Black Friday, holiday shopping, and the traditional hunt for discounts — each year, the pre-holiday season is marked by a significant increase in foot traffic at shopping malls. However, for malls that haven’t modernized their Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) in recent years, this period might bring more challenges than benefits.

Decline in Foot Traffic but Increased Customer Value

Despite a downward trend in mall visits in Poland (foot traffic fell by 12.4% in Q3 2024 compared to the same period in 2023), the pre-holiday season still attracts consumers. In an environment where the number of customers is shrinking, the importance of each individual shopper grows—for both shopping centers and the brands within them.

To attract more visitors, shopping malls are transforming into destinations offering not just shopping but also entertainment, dining, and various services. The development of food courts, cinemas, and coworking spaces responds to the evolving needs of customers. Simultaneously, stores and brands focus on building loyalty through attractive discount programs and personalized offers. All these efforts aim to create positive customer experiences that encourage repeat visits.

In addition to marketing strategies and diverse offerings, infrastructure also plays a key role in shaping the customer experience. While factors like parking availability or location appeal depend on external conditions, the quality of cellular signal falls entirely under the mall owners’ responsibility. This quality is influenced by several factors, including building architecture, customer usage patterns, and the cellular signal’s reliability during shopping activities.

Architecture: Both an Advantage and a Challenge

Modern shopping malls attract customers with unique architecture. Features such as the glass dome at Złote Tarasy in Warsaw, the fountain at Galeria Wilanów, or revitalized spaces like Stary Browar in Poznań distinguish these locations from the competition. However, interesting architecture often hinders cellular signal propagation. Numerous walls, nooks, and decorative elements can create “dead zones” or act as Faraday cages where signals vanish.

This affects both customers, who struggle to use their phones, and stores, where issues with SIM-based payment terminals can cause service delays. Anyone who has tried to confirm a purchase via video call or send a product photo from deep inside a store knows how frustrating such situations can be.

To combat connectivity issues, DAS installations are employed. These systems consist of distributed antennas that collectively provide consistent signal coverage throughout the building. DAS improves network coverage and call quality, especially in challenging environments like shopping malls with complex architecture and high user density.

A DAS system includes antennas strategically placed in key areas of the facility, connected to a central controller that integrates with mobile operators’ networks. Designing such a system requires precise monitoring to identify areas needing signal enhancement and to adjust the system’s capacity to meet users’ changing demands. After all, the number of mall visitors on a Monday morning is vastly different from the crowds present during a pre-holiday weekend.

How to Monitor Effectively?

Designing a DAS installation begins with monitoring, which involves deploying probes throughout the facility. These probes measure whether the cellular signal provided by operators is sufficient to meet user demands. In malls, this demand comes from both shoppers and retail point-of-sale systems.

Effective monitoring should account for varying levels of customer traffic, collecting data from different time periods, areas of the mall, and across all mobile operators whose customers shop there. While this may sound like a complex and costly process, solutions like the autonomous Probe SimSwitch, which monitors up to four mobile operators with a single device, significantly reduce the number of devices needed to gather complete data for DAS design.

Not a “Forever” Solution

It’s important to remember that customer needs are constantly evolving. The growing popularity of video calls, multimedia sharing, and mobile app usage means DAS installations must keep pace with these changes. For example, photos taken with smartphones in 2024 are, on average, three times larger than those from five years ago (increasing from 3–5 MB to 5–10 MB). Consequently, network bandwidth demand has also risen – up to 50 GB per user per month, ten times more than just four years ago.

Moreover, shopping malls frequently update their interiors. Changes in retail layouts, cashier locations, fitting room configurations, and new design materials can impact the effectiveness of previously installed DAS systems. These changes may create new dead zones or signal issues in critical areas such as checkouts or fitting rooms.

Therefore, a DAS installation is not a “set it and forget it” solution. Regular monitoring and adjustments to adapt to evolving needs are crucial elements of modern mall management strategies. Mall owners aware of this systematically monitor their installations, adjusting them to match the dynamics of these changes.

A Competitive Edge in the Shopping Season

Ensuring adequate signal quality is not just about customer comfort; it’s also essential for the efficient operation of sales systems and maintaining the mall’s competitiveness, especially during the current shopping season. Failing to address this issue may lead to customer dissatisfaction, reduced loyalty, and a decline in future foot traffic in favor of competitors with better mobile network availability or no issues at all.

In a competitive environment like shopping malls, such losses can be difficult to recover, especially in an era of growing online shopping and the increasing popularity of omnichannel experiences. Telecommunications infrastructure quality has become a critical element in building the success of modern shopping centers – a fact that will become evident this shopping season to those who have neglected it.