Concrete, steel and coated glass make modern buildings accidentally phone-proof — and a distributed antenna system is the engineered cure: signal captured where it's strong, amplified legally, and delivered through cabling to every floor that needs it. We design and install DAS across Brisbane as the RF-plus-cabling trade it actually is.
Prefer to talk? Call Chris — 0412 853 618
A basement where phones give up, a warehouse with one magic corner, or a new fit-out that killed reception — describe the building and where signal dies, and Chris will come back with straight advice and a fixed price. Prefer to talk? Call 0412 853 618.
Every das system solves the same modern problem: buildings have become better at keeping radio out than letting it in. Concrete cores, structural steel, foil-backed insulation and energy-rated glazing each shave decibels off the carriers' signal, and together they produce the familiar indoor geography — four bars at the window, SOS-only in the lift lobby, and a basement where phones are decorative.
A das system reverses that arithmetic: a donor antenna captures clean signal where it exists (usually the roof), a carrier-authorised platform amplifies it within ACMA's rules, and a network of cabling and indoor antennas re-delivers it evenly through the spaces people occupy. Unified Network Solutions designs and installs DAS across South East Queensland as a measurement-first discipline — survey, design, install, prove — built on the cabling registration (ACMA Open Cabler #42489) and RF habits we bring from WiFi engineering and MATV distribution. Same physics, different spectrum, same instruments-first attitude.
Good das design starts outside the building: which carriers are reachable, from where, at what strength and quality — measured with instruments, not bars on a phone. That donor-signal survey decides everything downstream: antenna placement, platform selection, and whether the project is a modest repeater or a genuine multi-antenna das system. Skipping it is how buildings end up with amplified noise instead of amplified coverage.
Inside, the design maps where coverage is actually needed — workspaces, lifts, basements, plant rooms — against the building's RF-hostile anatomy, and places indoor antennas so coverage is even rather than loud in patches. Carrier coordination matters throughout: amplification in Australia is legal only on carrier-authorised platforms, and multi-carrier buildings need architectures designed for it from day one rather than bolted on per complaint.
The deliverable before any installation: a design with measured inputs, predicted coverage, named hardware and a fixed price — the das installation then simply builds what the engineering already proved.
Most in-building mobile coverage problems are one of three shapes. Each gets a different das system design — the physics insists.
Basements & car parks. Metres of concrete between phones and the world — donor signal piped down from the roof, antennas per level, and emergency calls that finally connect where the cars live.
High-rise & building cores. Window offices swim in signal while lift lobbies and core rooms starve — antennas placed to fill the shadowed middle without fighting the carriers at the glass.
Warehouses & industrial sheds. Steel cladding and sheer distance kill coverage mid-floor — high-bay antenna placement that covers the racking canyons forklifts actually drive.
Not every coverage problem needs a full das system, and the honest assessment is the cheapest part of the project. A single carrier-authorised repeater — a Cel-Fi unit with a donor antenna and one or two indoor antennas — solves shops, small offices and homes for thousands less than a DAS. Where one antenna's reach ends, the das system begins: multiple floors, basement-plus-levels combinations, large floor plates, and buildings that need more than one carrier covered properly.
The decision is a survey, not a philosophy: measured donor signal, floor area, construction materials and carrier mix point clearly at one architecture or the other. We install both — the smaller end lives on our mobile signal booster page — so the recommendation follows the measurements rather than the margin. Plenty of our DAS quotes end as repeater installs, and the customer keeps the difference.
The trap to avoid in either direction: cheap unauthorised boosters from online marketplaces. They're illegal to operate in Australia, they interfere with carrier networks, and ACMA does pursue interference sources. Authorised platforms exist at every scale — there's no need to gamble.
Six components, each with a wrong way that's cheaper for a fortnight. What's inside a das system built to be boring:
Mounted and aimed off the survey, where the chosen carriers are cleanest — the whole system amplifies whatever this antenna hears, signal and noise alike.
Legal, self-managing amplification approved per carrier — the regulatory heart of the system, and the line between coverage and an ACMA interference case.
Coax or fibre runs sized for the RF losses, installed and documented under ACMA #42489 — the layer where our day-job disciplines carry straight across.
Placed for even in-building mobile coverage across the spaces people occupy — many quiet antennas beating one loud one, every time.
Head-end on a UPS where coverage matters in outages — basements and lifts especially, where the phone is the emergency plan.
Post-install signal measured against the design's predictions, antenna map and levels documented — coverage proven, not just promised.
The phone call is always the same — "reception's fine outside, dead inside" — but the buildings behind it follow patterns:
Coated glazing and concrete cores — window seats swim in signal while meeting rooms and lift lobbies starve. Coverage by floor plate, designed properly.
Families need to reach residents, on-call staff need to be reachable, and duress systems need carriers — coverage here is welfare, not convenience.
Steel sheds the size of suburbs where drivers, scanners-on-SIM and forklift teams all lose the network mid-floor — high-bay antennas fix the canyons.
Guests judge a room with no bars harshly, and function spaces in basements double the problem — coverage as part of the product.
The classic: zero signal where people are alone with their cars at night — emergency-call coverage that building managers increasingly can't not have.
The cheapest das system is the one cabled during construction — designed alongside the structured cabling, sharing pathways and the same install visit.
Donor signal measured outside, dead zones mapped inside, carrier mix confirmed — the measurements every honest recommendation stands on.
DAS or repeater called honestly, antennas and platform specified, coverage predicted — one fixed price for the system the survey justified.
Donor antenna mounted, distribution cabled under ACMA #42489, indoor antennas placed per design — around your operations, not through them.
Coverage verified against the design floor by floor, the system documented, and the building's dead zones formally retired — the das system proven, not promised.
A das system is RF engineering standing on structured cabling. Most installers are strong at one; the system needs both.
Surveys with instruments before quotes, verification after install — the same discipline as our WiFi heat-mapping work, pointed at carrier spectrum.
Carrier-authorised platforms only, ACMA rules respected, interference never gambled with — amplification done the way the regulator and carriers expect.
The runs, pathways and documentation under ACMA Open Cabler #42489 — because the half of a DAS that's cabling deserves a cabling trade.
Passive DAS for a small-to-mid commercial building — donor antenna, repeater platform, splitters and indoor antennas — typically lands $8,000–$30,000 installed depending on floor area, building materials and antenna count. Large or multi-carrier active DAS for towers, hospitals and precincts runs well beyond that and is quoted from a design study. The honest first step is a signal survey: it tells you whether you need a full das system or whether a simpler repeater solves it for a fraction of the price. Call 0412 853 618.
A distributed antenna system (DAS) brings usable mobile signal indoors by capturing it where it's strong — usually a rooftop donor antenna — amplifying it legally, and distributing it through cabling to indoor antennas placed where people actually are. Instead of one strong source fighting through concrete, you get many small antennas delivering even coverage. It's the standard fix for basements, big sheds, high-rise cores and any building whose construction blocks the outside world.
Modern construction is accidentally an excellent Faraday cage: concrete, structural steel, foil-backed insulation and energy-efficient coated glass all attenuate mobile signal severely. Basements and building cores add metres of concrete between phones and towers. The newer and greener the building, the worse it usually is — signal that was fine on the empty block disappears once the slab and glazing go up. A DAS re-delivers that signal inside, through cabling instead of through the walls.
Scale decides. A single repeater (like a Cel-Fi unit) with one or two indoor antennas suits smaller footprints — shops, offices, homes — and costs a fraction of a DAS. A distributed antenna system is the answer when one antenna can't cover the area: multiple floors, basements plus levels, warehouses, or buildings needing multi-carrier coverage. We do both, so the recommendation follows a signal survey rather than a sales target — see our mobile signal booster page for the smaller end.
Only with carrier-authorised equipment — ACMA rules prohibit unauthorised repeaters because badly behaved amplifiers interfere with the carriers' networks. Compliant platforms (Cel-Fi being the best-known) are approved per carrier and self-manage their gain. Cheap imported boosters from online marketplaces are illegal to operate, attract real penalties, and the carriers do hunt interference sources. Everything we install is carrier-authorised and coordinated — that's half the value of using a professional.
Yes — multi-carrier coverage is a design decision made early. Some platforms handle one carrier per unit (you stack units), while broader DAS architectures distribute all carriers through shared antennas and cabling. Multi-carrier matters for public buildings, workplaces with BYO phones, and anywhere visitors expect their phone to just work. We design for the carriers your building actually needs — which a quick survey of staff SIMs answers fast.
Basements are the classic DAS job — zero native signal under metres of concrete, yet lifts, car parks, plant rooms and loading docks all need phones to work (and emergency calls to connect). The donor antenna goes where signal lives, cabling brings it down, and antennas distribute it across the levels. Duress and emergency-call coverage in basements is increasingly an expectation in commercial buildings, not a luxury.
We service Brisbane CBD, North Brisbane, South Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay, Redlands, and the wider South East Queensland region. For larger projects, we can service regional Queensland by arrangement.
A small passive DAS — donor antenna, repeater and a handful of indoor antennas — typically installs in two to four days. Multi-floor systems run one to three weeks depending on cabling pathways and access. The design and survey phase before installation matters as much as the install itself: a day of measurement prevents a system that's strong in the foyer and useless in the basement. We quote the timeline alongside the fixed price.
Because a DAS is RF engineering on top of structured cabling, and we're registered and practised at both: signal surveys with proper instruments, carrier-authorised platforms, coax and fibre distribution installed under ACMA Open Cabler #42489, and documentation that makes the system maintainable. It's the same measurement-first discipline as our WiFi survey and MATV work — different spectrum, same physics, same habits.
DAS design, das installation and carrier coordination for in-building mobile coverage — basements, high-rise, hospitals, hotels, warehouses and commercial buildings across Brisbane CBD and metro, Logan, Ipswich, Redlands, Moreton Bay, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast. Signal surveyed before anything is quoted, carrier-authorised platforms only, distribution cabled under ACMA #42489, and coverage proven floor by floor at handover. The building stopped your signal; the antenna system on the right design brings it back everywhere it matters.
Building type, floors, where signal dies and which carriers your people carry — that's enough for a survey booking and a fixed quote. The concrete isn't getting thinner; the fix is engineering, and it's a known quantity.
Call 0412 853 618 Get a DAS Quote Online
Unified Network Solutions