Hotel Chocolat

Hotel Chocolat are a well-know sweet distribution company across the UK with 125 retail shops. When they expanded their warehouse and distribution centre to 20,000m² in size they wanted their employees to be able to have effective and stable mobile signal. The distribution centre is covered in metal cladding which was affecting the overall mobile signal. Hotel Chocolat had tried to resolve this issue by installing network-provided boosters to no avail these couldn’t resolve the issue. So decided to contact Frequency Telecom to provide the solution.

The Problems

The distribution centre is covered in metal cladding which presents a classic Faraday cage setting. Coupled with the sheer vastness of the distribution centre, mobile signal inside the building was poor. Employees were unable to use their mobile devices to make a phone call, receive a text or download a communication unless they stepped outside.
Hotel Chocolat had previously attempted to resolve the mobile signal issues by installing network-provided boosters. Although it initially provided some marginal improvements in certain areas of the building, much of the warehouse still suffered from no coverage. After the expansion, the size of the building presented an additional challenge that the network-provided boosters could not resolve.

The Solution

Hotel Chocolat found Frequency Telecom on an online search. From the outset, their requirements were clear; the solution had to be legal, it had to cover all networks and it had to cover the entire warehouse.
Frequency consulted with the client to determine their business requirements and timelines. After an in-depth analysis of the site, building and layout plans, an initial solution was presented, subject to a site inspection.
The site survey at St Neots concluded that there was very little or no mobile signal within the distribution centre but sufficiently good signal outside. The CEL-FI QUATRA 1000 solution was presented as the solution to deliver the level of mobile coverage required across all networks.

This solution comprised of:

• 12 x Network Units (NUs)
• 44 x Coverage Units (CUs)
• 8 x external MIMO Panel Antennas

Frequency contracted Zonegen to perform the installation. The installation was overseen by the main contractor WSP who also controlled the strict HSE requirements for the site.

Installation was completed in under 2 weeks and the warehouse was now enjoying full signal across the whole expanse. Feedback following the installation has been very positive. Employees can now connect to team conference calls on their mobile devices which they have never been able to do before.