Due to economy of scale property of telecommunication industry, sharing of telecom infrastructure among telecom service providers is becoming the requirement and process of business in the telecom industry where competitors are becoming partners in order to lower their increasing investments. The degree and method of infrastructure sharing can vary in each country depending on regulatory and competitive climate.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as an independent agency of the United States government, was established by the Communications Act of 1934. As the successor to the Federal Radio Commission, FCC took charge of regulating all non-federal government use of the radio spectrum (including radio and television broadcasts), all interstate telecommunications (broadband, wireless and satellite), and all international communications originating or terminating in the United States.
In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was later recognised as a watershed moment for the competitiveness of the US telecommunications industry. By deregulating infrastructure, it introduced competition into the market. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 put incumbent telecommunications carriers under the following obligations: [1]
Local Exchange Carriers are further obligated as follows:
By the stipulations in the Act, new entrants in the market are able to lease network infrastructure that was built or is being used by their competitors.
The UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, states that it "encourages mobile network operators to share masts and/or sites where possible" [2] and the Mobile Operators Association (MOA) has published a paper on the subject. [3] There is some co-operation between networks. Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL) is a joint venture between Three and T-Mobile (now EE), and O2 and Vodafone have established a joint team called Cornerstone. The two schemes are different in that MBNL shares antennas and some network equipment while Cornerstone shares the cell sites but not any of the broadcasting equipment. [4]
The three largest French mobile network operators (Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR) have since 2008 been legally required by the French government and the French telecommunications regulator ARCEP to provide shared 2G GSM, 3G UMTS and 4G LTE coverage in rural dead zones (zone blanche in French) under the name "F-CONTACT" which, although made up of separate towers and radio access networks hosted by each of the three aforementioned operators, must legally allow their mobile signals to be shared with both postpaid and prepaid subscribers of each of said three operators. MVNOs which are hosted on either the Orange, Bouygues or SFR networks are also usually allowed to roam on each host network's F-CONTACT masts, although some outright choose not to do so for cost reasons. The fourth and newest French mobile network operator Free Mobile has since its commercial launch in January 2012 until 2022 also allowed domestic roaming on the Orange mobile network in 2G and 3G (including F-CONTACT masts hosted by Orange) in areas where Free Mobile does not have native coverage, while Free Mobile continues to build up its own mobile network.
In 2015, the French government announced a plan to upgrade all 268 municipalities in France with neither mobile phone nor mobile internet coverage to at least 3G by the end of 2016, while over 2000 municipalities with only 2G coverage were to be upgraded to 3G by mid-2017, both of which represented a major expansion of F-CONTACT. [5]
Infrastructure sharing limits duplication and gears investment toward underserved areas, product innovation, and improved customer service.
Traditionally, telecommunication development shows economy of scale and telecom operator spending has been dominated by considerable investment of technology and infrastructure. Given that such investments are fixed , sunk and irreversible, they represent a high risk factor. Maintaining and upgrading infrastructure make this risk even higher. For example, fixed network operators are migrating to next-generation networks, after most mobile network operators have already deployed the third-generation(3G) infrastructures. Therefore, infrastructure sharing can significantly reduce entrance and development risk.
Infrastructure sharing also has great impact on competition. Market becomes more attractive to new players for decreased entrance barriers. Such players can enrich the competition while investing effectively. By alleviating pressure of network deployment, sharing allows operators to turn their attention to improved innovation, better customer service and eventually better commercial offerings and healthier competition. [6]
Basically a cell site consists of electronic (active) and non-electronic infrastructure.
Telecom service providers can share infrastructure in many ways, depending on telecom regulatory and legislation.
Telecommunications in France are highly developed. France is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available, expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to foreign countries.
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP, UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunication Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators.
3G is the third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology. It is the upgrade to 2G, 2.5G, GPRS and 2.75G Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution networks, offering faster data transfer, and better voice quality. This network was superseded by 4G, and later by 5G. This network is based on a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunications services and networks that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications set by the International Telecommunication Union. 3G is used in wireless voice telephony, mobile Internet access, fixed wireless Internet access, video calls and mobile TV.
A cell site, cell phone tower, cell base tower, or cellular base station is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed to create a cell, or adjacent cells, in a cellular network. The raised structure typically supports antenna and one or more sets of transmitter/receivers transceivers, digital signal processors, control electronics, a GPS receiver for timing, primary and backup electrical power sources, and sheltering.
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile network operator to obtain bulk access to network services at wholesale rates, then sets retail prices independently. An MVNO may use its own customer service, billing support systems, marketing, and sales personnel, or it could employ the services of a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE).
Tele2 AB is a provider of mobile and fixed connectivity, telephony, data network services, TV, streaming and global Internet of Things services, amongst others, to consumers and enterprises. It is headquartered in Kista Science City, Stockholm, Sweden. It is a major mobile network operator in Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The company initially founded Tele2 Russia, but later sold all its operations, only leasing the use of its brand name.
One New Zealand Group Limited, stylised as One NZ, is a New Zealand telecommunications company. One NZ is the largest wireless carrier in New Zealand, accounting for 38% of the country's mobile share market in 2021.
Xfera Móviles, S.A.U., d/b/a Yoigo, is the fourth-largest mobile network operator in Spain and a subsidiary of the Spanish telecommunications company Grupo MásMóvil. Yoigo has a licence and its own cellular network for GSM/2G, UMTS/3G and LTE/4G technologies, and a national roaming agreement for usage of the 2G, 3G and 4G networks of Orange and Movistar.
Bouygues Telecom is a French mobile phone, Internet service provider and IPTV company, part of the Bouygues group. It is the third oldest mobile network operator in France, after Orange and SFR, and before Free Mobile, and provides 2G GSM, 3G UMTS, 4G LTE and 5G NR services. Its headquarters, designed by Arquitectonica and opened in 2011, is located at the border of Paris and Issy-les-Moulineaux near the River Seine.
Neuf Cegetel was a French wireline telecommunications service provider and a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). It offered various telecommunications services to consumers, enterprises and wholesale customers, ranking second in the country in annual revenues. It was legally established in 2005 following the completion of the merger between Neuf Telecom and Cegetel. As of June 2008, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of SFR, and the brand disappeared commercially.
Vodacom Tanzania Limited is Tanzania's leading cellular network company. As of December 2020, Vodacom Tanzania had over 15.6 million customers and was the largest wireless telecommunications network in Tanzania. Vodacom Tanzania is the second telecom company in Africa, after Vodacom, to switch on its 3G High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which was available only in Dar Es Salaam in early 2007.
Hutchison 3G Enterprises S.A.R.L., trading as 3 (Three) and Hutchison 3G, is the owner of several originally UMTS-based mobile phone networks and broadband Internet providers, which operate in Hong Kong, Macau, Austria, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
2degrees is a New Zealand telecommunications provider. Its mobile network launched on 4 August 2009 after nine years of planning. 2degrees offers prepaid and pay-monthly mobile services, as well as fixed-line phone and broadband services. 2degrees is the third-largest wireless carrier in New Zealand, with 1.3 million subscribers as of July 2015.
Free Mobile S.A.S. is a French telecommunications company, subsidiary of Free S.A.S. that provides wireless Internet to consumers in France. It was the fourth mobile network operator to obtain a metropolitan French 3G license in 2009. It also obtained a 4G license in 2011.
EE is a British telecommunications company. It is the flagship consumer brand of the BT Group, taking over from the BT brand itself. EE is the second-largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, with 21.2 million customers as of September 2022.
ip.access Limited is a multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and markets small cells technologies and infrastructure equipment for GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 4G and 5G. The company was acquired by Mavenir in September 2020.
3G mobile telephony was relatively slow to be adopted globally. In some instances, 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies, especially so to achieve high data transmission rates. Other delays were due to the expenses of upgrading transmission hardware, especially for UMTS, whose deployment required the replacement of most broadcast towers. Due to these issues and difficulties with deployment, many carriers delayed acquisition of these updated capabilities.
Airtel India commonly known as Airtel, is the second largest provider of mobile telephony and third largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. The brand is operated by several subsidiaries of Bharti Airtel, with Bharti Hexacom and Bharti Telemedia providing broadband fixed line services and Bharti Infratel providing telecom passive infrastructure service such as telecom equipment and telecom towers. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and 4G+ services all over India. Currently offered services include fixed-line broadband, and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its VoLTE technology across all Indian telecom circles.
Vodafone Australia is an Australian telecommunications brand providing mobile and fixed broadband services. Vodafone’s mobile network covers more than 23 million Australians, and Vodafone has commenced the rollout of its 5G mobile network. Vodafone NBN fixed broadband services are available in capital cities and selected regional centres. Vodafone is the third-largest wireless carrier in Australia, with 5.8 million subscribers as of 2020.
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