CW | Shared RAN – Why Not?

Join us for the inaugural event hosted by the Mobile Networks SIG. This group has been formed from the Enhanced Mobile Broadband Group, the Small Cell Group and the Virtual Networks Group.

The Mobile Networks SIG focuses on understanding current and future trends and challenges for terrestrial mobile infrastructure. Find out more about the group here.

Traditional mobile network Radio Access Networks (RAN) deployment suffers from low diversity (UK deployments are almost exclusively all-Ericsson or all-Nokia equipment and software), with a maximum of 2 passive-shared operators per site. This drives both high CapEx and high OpEx due to the large Bill of Quantities (BoQ) and this is simply unsustainable. A common challenge for Local Authority Planners is dealing with local objections to new planning applications for sites, with residents often questioning why a new site is needed "when there's already one there." These objections typically stem from a lack of understanding that one site is likely MBNL and one CTIL to cover all 4 MNOs customers.

Ironically the only OpEx item which has reduced recently – site rentals since a new set of tribunal-tested baselines were instituted following the updated 2017 Electronics Communication code, has led to both reduced rate of deployment and increased Notice To Quit (NTQ), Acquisition and legal costs as landlords re-appraise their willingness to host mobile sites on their premises.

While mobile capacity delivery has for many years lagged traffic growth, with past exponential growth now replaced with linear growth, MNOs need to be more thoughtful in delivering capacity to meet demand, with planning now facing a 4D jigsaw of high cost of capital, slow site acquisition, NTQs due to building redevelopment and flat-to-falling ARPU putting pressure on TCO. Delivering large cookie-cutter street-works monopoles is rarely the number one option as it may have been in the past, with 3UK deploying around 2500 such sites since 2020.

Is it possible to move to a more Sustainable, Multi-Vendor, Neutral Host Network Deployment regime where there is less steel and concrete, less active equipment, pooled Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) servers, lower power equipment with reduced CapEx operated as a lower-OpEx ‘aaS’? The past 24 months have seen both policy support for Neutral Host Networks (19/19 DSIT ONE Trials are NHN) and commercial deployments are both live and in-build, and are largely CRAN which provides a more scalable match between capacity and demand growth. The final step missing is to move to Infrastructure or Radio Access Network ‘as-a-Service' (aaS) which – while reducing MNO control – increases the sharing and pooling yet further, offering the lowest TCO and higher pace of deployments as cumulative MNO planning and equipment free issue is removed as a dependency.

A word cloud for the DSIT ONE Programme – most of which recently closed - would probably read “Sustainable, Multi-Vendor, Reduced-TCO Neutral Host Urban Radio Access Network Deployment”

In this session, we review progress to date, examine some of the innovation at play and identify what further steps may be required to ensure MNO adoption of aaS, surely a requirement for them to achieve their sustainability commitments.

Speakers: