Telecom service providers (TSPs) across the globe are utilising street furniture to install more radio equipment and associated infrastructure to enhance their 5G coverage. The use of public street furniture eliminates the need for greenfield towers or poles for small cells, thereby bringing down capital expenditure and the time involved for rolling out 5G networks and services.
Therefore, using street furniture is the most economically feasible and sustainable way to increase the densification of 5G networks. The 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 approach proves to be mutually beneficial for the public and the authorities that own these street structures as they leverage 5G use cases.
With the rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs), smart poles are emerging as a favourable option for setting up EV charging infrastructure. Going forward, the growing demand for street furniture is expected to be driven by new and emerging applications, making them an ideal medium for deepening network coverage.
Key advantages
To ensure widespread 5G coverage, it is essential to foster cross-sectoral collaborations with smart cities, city municipalities, airport/port owners, discoms, etc., to use their street furniture for the deployment of small cells.
Compared to traditional macro cells, small cells offer stronger cellular coverage, lower latency and reduced deployment costs. Their compact size makes them 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 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 required for underground cables. Further, it enables the reuse of existing poles to lay fibre cables, thereby reducing installation costs.
Role in smart cities
5G networks in general and small cells in particular play a pivotal role in the development of smart cities. Many smart city applications can run on next-generation network-based internet of things (IoT). A 5G network with small cells can transport data from a large number of small IoT devices embedded in roads and pavements to the city control centre, resulting in better traffic management by reducing the idling time at traffic lights.
The use of street furniture for the development of smart solutions can help deliver bundled services to its citizens at an optimised cost. The need to establish different structures for the provision of each of the smart services can be avoided by sharing available street furniture structures and equipping them to meet technology requirements. For example, smart poles can assist in providing multiple services such as Wi-Fi hotspots, digital billboards, CCTV, sensors, public address and mobile small cells.
Government promotes use of street furniture
The government has been taking several initiatives to promote the use of street furniture for small cell and aerial fibre deployment. For instance, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) formed a committee to review the availability of street furniture, particularly the strength of electricity poles, and the air speed to ensure that it can be leveraged for a seamless 5G network. Further, the Union Cabinet 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.
DoT also issued an amendment to the Indian Telegraph RoW Rules, 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. Compensation charges for the use of street furniture for small cell deployment have been fixed at Rs 300 per annum for urban areas and Rs 150 per annum for rural areas.
On the regulatory front, to assess the feasibility of street furniture for small cell and aerial fibre deployment, 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.
Later, the regulator issued recommendations on the “Use of Street Furniture for Small Cell and Aerial Fibre Deployment”. 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 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.
Use of smart poles to deploy EV charging hotspots
Given the rapid adoption of EVs, a large number of EV charging stations will be needed in the future. Smart poles are ideal for hosting EV charging equipment as they can double as convenient charging stations. This will lead to the 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 the 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.
Moving towards shared infrastructure
To reduce the cost of infrastructure creation and utilisation, it is important to implement policies that promote sharing of street furniture. In its recommendations, TRAI proposed that DoT should issue 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 small cell deployment. 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.
Challenges faced
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 grant timely permissions to telecom infrastructure companies for using street resources.
Further, to make street furniture suitable for deploying small cell networks, it is essential to augment its capacity to accommodate the power infrastructure, antennas and other associated fibre and cabling equipment. To this end, the administrative authorities must ensure the availability of electricity and proper backhaul facilities at any street furniture designated for small cell deployment.
Leveraging global experiences
Several countries have adopted varying measures for RoW provisions and frameworks to enhance access to street furniture, considering the technical and physical requirements, and existing regulatory provisions in the country. In this context, India can learn many valuable lessons from international experiences. 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 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.
