Yes, yes, one should go to a spa to relax but I couldn't help to notice that even in a spa there are interesting wireless things going on. Recently we went to the Linsberg spa near Vienna, newly opened a couple of months ago, a place that even the old Romans would have approved of. It's a bit outside the small village of Bad Erlach and one wouldn't expect great mobile coverage there. To my surprise, however, the ground level was well covered by all but one of the wireless networks by the antennas in sight over in the village. On the lower level, things looked a bit different, the concrete walls are probably too thick for signals to make it through.
Nevertheless, Mobilkom's GSM and UMTS networks were available with full signal strength while all other networks didn't quite make it through. Quite interesting so I had a closer look around. There is an antenna on the roof of the adjacent spa hotel so the good signal could come from there. Or it is those little boxes installed throughout the building with a "Mobilkom" sticker on it (see the pictures below)?
I can't be fully certain that those are 2G/3G repeater antennas but it pretty much looks like it. So it looks like Mobilkom has seen a business opportunity in specifically covering this location. I wonder if they are 'only' providing mobile coverage or if they are also providing the infrastructure for local communication, both fixed and mobile!?
I think it would make a lot of sense to be an end-to-end telecom/Internet provider for both employees and customers at such a place. You install your infrastructure once and get paid by several user groups. But that's all speculation on my part, of course. I think there's lots one could do with that. For example: Instead of installing a separate data infrastructure and Wi-Fi access points in the hotel for those that don't yet have a 3G USB modem one could rent out dongle docks such as the D100 to guests. Also, covering meeting rooms with Wi-Fi and backhauling it over 3G saves a lot of money as well.
So, if anyone from Mobilkom (or anyone else for this matter) is reading this and would like to comment, please do.
