As towercos increasingly look to diversify their offering to MNOs, and distributed networks become more and more necessary in urban network densification in advance of 5G, the business case for providing small cells as a service could be accelerated with multi-operator small cell solutions. Who are the current leaders in the development of multi-operator small cells, and what business models could they facilitate?
Akin to the multi-tenancy model, multi-operator small cell solutions can enable towercos to generate incremental revenues by offering small cells as a service. By choosing a multi-operator solution, installation of small cells is made more efficient, investments are futureproofed, and myriad opportunities are opened up for towercos to position themselves as the ideal neutral host for operators looking to densify urban outdoor networks and improve indoor coverage.
TowerXchange has spoken to the market leading developers of multi-operator small cell solutions, and provided a useful comparison of the products on offer from CommScope, Huawei, ip.access, and SpiderCloud. We asked them all the same questions in order to provide a clear contrast of how their solutions and business models differ, so that you can find the best partner for your small cells as a service offering. Whether you are interested in exploring your options as a neutral host, looking for your next high-profile proof of concept in a large scale public venue, or a widespread enterprise roll out, TowerXchange have compiled the who’s who of multi-operator small cell providers to make partner selection just a little bit easier.
If you are interested in understanding more about the small cell market and the opportunities for towercos and other third party distributed network service providers, come to the TowerXchange Europe Meetup in London on 4th and 5th April and hear directly from the companies leading the charge.
CommScope
1. Please introduce yourself and your company.
Samuel Buttarelli, VP Sales – Europe, CommScope. Samuel leads the European Sales team for the Distributed Capacity and Coverage Solutions division at CommScope. CommScope offers a wide range of network infrastructure solutions that can be deployed in both indoor and outdoor environments, ranging from stadiums and public transportation hubs, to medium-sized enterprise locations, to small-business and residential locations.
2. What product or service have you developed for the multi-operator small cell market, and under what model does it operate, e.g. multiple independent small cells, multi-radio cells, using shared spectrum, using unlicensed spectrum?
CommScope offers the OneCell system – a hybrid small-cell solution that combines features from DAS, C-RAN and small cells to provide a scalable solution for indoor environments with demanding capacity and coverage requirements that uses the ethernet existing infrastructure for fronthaul. CommScope solutions include metro-cell concealment solutions for outdoor deployments. These are designed to address the challenges that mobile operators face in moving the telecom infrastructure from macro sites to DAS or small cells – closer to the subscriber and in locations that are less visible, easier to access and difficult to protect.
For reliable wireless voice connectivity, and for supporting visitors or customers, cellular is the clear choice. No manual authentication is required, and voice is inherently and fully supported. The user does not become a burden on the enterprise IT department, rather they are supported by their mobile service provider. According to research commissioned by CommScope, 87% of building professionals believe that it is imperative to have in-building cellular coverage in all areas of their buildings.
3. How proven is your multi-operator product/service? Who is using it?
The OneCell® C-RAN Small Cell Solution was shortlisted by GSMA as a finalist for the 2016 Global Mobile Awards in the Best Technology Enabler category. OneCell forms a single “super” cell indoors that eliminates handovers and border interference across large areas, creating a high performing LTE experience for end-users. OneCell enables sector virtualisation with Smart Reuse technology that gives operators the ability to scale capacity within a given spectrum. The OneCell system won Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough, and Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – the CTO’s Choice, at the Global Mobile Awards 2015.
Sprint uses S1000 small cells for use in traffic-intensive small and medium-sized business locations and Verizon Wireless is the first North American wireless operator to add the ION-E to its approved product list.
CommScope’s 5G collaborations include: The U.S. Advanced Wireless Industry Initiative; 5Tonic – Open research and innovation laboratory for 5G founded by Telefonica and IMDEA Network; 5GAmericas – influential industry trade organisation composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers; Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance – focused on 5G and accelerating the development of LTE-Advanced and its ecosystem.
4. What other use cases do you foresee?
Operators will need to cover more and more buildings from the inside out. In the past they have focused mostly on public-access venues – big venues where lots of people go. Those have been done. Those are big buildings, big systems. For example, CommScope is the network supplier for Stade de France.
Going forward, we will need to move into those second and third-tier buildings that are more in the 200,000 to 500,000 sq ft size. These new systems will need to be much lower cost and be deployable by a different type of professional. Maybe an IT professional instead of an RF engineer with 15 years of experience. We’ve been focused on that in-building space, creating the platforms and the ecosystem to allow DAS to scale to a much larger audience.
5. What do you see as the potential customer for this product/service, MNO, towerco or property owner?
Small cells have typically been used in small and medium size office buildings and other commercial venues characterised by lower (but still significant) usage volume and fewer operators or frequency bands. Technically DAS can serve the needs of these venues, but because of its high fixed costs DAS has not been a cost-effective solution for them.
6. Please sum up your vision for multi-operator small cells?
The trends that defined the wireless network industry in 2016 are all still in play in 2017.
While that might sound like more of the same, it can also be thought of as a prelude to 5G. Now is the time when mobile network operators (MNOs) are laying the groundwork for the future while monetising and managing their investments from the past. The trends of densification, virtualisation and optimisation are how they will do so.
None of these trends—densification, virtualisation, optimisation and convergence—is brand new. But 2017 will see more work being done, and more resources being deployed, for all of them. More cell sites, capacity, virtualisation, spectrum and fibre will all continue.
The one constant in the wireless industry is “more.” Users want more bandwidth, MNOs need more capacity, and vendors like CommScope are rushing ahead to develop more solutions. While 2017 might look like more of the same, I expect to see significant developments in laying the foundation for 5G.
Huawei
1. Please introduce yourself and your company.
Jim Parker, Director of Small Cell & IoT Product Line Management for Huawei with over 15 years of wireless industry experience is responsible for Product Management for Huawei’s Small Cell and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Prior to joining Huawei, I was responsible for marketing for AT&T’s in-building wireless solutions organisation and for product management and marketing for Samsung’s 3G/4G wireless infrastructure, small cell, netbook and notebook product lines. In addition to my responsibilities at Huawei, I am the Vice President of the Texas State Wireless Association.
2. What product or service have you developed for the multi-operator small cell market, and under what model does it operate, e.g. multiple independent small cells, multi-radio cells, using shared spectrum, using unlicensed spectrum?
Huawei offers two multi-operator Small Cell solutions: LampSite and SingleDAS.
Huawei’s LampSite Small Cell solution can be configured to support multi-operator operation via Multi-operator Core Network (MOCN) or Multiple Operator Radio Access Network (MORAN). MOCN uses shared spectrum with shared radio units, and MORAN uses dedicated spectrum and dedicated radio units for each operator, but it shares the baseband unit and the remote hub across operators.
Huawei’s SingleDAS is a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that can accept multiple RF sources from multiple operators and the signal is aggregated allowing for a transmission over shared antennas.
3. How proven is your multi-operator product/service? Who is using it?
The LampSite Small Cell solution has been deployed with over 100 operators in over 1,500 commercial projects. Deployments include: China National Stadium (the largest stadium in China) and Dubai Mall (the largest mall in the world), and Fira Barcelona (home to the Mobile World Congress Conference) – if you want to make a statement, make sure you’re the provider of the wireless solutions at the world’s biggest wireless trade show!
The SingleDAS solution has been deployed with over 50 operators in over 100 commercial projects. Deployments include: Orly Airport in France, Aviva Stadium in Ireland and the Lucerne Railway station in Switzerland to name a few.
4. What other use cases do you foresee?
In addition to the LampSite and SingleDAS solutions mentioned earlier, Huawei offers the Pico Small Cell which is ideal for small enterprise (typically less than 5,000 m2) or hotspot applications and supports 3G/4G & Wi-Fi in a single unit, and Huawei offers the AtomCell for outdoor applications.
5. What do you see as the potential customer for this product/service, MNO, towerco or property owner?
Small Cells are typically purchased by wireless operators, tower companies and property owners.
6. Please sum up your vision for multi-operator small cells?
Having worked for operators in the past, and seen the operator funded business model for small cell roll out in high profile buildings, I now see the opportunity in the thousands if not millions of middle market buildings. Whether it’s multi-dwelling units, commercial offices, hotels, hospitality, and retail. These venues aren’t lucrative enough for the MNOs to invest in, but for the building owners it’s absolutely critical that they have an in-building wireless solution in order for their customers to be able to utilise their devices. More and more people are going wireless, we’re not going back to the landline, so the next growth area is to go after this huge untapped market.
Having worked for operators in the past, and seen the operator funded business model for small cell roll out in high profile buildings, I now see the opportunity in the thousands if not millions of middle market buildings
ip.access
1. Please introduce yourself and your company.
I’m Nick Johnson, Founder, CTO and Head of PLM of ip.access. We’re a UK based small cell specialist, been operating for about 17 years, and deploying with Mobile Network Operators since 2003.
2.What product or service have you developed for the multi-operator small cell market, and under what model does it operate, e.g. multiple independent small cells, multi-radio cells, using shared spectrum, using unlicensed spectrum?
Our most recent innovation has been in the Neutral Host space, where we introduced the Viper™ platform at MWC2016. It comprises a virtualised core, and a range of base stations to support multi-operator solutions.
Our primary market is indoor enterprise, but we have products coming soon to address multi-operator rural extension. We’ve targeted the product set specifically at the Neutral Host provider, with lots of management and OSS features to support network management by the Neutral Host provider, and provide visibility of the network performance by those sharing the spectrum. It also supports the Neutral Host and their Mobile Network Operator partners by supporting SLA creation and monitoring.
3. How proven is your multi-operator product/service? Who is using it?
We had a proof of concept last year, and are getting ready for Neutral Host trials within the next month or two.
4. What other use cases do you foresee?
As soon as you have a solution that can support multiple operators, with the ability to share spectrum you open up a cornucopia of new possibilities. The obvious one is the ability to share costs between operators, so they can extend their reach into areas that are currently uneconomic to serve. In emerging low-ARPU markets, that makes the universal service obligations that much easier to meet, so it’s better for the operators and the government finances alike. Also, in markets with MVNOs hosted from a mobile operator, you can partition the capacity between the host operator and the MVNO, and so increase the value of the offer. And for Emergency Service Networks, you can host them from the same equipment as regular commercial networks, and guarantee ESN capacity with priority above the commercial service. All in all, it’s a flexible multi-purpose solution.
5. What do you see as the potential customer for this product/service, MNO, towerco or property owner?
The customers for the solution are mainly the Neutral Host provider, but they may take many forms. The towercos are getting ready to become neutral hosts. Some MNOs are looking at monetising their spectrum assets by sharing them with the competitors, with controlled resource management. And the Neutral Host provider’s customer is the property owner or even the enterprise tenant, who may in the end buy the small cells directly from us, using the self-organisation features to facilitate end-user deployment, just as we’ve achieved with our residential femto solution deployed with AT&T in the US.
6. Please sum up your vision for multi-operator small cells?
All in all, it’s the future. There’s no doubt that existing operators are suffering with flat or falling revenues, yet with exponentially growing demand, and they need an infrastructure sharing solution that includes the active equipment as well as the spectrum to be able to manage their costs, while they serve their customers better. As we go forward to 5G, I expect the multi-operator small cell will become completely mainstream – with spectrum assets managed by an equivalent to the neutral host, and network service provided by the Mobile Network Operators becoming purely customer facing organisations. We have seen the future, and it works.
SpiderCloud
1. Please introduce yourself and your company.
Art King, Director of Enterprise Services and Technologies, SpiderCloud Wireless. As the Director of Enterprise Services & Technologies, I lead the development of enterprise services definitions and business case propositions for customers and partners. I am a Small Cell Forum Board member and a Vice Chair of the Services Working Group. SpiderCloud Wireless is the innovator behind a scalable and multi-access small-cell network platform that allows mobile operators to deliver unprecedented cellular coverage, capacity and smart applications to enterprises and venues. Customers include América Móvil, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, among others. SpiderCloud Wireless is based in Milpitas, California.
2. What product or service have you developed for the multi-operator small cell market, and under what model does it operate, e.g. multiple independent small cells, multi-radio cells, using shared spectrum, using unlicensed spectrum?
SpiderCloud builds a scalable small cell Enterprise RAN “E-RAN” for buildings and commercial spaces from 1,000 square meters to 150,000 square meters. The E-RAN has small cells available in 3G/LTE, LTE/LTE (licensed spectrum), and LTE-LAA (licensed and unlicensed supplemental downlink) in a number of bands. SpiderCloud is a contributing member of the CBRS Alliance (shared spectrum in USA market) and the E-RAN system supporting 3.5Ghz TDD-LTE CBRS small cell system has completed SAS interoperability and is going through commercialisation. SpiderCloud is a contributing member of the MulteFire Alliance (uplink/downlink in unlicensed spectrum) and will develop products as chipsets emerge. E-RAN can operate in a shared spectrum model, independent systems sharing Ethernet transport, and unlicensed.
3. How proven is your multi-operator product/service? Who is using it?
Verizon, Vodafone Group, America Movil Group are publicly disclosed and have many systems in service. Vodafone went commercial with E-RAN in December 2011.
4. What other use cases do you foresee?
With shared and unlicensed spectrum, there are innovations around private LTE, Neutral Host LTE, and communications platforms that enable new ownership models and value chains. These innovations are going to bring more LTE to many places that have no service today. These private LTE networks are going to be federated into the national networks of today’s operators to enable mobiles to have more coverage and capacity available without operators totally owning the capex and opex for the private LTE segments.
5. What do you see as the potential customer for this product/service, MNO, towerco or property owner?
All three are candidate customers. With the lower per square meter construction cost for small cells, E-RAN has a great business case for smaller buildings where older solutions were just too expensive to achieve an ROI for customers providing the funding.
6. Please sum up your vision for multi-operator small cells?
The rapid evolution of small cells and emergence of LTE strategies that support shared and unlicensed spectrum are creating a huge opportunity for transformation and opening an untapped market for business. Towercos that have an enterprise sales force, operational capacity, and operator relationships have a great opportunity in the enterprise market because the IT organisations that want LTE in their premise may not be capable of operating or maintaining it. The enterprise world is evolving their thinking about meaning of “wireless” from Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi+LTE
