5 Issues in Deploying 5G: Solutions for Telecom Service Providers

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visually brilliant digital global displaying 5G above the city skyline at night

Widespread deployment of 5G brings with it the promise of a network of connectivity with greatly improved latency and downtime. To reach full 5G capabilities, telecom service providers would be required to reach enough density to monetize the network by installing 5,000 to 20,000 5G small cells in every major city within the next five to ten years.

This brings the network much closer to mobile phones and every type of IoT sensor or device that needs connectivity. The explosive increase in bandwidth will open new possibilities, from remote surgeries guided from New York City to a small African village, to enabling new ways for humans and robots to work together on a factory floor.

Full 5G coverage is an ambitious goal, requiring the biggest telecom players to invest $20 billion annually in the US. As of July 2020, about 10 percent of the desired small cells are in place. What are the main roadblocks slowing rollout?

Multiple Interconnected Challenges

  1. Because telecom service providers want to build all over a city, there are real-world issues with such an undertaking. There are a myriad of issues with construction in built-upon areas, including underground utility wires and pipes, ADA compliance issues, traffic control issues, and other problems. City engineers and permit reviewers do not want to create problems for residents, but it’s difficult to avoid some of the construction-related problems with 10,000 antenna installations.
  2. Adding a massive amount of infrastructure to cities is a new concept for telecom engineers and permit reviewers at the city permitting office. They’re inundated with requests for location approvals for thousands of antennas. Carriers are taking a piecemeal approach across different municipalities, which further overwhelms permit employees unfamiliar with new small cell specifics.
  3. On the carrier side, the conversations with city officials focus on deployment as a real estate matter. But the future of telecom services means installation on public right of way not private property. This is a structural, civil, electrical, transportation engineering and city planning issue that needs to be resolved at scale. Telecom service providers need to make sure to look at this from an engineering angle, to avoid liability of potential issues and voice similar concerns with the city permit engineers to avoid misunderstanding.
  4. Telecom service providers deploying 5G typically handle each antenna install as a one-off project, taking up a lot of time and human capital. The 5G rollout is the biggest U.S. project since the highway system, but it’s still stuck in dated implementation methods. The costs of the 5G infrastructure means every individual site comes with disproportionate costs, forcing site acquisition, engineering and construction companies as well as municipalities to add various fees. The industry needs a scalable solution to streamline site selection, construction plans, and discussions with the city.
  5. For telecom providers, there are not a lot of collocation options available. They need a certain density of antennas to offer full coverage and 5G’s capabilities. Many cities do not allow carriers to build more than a set number of antennas at a certain distance. Only one operator can build at each site, and collocation is not an option at this point, so they are racing against each other to lock up locations. There might be compromise for colocation agreements at single antennas, but these are fraught with technical issues and contentious dealings between operators. 

A common thread throughout these issues is the lack of scale and uniformity within the 5G antenna deployment process. Site acquisition, construction plans, and inspection drawings are developed manually, and every antenna is a self-enclosed disconnected project. Because of this Inorsa is bringing automation and scale to this process by streamlining permitting and offering on-demand engineering expertise to boost a provider’s capacity to manage multiple projects.

 Looking Ahead

The entire industry will require more scalable solutions through innovative structural, electrical, city planning and transportation engineering methods to reach the ambitious 5G deployment goals and help carriers get to the scale of deployment needed to begin monetization of the network. There are multiple industries such as self-driving cars that will not be available to the wider public if the 5G infrastructure is not in place at the density required. By the end of 2025, an optimistic goal for the industry is 70% of the desired antennas are in place. Telecom service providers will need to work on multiple efforts to reach this goal, by streamlining the installation and approval processes and increasing public education efforts about the safety and capabilities of 5G.

At Inorsa, we use AI and automation tools and methods to be able to streamline the process of engineering production. Our decentralized review process has been helping many telecom service companies succeed at their A&E deployments without the worry of workload and uncertainties of the market. 

To learn more about how we help scale 5G deployments by 200 percent seamlessly, please join our discussion at the 5G Deployment Executive Suite.

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