5G Buildings Are Not As Simple As Installing Base Stations. They Must Be Planned During The Civil Construction Stage.

With the all-round acceleration of 5G commercial deployment, whether a building has the ability to access 5G has jumped from a technical option to a key indicator when estimating assets. In the past two years, I have participated in and evaluated the communication infrastructure transformation of more than 40 commercial real estate projects, and found that many owners have cognitive blind spots on the matter of "5G readiness", thinking that it is as simple as installing a few base stations. In fact, this is a systematic project involving architectural design, construction chronology, collaboration between operators, and long-term operation and maintenance. If you don’t lay a solid foundation now, your building will most likely be labeled as “technically backward” in the rental market in the next three to five years.

What exactly does a 5G-ready building mean?

The first question many property owners ask is whether 5G ready only requires a 5G signal in the building. This understanding is too simplistic. The actual 5G-ready building means that at the beginning of the civil construction phase, the indoor distribution system, pipeline slots, power capacity, and antenna points that are helpful for the operation of the 5G network are embedded into the building structure as infrastructure. It is not a patchwork of equipment added at a later stage, but a supporting system that is planned at the drawing stage, just like water, electricity and heating.

Considering technical standards, 5G-ready buildings must meet the following three core conditions. First, the indoor signal coverage uniformity must reach more than 95%. Second, it must support simultaneous access to the mainstream frequency bands of three major operators. Third, it must have an active distribution system architecture that can be smoothly upgraded. To put it simply, whether you are in an underground garage or a top-floor office area, your mobile phone can stably run at 5G speeds, and there is no need to smash the wall to make grooves for future 6G upgrades.

How much does 5G infrastructure cost?

This is where owners are most sensitive and easily deceived. According to the data of more than a dozen projects we have tracked, the cost of building a 5G indoor subsystem for a new office building is probably in the range of 8 to 15 yuan per square meter, which is determined by the complexity of the building structure and the number of operator connections. If you retrofit existing buildings, the cost will be doubled or even higher because of practical problems such as insufficient bridges, lack of space for weak current wells, and difficulties in obtaining electricity.

Here’s the key takeaway: the money doesn’t have to be borne entirely by the owner. The tower company and the three major operators have room construction subsidy budgets every year. If your building is in a core business district, has a large flow of people, or has the intention of important companies to move in, the operators will be happy to bear part or even all of the equipment costs. The key is whether the owner takes the initiative to connect during the construction window period and reserve pipeline resources in advance.

Which is more cost-effective: renovation or new construction?

In terms of economic accounts, there is almost no additional cost pressure for new projects to be 5G-ready. It is only necessary to clearly mark the weak current bridge, reserved holes for antennas, and equipment installation locations during the structural design stage. However, if retrofitting is to be carried out on existing buildings, discussions need to be carried out based on different situations. For buildings that are less than five years old, the original room subsystem generally has renovation value. It can be upgraded by installing 5G signal source equipment, and the renovation cost can be controlled at about 5 yuan per square meter.

Those old buildings that are more than ten years old are relatively troublesome to deal with. I once saw a Class A office building built in 2009. The original 2G/3G distribution system used passive components, but it was not compatible with the 5G frequency band. In the end, it had to be completely dismantled and rebuilt. In addition to the transformation of the power acquisition method and the restoration of the ceiling, it cost nearly 25 yuan per square meter. Therefore, investors who acquire old properties must include the actual condition of the communications infrastructure in their due diligence checklist.

How to connect operators and tower companies

Many owners reported that they did not know who to talk to and when to talk. The standard process is as follows: After the project obtains the construction permit, it should take the initiative to contact the local tower company, which will take the lead in coordinating the three operators to conduct a joint survey. Don’t wait until the project is completed and accepted. By then, the ceiling has been closed, the pipelines have been buried, and the operators want to lay cables but there is no way.

When entering the docking stage, three materials must be prepared, namely the building plan, the weak current system diagram, and the electrical load meter. The tower company will issue a room construction plan based on these drawings, and then clarify the antenna points, equipment locations and power extraction methods. There is a point of negotiation here, which is to strive hard to enable operators to centrally install source equipment in weak current wells, instead of allowing them to hang cabinets randomly on every floor, so as not to affect the aesthetics of public areas and subsequent maintenance work.

What should you focus on when accepting acceptance?

It's not that simple. System acceptance is not just about whether the mobile phone signal level is satisfactory. Professional acceptance covers three dimensions. The first is the signal strength test, using a professional frequency scanner to confirm whether the reference signal received power in each area meets the standards; the second is the actual measurement of the uplink and downlink rates, using test terminals to conduct multiple rounds of speed measurements during peak hours to ensure that the experienced rate is not lower than the value promised by the operator; the third is the handover test, which involves repeatedly moving in signal interface areas such as elevators and stairwells to confirm that calls and services will not be interrupted.

Furthermore, we should pay attention to a detail that is easily overlooked, which is the backup power supply. The power consumption of 5G equipment is three to five times that of 4G. If the weak current well is not equipped with a backup battery or is connected to a non-protected circuit, once the mains power fails, the 5G signal in the entire building will be immediately interrupted. In emergency scenarios, this is not only a communication issue, but may also be related to fire linkage and the normal operation of the security system.

How to leave room for future 6G upgrades

At present, it seems a bit too early to talk about 6G. However, the depreciation cycle of infrastructure is as long as 20 to 30 years. If there is no room for it, it will be a waste. At present, a more prudent measure is to adopt a digital room distribution system, that is, to use optical fiber to replace coaxial cable as the transmission medium. This type of system is naturally scalable. After 6G is commercialized in the future, it can be upgraded by simply replacing the head-end equipment without rewiring.

It is also important to note that sufficient capacity of the tube well must be reserved. In this regard, we recommend that at least 30% of the bridge space in the weak current well be reserved for redundancy, and the diameter of the through-wall casing should be designed based on long-term needs. In many projects, in order to save a small amount of civil construction costs, the pipes are made very small. However, when operators are laying cables, they cannot pass through them. In the end, they have to use exposed pipes, which is both ugly and unsafe. These things are just a few lines on the drawings, but in the operation stage, they become real transformation costs that require real money.

As far as 5G readiness is concerned, do you think it would be more cost-effective to let tenants deal with signal issues on their own, or would it be more cost-effective for owners to unify the infrastructure and then charge for communication services? Welcome to chat about your views on this in the comment area.