Background
The remote office is used by around four members of staff working behind the scenes for a care organisation. The main care-home building already had an enterprise-grade managed network in place, but the separate office sat roughly 500 metres away — far enough that extending the existing network to it wasn't a simple cabling job.
The office also had no dedicated telephone line, so any solution needed to cover internet, WiFi and business phones at the same time.
The challenge
The office required:
- Reliable internet for a four-person team
- Access to cloud services and administrative systems
- Reliable internal WiFi across the working space
- Business telephone capability
- A practical alternative to a 500-metre fibre route
- Equipment proportionate to the size of the office
- A solution that avoided unnecessary civil work and disruption
The solution
Evolution recommended an independent Starlink connection so the office could stand on its own rather than depending on a long cable run back to the main site. The project included:
- Assessing the building and available mounting locations
- Installing the Starlink equipment with a clear view of the sky
- Routing the connection neatly into the office
- Installing a TP-Link Deco WiFi system
- Configuring WiFi for the staff working in the building
- Providing VoIP telephone capability
- Testing the completed internet, WiFi and telephone setup
Why Starlink was appropriate
Connecting the office back to the main building using around 500 metres of fibre would likely have required significant external routing, trenching or underground work, additional labour, more disruption and a substantially higher project cost — for a small office with straightforward requirements.
Starlink allowed the office to have an independent connection without physically extending the network from the main building. It removed a large civil job from the scope entirely.
Why TP-Link Deco was appropriate
The main care-home building genuinely needs enterprise-level network equipment because of its size, number of users and wider operational demands. This detached office, by contrast, serves around four people in one relatively small workspace.
A properly configured TP-Link Deco system provided suitable coverage, straightforward management, lower complexity, lower equipment cost and a solution matched to the building. Enterprise Ubiquiti hardware simply wasn't required here — and installing it would have meant charging the client for capacity they'd never use.
This is a good example of how we approach recommendations. Evolution does not automatically sell the most expensive equipment; we assess the requirements and specify the system that actually fits the site.
Result
- Independent internet connection for the remote office
- Reliable WiFi for approximately four staff
- VoIP telephone capability in place
- No need to install roughly 500 metres of new fibre
- Minimal disruption to the wider site
- Equipment matched to the actual requirements
- A practical and cost-conscious commercial solution
See also: Starlink installation, business WiFi and VoIP phone systems.
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