Case Study

Thames Water

January 2023

The Problem

Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is a large private utility company responsible for the public water supply and wastewater treatment throughout most of Greater London, Luton, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, north Wiltshire, far west Kent, and some other parts of England.

Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and wastewater services company and supplies 2.6 billion litres of drinking water per day, and treats 4.7 billion litres of wastewater per day.

We were contacted to help solve the mobile signal issues in the main control centre and pump building at Lane End Water Treatment Works. The fabric of the building was blocking the mobile signal and health and safety for employees was a huge concern.

Our signal engineers conducted a full site survey which included several signal tests throughout the metal clad building. The area is 700sqm over a single floor and the priority was to provide signal on all mobile phone networks for lone working and emergencies.

no signal

NO USABLE SIGNAL THROUGHOUT PROPERTY

700 sqm

SINGLE FLOOR WITHIN
METAL CLAD BUILDING

amplifi-qx ANALOGUE

MOBILE SIGNAL BOOSTER SOLUTION USING CEL-FI TECHNOLOGY

The SOLUTION

Building materials

The Thames Water building is predominantly made of metal cladding which was blocking the donor (external) signal. Energy efficient materials are often used in modern, sustainable building design, and play havoc with mobile signal.

Installation challenges

This working building is a clean water site with strict health and safety requirements. Our team needed Achilles accreditation prior to starting the project; a lengthy process which included a comprehensive audit as well as two additional on-site inspections of an active installation.

The chosen solution

Following on from our site survey and solution design, our Amplifi-Qx Analogue solution was selected. This included 4 CEL-FI GO G32 boosters and 7 internal omni-directional antennas.

With no operator licence required the installation was completed in just two days with little disruption to the client. Every Amplifi-Qx signal solution is licence exempt and meets the regulatory requirements in the UK.

Our mobile signal solutions are licence-exempt and fully meet the regulatory requirements in the UK (Ofcom SI 2022/595)

The Result

Significant improvement throughout

On completion of any installation we’ll always walk around the building to test the signal in various locations – comparing the boosted signal to the original signal readings. The results here were excellent. All areas of the building now receive a consistent mobile signal, providing voice and data coverage on all networks.

Immediate results

The facility now benefits from productivity and operational advantages of being able to use mobile devices on the move throughout the site. Health and safety concerns have been addressed now that the emergency services can be contacted.

Signal reading comparison

We use professional signal testing equipment to take dBm readings (decibel milliwatts) – we then compare these to the pre-install readings to calculate the increase in mobile signal. A really good dBm reading will be somewhere between -70dBm and -90dBm … the closer to zero the better!

3G Results

dBm

Vodafone 3G

dBm

O2 3G

dBm

EE 3G

dBm

Three 3G

4G Results

dBm

Vodafone 4G

dBm

O2 4G

dBm

EE 4G

dBm

Three 4G

Customer Testimonial

Phil Howe

Technical Coordinator (South East London Water Production)

Due to the construction of the main control centre and pump building at Lane End Water Treatment Works; mobile phone, network service and reception in the MCC room, the canteen, and the pump room was always very poor or completely unavailable.

Network connectivity must be readily available so that contact with emergency services can be made. Signal Solutions came up with a proposed solution for a boosting system.

Signal Solutions worked on achieving approval from Thames Water by having their engineers attend the Thames Water safety passport course and also obtaining the EUSR clean water hygiene certification. Achilles accreditation was also arranged in order to become an approved supplier to Thames Water.

It was evident that on this, Signal Solutions’ very first job with Thames Water, that the engineers acted responsibly and professionally. I was impressed by their work ethic. They provided me with frequent updates and they left the site tidy on departure.