Optimising Operational Costs of Telecom Networks : Africa

25 Jan 2011

Challenges
Poor Electricity: Large number of Off-grid sites
41% [rural 25%]of population is electrified in Africa as compared to 78%[rural-68%] in developing Asia and 78.9% [rural-65%] in the World
Telecom Operator in East Africa have 16 to 22% off grid sites

High DG run-hrs: High consumption of fuel & increased cost of DG maintenance.

Opex cost on power : USD 1600-1700 pm in off-grid site Reason: Absence of stable grid supply

Poor Road Transport: High travel time for fault clearance High cost of fuel filling
Sites are so far from the point where diesel can be obtained that they require tanks to store up to three months worth of fuel: in other words, at these base stations, operators literally have money buried in the ground.
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Challenges

(Continued)

Vast Geographical Terrain with dispersed population:

< 5% arable land that compared to 48% in India, 33% in Germany, 27.4% in Belgium, 18% in US

Requirement : Large Transmission Network for wide coverage Infrastructural bottleneck: Almost non existent OFC
Africa has deployed only 0.3 fiber km/ Km2 vs 8.96 for India, 10.15 for China

Huge Security Cost : Large number of remote access sites ( 25% of total sites) Requirement : 24 X 7 Surveillance in the absence of adequate police patrolling Competition : Continuous reduction in tariff
Tariff is almost halved in one year time

Telecom Network Cost

Network OPEX

Power & Fuel constitute the largest component in OPEX

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Solutions
Green Power: Hybrid solution
Hybrid solution with deep discharge battery & 50% time load on battery can save up to 40% OPEX ; This OPEX saving can be further increased by deploying Solar energy solution.

Reduction in DG run-hrs and lowering of OPEX

Hybrid solution reduces DG run hrs by 50-60% through battery backup

High Carbon Credits: Lower CO2 emission per site

Lower diesel burn, less power requirement of new generation BTS

Infra Share: Passive -Co-location to share variable OPEX cost like fuel, insurance and security Active Radio resource sharing and leasing of transmission capacity to reduce repair/upgrade cost
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Solutions (continued..)
Centralised O & M: OPEX saving on Manpower: In addition to present practice of
Surveillance and Configuration function at Centralised NOC, tasks such as performance management, capacity planning, project and program management can be carried out. The operation can be further centralised by sharing the same skilled manpower with operations in several countries. Centralised fault management reduces skill labour requirement in the field.

Saving on security:
External Alarms Monitoring - Remote monitoring of site assets through data links.

Network Planning: Higher cell capacity more TRX/Cell for dense traffic areas saves number
of tower count

Optimise spectrum utilisation - Frequency reuse to enhance capacity

and spectral efficiency

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Solutions (continued..)
Tower optimisation
Multiple sector for near/distant RF coverage- Towers used for highway coverage can be used for providing RF coverage at distant [10-15km] areas by using multiple sectors and vertical beam width

New generation BTS

Tower mounted RRU- Space saving due to mounting of RRU in tower along with antenna. By locating the main RF unit near antenna, the power saving is about 40% compared to conventional BTS.

Transmission Network
Hybrid Transmission network Mix of optical and radio transmission used to reduce opex. Relatively less dynamic core / backbone is carried through OFC network , where as the dynamic last mile is deployed through MW at low OPEX. Improvement in Utilisation in Transport N/W- Usage of IP and compression techniques to increase transmission capacity- Mobile packet network in the core takes advantage of IP technology over conventional circuit switching. The compression techniques used delivers 5 to 8 times more traffic over the same bandwidth, hence saves costly BW and recurring monthly lease charges.
Continued...
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Solutions (continued..)
Power Saving through intelligent RNC: Switching off of radio resources during idle period
Complete switch off during 2 AM to 4 AM and partial switch off during lean hrs

Power Saving in Utility : Passive cooling depending on ambient temperature

Efficient climate control and reduction in power consumption by air conditioner

Tubular Gel Battery for higher DoD to reduce cycle time

Battery operation at higher DoD ensure longer time of equipment load on battery and hence this results in direct saving on fuel consumption in DG.

Efficient Rectifier/SMPS [operation near unity PF]

Efficient delivery of power an SMPS operating at 0.98 PF delivers 9% more useful power compared to that operating at 0.90 PF.

DG run through fuel optimiser

Saving of USD 1000 per site p.a. considering site is on fuel economiser 1 hr/day

% OPEX Saving with Suggested Initiatives

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Recommendation Network OPEX Saving

Hybrid Solution with DG & Battery

Infra Share [Passive & Active Capacity & Radio resources]

New Generation BTS

Compression on leased capacity

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Thank You