It appears Boingo Wireless’ new CEO, Mike Finley, wasn’t kidding when he said he sees nothing but growth ahead for distributed antenna systems (DAS). The company just reported its biggest quarter ever for new DAS venue launches.
The company has yet to announce second-quarter earnings, but it published a “milestone” press release in which it said it deployed 10 new DAS networks in the second quarter in partnership with Tier 1 carriers. The deployments were at high traffic venues throughout the U.S., boosting the company’s total live DAS venues to 69.
“Our strong DAS momentum continues with significant traction in venue deployments and strategic partnerships with carriers to densify networks and enhance cellular coverage,” Finley said in a press release. “This new record fuels growth for our neutral host DAS portfolio, a key driver for Boingo’s business, and helps our venue partners solve skyrocketing connectivity demands.”
It's worth noting that in the first quarter, Boingo deployed just one DAS venue. But taken with the second quarter, it launched a total of 11 new DAS networks at large venues that include three major airports, seven amphitheaters and a commercial real estate property. The company didn’t identify the airports or other properties specifically.
Boingo for some time now has noted its backlog on DAS orders. Finley said during the first-quarter earnings call that on average a DAS network takes 18 to 24 months from when the company wins a contract to actually getting a network up and running live with an anchor tenant.
“The DAS opportunity for Boingo remains incredibly robust. We currently have 134 DAS venues under contract, with 65 to be deployed, providing a lot of runway ahead of us,” Finley said in a statement provided to FierceWirelessTech, when asked for an update on the current situation. “We are well positioned to take advantage of the explosive mobile data growth.”
The company didn’t name names in its press release, but confirmed the DAS deployments were in partnership with domestic Tier 1 wireless carriers, which include AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.
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Finley earlier this year replaced long-time Boingo CEO Dave Hagan, who announced plans to retire after 17 years with the company. Finley previously had been a Boingo board member, and worked in many positions at U.S. carriers before taking a role as head of Qualcomm in North America and Australia.
In an interview with Fierce last month, he indicated that Boingo’s strategy wasn’t changing with his new role. He might bring a different management style to the position, but the company’s priorities would remain largely the same.
According to Boingo, its neutral host DAS networks are designed to provide a high-performance wireless experience to all venue customers and staff, regardless of which carrier they use. The networks are built to meet a venue’s current connectivity demands and to scale to support content consumption for the 5G era.
Boingo’s full suite of wireless solutions includes not only DAS but 5G, millimeter wave, LTE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi offload via Passpoint, IoT and Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS).