Showing posts with label Outdoor Small Cells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Outdoor Small Cells. Show all posts

Thursday, 3 July 2025

Transforming Poles into 5G Sites with Alpha Fusion Streetworks Solutions

During a recent visit to Glasgow for the SCONDA project showcase, a collaborative initiative focused on advancing urban connectivity, I was struck by how far street-level network infrastructure has come in combining functionality with aesthetics. Among the most visually discreet and technically advanced deployments were those featuring Alpha Wireless' wraparound antennas. The AW4032 antenna stood out for its innovative design, enabling mid-pole mounting in a configuration that blended effortlessly with the urban environment while delivering high-performance 5G coverage. 

Live tests on attendees’ devices showed 5G download speeds reaching up to 720 Mbps, with improved coverage and congestion relief across city-centre locations. One attendee reported that the deployment achieved average 5G download speeds of 520 Mbps, while also reducing low-speed hours by 89% and reaching peaks of over 1 Gbps on small cells in a live dense environment.

Alpha Wireless has developed its Fusion Streetworks solutions with a clear understanding of the challenges faced by operators in urban areas. As network densification accelerates, especially with the move towards 5G standalone architectures, securing new street-level sites is proving increasingly difficult. The Fusion Streetworks platform responds to this by making better use of existing infrastructure such as lamp posts and streetlights. The AW4032 antenna, which forms the centrepiece of this platform, is designed to mount mid-pole without requiring sidearms or external hardware that would increase wind loading or visual impact. As it is an antenna-only product, the AW4032 pairs with external small cell radios, offering operators flexibility in radio selection.

The AW4032 combines compact form with support for advanced radio capabilities. It supports 16 ports across dual bands — 1695 to 2690 MHz and 3300 to 4200 MHz — and enables 4x4 MIMO, delivering strong signal quality and throughput. When ports in adjacent sectors are connected, the antenna produces a pseudo-omnidirectional pattern, providing seamless 360-degree coverage suitable for dense urban environments, hotspots and high-traffic venues. It is also highly adaptable. Operators can configure the ports to suit different patterns: back-to-back for focused directional coverage, or four-way for broader area coverage, all using the same hardware.

This modularity means the same unit can serve single or dual-operator deployments, with each operator connecting to a separate set of ports. This enables shared infrastructure without interference and lowers total cost of ownership. For instance, the dual-operator setup divides the 16 ports between two MNOs while still offering pseudo-omni performance, which is particularly useful in areas where zoning permissions limit the number of separate installations.

What makes the solution especially effective in public spaces is the attention to detail in concealment. The Fusion platform includes options for radio shrouds and integrated cabling management to maintain a neat appearance. This has been instrumental in speeding up approvals in areas traditionally sensitive to new telecoms infrastructure.

Alpha Wireless has already seen its Fusion Streetworks solutions rolled out as part of a 5G standalone deployment in central Birmingham. Working with Ontix and Virgin Media O2, these antennas have been deployed on existing poles in busy city locations, demonstrating how legacy infrastructure can be revitalised to meet the demands of next-generation connectivity.

From an infrastructure perspective, the AW4032 exemplifies how antenna technology is evolving to match the operational and regulatory pressures of modern small cell deployment. It simplifies rollout, minimises street clutter, and offers a level of future readiness that is essential for long-term network planning. For cities looking to accelerate their 5G ambitions without compromising on design, Alpha Wireless’ Fusion Streetworks platform offers a proven and practical approach.

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Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Small Cells Powering Infrastructure Innovation Across the Middle East

The Small Cells World Summit (SCWS) – Saudi Arabia 2024, held in Riyadh as part of the Connected World conference, showcased how small cell infrastructure is driving digital transformation across the Middle East. With the region pursuing ambitious smart city, industrial, and connectivity projects, the event highlighted the critical role of small cells in delivering scalable, energy-efficient, and future-ready networks.

Giga-Projects Fuelling Small Cell Growth

Across the Middle East, giga-projects are redefining the telecom landscape. From Saudi Arabia’s NEOM and Red Sea Project to UAE’s smart city initiatives, these mega-initiatives are driving advanced small cell deployments and private networks. The region’s focus on newly built cities and large-scale residential and leisure complexes is creating opportunities for pervasive indoor and outdoor connectivity powered by small cells.

Neutral Hosts and Venue Connectivity on the Rise

While the neutral host model is still in its early stages in the region, the summit revealed growing interest in shared infrastructure. With major events like the 2034 FIFA World Cup on the horizon, stadium connectivity was a key topic. The need for densified outdoor and venue networks to enhance visitor experiences is driving investment in small cells and Open RAN solutions.

Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Networks

The Middle East is making significant strides in sustainable telecom infrastructure. The Red Sea Global project in Saudi Arabia unveiled the world’s first carbon-neutral 5G network, powered by a 1.3GWh lithium microgrid. Meanwhile, hybrid solar-powered telecom towers are gaining momentum across the region, helping to reduce reliance on diesel-powered off-grid towers and promote green connectivity.

Data Centres and Edge Expansion

The summit also highlighted the growing role of data centres and edge infrastructure in the region’s digital strategy. With low-latency connectivity (as low as 30ms) and a rising demand for cloud and hyperscale services, the Middle East is becoming increasingly attractive to global and regional players. The combination of renewable energy and hyperscale data centres is expected to drive energy-efficient, resilient connectivity.

Conclusion

SCWS Saudi Arabia 2024 demonstrated that small cell infrastructure is at the heart of the Middle East’s digital transformation. From giga-projects and neutral hosts to green networks and edge expansion, small cells are enabling the region’s ambitious connectivity, sustainability, and smart city goals.

You can download the presentations from SCF's SCWS Saudi Arabia site here.

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Tuesday, 3 December 2024

Deutsche Telekom's Hydrogen-Powered Mini-Masts

Earlier in the year we wrote about Deutsche Telekom's Mini-Mast a.k.a. “Cell Tower To Go”.  Last year, DT set a new benchmark in sustainable technology with the deployment of hydrogen-powered antennas at the Nibirii Festival in Germany. This initiative replaced the traditional diesel generators with hydrogen fuel cells to provide eco-friendly energy for mobile base stations. The hydrogen is sourced in a CO₂-neutral process, marking a significant step towards green innovation.

For anyone who doesn't understand what hydrogen fuel cell is, this video has a good explanation.

At the festival, a hydrogen-powered mast supported 30,000 attendees with seamless LTE and 5G connectivity. The fuel cells, developed by SFC Energy, ensured reliable, uninterrupted service for 28 days, showcasing their potential for large events, emergencies, and remote areas. This shift underscores Deutsche Telekom's commitment to combining sustainability with technological advancements.

Additionally, compact mobile masts and stage-mounted small cells enhanced coverage and user experience. These innovations promise to redefine mobile connectivity, emphasizing rapid deployment and reduced environmental impact.

You can read the full story here.

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Tuesday, 15 October 2024

BT/EE’s Growing Dependence on Small Cells to Boost Network Performance

EE, the consumer division of BT Group, stands as one of the UK’s largest subscription businesses, serving 25 million customers. Backed by the UK’s fastest mobile network, EE claims to deliver superfast connections in more locations than any other mobile network operator in the country.

Back in March 2022, EE announced that it has successfully deployed 200 new small cells across its UK network to boost capacity in high demand areas, allowing customers to benefit from download speeds up to 300Mbps. The press release noted:

EE has successfully deployed 200 new small cells across its UK network to boost capacity in high demand areas, allowing customers to benefit from download speeds up to 300Mbps. Small cells are mobile radio cells that help to provide better coverage for customers at street level, where it’s often impractical to build larger sites. Located on a variety of existing street assets, including BT’s iconic red telephone boxes, the units offer discreet boosters for coverage and are part of EE’s investment to maintain the UK’s best network.

Working in partnership with Nokia, EE uses advanced network analytics to identify areas where small cells will deliver a boost to network performance. A 4G small cell solution is then deployed which uses multiple spectrum bands to give a better experience. EE’s licenced 1800MHz and 2600Mhz spectrum bands are coupled with unlicenced 5GHz spectrum, to deliver standout speeds in densely congested areas. Working with local authorities, EE is making use of existing street assets to minimise their impact, including lamp posts, CCTV columns and BT phone boxes.

As well as Leeds, London and Manchester, EE and Nokia have also brought these new small cells online in parts of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham and Scarborough. Hundreds more small cell deployments are planned in the next 18 months, as EE uses the technology to bring additional network capacity to more locations, including some summer hotspots. EE’s commitment to providing the highest possible quality of experience will also see its use of small cells extend to its 5G network, with trials expected to begin soon. Nokia’s AirScale portfolio can also be seamlessly upgraded to 5G.

Then a BT press release in June 2023 highlighted that EE now had 611 small cell sites carrying 20TB of data traffic every day – the equivalent of streaming 8,000 hours of HD video or 280,000 hours of music – demonstrating the substantial value they offer to customers in high demand areas, as well as the importance of EE’s strategy to build prior to the arrival of any congestion whenever possible.

The most recent announcement from Aug 2024 highlighted that EE has now deployed over 1000 small cells across the UK, marking 400 new deployments over the last 12 months including its first 5G sites, recently installed in Croydon, London. The press release said: 

EE’s first 5G small cells are also now live as part of a trial taking place in the London Borough of Croydon. Seven sites, including four along Croydon’s London Road – a busy thoroughfare lined with businesses, shops and homes – are now supporting the local community, seeing over 3TB of traffic each day.

EE uses advanced network analytics to identify specific locations which would benefit from the performance boost enabled by a small cell. It then works with partners Nokia and Ericsson to deploy the solution itself, reducing congestion and enabling customers to benefit from speeds of up to 300Mbps for 4G cells, and 600Mbps for 5G. EE is unique within Europe in combining licenced 1800MHz and 2600Mhz spectrum with unlicensed 5GHz spectrum in its 4G small cells, which helps to deliver excellent capacity and speeds. The new 5G cells in Croydon are configured with licensed 1800MHz spectrum for 4G and 3.5GHz for 5G.

In addition to the above announcements, Freshwave, a connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider, announced that they have deployed neutral host solution in the City of London and EE are the first MNO to go live on this infrastructure. Their press release said:

A first-of-its-kind outdoor small cell project in the City of London has been such a success that it has now moved beyond the trial phase. Twenty-five new sites for mobile network operator (MNO) EE are now live on Freshwave’s infrastructure, adding capacity and enhancing the 4G and 5G network experience for EE mobile users in one of the world’s preeminent financial districts. Dozens of additional new sites for EE are also currently being built and will enhance mobile connectivity to the UK’s best network(1) in even more of the Square Mile when they are brought live in the future.

Freshwave, a connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider, built new mobile infrastructure for the project and EE was the first MNO to go live in December 2022. Across all of the sites involved in the initial pilot, EE is seeing up to 7.5TB of data downloaded per week. 

Freshwave’s bespoke solution enables the network to accommodate all four MNOs on 4G and 5G from day one with no adjustments needed to the infrastructure – making it a UK first. The solution features specially designed wideband antennas, cabinets and columns and extensive dark fibre to each cabinet.

As a neutral host, Freshwave operates the network deploying shareable infrastructure, reducing equipment duplication and creating a more cost-effective solution. This approach also minimises street clutter and the associated disruption during street works. Shareable infrastructure also reduces the environmental impact, while still assuring the mobile connectivity people expect when out and about.

The 25 new live sites are strategically located throughout the Square Mile, including notable landmarks such as outside St Paul’s Cathedral, Cannon Street and the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street.

Outdoor small cells are installed at street level which make them ideal for adding capacity to mobile networks. In busy urban areas, where large numbers of people use their mobiles simultaneously, demand on the macro network can be substantial. Outdoor small cells help alleviate some of this demand themselves, relieving the macro network and ensuring a better experience for users. 

I anticipate many more announcements like these in the future, as the industry increasingly relies on higher frequencies to relieve capacity constraints in densely populated urban areas. 

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Tuesday, 23 April 2024

'Connected Urban' - CU Phosco's 5G Smart Pole Streetlight Solution

When it comes to deploying outdoor small cells and infrastructure on streetlights and lamp posts, Germany is at the forefront. Check out the related posts at the bottom of this post to see all that's going on there.

In a recent press release, Telefónica Deutschland announced (Google translated from German):

The telecommunications provider O2 Telefónica and the infrastructure provider 5G Synergiewerk, together with the Würzburg public utilities, have put the first 5G street light into operation in Bavaria as part of a pilot project. The 5G lighting tower combines street lights and cell phone sites. In doing so, it fulfills two central utility tasks: to provide lighting at night and at the same time to offer the city's citizens a high-performance 5G mobile network.

The aim is to use the existing urban infrastructure as efficiently as possible for an improved mobile network and new digital applications - and thus increase the quality of life for city residents.

CU Phosco Lighting, which supplied the smart pole solution, announced on its website: 

CU Phosco Lighting is thrilled to announce the successful deployment of Connected Urban, its pioneering new smart pole solution designed to enhance mobile network capacities. As part of a Pilot project with our German partner, 5G Synergiewerk, the first 5G streetlight was recently installed in Würzburg, Bavaria, in collaboration with telecommunications provider O2 Telefónica and the Würzburg public utilities.

A smart city, modular, and fully customisable lighting and small cell high-performance mobile network solution within a single, compact footprint, Connected Urban is a break away from more traditional rooftop or cell phone mast locations, and so the installation marks a significant milestone in the evolution of street-level mobile network densification.

Replacing a conventional lamp post, the innovative solution efficiently utilises existing infrastructure and grid connections, to provide citizens with both night-time lighting and advanced telecommunications capabilities, setting a new standard for high-performance 4G and 5G mobile connectivity.

With digital infrastructure facing increasing demands, including music and video streaming, the Metaverse, AI-based programmes, augmented and virtual reality, as well as connected driving and autonomous logistics, Connected Urban is poised to significantly improve the quality of life for city residents and businesses.

5G Synergiewerk has a time-lapse video of the installation of 5G mast system on their website. A video of that embedded below:

Quoting again from Telefónica's press release:

The location on Versbacher Straße is the first active 5G street light in Bavaria . Another location will follow shortly on Schweinfurter Straße, which will conclude a successful pilot project . Coordination discussions are currently being held with all those involved for additional locations. The 5G street light offers smartphone users high bandwidths with 5G and 4G/LTE for mobile telephony and data use in the O2 network. The densification of the mobile network via such small radio cells, which are known in technical jargon as “small cells” , is particularly helpful with regard to the increasing data usage of O2 customers as well as future digital applications in the private and business customer sector. In addition to everyday music and video streaming, this will also include the Metaverse, AI-based programs, augmented and virtual reality, connected driving and autonomous logistics . In Würzburg, more than 40 mobile phone locations are already operating in the O2 network . They ensure comprehensive network coverage with 2G (GSM), 4G (LTE) and the modern 5G standard. Rooftop locations or cell phone masts are usually used for this extensively developed city network.

Street lights are widely used as part of any urban infrastructure and are also suitable as radio cells. They have a power connection, so only a powerful fiber optic connection needs to be added to transport the mobile phone signals. In addition, the 5G light fits harmoniously into the cityscape with its light distribution. The replacement of the conventional street light was carried out in collaboration with the Würzburg public utilities. The infrastructure provider 5G Synergiewerk supplied the special intelligent light pole , a so-called “Smart Pole”. O2 Telefónica then installed the energy-efficient 4G/5G mobile communications technology in the light and ensures a seamless connection to the nationwide O2 mobile network .

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Friday, 19 January 2024

5G and Wi-Fi Connectivity from Link5G and LinkNYC's Tall Towers

Link5G is LinkNYC’s second generation offering that aims to improve the digital connectivity in New York City. The official website says:

Conceived in 2021 (the Year of 5G), Link5G enables the equitable deployment of both 5G cellular coverage and Wi-Fi connectivity across the five boroughs. Using multi-tenant structures, transmitters for telecommunication service providers will be housed within Link5G kiosks, expanding 5G options and enhancing coverage in underserved areas.

Link5G kiosks will bring better cellular service, increased opportunities to connect to free Wi-Fi, and improved options for in-home broadband internet access.

90% of the new Link5G kiosks, which are enabled for 5G and feature the same free services as the original Link kiosks, will be deployed in The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and above 96th Street in Manhattan. Additionally, 13 Community Districts have been specifically chosen by New York City to receive a minimum number of kiosks. Link5G will enhance neighborhoods’ cellular connections and provide businesses and pedestrians with improved high-speed Wi-Fi coverage. Link5G’s 32 foot height ensures that a 5G signal is effectively broadcast from optimal height for all carriers to reach New Yorkers' mobile devices.

Urban Omnibus has a good explainer of the issue and the infrastructure here. Quoting from the article:

CityBridge largely failed to accomplish its goal of helping to bridge the digital divide in the six years after kiosk installation began. The company put the majority of its more than 1,800 LinkNYC units in Manhattan but relatively few in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, where neighborhoods lack at-home and mobile broadband at a higher rate. As THE CITY, the state comptroller and other news outlets have documented, the company fell short of ad revenue projections and was unable to pay $60 million it owed the city. The revenue shortfall resulted in an abrupt halt to kiosk installation, leaving many areas outside Manhattan without the access they were promised. The company faced bankruptcy in 2019. The city contemplated terminating the deal in 2020.

But despite the LinkNYC program’s history of delinquency, city officials are giving CityBridge another chance to bolster digital equity citywide: The company is now preparing to install hundreds of 32-foot-tall Link5G towers, beginning this summer. The city’s Public Design Commission approved the Link5G design for commercial and manufacturing areas at a meeting in December. Members postponed a vote on a residential rollout in order to review data on the service and infrastructural impacts of the towers’ first wave.

The new structures will be more than three times as tall as the original LinkNYC design. Like their predecessors, the lower part of the new structures will have a 911 button, USB ports, a tablet, calling capabilities and advertising displays. The structures will also provide free Wi-Fi. But the new designs will be topped by fifth-generation cellular network technology, or 5G, which will radiate from their upper chambers to enabled devices at street level. Multiple telecom companies could pay CityBridge to house their 5G equipment inside the chambers of a single structure. Their payments would bring in a new revenue stream to CityBridge, funding the company’s operations and expanded footprint.

The structures’ signals will supplement existing 5G networks that currently provide consumers speedy wireless internet service. City officials and CityBridge insist that more cell sites are necessary given the technical specifications of 5G, which require a “line of sight” to work: 5G is carried on millimeter waves that, unlike 4G frequencies, cannot penetrate most surfaces, whether a building or a bus.

Not everyone agrees that these look good or they will help in the future but there is a lot of support behind their installation. This article in NY Daily News for example argues:

Reliable wireless service requires the deployment of new infrastructure that supplements existing technology, such as rooftop antennas and underground fiber cable — or Link5G kiosks, which have space for up to five wireless carriers’ equipment. That means they can provide better, faster, and cheaper service for more people and small businesses nearby.

Bronx residents are not the only New Yorkers who could benefit from Link5G. Across New York City, approximately two-in-five households lack either a home broadband connection or mobile broadband through cell service. More than 1.3 million New Yorkers lack both. For these people, the social, educational, economic, and public safety consequences can be catastrophic. Here in the Bronx, nearly one in five teens cannot finish their homework because they live on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Link5G will eventually roll out to 2,000 locations, with 90% installed in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and above 96th St. in Manhattan. The need for these kiosks in underserved areas is illustrated by the fact that Link5G’s predecessor, LinkNYC, has provided more than 13 million New Yorkers with free, high-speed wireless internet since 2016 and is used to make around 425,000 phone calls monthly. It also offers access to 911 emergency services and valuable community-oriented public service announcements.

Even in districts with historic or commercial corridors, where locals have questioned the need for these kiosks, it’s unwise to assume every person who lives in the neighborhood, commutes there for work or is visiting has the same access to connectivity. My constituents often commute to other boroughs for work; their ability to stay connected is a necessity — not a luxury.

Still, many critics see the kiosks — which stand only as tall as traditional light posts — and attack their location, size, or ad screens without acknowledging the benefits of the kiosks to the city at large.

Let us know what you think.

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Tuesday, 16 May 2023

Deutsche Telekom 5G Small Cells in Phone Boxes

Vodafone and BT/EE in UK have been deploying small cells in phone boxes for years, now the German operator Deutsche Telekom is going the same way as it starts dismantling the last remaining 12,000 public telephones of the 160,000 that used to exist. 

The Museum for Communication in Frankfurt (link) has models of the German Phone Boxes. The following is an extract from DT's blog post, translated in English by Google Translate:

The well-known "yellow telephone boxes" have not been there since 2018. There are currently around 12,000 public telephones from Telekom. The steles or so-called basic telephones are often located at train stations, airports or on exhibition grounds. They are not economical, they are outdated and consume large amounts of energy. On average, it is between 500 and 1,250 kilowatt hours per year - depending on the equipment at the location. By switching off the unused technology dinosaurs, between six and 15 million kilowatt hours can be saved annually. This corresponds to the power consumption of several thousand apartments. The supply of spare parts for the old ISDN technology is also being discontinued by the manufacturers and is becoming increasingly difficult. Despite all the good memories, it's about time, even with this look, 

Telekom will gradually phase out the service by early 2023. From November 21, 2022, coin payment will be gradually deactivated nationwide for the remaining 12,000 telephones. From the end of January, the payment function using telephone cards and thus the entire telecommunications service at the telephone pillars or booths will also be discontinued.

The dismantling of the steles will then begin, which is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2025. In consultation with the communities, Telekom continues to use around a quarter of the sites to improve local mobile communications without a public telephony function. It is converting the locations with so-called small cells. These are small antennas that amplify cellular signals and thus further improve cellular communications. 

Since the Telecommunications Act was amended at the end of 2021, there is no longer any obligation to operate public telephones. Due to the low usage, the public telephones no longer contribute to the basic service of the population. Even for emergency calls, the public telephones are no longer relevant. Here, too, the mobile phone takes over and supports, for example, by transmitting the exact location information.

This video below shows how some of these phone boxes will have Ericsson's small cells. There are two different approaches. Some of them will be D-RAN and some of them will be C-RAN, where C is Centralised in this case. Switch on the subtitles for English translation.

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Wednesday, 21 December 2022

Details on India's First Neutral Shared RAN Solution

Back in August, RailTel and CloudExtel partnered to launch India's first Shared RAN solution for congested locations with the objective to enhance the telecom user experience. A press release said:

RailTel and CloudExtel carried out the successful pilot of this project in partnership with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Nokia, and the Telecom Infra Project's NaaS Solutions Group, with vital support from the Railways, in one of the most network stressed locations, Mumbai Central railway station. The outcomes have been impressive with 5 times increase in average user speed (from 3Mbps to 15Mbps) for both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, while the data consumption jumped up by 20%.

At Telecom Infra Project's Fyuz 2022 conference, Kunal Bajaj, CEO & Co-Founder, CloudExtel provided details on this in a breakout session dedicated to Neutral Host Network-as-a-service (NaaS) business model. His part of talk is embedded below and you can also check out his presentation from the main stage here. 

In an interview with Economic Times earlier this year, Kunal pointed out:

How many small cell sites are there in the country at present?

Small cells are not just for 5G rollout. There is a substantial 4G component of it today. As per industry standards, there are over about 30,000 odd small cell sites that have already been rolled out. Of that, about one-third to one-half of those sites have been rolled out by Reliance Jio. The balance have been rolled out by Airtel and Vodafone, and of that we have the largest market share. We have done over 4,000 sites for these two telcos, and there are all primarily 4G sites.

What’s the demand like for 4G small cells?

Even in the 4G space, month on month, year on year, data consumption has continued to grow pretty substantially. We are at 19 gigs per user, per month today, and if I remember correctly, we were at 12 gigs just a year ago, and much lower than that before. And this is all coming from 4G. 5G is not there yet, and what that really demonstrates is the reliance that users have on wireless connectivity. We have don’t much fixed line infrastructure today in India to really speak of. 25 million fixed line broadband users is nothing compared to the over 500 million 4G subscriptions. This growth in 4G data densification, even with 5G auctions coming up, will continue for the next two years.

Going forward, will these 4G sites be converted to 5G, or that will be part of a separate infrastructure?

If you see what has happened historically, when we went from 2G to 3G, and more relevantly, when we went to 3G to 4G, the 4G sites came up wherever you have very high capacity usage on 3G. 3G was not taken away, but those sites were upgraded to dual technology, by upgrading the equipment and adding an additional 4G radio to bring up 4G traffic from those sites. And I think that’s exactly what we are going to see in the 5G environment. The good thing is a lot of telecom operators learned from the 3G to 4G transition, and started investing very early in hardware that would be upgradeable to 5G.

Obviously the radio band is different, and there’s nothing really you can do in software to make the same radio to radiate multiple bands. So there will be investment. That happens in radio ugprades, but the core base station technology, the back haul, switches and things like that, a lot of that is now software upgradeable, and therefore it is going to be hopefully a much easier transition from 4G to 5G.

So what’s your projection of the number of small cells that will come up with the 5G rollout from August?

Some of the industry projections that we see from a lot of analysts and consulting companies is that India needs somewhere around 2,50000 small cell sites in the next five years across all three of the major operators. What that basically means is over 5-6 lakh unique small cells to be deployed. So that’s a tremendous amount of growth that we are going to see. The first one or two years from now is primarily going to be 4G, but then after that, the huge acceleration, the hockey stick curve is going to come from 5G deployment.

What is the kind of investments you are looking at in the next five years to cater to this demand?

We are talking of hundred of crores, just for us. We are looking at our base growing from 4000 small cells to 40000 small cell sites in the next five years. That’s a conservative projection, obviously, we believe and hope that we can do a lot more than that, but that will require well over 400-500 crores for us to really pull that off, and that’s where the opportunity to scale and build a substantial network. Today, when you compare us to the mainline tower companies, we are still a startup and in the beginning of our first innings, so we have a long way to go.

There certainly is a bright future for Neutral Host Network-as-a-service (NaaS), especially in country like India, with a large population of young people.

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Monday, 8 August 2022

Verizon's Growing Small Cells Footprint

Verizon was in news recently when their CTO, Ed Chan, mentioned that the operator had plans to speed up its small cell buildout starting in 2023. Light Reading quoted in an article:

His comments, made to financial analysts at Wells Fargo, come after the small cell market in the US took a breather during 2021 as big network operators focused on building out their new midband spectrum holdings via bigger, macro cell sites.

"Verizon anticipates small cells activity will ramp in 2023 as activity shifts toward 16t16r deployments from early 8t8r deployments built in 2022," wrote the Wells Fargo analysts of their recent meeting with Chan. Newer 5G radios can generally support more antennas, including 16T16R configurations.

"Chan also referenced that a third party had taken longer to grow scale and expertise to handle the installs Verizon had planned, but that it is reaching a point where a higher mix will trend toward third-party deployments from self deployments today," the analysts added.

Verizon officials did not respond to questions from Light Reading about Chan's meeting with Wells Fargo executives. The meeting is not listed among the operator's recent public investor events.

The small cell news could be important to equipment vendors, ranging from Airspan to Ericsson to CommScope. Jennifer Fritzsche, managing director at investment bank Greenhill & Company, wrote recently that Chan's comments could presage a resurgence in the US small cell market. She speculated that Verizon could turn to third-party small cell providers like Crown Castle and ExteNet Systems.

Small cells are big in the USA but the definition of it has become a bit fuzzy. In the old days it used to be an all-in-one unit but now anything that is deployed with an omnidirectional antenna or anything that is deployed on lamp posts or poles can be considered a small cell. 

Over the last few years we have looked at the small cells pics in the USA (see related posts at the bottom), so here are some of them from Verizon.

Quoting again from the Light Reading article:

Verizon is widely regarded as the leader in small cells in the US. The company has so far deployed 30,000 small cells sites for its millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G network.

"We continue to deploy millimeter wave, which is a key part of our network, providing massive bandwidth in dense urban areas," said Verizon's Rima Qureshi, the operator's chief strategy officer, during a recent Verizon investor event. But company officials haven't provided any specific goals for small cell buildout in 2023 and beyond.

T-Mobile has said that it eventually expects to operate around 40,000 to 50,000 small cells as it completes its big 5G network buildout, while AT&T at one point had planned to operate 40,000 small cells by 2015. But AT&T did not meet its goal, and company officials have remained quiet about small cells since.

Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have all been working to deploy their midband 5G spectrum holdings, and that work has shifted their focus away from small cells. Macro cell towers can cover wide geographic areas, while small cells – which typically sit atop street lights and rooftops rather than large cell towers – are primarily viewed as a method to improve capacity rather than coverage.

Which one is your favourite? Let us know if you have more pictures.

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Friday, 15 April 2022

ZTE Shows-off New 5G Products and Solutions at MWC 2022

Like all other big vendors, ZTE's booth at MWC 2022 was closed for visitors. They did however create a video explaining all their new products and solutions launched at MWC. Here is a summary from their press release:

ZTE's UniSite NEO, among the new solutions, is the industry’s simplest site solution. Powered by the integrated radio unit OmniUBR Series, it is capable of reducing the radio units from 18 to 5, and supporting a 6-band 3-sector site with only 5 units, thus significantly decreasing site rental cost by up to 57% and delivering 40% lower power consumption. 

Also, ZTE has updated its 5G RAN portfolio with the new-generation Massive MIMO product series. It includes 32TR and 64TR AAUs, up to 192 antenna elements and 320 watt, and introducing the industry's lightest Massive MIMO product weighing 9kg for high traffic site with limited space. ZTE's full scenario product portfolio update wraps up the radio network enhancement and improves the ROI for its operators.

At MWC 2022, ZTE presents an all-in-one 5G private network solution based on the new model of 5G network as a service. This is a one-stop order-to-service package with the pre-integrated software and hardware, as well as converged 4G and 5G networks. The package has the tailor-made network features to empower the digital society. 

ZTE introduces three major types of 5G private network, including the compact cabinet for smart factories with dozens of enterprise applications to be launched on the cloud, single server i5GC for comprehensive campus where applications are more diversified and data security and self-service are mandatory, and embedded MEC for a very limited equipment room and simple application scenarios.

In additon, ZTE has launched VMAX, the accelerator of digital transformation at MWC 2022, to satisfy the increasing complexity of the network O&M, which is regarded as one of the biggest issues for operators.ZTE's VMAX can help improve customer experiences, reduce costs and enhance operating performance.

VMAX is a part of uSmartNet, ZTE's Autonomous Network solution, and changes single-domain operation into all-domain and end-to-end perspective providing One-stop Insight. When network errors occur, VMAX supports cross-domain service self-healing. It gets to the root cause of service problem and customer complaint in minutes with more than 80% location accuracy and efficiency increase by 30%. 

In addition, VMAX can interpret the service intent, output network planning suggestion accurately with minimal intervention. Meanwhile, it provides end-to-end security for different scenarios to protect personal privacy.

Here is the video of their products and solutions

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Monday, 31 January 2022

Crown Castle bringing more Small Cells to the USA

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 80,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market.

Earlier this month, T-Mobile US, Inc. and Crown Castle announced that the companies have signed a new 12-year agreement to support the continued build-out of T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network with increased access to Crown Castle's towers and small cell locations. The agreement enables the Un-carrier to further expand and deepen the reach of its industry-leading 5G network to serve consumers across the U.S. while also realizing financial synergies following its merger. The agreement also helps Crown Castle generate long-term tower and small cell revenue growth.

An RCR Wireless News article said:

Crown Castle secured commitments for over 50,000 new small cell nodes during the last twelve months, which equates to approximately 70% of the total small cells the booked in its history prior to 2021, the company’s CEO Jay Brown said in a release.

“As a result, we now have approximately 55,000 small cell nodes on-air and more than 60,000 committed or under construction in our backlog. Our customers are already planning for the next phase of the 5G buildout that will require small cells at scale, and this inflection in our small cells business reflects how well-positioned we are to support their wireless network needs for years to come, with our more than 80,000 route miles of fiber concentrated in the top U.S. markets,” the executive said.

“I believe 2022 will be an important transition year for our small cells and fiber business, as we prepare to accelerate our deployment of small cells from approximately 5,000 this year to what we expect will be more than 10,000 per year starting in 2023,” Brown added.

A Light Reading article from last year talked about a new report from Altman Solon. 

Altman Solon said it derived its findings from a database it constructed of small cells across more than 70 US markets. "Leveraging analysis of this database and augmenting with other primary and secondary research and our deep experience and knowledge base in the space for all small cell ecosystem players, Altman Solon has developed preliminary critical insights about the competitive landscape in the US small cell market," the firm boasted.

Among its findings:

  • "Small cell growth has been much slower historically than what industry reports have projected due to the regulatory climate, lack of neutral hosts, and limited backhaul," the firm wrote
  • Roughly 70% of the small cells it identified are located in dense urban and urban areas.
  • Crown Castle operates about 50% of all small cells identified, while mobile network operators like Verizon account for around 35%. Crown Castle operates about 50,000 commercially available small cells today, with another 30,000 on order. ExteNet Systems operates roughly 32,000 small cells across the country, while Mobilitie – recently acquired by Canada's BAI Communications – counts around 10,000 small cells.
  • Altman Solon identified very few neutral host small cells, which are small cells that transmit signals for more than one network operator. Such devices are considered critical to the growth of the industry considering neutral host small cells can generate significant revenues for the companies that operate them.

Here is a short video from Crown Castle explaining their view of small cells

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Friday, 21 January 2022

Telefónica Deutschland Activates Germany's First Open RAN Small Cells with Airspan Networks

O2 / Telefónica is a technological pioneer in the use of Open RAN. Since December 2020, it has successfully integrated four base stations in Landsberg am Lech into its mobile network. At present, they are testing the technology, gaining experience and planning further expansion at other locations once all tests have been successfully completed. 

In an announcement this week, it said that it is the first German mobile network operator to have activated the first mini-radio cells with innovative Open RAN technology (ORAN) in Munich. They are intended to provide all O2 Germany customers with even more capacity and higher bandwidths at busy locations in the future. 

While the press release doesn't mention the vendor, Airspan Networks Tweeted that the ORAN Small Cell is supplied by them

Selected extract from the press release as follows:

With the compact, flexibly deployable latest-generation mini mobile cells, the company is able to increase 5G/4G capacities in the O2 network at high-traffic locations in urban areas faster than before. The mini-radio cells, attached to a building facade on Klenzestraße in Munich's Gärtnerplatz district, supplement the 4G/5G mobile network installed on rooftops in the city center, but do not replace it.

Small Cells directly enhance the network experience for local customers. The new technology, which is not much bigger than a shoebox, provides customers in very close proximity with 4G and bandwidths of up to 100 Mbps. In the near future, O2 / Telefónica will also use the small cells for targeted, selective 5G coverage. Here, too, the focus will primarily be on particularly busy locations in German city centers, such as very busy squares, shopping streets or public transport stops.

In addition to a power supply, the small cells required a connection via fiber optics. In Munich, this is provided by the fiber optic infrastructure of Stadtwerke München and the local telecommunications provider M-net.

In the coming weeks, further installations will follow in Munich's city center: First, two 4G radio cells at Gärtnerplatz and later this year, O2 / Telefónica will also install pure 5G Open RAN mini radio cells ("5G Standalone") for the first time in the area of Kaufinger Straße in the Bavarian capital. In the course of these expansions, it is also conceivable to use existing infrastructures of Stadtwerke München - such as bus stops or power distributors.

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Thursday, 28 October 2021

AT&T Small Cells and Macrocells

It's been a while since I posted some small cell pictures from the USA. It's always nice of people to share their pics on Twitter and here are some of them I found interesting.

On it's website, Raycap has a case study with AT&T:

To see a range of solutions for concealing small cell wireless sites, look no farther than Dallas, Texas, home to AT&T corporate headquarters. Raycap worked with the carrier to complete two very different concealment projects.

  • Six custom-designed wall-mounted enclosures, designed, manufactured and painted to match the granite walls of AT&T’s buildings and provide 5G mmWave coverage around the AT&T Discovery District
  • Nearby, highly customized small cell poles were engineered to meet the carrier’s needs, the utility’s access requirements, and the city’s aesthetic guidelines—including an integrated image of the iconic Pegasus logo.

These two projects show how Raycap-led collaboration among all stakeholders can solve challenging wireless deployments: wall mounted, rooftop mounted, integrated in poles, and others.

You can download the PDF here.

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Sunday, 10 October 2021

Multi-sectorised sites and Small Cells help O2 UK handle Capacity in Busy Areas

Radio planning becomes essential in dense urban areas where operators don't only have to serve the highly mobile users but also slow moving pedestrians and users indoors. One some location in London, UK, is O2 UK's highest capacity Nokia site with six-sector low-band LTE in 800 and 900MHz in addition to high-band 4T4R L18/L21, 8T8R L23 as well as standard n78 8T8R 5G.

The site also features numerous high-end Commscope antennas with dual-beam panels that are needed to create six-sector LTE 800 and 900 MHz and then 24 port antennas that carry all the other including 8T8R 2300 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz as well as n78 8T8R.

In addition, O2 has multitude of Nokia Small cells sprinkled across the City of London. While these come in all different shape and configurations. In many locations there are ones with directional antennas while there are others with omni-directional antennas as well.

The small cells are located on their own poles, rather than lamp posts and many of these also feature Wi-Fi access points as additional means to alleviate the capacity crunch. In fact they can also be mounted on-top of phone boxes, shops, side of buildings, etc. 

If this is an area of interest and you enjoyed reading the post above, you will no doubt enjoy watching this short video from Peter Clarke who has a great collection of infrastructure from UK and Ireland on his website here. Video as follows:

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