Site acquisition costs
With operators - particularly the ones that blew billions on 3G ten years ago - more cost-conscious than ever when it comes to network upgrades, equipment vendors have been redesigning base stations that are smaller and cheaper, as well as cheaper to run thanks to lower power consumption. But while that's a welcome development, says Amundsen, the gear is just one part of the cost of a given site.
"The biggest issue for us in rolling out LTE isn't the cost of the base station, which is the cheapest it's ever been and getting lower and lower. The real cost to us is installing the equipment into buildings," he says. "That's not getting lower that's increasing enormously. And in Norway at least, the cost of installing power to the base station is extremely expensive if you look outside the cities, up to $100,000 per km to get the power supply to the base station."
That's why Telenor's 3G coverage covers 80% of the population but only 23% of the land area, he notes.
Adding to the cost of LTE is the fact that for most operators, it't essentially another RAN overlay, says Niri of NEC.
"Actually many of these operators are running 2G and 3G already, and now we have 4G - it's difficult enough to run two networks, let alone three," Niri says. "Previously, the common belief was that 2G would be switched off somewhere around 2010 or 2012, but with the exception of Japan, we're now being proved wrong. 2G is going to be around for a long, long time. So any third network we introduce has to be simple to run and cheap to run."
Smaller form factors
Which is why vendors like NEC are advising a different approach to LTE forget macro cells and ubiquitous coverage, and focus on key congestion areas with RAN gear tailored to the purpose.
'We're telling customers to not to do macro anymore,' Niri says. They don't need to be everywhere - that's been proved with 3G -' and a macro network can provide the coverage they need but not the capacity. You need small cells, and that means you can't use the same platform as before - you need tailored equipment that's more compact, lightweight, easy to install and easy to manage."
Those kinds of requirements are driving a new approach to base station design that takes the headaches of site acquisition into account by essentially enabling them to be installed anywhere, says Joachim Hallwachs, marketing VP for DesignArt Networks.