T.R. Dua, Director General, Digital Infrastructure Providers Association

T.R. Dua, Director General, Digital Infrastructure Providers Association

With the ongoing pandemic that struck the world two years ago, there has been a revolutionary shift in all areas of life. As lockdowns were im­posed and social distancing measures set in place, we saw the entire economy transition to the work-from-home concept, mo­ving all parts and pieces of organisations on­line. As we continued working from ho­me and students continued studying on­li­ne, the world saw a huge surge in the am­ount of data consumption across the globe.

In India, the average data usage rose to 12.33 GB per subscriber per month. Fur­thermore, everything shifting online and happening virtually highlighted the need for well-established network connectivity in central and remote areas across the country. Despite there being approximately 650,000 mobile towers housing 2,200,000 base transceiver stations (BTSs) across India, the network coverage was still not enough to facilitate the rising data consumption needs of the country.

Amidst all this, the government declar­ed the “Right to Internet” a fundamental right under Article 21. Our telecom infrastructure industry and unsung heroes on-field worked tirelessly amidst the pandemic to improve and ensure connectivity to all regions in the country.

As the Covid-19 pandemic had a massive impact on healthcare, social life and ec­o­nomies on a global scale, technology play­ed a vital role in enabling ubiquitous and accessible digital health services in the initial pandemic conditions as well as during the “re-emergence” of Covid-19 in the post-pandemic era. Novel information and communication technologies such as internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data, 5G communications, cloud com­pu­ting and blockchain could play a vital role in facilitating an environment that fosters the protection and improvement of people and economies.

With the benefits of 5G see­mingly clear, testing and dep­­loyment is the next step. But 5G roll-out entails building huge backhaul, spectrum and network coverage. While macro cell towers transmit strong si­g­nals across large distances, they cannot facilitate the due dep­loyment of 5G networks due to the need for coverage that is more pervasive and clo­ser to the end-user, es­pecially in dense environments.

Small cells will help efficiently en­able enhanced speed and capacity along with ultra-low latency in hyper-dense ar­eas and as per application requirements, providing scalability at low cost. This app­roach will help deliver enhanced end-user experience by strengthening data transfer speeds and negating the need for devices to compete for bandwidth.

5G infrastructure will use different ty­pes of small cells for maximum efficiency, as per the use case and requirement at hand.

Benefits of deploying smalls cells for 5G connectivity

  • With 5G promising high speed and data rates, and a 100x increase in site capacities not being feasible, the coverage of base stations and the possible distance tra­velled by the signal will be reduced, highly affecting the reach of the network. Smalls cells will improve coverage in high density and low signal areas, ensuring net­­­work connectivity everywhere.
  • With enhanced mobile broadband and massive machine type communication ca­­pa­bilities built in, 5G small cells can connect a large number of devices on a single private network, meeting capacity demands for wireless connectivity.
  • Enhancing coverage in various areas and as per case re­quirements, small cells can support a higher number of users simultaneously, facilitating low-cost deployment.
  • Coverage through small cells can be ma­naged as per requirements. Custo­mi­s­ed coverage can be established for private networks as needed by de­p­loying small cells accordingly.
  • Unlike Wi-Fi access points, 5G small ce­lls are built on 3GPP mobile technology, ensuring seamless hand-off between small cells with no connectivity loss.
  • By deploying their private network with 5G small cells, private enterprises can ke­ep all data on premises rather than put­ting it on a public network or cloud.
  • 5G small cells can be deployed in sha­red, licens­ed, unlicensed or locally licen­sed spectrum, providing enterprises with a variety of deployment options for their private network.
  • Due to their low power operation capability, small cells require less power for their functions.
  • Being small in size, small cells are easy to install and handle.

Small cell deployment

Global scenario

As per a recent report from the Small Cell Forum, small cell deployment has been slower than forecasted due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the intensifying 5G-related tensions between the US and Ch­i­na, but a strong recovery is expected from 2022, driven particularly by 5G up­grades in all environments. The expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2026 will be 13 per cent. Fur­ther, the number of deployed small cells is ex­pec­ted to reach 35.7 million by 2026. Asia is expected to remain the biggest driver of small cell deployment throughout the pe­riod. Mean­while, European countries are expected to proceed at slower rates, till such time as the outside barriers are removed.

The global small cell market is expected to reach a valuation of around $3,495 million by 2025, recording a CAGR of over 37.2 per cent between 2019 and 2025. The number of indoor small cell deployments is expected to reach 5.6 million glo­bally by 2025, significantly higher than out­door small cell deployments, which are expected to reach 2.76 million during the same period.

Indian scenario

In India, the expected CAGR for small cells during 2016 to 2022 will be 33 per cent in enterprise environments and 90 per cent in outdoor urban environments. 5G will ac­count for almost 80 per cent of new small cells deployed in 2025. Further, outdoor small cell deployment is expected to re­ach over 250,000 by 2023.

Benefits of street furniture for 5G

Street furniture refers to objects in public spaces that can house small-cell units in boxes and are considered visually comm­o­n­place and acceptable to the public, with a power source for the wireless equipme­nt to function. With the cost of deployment rising every day, small cell deployment on street furniture would provide various benefits:

  • Better quality of services (QoS)
  • Expanding network coverage
  • Getting closer to consumers
  • Access at a reasonable cost, thus increasing cost savings
  • Smoothening 5G roll-out by removing major hurdles.

Issues in using street furniture for small cell deployment

Despite being the optimal solution for 5G coverage in various scenarios, small cells face certain bottlenecks, which will need to be managed to maintain network quality and connectivity at all times. Some of the issues at hand are:

  • Permission from discoms and municipal bodies
  • Need to streamline right-of-way (RoW) policies at the state/union territory levels
  • Need for low tension (LT) electricity board connections at utility poles to po­wer up small cells
  • Resistance from discoms in allowing the use of electric poles
  • Limited height availability for deploying small cells and aerial optical fibre cable (OFC)
  • Regularisation and uniformity of high rental demands
  • Restrictions imposed by residents’ welfare associations (RWAs).

Reforms required

  • Lengthy and complex procedures will need to be turned into simplified rules for a faster and streamlined approval pr­o­­cess, in order to ensure quick and timely deployment as per the expected re­quirements.
  • With India still not prepared for commercial 5G roll-out, the government will need to provide operators with easy access to public infrastructure such as street lights, traffic lights, metro pillars, electricity poles and public buildings/ rooftops for the installation of small cells, on non-discriminatory terms.
  • For site locations, where electricity au­tho­rities, metro rail corporations or ot­h­er government organisations permit the installation of small cells and telecom infrastructure, the need for further permission from municipal corporations and local bodies should be eliminated to speed up the approval process.
  • As large numbers of small cells need to be deployed, batch processing for a group of small cells would play a crucial role in reducing the approval time and ad­ministrative burden of local authorities. Also, to make the deployment of a huge number of small cells economically viable, the administrative fee for getting approvals/clearances needs to be reconsidered. The removal of entry ba­rri­­ers such as registration fees/RoW ch­ar­ges for ease of installation would promote new competitors in the market.
  • Though the comprehensive RoW Rules, 2016, have been notified, necessary steps need to be taken to follow up with the state governments in getting the RoW Rules, 2016, implemented pro­perly. Mo­re­­over, keeping with the requireme­nts of small cell deployment, a suitable amendment in the RoW Rules will be beneficial.
  • Sharing of small cell sites should be permitted as per IP registration, as already recommended by the TRAI.
  • Guidelines for the development of future street infrastructure should be str­­ea­mlined to support small cells, aerial fibre and power systems.
  • Dis­coms/Local bodies/Municipalities ne­ed to comply with the guidelines and en­sure the availability of RoW for laying of aerial optical fibre and other telecom infrastructure.
  • Unrestricted access should be provided to RWAs for the installation of small cells.
  • There should be no location-specific re­strictions/requirements for installing small cells.
  • LT electric connections up to 4 KW should be made available at street furniture locations, wherever required, for po­wering small cells and OFC equipment.
  • Awareness should be raised regarding the opportunities and benefits of better coverage.
  • Earthing pits should be allowed at locations close to poles.

Conclusion

Currently, telecom operators are facing challenges in the deployment of small cell roll-out due to strict permission requirements, high site acquisition and backhaul costs, and a lack of internal capacity to co­ordinate the roll-out at multiple sites. This opens up an opportunity for towercos to de­velop a value proposition for telcos for deploying small cells, which offer faster time-to-market and better cost efficiency.

Telecom operators can smoothen the process and ease the burden by collaborating with towercos over small cells.

Digital infrastructure providers are also facing various issues in the deployment of small cells on street furniture. DIPA is continuously working with the central and state authorities to ensure the smooth deployment of small cells for 5G roll-out.