3D Network Planning in New York

Here's a picture I've taken on a recent visit to New York that shows an interesting antenna installation. Instead of being installed vertically and aimed at street level, this antenna is installed horizontally and directed upwards across the street and up a skyscraper. It's not everyday that I see something like that. I wonder if this is the default way to beam coverage into skyscrapers in New York or to what degree dedicated inhouse coverage is used. Anyone?

Comments

[Glenn]

Interesting deployment. This looks like targeting coverage across multiple floors in skyscrapers. I guess with indoor base stations (femtos) there would be no need for this.

[David Boettger]

The first time I saw something like this was about 10 years ago in Hong Kong, though not oriented horizontally. It's pretty clever, actually: orienting the wide part of the gain pattern along the building's axis.

[Craig Plunkett]

As a New Yorker, this is very much the way that perimeter indoor coverage is achieved. It is far cheaper to leverage existing outdoor sites to paint skyscrapers with signal. Installing DAS is very expensive here.

[Anton Kayumov]

Cheap, fast installation.
If they do not see interference with other sites or with aiplanes - the best solution

[Christian]

I wonder how much loss you have with such a faulty orientated antenna, especially for 3G with its complex modulations,
and then on skyscrapers you also have alloyed windows.
People could at least hold their phones horizontally in order to improve radio communication.