As India expands its 5G coverage, the demand for network densification has reached unprecedented levels. To meet these requirements, telecom service providers (TSPs) are utilising street furniture to install a greater number of radio equipment and associated infrastructure, thereby enhancing 5G coverage.
Making use of street furniture is the most economically feasible and sustainable way to increase the densification of 5G networks. Street furniture includes publicly owned structures such as smart poles, utility poles, billboards, lamp posts, traffic signals, gazebos and bus stops, which can be used to deploy small cells and aerial fibre equipment. This arrangement proves to be mutually beneficial for the public and the authorities that own these street structures as they reap the benefits of 5G use cases. Meanwhile, TSPs can benefit from reduced deployment costs.
Further, with the rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs), smart poles are also emerging as a favourable option for setting up EV charging infrastructure. Due to their existing electricity connections, smart poles can easily and cost-effectively host EV charging points. Going forward, the growing demand for street furniture is expected to be driven by new and emerging applications, making them an ideal medium for digital infrastructure.
Advantages over traditional infrastructure
To ensure widespread availability of the 5G network, it is essential to foster cross-sectoral collaborations with smart cities, city municipalities, airport/port owners, discoms, etc. to use their street furniture for network deployment. This street furniture serves as a platform for small cell and aerial fibre deployment.
Compared to traditional macro cells, small cells offer stronger cellular coverage, lower latency and lower deployment costs. Their compact size makes small cells suitable for installation on existing public infrastructure, eliminating the need for deploying towers and other associated infrastructure. Even in areas where coverage is not a key issue, small cells can assist in offloading traffic from macro cell sites as they have limited data carrying capacity.
Meanwhile, a strong fibre backbone is required to enable the connectivity of digital infrastructure. However, right-of-way (RoW) challenges and high deployment costs have so far slowed down the expansion of fibre networks in the country. In this context, aerial fibre, or fibre deployed overhead, offers several advantages over underground fibre. It eliminates the need to dig or create new ducts as is the case with underground cables. Further, it enables the reuse of existing poles to lay fibre cables, thus reducing installation costs.
Government initiatives
The government has been taking several initiatives to promote the use of street furniture for small cell and aerial fibre deployment. To this end, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has formed a committee to review the availability of street furniture, particularly the strength of electricity poles, and air speed to ensure that it can be leveraged for a seamless 5G network. Further, the union cabinet has approved the simplification of the clearance process for the Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocations (SACFA) for installing low-power base transceiver stations (BTSs) such as small cells (microcells, picocells, femtocells) on existing street furniture, below the height of existing structures, on the windowsills of buildings, etc. This has eliminated the need for a formal application of SACFA processing for such low-power BTSs. TSPs rolling out BTSs on the existing infrastructure will be charged a nominal fee of Rs 100 per small cell. Meanwhile, DoT has issued an amendment to the Indian Telegraph RoW Rules (ITROW), 2016, incorporating provisions for poles/street furniture with supportive features. For instance, the administrative fee for the establishment of poles for small cell and telegraph line deployment was revised to Rs 1,000 per pole. Further, compensation charges for the use of street furniture for small cell deployment were fixed at Rs 300 per annum for urban areas and Rs 150 per annum for rural areas.
On the regulatory front, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) initiated pilots at Bhopal Smart City, GMR International Airport in New Delhi, Deendayal port in Kandla, and Namma Metro in Bengaluru, to assess the feasibility of street furniture for small cell and aerial fibre deployment. The aim was to develop a cross-sectoral framework that promotes sharing of street furniture infrastructure among various central, state and municipal authorities to develop the 5G network.
Later, the regulator issued its recommendations on the “Use of Street Furniture for Small Cell and Aerial Fibre Deployment”. These recommendations are based on stakeholder discussions on TRAI’s consultation paper on the use of street furniture for small cell and aerial fibre deployment released in March 2022. In these recommendations, the regulator stated that all central government entities should allocate dedicated spaces in their existing and planned buildings for installing digital connectivity infrastructure, including small cells and macro cells. TRAI also recommended that DoT should make the necessary provisions in the Gati Shakti Sanchar portal to incorporate bulk application filing and processing for all categories of small cells.
Several state governments have also started mapping the use of street furniture to ease 5G roll-out in India. Sites such as electric poles, traffic lights, bus terminals, bus shelters and government buildings are being monitored.
Smart poles as EV charging hotspots
Given the rapid adoption of EVs and the expected launch of autonomous cars, a large number of EV charging stations will be needed to maintain smooth traffic flow. Smart poles contain all the components necessary to host EV charging equipment. Thus, they can double as convenient charging stations. This will lead to a significant expansion of EV charging infrastructure, reducing the range anxiety that often prevents consumers from switching to EVs.
Further, cameras and sensors on smart poles can help in monitoring traffic patterns and relaying analytics. These analytics can improve traffic conditions and reduce commute time. In the near future, these analytics will be used to direct drivers and autonomous cars to the closest available parking spots or EV charging stations. In addition, as ride-sharing/taxi vehicles shift towards electric power, midday public charging will become a necessity to ensure uninterrupted service for EV fleets. Going forward, as the number of EVs on the roads continues to rise, smart poles will play a critical role in meeting the increasing demand for charging stations.
Sharing of smart street furniture
To reduce the cost of infrastructure creation and utilisation, it is important to implement policies that promote the sharing of street furniture. In its recommendations, TRAI proposed that DoT should issue advisory guidelines to states, mandating controlling administrative authorities that own or control traffic lights to share these assets with TSPs or infrastructure providers (IP-1s) for the deployment of small cells. In addition, it recommended that all central government entities should allocate dedicated spaces in their existing and planned structures for installing digital connectivity infrastructure including small and macro cells. All such spaces should be mapped using a geographic information system and made available for use by TSPs/IP-1s on the Gati Shakti Sanchar portal on a non-discriminatory basis and without any charges.
RoW issues and other challenges
While the use of street furniture for installing small cells shows promise, there are several issues that must be addressed to optimise the utilisation of street resources. Considering that street furniture comes under the jurisdiction of various public and private authorities such as municipal bodies, smart city administrations, state and central government departments, railways, airports, ports, metros and stadiums, a fast and cost-effective RoW process needs to be established to ensure that timely permissions are granted to telecom infrastructure companies for using street resources.
Further, to make street furniture suitable for deploying small cell networks, it is essential for it to have the capacity to accommodate power infrastructure, antennas, and associated fibre and other cabling equipment. To this end, administrative authorities must ensure the availability of electricity and proper backhaul facilities at any street furniture designated for small cell deployment. Moreover, for street furniture that is still under construction or in the planning stage, city authorities and telecom infrastructure companies must collaborate to ensure that its design is suitable for successful small cell deployments.
Future outlook
Despite the challenges involved, the utilisation of street furniture is expected to increase in order to enhance 5G network coverage. There are many valuable lessons to be learnt from international experiences that can accelerate the adoption of street furniture. For instance, the US has implemented defined timelines for the review and acceptance of permits and specified the types of fees that can be collected for small cell deployment. Further, the European Union has been at the forefront of clearly defining the physical and technical characteristics of small cells that are exempt from permits and following the installation classes outlined by the International Electrotechnical Commission.
These measures can serve as valuable case studies for developing India-specific deployment models that facilitate the timely and cost efficient utilisation of street furniture to enhance 5G coverage in the country.
