Our Next Warehouse Network Will Come With a Radio Licence

Our company announced plans to open a new distribution center in 2028, which will be the largest building it has ever operated. Spanning forty thousand square meters, the facility will feature high bay racking, a robot zone, and a yard capable of accommodating two hundred trailers. This year, for the first time, the company was presented with the option to choose between Wi-Fi or a private mobile network for the warehouse.

While Wi-Fi is the most common source of issues in existing depots, the private network intrigued the reporter, as it offers superior coverage, guaranteed capacity, and ease of device addition, similar to a phone network.

In the UK, the regulator licenses spectrum for local networks of this kind at a modest fee, and the equipment has become cost-effective for single-site deployment. Implementing such a network would grant the company a radio licence with specific conditions related to interference and neighboring sites. SIM cards would be issued, making the addition of devices akin to obtaining a mobile operator's SIM.

Coverage planning would shift from network administration to radio engineering, a field currently dominated by carriers and integrators. Additionally, existing monitoring, security tools, and service desk scripts would need to be adapted to recognize the concept of a "cell."

The reporter anticipates that within ten years, many large logistics sites will adopt similar networks, and IT departments like theirs could evolve into specialized radio operators, without any clear recognition of the change. The new site will initially utilize Wi-Fi in office spaces and a private network for the yard and robot zone, where the benefits are most apparent.

Two engineers are currently undergoing training in this technology, a year before any installation takes place. The radio licence, SIMs, and radio plan will be recorded in the company's asset register and change management process, rather than being managed by an external integrator. This shift represents a significant transformation from purchasing wireless technology as a commodity to operating it as an integral part of the company's infrastructure.