Paul Rhodes’ Post

Saturday School: Open and Virtualised is not Single-Vendor! In the heartbreaking story “Into the Wild” Chris McCandless died after eating wild sweet pea, Hedysarum mackenzii, misidentified as wild potato, Hedysarum alpinum. It shows the value of calling something by the correct name. Telecoms could learn this lesson. I illustrated the growth in mobile data with images of 4 mobile phones. Now it just so happens that 2 of these devices were proprietary HW and SW and interfaces (Single-Vendor who was the only one who would supply chargers etc) and when we bought a new handset we had to re-buy all the accessories from the same vendor. The later 2 were running open SW, built around a 3rd party chipset, and have standard physical and SW interfaces (e.g. (Micro)USB(-C) 3.5mm audio jacks and Bluetooth). Today we buy them and do not think for a second that we can use any charger, headphones, Qi charger etc and load the same apps onto any model, and expand memory with MicroSD. We’re at this same inflexion point with RAN. There are proprietary solutions, where I can only connect Vendor E radios to Vendor E SW running on Vendor E HW; and there are fully open solutions which I can run on any server (upon which I can run other applications in parallel) and connect other companies radios to. Should we call the HTC U24 Pro “Single Vendor”, running Android14 on Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset, which I can accessorise with my existing Bose wireless earphones and Anker chargers? I can delete all the manufacturer apps and put my own on there. Should I equivalate Vendor E SW, running on 3rd party CaaS, on Dell Servers (which might be also running UPF and a Computer Vision App) connected over OFH to Vendor E oRU with - Vendor F oRUs on order - to a 100% Vendor E proprietary solution?  No, it’s Multi-Vendor Open vRAN vs Single-Vendor tRAN. #Infrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications #CallEverythingByItsRightName Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/ezzzPuQT

Thursday School: Planning for Growth! In my “Why do we need bigger Mobile Phone Masts?” post I illustrated with the phones I used at the time of UK Mobile Network Demand. To make this clearer, I’ve redone a previous post on a local Beacon O2 and Vodafone Street-works site and planning application around it. We’ve gone from about 15MHz of spectrum used on this site when it was built at 2G/3G to 2x60 when it was a 4G Shared Site. Now Vodafone is adding between 250 and 500MHz on much better RUs and Antennas with the split site. What is stark about this is that – relative to when the site was built – this site when built soon will have the potential to supply up to 150% of today’s demand. In other words, even with the latest state of the art infrastructure, this site is mostly catching up with demand rather than being future-proofed. So to cope with future growth, we’ll still need to see another nearby site or two added so that people can consume 2X data for the same monthly fee! #Infrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications #ChangeIsTheOnlyConstant Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/eS3kmA2i

Monday Musings: Take a Step Back to see the Growth! “Why do we need bigger Mobile Phone Masts?” Let’s try and answer this question. My first phone was GSM which I used for voice only. At around 200KB per minute and only 30 minutes per month, I experienced my first ‘hockey-stick’ – which became an S-curve – as mobile phone subscriptions went from 4 Million in 1994 to over 40 Million by 2000 and largely plateaued by 2010 at 75 Million. So network demand had it’s first 2 orders of magnitude of growth by the time 3G Smartphones came along. By the time 4G Smartphones took over network demand had grown another 200-fold. Now arguably – with only around 12X growth since then – we’re into the S-Curve phase now, but that’s a cumulative growth of 50000X traffic in 30 years! In fact, as we’re also starting to see Smart Devices and Fixed Wireless Access demand rise, we’re handling a larger increase still. We’ve gone from about 110MHz of spectrum used, to around 1100MHz and 10X and about double the number of sites (~25K to ~55K), which puts into context how much more efficient we have become. Some of that efficiency comes from increasing from 2 antenna ports per sector in 1994 to 20 ports+ (and Massive MIMO) in 2024 meaning more and much bigger antennas. We’re sharing more sites between 2 operators, which on monopole sites frequently means antennas stacked on top of one another increasing heights by 3M. So next time someone asks why we need so many sites, and why do they have to be so big, perhaps we should be less defensive and prouder as an industry to meet such a massive increase in demand with such a modest increase in infrastructure. I’d also like to see (non-tech) journalists referring to this growth when reporting on Prior Notifications and other Mobile Site Planning instruments. Perhaps this would elicit a more favourable understanding from the public! #Infrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications #ChangeIsTheOnlyConstant Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/ededbWkR

Sunday School: See the Beauty in Infrastructure! A very simple message today. Today is the final day of June and many people will be travelling away from home in the new 2 months. They will rely more than ever on mobile infrastructure to connect them to maps, restaurant and excursion bookings, social media and yes, even work emails. May I suggest that you look around at the infrastructure – not just mobile – and see how similar and yet how different it is. See how people just take if for granted, part of the scenery. Very little is ‘beautified’ yet no-one shakes their fists at it, no-ones days are ruined by its presence – rather they are bettered by its existence and what it delivers. Then take a look at your own when you come home, and be grateful that people work hard to deliver, upgrade and maintain it!  #Travel #Infrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/e84JQtmV

Thursday School: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics! Telecoms infrastructure sales is about listening to the customers needs, and delivering solutions matched to those needs. Posting this week about one of the rural sites within these indicative macro locations, I was asked about the need to densify the footprint to add 3.5GHz 5G Massive MIMO. Even without the parlous financials of the UK MNOs, it was never an RoI which I believed was attractive in the UK. Within the map below, towns are 5-20Km apart, but there are likely 2-3 populated villages within that range. Meaningful 3.5GHz coverage beyond 1.5Km is unlikely, as is sufficient population within that range to justify the equipment and services investment. Since then – apparently to embarrass their customers into buying more equipment – one of the top 3 RAN vendors has taken the view that MNOs should be deploying more 3.5GHz in order to satisfy their customers – on the basis that different geographies have deployed more, while simultaneously saying that they have over-predicted traffic growth by 7-10%.  Arguing that 95% of US 5G coverage is WideBand and that the European figure must be massively boosted from just under half that is disingenuous without examining the deltas: 🥇US populations are a much narrower spike than Europe, with tiny populations in large areas. 🥈US revenues per customer are almost twice European levels ($30USD vs EUR15). 🥉The US is 1 market, Europe is 30 with smaller scales and higher regulation. 💲So US revenues per site are higher, and costs per site are lower. We owe it to our customers to act in their best interests, offering them solutions cost-matched to their needs, not solutions designed to maximise our revenues! #Infrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/ebwrZzY6

Monday Musings : Spend Less, Get Less? South of Guildford is a car park popular with cyclists setting off on the Downs Link Cycleway. Entering the cycle path, users pass a 25M lattice (Vodafone 8573) which the O2 4G signal implies is fully Beaconised. It’s 2012 era equipment, with significant staining and plant growth. It’s increasingly clear that this is now the norm outside city and town centres. A combination of low capital intensity since 2020, and parallel Huawei swaps (i.e. sites deployed as Huawei 5G have often been re-swapped with non-HRV vendor equipment) means that there has been low-to-no investment in out-of-town legacy infrastructure and in many sites this extends back a decade. I would venture to say that up to 50% of sites deployed under the early 2010s 4G swaps remains as deployed (no 5G or even 4G+). City Centre sites and new sites under the ‘5G Swap’ label are seeing investment So the MNOs are spending less and getting less. A question which we’re increasingly being asked is ‘is this the same for consumers and regulators?’ Should we expect that consumer and enterprise users need to supply more capital to the MNOs – or will government funds be made directly or indirectly (e.g. tax credits) – to ensure that 5G NSA and SA reach more people to deliver a better mobile infrastructure? #Infrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/eRm74fDS

Thursday School: Spectrum Access : Improved Opportunities and Outcomes? Access to spectrum is the lifeblood of Mobile Networks. There are currently a number of initiatives in the UK and elsewhere aiming to improve access to spectrum for non-MNOs, largely recognising that these mechanisms have positive effects of society. The mechanisms vary, from CBRS, Local Access Licensing, Campus Spectrum, Shared Access (Lightly Licensed) and now new initiatives in Spectrum Sandbox. Looking, for example, at the proliferation and use of Shared Access Spectrum, we can see that the numbers and distribution are broadly good. 890 - mostly outdoors - licenses issued right across the UK. But what are they used for? The major use is different slants of Private Networks. Private Networks add coverage and capacity in unserved and underserved locations. They maybe Neutral Host Networks – deploying publicly accessible spectrum – Host Private Networks – deploying spectrum for exclusive use of the deploying body or landlord – or a Hybrid, deploying spectrum for both. For Neutral Host, integration with MNO systems and processes is needed. Freshwave’s Omni solution announced yesterday is an example of this, as well as Shared Access, Boldyn Networks, Dense Air, Cellnex UK, Wireless Infrastructure Group, NET CS and many others. For Host Private Networks, integration with Enterprise IT systems and processes is needed. Industrial and FWA are 2 examples of this. For Hybrid, it’s clearly both. A campus network could be a great example, opening up Private Land for Public Mobile Access, but also allowing connection and processing of private data, such as sensor data, CCTV cameras (optionally including Video Analytics/Computer vision). But it’s clear from measures to further improve access, that the spectrum access is adding value and will continue to do so!  #InvisibleInfrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/epakF_6T

Monday Musings: Multipurpose Street Furniture. Familiarity generates invisibility? Telecoms and street furniture normally comes in 2 flavours. New purpose-built street furniture is often used where there is no suitable host where an MNO needs coverage and retrofit of existing furniture is used where the existing location meets MNO coverage needs. Today I found the 2 combined! Advertising totems such as the BT Street Hub and JCDecaux’s structures often blend WiFi, USB Charging and Fixed Telephony so that the advertising purpose is masked with ‘amenity’ value. This new one in Guildford also hosts a Defibrillator in the main shopping area. BT has replaced many phone kiosks with Street Hubs, and I found out today what they are doing with the recovered KX100s. Just 60m from the new JCDecaux install is a brand-new KX100+ install with Small Cell, the 11th serving Guildford Town Centre and Station! Because they are so familiar, no-one will notice that this was not previously there, and I bet that no-one notices it has no pay phone inside! Edit: Per Darran's comment below, perhaps I should place a business card inside and see when someone first notices! #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #InvisibleInfrastructure #Telecommunications Previous Post: https://lnkd.in/eQG2wRsn

Thursday School: A Site on the Ground is Worth 2 In Planning? I read – and respond to – many Prior Notifications and press coverage of them. I read – and respond to – many analyst infrastructure reports and churnalism of them. And I see a disconnect. There is a large volume of (coordinated) largely worthless objection to mobile sites for planners to sift through. There are almost never any letters of support. A site close to me was recently approved, with many of the 22 objections the same copy-paste 13 pages long, and me the sole supporter. Ignoring the boiler-plate there are objections to Baseband Cooling Fan noise close to housing, too many cabinets, and ‘contradictory’ complaints that sites are too tall and that they should be shared (a shared site with 2x the antennas needs to be ~3M taller). Planners often listen to this and reject on the premise of over/inappropriate development or failure to prove that site sharing has been investigated and ruled out. And often a 20M application is denied and approved at 17M! Meanwhile journalists – reviewing OpenRAN solutions which would allow 2 MNOs to share radios (and therefore antennas) – bemoan that this would cause vendors to sell less kit, and TowerCos to get less revenues too by reducing occupancy. But if the basebands are then located in pools in an EdgeDC/Baseband Hotel, then there will be 1 or 2 fewer cabinets and no cooling fan noise to trigger complaints. And if a 17m shared site could get approved 99 times out of 100, and a 20m site refused more than half the time, then surely the optimum solution is to get 100 Shared-RU sites deployed (with revenue for both towercos and vendors) than to have less than 50 sites deployed (with higher OpEx for the estates teams and the RF planning teams replanning at 3m less AGL) because perfection is the enemy of good! Perhaps even compact solutions with limited physical capacity like the one below are viable with just a couple of tri-band RRUs shared between 2 MNOs? #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications #Planning

Thursday School: Listed Telecoms Architecture? This pair of phone kiosks outside Grade II listed St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate could one day also be listed! They are ‘Plus’ versions of the KX100 kiosks which the 20th Century Society want to list to ensure that they remain in the public domain. I just like the fact that this is delivering a few hundred meg for EE. What makes this photo even better is another Ontix Small Cell on the adjacent CCTV Street Furniture Pole! #Infrastructure #EveryDaysaSchoolDay #Mobile 🤳🏼 #Telecommunications https://lnkd.in/e2bnrphb "Campaign launched to save ‘boringly ugly’ 1980s BT phone boxes"