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With increasing numbers of consumers demanding ever more from their wireless connections, wireless carriers may view the acquisition of new spectrum as the best hope for meeting the demand. And they’re in luck. On Jan. 14, 2014, the Federal Communications Commission will auction off the latest piece of wireless spectrum — the so-called H-Block Band. With five megahertz up and five megahertz down, it’s a total of 10 megahertz from the 1.9 GHz spectrum — a small piece of what has been dubbed “gold” to the telecommunications industry.
Long term, carriers will want access to additional spectrum to meet expanding consumer demand. But prevailing in the upcoming auction is not going to solve the near-term problem presented by the demand that already exists. It’s going to be several years before any carrier has infrastructure in place to make much use of the H-Block Band, which brings us back to the more pressing question: What do you do in the near term to meet consumer demands?
Thankfully, there’s an answer to that question that benefits every carrier, even those that do not win the auction for the H-Band block: Make better use of what you’ve already got.
Better ways to meet the need for bandwidth
The reality is many carriers’ networks are not optimized to make the best use of the spectrum they already have. There’s much room for improvement; so much so that some carriers undertaking an optimization effort will double their spectral efficiency – and in far less time (and for far less cost) than it would take to buy more spectrum.
1. Maps and analytics: Before you can optimize your network, you need to know how effectively it operates. So, a first step in that process involves mapping and analyzing your network as it exists today. With the right tools, you can analyze and understand the relationship between radio frequency performance and the current cell site and antenna configurations. This analysis can also help you identify potential areas of interest to be considered for RF performance improvements.
2. Radio frequency optimization: Once you have analyzed the infrastructure and identified the AOIs, you can take a variety of steps to optimize the manner in which your network is using available bandwidth:
–System performance optimization: Consider the state of the network data on the other side of the antenna. A network data audit – covering everything from drive testing and systems management to network configuration, hand-off parameters, network software settings and data clean up routines – may reveal that poor network performance is at least partially the fault of transmission system elements that have nothing to do with actual use of bandwidth. You need to understand and fix those issues. That alone can deliver significant performance improvements – immediately.
–Antenna optimization: Your mapping and analysis efforts will have shown you the edge spaces in your network and it may well be that you can gain significant performance benefits simply through minute antenna adjustments. These could involve changing the tilt, azimuth and bandwidth modes. Adjusting tilt and azimuth can help direct the RF signal, while bandwidth mode can expand or contract the spread of RF coverage. The narrower the focus of the antenna, the more bandwidth is available for subscriber needs. The wider the antenna spread, the less bandwidth available. You need to find the balance that is right for that geographic area and the needs of the customers using that tower.
3. Small cells: A third approach to network performance optimization – still requiring no additional spectrum – involves the use of small cells. Small cells are perfect for high-traffic areas that are not well covered by existing cell sites. That could be an area not well covered because of topology, or it could be an area that’s just on the edge of a coverage zone. Either way, if it’s a high-traffic area, a lot of energy goes into covering those users. By installing small cells, you can improve coverage and lower energy use.
So, yes, you could acquire more spectrum – and that’s a good plan for the long term. But it’s not going to alleviate the pain that you and your customers will be feeling over the next few years while you’re waiting for the next FCC auction. The three approaches I’ve outlined here can do that. Optimizing your network can greatly increase spectral efficiency — some carriers may even see it doubled — and that translates directly into a better customer experience. At the same time, you can gain these benefits far more quickly and at lower cost than you would gain by bidding for more spectrum.
