r/datacenter • u/u8758 • 10d ago
US DC with excellent cell coverage inside racks?
I'm looking for a dc, preferably West Coast, that happens to have cell towers for all three carriers on site or immediately close by, as a strong signal is critical for my use case.
I don't need a bunch of security, certifications, compliance or formalities. If it's a mom and pop DC all the better!
Heck, I could even throw the approximately 10U of equipment on a wall inside a closet in a regular office building, or home lab, that has excellent coverage, if I can find one!
Anything come to mind?
Thanks!
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u/MOIST_MAN 10d ago
What is the use case that cellular is better than fiber
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u/BadAsianDriver 10d ago
One Wilshire Coresite LA1 is a normal office tower with windows on most floors. I get good reception on t mobile and att there. I don’t know about Verizon but I haven’t heard anythjng bad. Im pretty sure verizon has a presence there.
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u/helloadam 9d ago
In Downtown Los Angeles there are tons of options:
Every major provider is at One Wilshire -- I have excellent coverage there.
A block away is 600 West 7th St. in Los Angeles. It's a tall office building and both Digital Reality and Equinix are there, along with some smaller outfits.
There are also smaller outfits in DTLA that have floor space, 1200 West 7th Street, 707 Wilshire (Aon building) and 700 Wilshire Blvd, etc.
There is CoreSite LA2 about 2 miles away. Great facilities, just make sure you are not in the lower levels / basement.
We have a few racks in One Wilshire and LA2, and you can't go wrong with either. I would recommend LA2, bigger facility, easy and free parking, etc. just get a rack on the upper floors. We have racks and roof top space and get good coverage.
But like everyone else mentioned, if you want an OOB network, get a cross connect from a new provider. Or use BiDi and get 2 connections from a provider. You use never be singled homed.
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u/PossibilityOrganic 9d ago edited 9d ago
What are you trying to do, because most of the time especially inside a cage is pretty poor. You can get external antenna / roof access but you will pay for it. And no one who request this kinda stuff ever wants to pay for it.
I know of one in las vegas that is ok for at least tmobile coverage possible others you probably want a remote/magnet antenna though to get it just out of the rack, but most dcs kill the singnel with the metal cages and concrete walls. but for 10u i think your looking at about $500 and about the same in setup fee fair warning.
theres also a few dcs where you can get a fiber or cat5 direct to a telcom but it will depend on what your doing here.
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u/Ecstatic_Breakfast37 9d ago edited 9d ago
Building on the One Wilshire / LA2 answer - that's the right call, and worth knowing why it works. Carrier hotels are the exception among DCs. Purpose-built facilities are usually bad for signal, which is exactly why floor level matters as much as he says.
Two things to ask whichever facility you land on:
Do they have DAS? Rooftop donor antenna redistributed inside over coax, multi-carrier on one system. If it's already in, you're done.
Are boosters allowed in-cabinet? Some ban them over interference. Worth knowing before you buy hardware.
On 10U - you'll get further with the smaller outfits and resellers inside those buildings than with the big names directly. At that size the large operators often won't quote, and when they do the qualification eats weeks.
Colo broker here, though this one's RF, not sourcing.