Patrik is responsible for Ericsson’s Network as a Service offering, which sits within the Managed Services business area. They deliver networks as-a-Service in a model where they own the networks and provide all services, all provided over a long term SLA & KPI based agreement. Examples of this as-a-Service (aaS) model include Connected Venues, in-building small cells, WiFi or backhaul etc.
TowerXchange: How are Ericsson’s Network as-a-Service team involved in small cells currently?
Patrik Jakobson, Head of Network-as-a-Service, Ericsson:
We see a lot of what’s happening in the multi-operator arena when it comes to small cells, and right now it’s a very timely discussion. While we are not responsible for actual products, we can utilise Ericsson’s leading small cells portfolio, and can use third party products when it makes sense. We are part of the Managed Services portfolio and we provide long term service contracts to operators, traditionally in the outsourcing area where Ericsson will take over operating their networks, field service power, centralised operations, planning design etc. We have taken over 35,000 people into Ericsson and have four global centres looking at Managed Services, and it is an important part of Ericsson’s overall business.
TowerXchange: How are you offering small cells as a service? Who are you working with to provide it? Operators / neutral hosts etc?
Patrik Jakobson, Head of Network-as-a-Service, Ericsson:
Small Cell as-a-Service targets three areas: public venues, indoor-and outdoor solutions. We’re especially seeing high demand in public venues, where there is lots of interest right now, and requirements are increasingly for multi-operator capabilities. Incidentally, we recently announced that we’d won the WASPS / Ricoh Arena in Coventry UK, which is a mega venue with a stadium, casino, hotel and exhibition area. This will be a ‘connected venue’ and include Wi-Fi as well as service platforms, including jointly identified and monetized connectivity and information services, commerce- and digital experiences services. In this case we worked directly with the stakeholders in the venue.
When we talk about indoor, we typically mean commercial buildings, hospitality, enterprise, etc. Here we see two different segments, one in which we are supporting the operators, CMO or enterprise sales. This is all about providing better indoor coverage and having a very modularised proposition for them so that they can see the total cost per square metre (or per building) per month, and then we provide all the solutions – design, plan, build and operate over a long term contract – this is typically for one, dedicated operator. Then we also have the multi-operator requirement as well. Today we are working with property owners and developers to a much greater degree and we’re looking at everything from DAS to small cells that can handle multi-op requirements. This is the driving force. When you look from a property owner / developer’s point of view they are looking to increase the attractiveness and value of their building, and it is here that we see very strong demand for multi-operator solutions.
Looking to the near future, we see what’s happening in the unregulated areas – in the US 3.5 GHz and, globally, the 5 GHz spectrum which will mean it will be possible to provide all kinds of solutions based on licensed and unlicensed technologies – plus any combination or aggregation of those technologies.. Some of the commonalities across these new offerings is the requirements on spectrum sharing – one infrastructure, and the property owners will be the ones who run this. We see increasing requirements being put on the operators and increasingly a need for a neutral host – we see ourselves becoming a white label neutral host and providing capacity in the unregulated space going forward. There will be requirements on proprietary/ open access etc.
TowerXchange: If you can imagine a world where we have an easy path to small cell deployment, where would you imagine the market would go next?
Patrik Jakobson, Head of Network-as-a-Service, Ericsson:
Another interesting area is that of the ‘industrial internet’ or industry 4.0 where unregulated LTE and other tech will be used in production processes, or indeed anything that is time critical. There will be a clear need for someone to run and operate this. There will be spectrum sharing and it may not be the traditional operators who provide it. For example, it may be an opportunity for large auto manufacturers. There have been suggestions around providing a LTE/5G network in a box for them to use in their production processes, to handle the spectrum sharing, neutrality etc. Where we see that we can provide industrial value, we will act as the neutral host. It’s not that Ericsson is going into the market and pushing to become a neutral host service provider, rather, we are doing it on behalf of their customers, or property developers who want a neutral host. Or for service providers where there is a need for a neutral host because there may be one anchor provider, and several others that will share the same network – we can be that network capacity production factory.
We don’t see ourselves becoming a service provider in the market and competing with our customers, but we see ourselves in a situation where we can facilitate several players making use of it and providing those services to the market. Obviously you need to share the network and the spectrum when you go into areas like 3.5GHz in US, but also there are requirements for non-exclusivity, and non-proprietary technologies, and also short term contracts – some of which may be shorter than the tech life span.
TowerXchange: We’ve talked a lot about indoor solutions, is this your main area of focus or are you looking at addressing the outdoor market too?
Patrik Jakobson, Head of Network-as-a-Service, Ericsson:
There are several deployment scenarios, especially in large public venues like airports, shopping malls, stadia, where you have a combination of indoor and outdoor space. Otherwise we see outdoor specific cases driven by providing services in ultra-dense areas, where site and backhaul availability is scarce, and where a neutral host model could enable a situation where multiple networks are not allowed or practically possible.
TowerXchange: Are you currently involved in street furniture deployments?
Patrik Jakobson, Head of Network-as-a-Service, Ericsson:
From a services side, I think we will see more projects as we move into unregulated spectrum / 5G – because there will be less coverage because of the higher up the frequency band. Then we’ll need in-fill solutions and some cities will have smart city agendas to promote this. On the product and sales side, our operator customers are also actively deploying our outdoor street furniture solutions to infill coverage and capacity in the outdoors space as the need for attractive solutions that blend seamlessly into the outdoor environment are required. We recently just launched a combined solution with Philips Lighting, called Lightpole Site Slim, which integrates our outdoor small cell radios into the lightpole.
TowerXchange: Could you tell us a little bit about Ericsson’s multi-operator small cell solution, the Ericsson DOT?
Patrik Jakobson, Head of Network-as-a-Service, Ericsson:
The Ericsson Dual Band Dot can support two bands in the one unit. This can be ideal for operators looking to run both a 3G and LTE network and can also support multi-operator deployments. Combining two frequency bands in one Dot can simplify deployment, reduce cabling costs, and leverage available spectrum, while also creating the option to have more than one operator network in the building.
Later this year, support for 3.5GHz LTE will be released on the Dot and there is also the pico RBS 6402 which can support multiple operators. Another significant part of the growth of the market will be driven by new verticals in the industry. These verticals will require superior connectivity as well as multi-operator support – some of these solutions will be DAS, but the likely majority of that will be in licensed and unlicensed LTE / 5G small cells for convenience, aesthetics and flexibility.
In conclusion going forward it’s very much about the use cases with licensed and un-licensed LTE / and 5G and the players making the final decision, along with the required industry applications. A lot of these players and industries have requirements for multi-operator solutions and we need to support that.
