employees another way to communicate and access mobile services while the underlying infrastructure issues were being addressed.
The incident demonstrated the importance of dependable mobile coverage as a complementary layer of connectivity, particularly when normal operations are disrupted.
Buildinga Model for Broader Deployment
From one challenging store to a repeatable national approach
The initial deployment is also establishing a model for expansion across the retailer's broader portfolio.
InfiniG and Viasat have standardized the network design, deployment processes, mobile operator integration, monitoring, and ongoing support required to serve many locations efficiently.
The use of shared CBRS spectrum enables a consistent, multi-operator cellular solution across the country. Whether a store is in a dense urban center or a rural community, the same underlying approach can deliver a reliable, consistent mobile experience for shoppers and employees, regardless of their carrier.
Traditional coverage solutions, including repeaters and operator-specific systems, often depend on local signal availability, carrier infrastructure, or site-specific designs. These limitations make it difficult to deliver consistent coverage and performance across a geographically diverse retail portfolio.
InfiniG can adapt the technical design to different building layouts and usage requirements while maintaining a standardized deployment and operating model.
The planned expansion to hundreds of locations prioritizes stores where unreliable cellular coverage creates the greatest operational challenges.
Why It Matters
Cellular coverage is becoming part of retail infrastructure
This deployment illustrates an important shift in the role of indoor cellular coverage.
Reliable connectivity is no longer simply about eliminating dropped calls or improving the shopper experience. It can also support the digital services and operational workflows that retailers increasingly depend on.
From pharmacy transactions and digital checkout to employee communications and mobile applications, better connectivity removes barriers to efficiency and creates opportunities for improvement.
And with centralized network visibility, retailers can begin connecting infrastructure performance to the operational metrics that matter most.
For national retailers managing hundreds of properties, the ability to deliver those benefits consistently across locations may be just as important as the improvements achieved at any single store.