Pole Sites Stimulate Massive Site Resources

Pole Sites Stimulate Massive Site Resources

Triggered by the rapid development of MBB, data traffic is expected to increase by a factor of 20 by 2020. Network capacity is increased through the following three methods: obtaining more spectrum, increasing spectral efficiency, and adding more sites. Spectrum resources are predominantly scarce and subsequently expensive. Multi-channel, multi-sector, and other technologies enable networks to accommodate only partial additional traffic. The number of sites must be substantially increased in anticipation of the ensuing higher level of imminent traffic.

Deploying traditional macro sites, featuring wide coverage, cannot economically and efficiently solve the coverage issue experienced in small and discontinued areas. Pole sites are an ideal solution in response to these challenges.

A large number of widely distributed resources are suited for pole site deployment. Using these resources, deploying pole sites can quickly enhance the extent of in-depth coverage and share the burden of traffic with existing sites at hotspots. Stimulation of the massive pole site resources can help operators reduce CAPEX and OPEX and efficiently construct MBB networks.

The future of pole sites is arriving.

Market research suggests that vast resources are suitable for site deployment, such as power, street lamp, monitoring, and transmission poles. Operators can negotiate for these resources in batches, greatly reducing site construction time. However, owners of the poles have not recognized the inherent value of these resources, and few mature business models can provide reference for pole utilization. As such, these resources are currently being wasted.

Huawei has amassed an abundance of experience in network construction and promoted cooperation in network deployment between operators, tower vendors, proprietors, etc. across multiple countries. This cooperation has made use of idle resources and helped operators quickly acquire batch sites.

The following figure lists the resources and requirements of multiple parties and the resources of the corresponding parties they must coincide with, for a positive collaboration to take place. The site alliance in Indonesia, reconstruction of lamp poles in Saudi Arabia, and openness of public resources by the Argentinian government are good examples of cooperation between such parties.

Indonesia: Site Alliance

A site alliance has arisen from cooperation between stakeholders, such as large-scale supermarket chains, tower vendors, and operators. With a wealth of experience in network planning, Huawei is fully aware of the locations where sites must be added and provided valuable insight into which specific sites could be leased to multiple operators.

Huawei helped the entire stakeholder chain to understand the benefits to each party, cementing the alliance.

Traditional tower vendors:

The alliance helped to quickly achieve large volume sales, seize market share, and transform from passive to active tower construction.

Large property and business chains:

part from generating new sources of revenue derived from leasing and related services, the alliance also enabled innovative solutions, which brought new business opportunities and opened up a new blue ocean market.

Government:

The industry alliance activated a large number of wasted public resources, improved public resource usage, and added value to society.

Operators:

After the formation of the alliance, operators transformed site acquisition methods from single to one-off batch acquisition for quick network deployment. In addition, batch negotiation of site resources reduced rent and improved ROI.

Saudi Arabia: Reconstruction of Lamp Poles

The municipal lighting system is growing increasingly obsolete in some Saudi Arabian cities. The power consumption of each pole was up to 400 W, and on average the bulbs required replacing every 1-2 years, resulting in high OPEX. The municipal department instructed the street lamp infrastructure development companies to implement ICT reconstruction on these lamp poles to maximize the value of street lamp infrastructure. After the reconstruction, intelligent lamp poles were able to provide a range of Smart City functions such as video surveillance, digital billboard, and Internet of Things (IoT).

Additionally, the municipal department provided ubiquitous site resources for operators, who in turn helped to create seamless inner city MBB coverage.

Reconstruction of lamp poles promoted the transformation and further recognition of smart city status. This improved the experience of residents, enhanced ICT facilities and competitiveness of the city, and maximized the value of street lamp poles.

Learning from this model, Huawei launched an agile site deployment solution called Lite Site. Using the unified compact design, lamp poles support the camouflaged installment of communications equipment to facilitate seamless integration into municipal facilities, such as street lamps and monitoring devices. These devices are environment-friendly and feature a comprehensive and diverse list of functions.

Poles are produced in factories and no disruptive construction using concrete is required on site, reducing the site construction period. Total construction cost per site is also decreased greatly, helping operators significantly reduce TCO.

Argentina: Openness of Public Resources

The Argentinian Ministry of Communications suggested that city governments open public resources for operators to deploy sites and promote MBB development throughout the country. This openness enabled operators to lease state-owned assets such as government buildings at considerably lower cost. If operators share state-owned assets, rent-free assets can be occupied for up to four years.

The Argentina government set up the national entity of communications (ENACOM) to periodically check the network quality of each operator and ensure the best service quality is provided to consumers. This urged telecom operators to improve user experience while also enabling a reduction of basic network construction costs.

At the 2016 music festival attended by approximately 50,000 people in Argentina, Huawei helped the operator Personal to successfully deploy 39 Easy Macro sites using municipal resources within a week. The on-site executives at Personal were impressed by the superb level of user experience.

Stimulation of pole site resources helps governments to improve the usage of wasted public resources, allows operators to quickly obtain low cost batch sites, and encourages vendors to explore the further latent value of poles. This ensures all parties in the industry chain benefit whilst expanding into new blue ocean markets.

Policies and property rights vary between markets. Stakeholders and requirements must be identified in order to develop new and suitable business models and realize the full potential of future opportunities.