A
REPORT
ON
TELECOMMUNICATION
AND
NETWORKING
BY
Sagar Sawhney
08EUDEC089
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mr. Ajay Kumar Nangia, Circle O&M Head for Delhi/ NCR
Circle, VIOM Networks Limited, my project guide for extending his full support and
guidance throughout this project.
I would also like to thank everyone in the VIOM Networks Limited – Delhi/ NCR
Circle for extending their full support and co-operation.
This project has been a great learning experience for me and I would like to
thank VIOM Networks Limited for granting me the opportunity on such an exciting and
challenging project.
Date Sagar Sawhney
TABLE OF CONTENTS
~ What is Telecom Industry?
~ Financial Structure of Tower Infrastructure Companies
~ Passive Infrastructure
~ Active Infrastructure
~ Block Diagram of Tower Working
~ Brief Description of Tower Parts
~ Types of Tower
~ NETWORKING – AN OVERVIEW
~ Key Players in Telecom Industry
~ Conclusion
What is Telecom Industry?
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to
communicate.
The phenomenal growth of mobile subscribers in India over the last few years has
created huge opportunities for the telecom infrastructure industry. The tower industry
is growing continuously with the active support of the Government. During the early
years, the mobile operators were directly involved in the installation and maintenance
of the mobile towers. The intense competition in the telecom industry forced all the
operators to look for opportunities to reduce the cost of operations by outsourcing
network related activities which demand huge capital expenditure and operating
expenditure. While some companies created their own captive tower companies, a few
others pooled the towers and formed joint ventures. In India even today operator
owned tower companies control more than 90% of the market share.
The tower companies in India are of 3 types.
1. Tower companies formed through joint ventures like Indus tower which is a joint
venture by Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
2. Tower companies formed though de-merger like Reliance Infratel which is a
wholly owned subsidiary of RCom.
3. Independent tower companies (pure play operators) like GTL etc.
Financial Structure of Tower Infrastructure Companies
The telecom tower business in India is very lucrative with long-term growth prospects as
the agreements are signed with the mobile operators for a minimum period of 10 years.
Thus the tower infrastructure companies are insulated from the volatility of the telecom
service business which is currently going through a phase of declining revenue and
profit.
The commercial terms between the tower company and its tenants are governed by
Master Service Agreements (MSA). These MSAs are generally considering 10 to 20 years
of lease which ensures stable and predictable cash flow for the tower company by way
of rent. However each tower depending on whether it is GBT or RTT will require a very
high capital investments ranging from Rs 1.5 million to Rs 2.5 million.
The business model provides for a high incremental profit when the tenancy ratio is
improved. Tenancy ratios are expressed as a fraction of total number of tenancies / total
number of sites present. At present the average tenancy ratio for the industry is 1.55
per tower which is expected to grow to 1.84 by 2015. However for a long term viability
tenancy ratio of 2 will be required.
The working capital requirement is relatively low as most of the operating expenses are
pass-through and recovered from the tenant operators. The operating expenditure like
rent, fuel and energy charges is shared by the tenants on a monthly basis.
The monthly rentals charged by tower companies are approximately Rs 30,000 (US $
667) for GBT and Rs 21,000 (US $ 466) for RTT per operator.
Passive Infrastructure
Passive Infrastructure sharing is nothing but sharing non-electronic infrastructure at cell
site. Passive Infrastructure is becoming popular in telecom industry world wide.
Passive infrastructure being one of the most important components of a mobile
network, the same has been a critical area of operations for telecom companies in the
past. However, with increasing competition posing an urgent need for telecom
companies to expand their coverage and sharpen their focus on core operations so that
they can sustain and improve their market position; passive infrastructure has assumed
the status of an independent industry during the past few years.
With the emerging of new companies every year passive infrastructure has taken a
whole new leap in the world of Telecommunication.
Key components include:
- Steel tower/antenna mounting structures
- Base tower station shelter
- Power supply
- Battery bank
- Invertors
- Diesel generator (DG) set for power backup
- Air conditioner
- Fire extinguisher
- Security cabin, etc.
Active Infrastructure
Active Infrastructure sharing is nothing but sharing electronic infrastructure. Spectrum-
sharing concept is based on a lease model and is often termed ‘spectrum trading’. An
operator can lease a part of its spectrum to another operator on commercial terms.
Though this mechanism, along with that of MVNOs, exists in the US, Europe, Singapore
and Australia.
Key components of Active Infrastructure include:
- Spectrum (radio frequency)
- Base tower station
- Microwave radio equipment
- Switches
- Antennas
- Transceivers for signal processing and transmission, etc.
Block Diagram of Tower Working:-
Brief Description of Tower Parts:-
1) Diesel Generator: A diesel generator or D.G. is the combination of diesel engine with
electric generators which are used to generate electric energy as emergency power-
supply if the main supply fails.
2) Servo Stabilizer: Servo Stabilizer provides a controlled A.C. supply as required by the
system for its functioning and maintains an A. C. voltage of 240 volts.
3)P.I.U : Power Interface Unit is intended to be used for replacement of Servo Stabilizer,
AMF Panel, Isolation Transformer, AC Distribution Panel, Lightning and Surge Arresters,
Alarm Panel, Generator Battery Charger, etc. at telecommunication site.
4) A.M.F: when supply served to the main switch board fails, Auto Man Failure panel will
send the power failure signal to generator set. Then the generator set will run and serve
the supply to main switch board.
5) ACDB: Air Blast Circuit Breaker or ACDB is a panel that provides power to different
Sections .It is a Circuit Breaker using compressed air for operation and arc quenching.
6)A.C. :They are different from air conditioners used in houses but used for maintaining
optimal temperature of 25-27°C inside the shelter room . Available in 1, 1.5, 2, 3 and 4
TR models Split type.
7)SMPS : Switch Mode Power Supply or SMPS is used to convert A.C. power into D.C.
power as required by the batteries .it is about 48 V .
8)Battery Backup : For uninterrupted Power Supply or UPS system a group a batteries is
used for providing input Power during any power failure.
Types of Tower
On the basis of where tower is placed it is characterized namely:-
1) GBT: Ground base tower or (GBT) as the name suggests has a ground base .They are
erected on the ground with a height of 40 meters to 80 meters. These ground based
towers are mostly installed in rural and semi-urban areas because of the easy availability
of land. Ground Based Towers involve a capital expenditure of around Rs 2.5 million
depending on the height of the tower. A GBT can accommodate 5 to 6 tenants in its
tower.
2) RTT: Roof-Top Tower (RTT) is placed on the terrace of high-rise buildings particularly
in urban areas. It is better than GBT as it can catch much more signals due to its height.
Their height varies from 12m to 23 m depending upon the need.
3)RTP : Roof Top Pole or RTP are used in cities like Mumbai and Delhi where the high
rise buildings are available, instead of towers poles are erected for installing antennas. A
roof top pole can accommodate 2 to 3 tenants.
NETWORKING – AN OVERVIEW
CELL SITE: A cell site is a term used to describe a site where antennas and electronic
communications equipment are placed, usually on a tower or other high place, to create
a cell in a cellular network. The elevated structure typically supports antennas, 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 cell site is sometimes called a "cell tower", even if the cell site antennas are mounted
on a building rather than a tower. In GSM networks, the technically correct term is Base
Transceiver Station (BTS). The term "base station site" might better reflect the
increasing co-location of multiple mobile operators, and therefore multiple base
stations, at a single site. Depending on an operator's technology, even a site hosting just
a single mobile operator may house multiple base stations, each to serve a different air
interface technology.
MSC: The mobile switching center (MSC) is the primary service delivery node for
GSM/CDMA, responsible for routing voice calls and SMS as well as other services (such
as conference calls, FAX and circuit switched data). The Gateway MSC (G-MSC) is the
MSC that determines which visited MSC the subscriber who is being called is currently
located at. The visited MSC (V-MSC) is the MSC where a customer is currently located.
The anchor MSC is the MSC from which a handover has been initiated. The mobile
switching centre server is a soft-switch variant of the mobile switching centre, which
provides circuit-switched calling, mobility management, and GSM services to the mobile
phones roaming within the area that it serves.
BSS: The base station subsystem (BSS) is the section of a traditional cellular telephone
network which is responsible for handling traffic and signaling between a mobile
phone and the network switching subsystem. The BSS carries out transcoding of speech
channels, allocation of radio channels to mobile
phones, paging, transmission and reception over the air interface and many other tasks
related to the radio network.
BTS: The base transceiver station, or BTS, contains the equipment for transmitting and
receiving radio signals (transceivers), antennas, and equipment for encrypting and
decrypting communications with the base station controller (BSC). Typically a BTS for
anything other than a Pico cell will have several transceivers (TRXs) which allow it to
serve several different frequencies and different sectors of the cell.
BSC: The base station controller (BSC) provides, classically, the intelligence behind the
BTSs. Typically a BSC has tens or even hundreds of BTSs under its control. The BSC
handles allocation of radio channels, receives measurements from the mobile phones,
and controls handovers from BTS to BTS (except in the case of an inter-BSC handover in
which case control is in part the responsibility of the anchor MSCtion of the BSC is to act
as a concentrator where many different low capacity connections to BTSs (with
relatively low utilization) become reduced to a smaller number of connections towards
the mobile switching center (MSC) (with a high level of utilization). Overall, this means
that networks are often structured to have many BSCs distributed into regions near
their BTSs which are then connected to large centralized MSC sites. The databases for all
the sites, including information such as carrier frequencies, frequency hopping lists,
power reduction levels, receiving levels for cell border calculation, are stored in the BSC
Key Players in Telecom Industry
WTTIL QUIPPO: WTTIL the tower arm of Tata Teleservices move over to an
independent & professional management run by Quippo Telecom, to make it a truly
independent tower operator without being managed by a Telco. The combined entity ,
therefore, have a portfolio of over 18,000 towers thereby making it the largest
independently managed tower company in India, with an enterprise valuation of
approximately Rs 13,000 crore (US $2.6 Billion) and has a Tenancy ratio of about 1.84X
INDUS Tower: Indus Towers Limited provides “Shared Telecom Infrastructure” services
to all telecom operators in the wireless space and other wireless service providers such
as broadband service providers. The company is the leading tower company in INDIA
with a Tenancy ratio of 1.71x and more than 100,000 towers.
Bharti Infratel : Infratel is a function within Airtel and is responsible for managing the
passive infrastructure of Airtel’s wireless business .The company has a Tenancy Ratio of
about 1.62X and more than 30,000 towers in INDIA.
VIOM NETWORKS: Viom Networks, a joint venture between Tata Teleservices and
Quippo, a Srei Group Enterprise, is the Pioneer in the Shared Passive Telecom
Infrastructure industry in India. The company was set-up with a mission to provide
innovative shared telecom infrastructure solutions leveraging world-class technologies
all telecom service providers. Having pioneered the concept of telecom infrastructure
sharing with less than 100 towers in 2005, Viom Networks today has become the
world’s largest independent telecom infrastructure company with a portfolio of over
38,000 towers across all 22 telecom circles in the country, and with plans of rolling out
nearly 20-25,000 additional towers in the next two years while targeting a tenancy ratio
of 2.5x. The company has by far the highest tenancy of over 2.2x per tower. It is also the
strongest player in neutral host shared In-Building Communication Solutions (IBS).
Reliance Infratel: Reliance Infratel Limited provides passive telecommunication
infrastructure in India. The company builds, owns, and operates telecommunication
towers, optic fiber cable (OFC) network, and related assets; and provides these passive
infrastructure assets on a shared basis to wireless and other communications service
providers, as well as to non-communications customers under long-term contracts. The
company has more than 48,000 towers and a Tenancy ratio of about 1.74x .
BSNL / MTNL: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed in October, 2000, is World's 7th largest
Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in
India. This government owned company has a Tenancy ratio of about 1.07X and more
than 45,000 towers.
GTL Infra: GTL Infra is in the business of provisioning passive infrastructure at cellsites
on a shared basis to multiple operators. GTL Infra is the largest neutral and
independently managed tower Company in the world. The company has Tenancy ratio
of about 1.17X and more than 32,000 towers across INDIA.
The others include small Telecom Tower companies like Tower Vision, Aster
Infrastructure, KEC International, and India Telkom Infra etc
At present India has around 330,000 towers in India and it is estimated that another
130,000 towers will be required during the next 3 years. However this projection may
come down if the anticipated consolidation takes places among the telecom operators.
Conclusion
The telecom tower industry in India is expected to grow at 20% during the next 5 years.
This growth is driven mainly by the current capacity constraints, increased rural
penetration strategy and additional requirement for rolling out 3G services. It is
advantageous for the mobile operators to tie up with tower companies as it is faster and
cheaper to roll out the network by collocating with Infrastructure operators (IP) rather
than expanding their own network.
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