Commercial 5G RAN Backhaul and Fronthaul Overview

January 24, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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When looking at the RAN you may not think of backhaul or fronthaul as a component, but it is a critical one. Think about it, without backhaul you have no connection to the core, and without fronthaul, you have no connection between the BBU and the radio.

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Let’s start with the backhaul. The backhaul is the connection between the BBU and the core, not a plug and play device just yet, although the small cell has that aspect of it. At the site, you need to have the components to make the connections happen.

First, let’s cover what the backhaul is. Today’s network will have an all-IP backhaul. What this means is that it will have an Ethernet connection to the router. The formats will all be IP-based for 4G and 5G connections. LTE is an all-IP format, as 5G will be. Remember that LTE is one of the building blocks of 5G.

In the days of CDMA and GSM, what we called 3G, they had traditional telco formats like T1 and DS3. These formats worked great at that time, and they were the foundation for what telco had to offer. However, they were over copper. They had limited bandwidth whereas today, with fiber, we can get more bandwidth. When building these systems, there is a need for more and more bandwidth. While DS3 could supply up to 155Mbps of bandwidth, it took more equipment to take it from IP to DS3 format and back again, so now Ethernet connections are the standard in most carrier backhaul systems.

What do you have in the backhaul and fronthaul components? You have the router at the RAN. Chances are the router will be Ethernet

in and Ethernet out. 3G systems used T1 and DS3 formats for the connection to the internet, but now all connections are pretty much IP in and out.

The standard connections could be copper, fiber, or microwave. Fiber is the most common for macro sites because they can deliver speeds greater than 100Mbps, in fact, as we go to 5G, the carriers will expect 1Gbps and up. Microwave is trying to catch up. You can find backhaul that can do 1Gbps links, but the hops are very short and LOS. You also should worry about latency, which is a real issue with fronthaul. We’ll get into that later.

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Then, out of the router, you will have IP access which may go to a switch to distribute the data among the components in the BTS. While the primary purpose is to connect to the BBU for the backhaul, it also passes more information back to the core such as alarms and BTS status. There is also a control channel for the remote MME to manage the BTS. With the IP connection, there are so many things you can monitor and control Most OEMs already have most of this built into their alarming systems. They even look at temperature and open doors. Some carriers are running video back through the backhaul so that they can see what’s going on at the site when no one is supposed to be there. However, the data to the BBU is the top priority, and video is a convenience at best.

Fronthaul is a connection between the BBU and the radio. In the case of a macro site, you have a fiber run, generally in a hybrid cable, between the BBU and the radio head on or at the tower which could be a simple piece of fiber connecting the 2. The reason they call the cable a hybrid is that it will have 3 to 9 or more fiber strands running through it along with power for the radio heads. The power lines are copper lines for DC power up the tower. There can be AC power on these lines, but it would be low power, chances are DC or AC it will be 48V or less. Does it have to be big enough to carry the current to run 3, 6, or 9 radio heads on the tower? There is loss through the cable that, if the engineering is wrong then you could have problems. Radio heads need power to work.

Fronthaul at the tower is straightforward. However, in today’s world, we have small cells and remote radio heads that are part of CRAN, Concentrated RAN, systems, and we have radio heads that could be part of a cRAN, cloud RAN. The idea of these systems is that the controller, a BBU, will be at a remote location controlling several radio heads from that location. Generally, in CRAN they are called BBU hotels, making maintenance and control of multiple radio heads at remote locations a lot easier when the tech can go to the one location to make changes or upgrades.

So, fronthaul will have a router, and most of the time it is fiber. You could also have microwave. Copper is not too common because they want dedicated connections, fiber and microwave offer that. Copper does not.

The issue with fronthaul is that the latency must be very low, there are communication timing issues between the BBU and the Radio Head and the UE that are critical. You don’t want the packet to time out, so you have distance limitations with fiber and microwave. Fiber is clean and works very well. Some microwave systems have longer delays due to the conversion between the data and microwave which can be an issue when transmitting signals because if they time out, then it causes retransmissions which will cause problems in the network if there are too many. Yes, there are delays through the microwave system usually from converting from IP to RF then from RF to IP on both sides. It takes processing power, and if there is a problem with the link, noise or interference, then the RF side will start data recovery and possibly retransmissions.

Let’s look at the backhaul connection. You can have fiber, copper, microwave, or other connections.

Fiber connections:

The most desired connection to the core. Fiber allows a huge amount of bandwidth. Over 1Gbps of bandwidth is available with the right equipment. You have limitations, but it works well.

What options do you have for fiber?

Dark Fiber – this is an unused dedicated fiber optic cable that to the customer’s purpose. In other words, you aren’t sharing it with anyone. A dedicated connection between the RAN and another site or the core or wherever you pay to have it sent. For dark fiber, the customer, you, will need to provide all the equipment to connect. You can get large amounts of bandwidth through dark fiber, 1Gbps, maybe more. Your limitation may be your gear. It is easy to scale dark fiber. If you run your dark fiber, it can be very expensive because you must get permits, right of ways, pay pole rents, maybe trench, and so on. It can get very expensive.
Lit fiber – this is a shared fiber, and you connect to the carrier’s equipment. The carrier could be a telco or fiber carrier or anyone who offer service. It is usually cheaper, but it is not a dedicated connection. It will still connect between 2 points, but the bandwidth may be limited because you are sharing the fiber. You may have a problem scaling up and need to coordinate with the carrier to make changes.

When is fiber used/not used?

Macro sites that require high-capacity could connect to the core or to another macro site to save on costs.
Fronthaul for low latency and high-capacity to connect the BBU to the remote radio head in a CRAN option.
Small cell sites when heavily loaded or no other option is available.
CRAN Hotel BBUs to connect to high-capacity backhaul and to connect to remote radio heads for fronthaul creating a situation where you would have several fiber runs.
In the case of C-RAN, Cloud RAN, it would be to connect the cell that is connected and controlled by a BBU in the cloud. New in 2016 and being tested in China and the USA.
Fiber is not available everywhere. There are issues connecting to fiber in some areas.
Fiber could be cost prohibitive to run to your specific site which has slowed the growth of small cell sites on remote poles. The cost of getting fiber to the pole may be more than the expense of the small cell and the installation of the small cell. That has been a problem that holds back the mass deployment of small cells.
In some cases, you have only one fiber provider to choose from, and their costs may be probative.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook Paperback and

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

Microwave Connections:

Point to Point, (PTP) is where you have a dedicated microwave shot between to end points.
Point to Multi Point, (PTMP) is where you have one control point connected to multiple endpoints.
Latency varies, and it is hard to capture in a band. Why? Let’s review this list:
- Distance – just like fiber, the farther the data travels, the higher the latency. In microwave, the longer the link, the higher the latency.
- Equipment – specifically the radio equipment in this case. The longer it holds on to a packet the longer the latency. The longer it takes to process the conversion from RF back to IP, the longer the latency. The longer error correction takes to complete the longer the latency.
Spectrum, microwave can be in many spectrums that serve many purposes. High-level explanations for the US market but they could apply to the world. These are the most common. Remember that the distance and dish size and engineering will affect throughput and latency.
- 6GHz range – general for long-range shots. Point to Point LOS (Line of Site) microwave using larger dishes for longer shots. Licensed. Used early on, but the limitations in bandwidth and the large dish size have made them less attractive to modern sites. The dishes are over 6 feet and over. However, the FCC will allow 3-foot dishes in some situations. The limitations are the spectrum, licensing, and potential interference. The FCC did allow larger channels, but the current licenses in the US make it hard to get larger channels. Antenna size is an issue, but because the propagation of 6GHz is great, meaning it can travel far, it makes it hard to license without causing someone else problems. It was great with voice channels when they could travel great distances. Public safety in rural areas relies heavily on this because many of their sites are spread out.
- 11GHz range – generally used for midrange shots. Point to point LOS microwave using mid-size dishes, around 4 foot or so, but the FCC will allow 2-foot dishes. Licensed. Used extensively I the past and is a good midrange solution. The FCC was going to allow smaller dishes, but this band usage is high and very dense in the USA. The throughput is just over 200Mbps if properly engineered.
- 18GHz range – generally used for short to midrange shots. Point to point LOS microwave using 1 to 4-foot dishes. Licensed. These are an attractive solution with high bandwidth. Do the engineering because these links are heavily affected by weather, specifically, rain. Bandwidth through these links could be 100Mbps up to just over 300Mbps
- 23GHzrange – generally for very short hops. Licensed. Point to point LOS microwave using smaller dishes, around 1 to 4 foot. High throughput, 100Mbps and up. Very prone to rain degradation. Very easy to license in the USA.
- 24GHz range – generally used for short hops. Point to point LOS microwave using 1-foot dishes could go down to 8 inches. Not licensed, very easy to license. With a throughput of 100Mbps, some companies can get this band to over 700Mbps with proper engineering, but rain is a factor when it comes to engineering these links. Very limited on distance. Interference is usually low because of the propagation properties of this spectrum. This spectrum is good for short hops.
- 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz range – the ISM band used for short hops, (although I have seen companies connect 15 to 20-mile links). Could be PTP or PTMP. Could be LOS or Near LOS or in some cases non-LOS. Not licensed. This sub 6GHz license free spectrum is a popular choice among non-carriers because the spectrum is free and the hardware is cost-effective using smaller dishes (or panels) which are easy to install and setup. No license makes it easy to deploy anywhere, and the low-cost equipment makes it affordable to deploy anywhere. A short hop solution but there are claims that are using the right size dishes that it can be a long-haul solution. The downside is that it’s prone to interference because anyone can put them up or any Wi-Fi hotspot may affect it. They are easy to deploy. Throughput varies on the engineering but generally, 10Mbps to 150Mbps. I have seen more throughput, but it takes the right design and engineering to get it.
- E-band 71-76GHz and 81 – 86GHz range – generally for very short distances, prone to weather issues. Dishes are very small, under 2 foot. Point to point hops. Licensed links, but light licensed, so getting the license is very easy in the US and Europe. These are a popular choice for short hops that could need up to 1Gbps of throughput. Very high throughput looks like a fiber connection.
- 60GHz – generally for very short hops. Point to point, but there is talk of a multi-point product coming out. Dishes are 6 inches to 2 foot. Throughput is very high, over 1Gbps.

When is Microwave used/not used?

Microwave is a cost-effective alternative to fiber, but can only be used in specific cases. Your paying for the hardware, so CapEx is higher. The OpEx is lower because the only reoccupying cost is license renewal and tower rent if you’re paying it, and maintenance.
Microwave works for macro and small cells for backhaul or fronthaul.
Microwave does have its drawbacks because it is a limited solution, although a very cost-effective one if you’re looking at OpEx.

So, when looking at fronthaul or backhaul you have:

Router.
A connection from point a to point b, fiber, microwave, or copper.
Switch (if needed).

What is LTE UE backhaul?

It is backhaul that uses the carrier’s spectrum, just like the UE, User Equipment, your smartphone. If you have ever used your smartphone as a Wi-Fi hotspot, then you know the concept, using the carrier’s backhaul to create a new hotspot. Now imagine taking your usage and multiply by hundreds or thousands of megabits. The UE backhaul device in something that will use the carrier’s LTE spectrum for backhaul. This is something that is commonly used for internet access when there is no Wi-Fi available. The carriers all sell these units and many of today’s smartphones do something similar. However, they just use the standard signal. Using it for a tiny hotspot and for an eNodeB are 2 different things.

Let’s talk hotspot. Many vendors provide equipment that a user can add coverage quickly and easily. It is a quick Wi-Fi connection to the internet using the carrier’s LTE to connect to the internet. Everyone has Wi-Fi, and there are devices that create an instant hotspot. Verizon has the Mi-Fi, or you can use your smartphone as a hotspot. Every carrier has a wireless modem that you will provide a Wi-Fi hotspot. I think anyone who is reading this knows about the hotspots. I thought it would be a good example to get started.

What is a cell extender? There is a practice where many carriers will use a cell extender that will have a UE relay backhaul to extend the signal. This is also like a smartphone hotspot or a Mi-Fi unit because it was just to help a few customers but extends the carrier’s signal instead of Wi-Fi. This is a type of repeater to extend the macro’s signal, a cell extender. This is a way for the carrier to extend the coverage just a little bit farther. It’s a way to provide coverage someplace quickly and easily. These were common in 2G, 3G, and now LTE. It is a simple and quick way to install a repeater to extend carrier coverage down an ally. In the old days of DAS, this is what they did. They would take the signal where it was strong or use an antenna and amplifier to increase the strength to get it into a dead spot. People paid a lot of money for these systems.

It’s not a simple cell extender, and let me tell you why. Now you are talking about putting the small cell in an area where there is a loading issue. This goes beyond coverage. The data and spectrum usage could go through the roof! If you set it up like a cell extender with backhaul to the macro site, then guess what! You will see an overloaded macro sector! The macro not only has to deal with all its users but all the small cell or Mini macro users too. This sucks up all the spectrum and bandwidth for that sector. What can be done? Read on!

I am bringing this up because now there is talk about using the UE backhaul for small cells, mini-macros, and macro cell sites. It’s making a more powerful cell extender. It sounds like a great idea on the surface. This is a cheap, quick and easy backhaul. However, what is the drawback? It’s not as easy as you think, the carrier needs to set up the donor site properly. I mentioned it earlier, and it is not something you just throw out there to feed a cell site. It draws a ton of data. It sounds like a great idea on the surface. It looks like a cheap, quick and easy backhaul.

The donor site needs to break the bottleneck. You need to dedicate spectrum in the macro eNodeB that will be feeding the UE backhaul. This will alleviate the spectrum usage for the regular users on the macro sector. We don’t want them to get knocked off if the small cell US backhaul overloads the macro. This will make it so that the users on the macro don’t get shut knocked off if the small cell pulls the entire spectrum of its users. This will allow the small cell UE backhaul to have a dedicated pipe. It needs to have dedicated spectrum for this purpose. Then the small cell will know how much backhaul spectrum it has to available. By the way, not an easy change, changes in the eNodeB and possibly the core need to be considered as well as neighboring sites. This “dedicated backhaul spectrum” needs to be set aside for this sector and others too. It takes some planning and changes.

You could still have the data bottleneck at the macro’s backhaul. That’s another issue that needs planning.

So now you dedicated part of the band to the UE backhaul, which seems OK. Remember that the carrier paid a lot of money for that spectrum and now they are choosing to use it for backhaul. So the pipe is limited based on coverage and availability. It is a quick and easy to add UE backhaul, but is this the best use of the spectrum? Will you lose something in this backhaul? Yes, you have delay issues, timing issues, and neighbor issues. All of this is a problem when building a site for any type of real loading. Go to the links below to learn more.

However, what’s the real issue? Is it all the problems I mentioned above? They are all technical issues that good engineers will resolve. This appears to be a cheap and quick solution. But that’s not the real issue, is it? The carriers paid a crap ton of money for spectrum. Is backhaul a smart way to use this resource? Is that billion-dollar investment there to save some CapEx for the company? I thought it was for the customers! Backhaul could have been something in the unlicensed band for a lot less money. It could be a fiber link for more money. Is this an easy out or will it cause problems down the road because the spectrum is only going to get more and more valuable? Do investors want to see that spectrum used this way? I don’t see the auctions being a cheap alternative to providing backhaul.

So just because it looks cheap and easy doesn’t mean it’s a good move strategically. Don’t get me wrong; the UE relays, the repeaters serve an important purpose for coverage and filling holes, I am just saying be strategic and think it through. For more information hit the links below to learn about these solutions.

If delays were lower, this would be a great technology for fronthaul, now that would be something!

Resources:

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An Overview on TDD and FDD Formats

January 16, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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There are two technologies for LTE. For LTE, they have FDD and TDD which both are viable options. Both are viable options. They are both used by carriers in the USA although FDD has been the choice in the past.

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What is FDD? FDD – Frequency Division Duplex is something that was used commonly in 3G. It’s paired spectrum with an uplink band and a downlink band in their specific spectrum. For 1G, 2G, and 3G this was common so you could have a talk and receive channel in the system. There is a guard band in between the transmit band and the receive band. FDD was very popular with GSM and CDMA. It is very difficult to take advantage of MIMO antenna technology in FDD compared to TDD.

What is TDD? TDD – Time Division Duplex is where there is one large piece if spectrum used for uplink or downlink. Any part or percentage can be assigned to be the uplink or downlink. If you have 20MHz of bandwidth available, then you’re not locked into

10MHz up and 10MHz down like FDD. Instead, you have full control over how much goes up and comes down. The downside that some carriers had been the timing of the spectrum, and it’s higher bands that have this. However, Wi-Fi spectrum is pretty much all TDD, and it works quite well for data. On the other hand, WiMAX used TDD, and it seemed to be taking off but it never fully blossomed and was cast aside for LTE. TDD makes MIMO technology easier to use because it is all in one band.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook Paperback that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS.

So, what can LTE do? It can do both, and it does do both. Just not the same equipment. You could have equipment do either LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD. Both are released commercially as well as part of the 3GPP standard. When you look at the deployments, it helps to know which format will be deployed. You see, FDD may need two antennas or a combiner to work on a tower. While TDD is all in the same spectrum and the same antenna is used for transmit and receive. The way that today’s radio heads work it isn’t much of an issue anymore because they can handle the formats quite well. In 2016, you still can’t run them together in the same radio head, although the OEMs are working towards that functionality. Antennas are being designed to run both together by adding more ports and more weight to the antennas.

Note that Wi-Fi is TDD and ZigBee is TDD. Most Bluetooth is TDD. TDD appears to be the choice moving forward. Most 2G and 3G systems were FDD, and they are being phased out.

Carriers are learning that when everything becomes truly digital in IP format that it will matter less and less for the BTS but antennas and spectrum efficiency become more important. As of 2016, most of the carriers already have implemented VoLTE into their main networks, all except maybe Sprint who was still relying on CDMA to carry the voice. The carriers know that when they convert VoLTE, it should be the last step to dismantling the 3G networks, saving them money in the long run by retiring 2G and 3G systems.

Sprint is a great example of having both. They have FDD on the CDMA and LTE carriers as well as TDD for their 2.5GHz spectrum of LTE. They have a huge amount of spectrum in 2.5GHz, over 100MHz of bandwidth. They have successfully deployed on both formats.

A great resource to learn more can be found at http://electronicdesign.com/communications/what-s-difference-between-fdd-and-tdd at Electronic Design, an article written by Lou Frenzel.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

The foundations below do beautiful work, helping families in their time of need. Climbers often get seriously injured or die on the job. The foundations below support those families in their time of greatest need!

Hubble Foundation helps the families of climbers in time of need!

Tower Family Foundation supports the families r tower climbers at the time of crisis when a climber falls.

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5G Network Slicing

January 9, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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Network slicing is 5G’s way to get you everything. What is 5G network slicing? It is slicing up the wireless networks to serve specific purposes. You see, one network will not provide all services for everyone, so they have 5G which will encompass many networks, wireless networks, into one big network. You can’t do everything with one wireless network. Like Steven Wright says, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” If you had one network, it would not be efficient enough to serve all the devices on it. You want a network that works. Otherwise, you have a notwork because it does not work! Most IOT devices don’t need broadband. Most smartphones need mobile coverage. Most laptops need broadband. Most gamers need massive broadband to get the VR to work. Each specific group has a different need. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have several different wireless networks and have them all go into one core and share resources? Well, 5G came up with network slicing so we can do just that!

The Wireless Deployment Handbook Paperback that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS.

The research on network slicing showed me one thing that this is a fancy way to say different networks all connected to a common core. I think this term is interesting, but if you are in IT, then you know that you could have multiple networks, virtual or separated, all sharing the same backbone or even the same physical network. The way I see it, it is all about the RAN! Let’s explore why.

Well, in 5G, it is not much different. The big difference is that you could have a wireless network dedicated to a specific service. What this means is that when planning a network, in this case, a RAN network, make sure you know what the application will be so that you can plan accordingly.

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Think about the different markets 5G will be serving. It could be autonomous cars, virtual reality, or tons of simple IOT devices. Each system will have different need and purpose. The goals are not the

same for each. Therefore, they should not all share the same network. So, for the 5G network to include them all, they came up with a cool term like network slicing. The reality is that they will all be different networks that could be sharing the same core or even backhaul. We are creating a way to share resources and build in efficiencies.

We’ll get into why in a few minutes, let’s look at how they will work together first. It’s all about sharing of resources. Think of the HetNet and how we had small cells working with Macrocells and Wi-Fi all working together as one network. Now you have multiple networks all working independently, yet, connecting to the common core.

Which resources are shared in network slicing? The backhaul and the core but also routers and servers and possibly even cloud resources. The key to getting latency down is to rely on the cloud. However, the end use will determine which network will be used and how it will be utilized. The way I see it, from a wireless viewpoint is that the device will need to have a wireless network that fits the needs. In other words, virtual reality with need low latency and very high bandwidth to work properly. Autonomous cars will have very low latency but lower bandwidth needs. IOT devices will have medium latency but very low data rates, and they will not be listening to the network all the time like the other 2, they will only listen to the network on a need to know basis.

The examples above show us that there will be a need for specific wireless networks to serve each purpose. The common denominator will the core. The core will need to know how to process each part of the network. Making the major carriers happy that they have resource sharing capabilities to save costs. They want to reuse as many resources as possible. Device manufacturers will continue to improve devices and battery life.

Although, battery life is still an issue. While battery life has greatly improved, the power draw is so much higher than it was five years ago, Hell, it’s so much higher than even a year ago, While the processors are drawing less and less power, we have higher demands on many of our devices, like the smartphone. We want bigger and brighter displays, and we are on them for most of the day not only to talk but to gather data. Even when you are not talking on your phone, the chances are good that it’s getting updates for email or other data without you even looking at it, drawing on the battery even more. Not only that but the constant communication with the LTE and Wi-Fi networks are drawing power all day.

Back to network slicing. We will have several different use cases for the network, which will require a specific last mile network to serve the purpose. It seems a bit crazy to have multiple wireless networks until you realize that billions of devices will be connected and each group will have a specific purpose. Each group will have a unique revenue stream. Some will be high usage and draw more money per month and others will have extremely light usage and will only cost pennies a month. Each slice of the network is built for a specific purpose, and the billing for each slice will be dramatically different. Here are the efficiencies.

These networks will be running in parallel to each other. They will be independent of each other but have a common core. With the growth of software defines networking, SDN, and Network Function Virtualization, NFV, the networks will become smarter and smarter and start to improve efficiencies without human intervention. It’s already happening, but it will get better and better with improved efficiencies.

While all of this will be interconnected, they will be isolated from each other. Some networks will be independent of each other. The key to slicing is even though networks share resources, they will not be reliant on each other to keep the network up and running, (unless the core crashes).

The drawback is the core will control everything. Get to the core, and you get to the heart of multiple networks all at one time. If they make changes to the core, they need to be sure it will not affect the other networks. I would imagine that updating the server controlling the IOT network would have no effect on the autonomous driving network. But, what if it does? Then a real problem will be at hand!

The core will be the key connecting point to these networks. Running on the cloud should help efficiencies along with the rise of the virtual core, the impact should be minimal. Just remember, they all need a brain, and that brain is the core!

You could have several companies serving several markets, like the carriers taking care of smartphone users and someone like SigFox working with the IOT users and maybe someone else taking care of virtual reality and yet another company taking care of autonomous automobiles.

While this is a slice if heaven, (sorry, I couldn’t resist), we expect each slice to be running independently of the other even though they share a common core.

Resource: http://www.5gamericas.org/files/3214/7975/0104/5G_Americas_Network_Slicing_11.21_Final.pdf

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

The foundations below do beautiful work, helping families in their time of need. Climbers often get seriously injured or die on the job. The foundations below support those families in their time of greatest need!

Hubble Foundation helps the families of climbers in time of need!

Tower Family Foundation supports the families r tower climbers at the time of crisis when a climber falls.

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Building the 5G Business Case for Health Care

January 2, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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If you are in health care, then you probably want to cover a hospital or a medical center for a specific reason. Your customer may be the patients or doctors or specialists or technicians. For patients, it may be a public network, but it’s likely you will be looking to build a private network.

If you are in health care, then you probably want to over a hospital or a medical center. Your customer may be the patients but more likely you will be looking at the following for a private network.

Build your business case so that you can build your budget. Then you can start construction of the system with a solid plan in mind. It will be more than a wireless network, it will be an essential lifeline for many. Remember that privacy matters, for a good article on privacy in Wi-Fi, which may apply here, go to http://corporate.findlaw.com/litigation-disputes/hipaa-and-wifi-regulatory-tangles-for-wireless-health-care.html to see how it might affect any system you install. Also, go to https://meraki.cisco.com/lib/pdf/meraki_whitepaper_HIPAA.pdf and https://www.allpointcompliance.com/Blog/19159/HIPAA-and-Wireless-Security?_escaped_fragment_=#! To make sure you are compliant.
1. Hospital coverage for patients and visitors. Wi-Fi coverage and cell coverage would be just what they need to help the time pass by and to alert family of the ongoing conditions of the patients.
2. Paramedics coverage so they can collect data before they arrive at the hospital to treat patients properly. They would know the allergies prior to reaching any hospital and looking up medical records. They could see it all on the scene within minutes.
3. Emergency care centers and hospitals could give their doctors instant access to data on a tablet anywhere in the hospital.
4. Remote diagnosis could happen with accuracy. How, think of virtual reality and how if you could do a brain scan, MRI, or a live scan on a patient and someone, a specialist somewhere else in the world could look at it real-time using virtual reality seeing what the machine sees in real-time. They could not only see it, look at it in all angles, maybe even control the machine doing the scan and talk to the patient at the same time. This could save someone’s life as well as make specialists available nationwide from one location!
5. Remote surgeries could happen with robotics and massive bandwidth. How? By having a remote doctor look and control the robot along with the local physician to help the patient along. They could upload surgeries for someone halfway around the world, looking at the live video while the surgery is happening. Taking the time to make evaluations and talking to the local surgeon while the specialist is operating the robotic surgical apparatus all while the patient is receiving the best care possible. This could give a new perspective to doctors without borders! WOW! This makes 5G a game changer for medicine worldwide!

The Wireless Deployment Handbook Paperback that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS.

Coverage – Cover your building (or campus), which could be:
1. Hospital – I have covered hospitals and the things you have to look out for are crazy. They have lead lined rooms for X-Ray which means nothing will penetrate. Do you declare it a dead
  
  zone? Probably but the real issue is that you need to make sure you have antennas on each side of it, over and under it. The room causes problems all around it. Make sure to do your due diligence when covering such a complex building. Also, remember that there are lines run through it, like oxygen. It’s more than plumbing and electrical in a hospital.
2. Medical Centers can be just as complex as hospitals, but on a smaller scale. It is a good idea go not only have the plans but to talk to the doctors and maintenance group to see what is really in the building. They don’t always document what is there, even though they are supposed to. What I am saying is, don’t just trust the drawings, ask around.
3. Emergency Care Center is a place that you may think is like a hospital. Generally, they are an extension of the hospital with all the things a hospital may have, but on a smaller scale. Plan carefully.
4. Surgery Centers are generally prepped for planned surgeries only. It has been my experience that these buildings are planned very carefully. I have had a lot of luck with drawings for these places, but again, ask around.
5. Patient Care centers, generally doctor offices.
6. Administrative Offices that are for the paperwork only.
7. Medical campus or hospital grounds could be an issue. Here is an area where you may have to cover outside of the building. This is where you could have issues with privacy. When I was doing wireless backbones for hospitals and medical they were very concerned about privacy. There are rules under HIPAA for the privacy of the patients to be protected at all costs. Think about what the coverage is for. If it is simple access for Wi-Fi for the patients, then it will be handled differently than if it’s the coverage for hospital staff. Medical records are treated with the utmost confidentiality.
8. Mobile coverage, this is generally handled by a carrier, most medical companies don’t spring for too much outside the building or off the campus.
Goal – What is your primary goal?
1. Track equipment, equipment in the hospital get lost or misplaced all the time, so why not track it, look for where it is at. Make your hospital a smart building to locate equipment quickly on a computer or tablet with an app.
2. Page doctors for emergencies. This is obvious.
3. Update patient records. Use tablets to keep records up to date then if someone sets a tablet down, use a location app to find it quickly. Patient records will be available to many nurses with proper privileges. Quickly, easily access, and anywhere in the hospital or just in a zone that is approved.
4. Notify an alert when equipment leaves an area of the hospital. Prevents theft of not only equipment, but data if a tablet if being removed from a specific area like intensive care. HIPAA is a serious thing! (HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that protect patient’s privacy. If you have ever done wireless work for hospitals, then you are aware of the HIPAA.)
5. Connect all the admin computers with a secure and private connection to avoid running wires everywhere.
6. Internal wireless phone system so that all staff members can communicate anywhere on a floor or in the hospital. They should have devices that would have all the necessary features a Dr would need like voice and test.
7. Patient monitoring and tracking so that patients can be moved and tracked in the hospital or medical center while their vitals are being monitored. If someone is going into cardiac arrest in a hallway, then the alert will come through immediately identifying the problem and the location.
8. Connect paramedics to the hospital when they are on their way there with a patient. Again, mobile coverage but this is where they could start treating the patient in the vehicle. If they could have all the details prior to getting to the hospital, then they would be aware of any allergies that could kill the patient. They would be so much more effective if they get the information ahead of time.
9. Remote countries could have robotic surgeries or training using high bandwidth. How? It would be in a hospital and the data would be sent in from someplace on the other side of the world. Surgery could be performed by a robot. Then, if done properly, MRIs or brain scans or any scan could be seen by someone in another country where they have the expertise for that symptom and they could make a diagnosis using 3D coverage. If the bandwidth is there, in that country and the specialist is in another country, he can help remotely with all the data. He could even remotely perform the surgery using robotics in another county by showing it what to do. I know this involves virtual reality and artificial intelligence to a certain point, but we are almost there! Isn’t it exciting that we can help more people around the world?

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What is your budget? You will need to decide how much you want to spend before you determine what equipment you will purchase. This is a limiting factor if you are starting out with a preset amount. What most companies do is determine the need then ask an engineer or solution architect to create a design, which will cost money, then they know what the budgetary numbers are for the equipment and installation and testing. Don’t forget that you need to purchase the devices. Many people design the system but don’t add the cost of the end device, and they cost money too!
1. Once the use is settled on, ask for a system design.
2. Determine how many user devices you will need.
3. Determine your backhaul needs and the cost to support it.
4. Determine your estimated usage.
5. Determine what support personnel you will need to support and maintain the system.
6. Determine what the warranty is what the software updates will cost.
7. Determine the life cycle of the system, technology moves quickly, will you grow or replace the system in 5 years?
The spectrum needs to be thought out by where and how it will be used. Bandwidth could be critical or low latency could be critical.
1. In building is obvious to provide internet access to patients. Wi-Fi or LTE-U would be the ideal spectrum for much of this use because it is license free, which is free and available on smartphones! They may want to use a licensed band but most medical centers leave that up to a carrier to cover the med center. If they decide to partner with a carrier then it is up to the carrier.
2. In building for special services, like robotic operations by remote doctors or remote doctors giving their opinion for treatment while looking at video or MRIs of a patient while it is happening! These applications have very high bandwidth needs and would need to have mmwave to truly be effective. That way the doctors could see what is happening real-time, full video. Latency would depend on where in the world they were, but with the advances in robotics, remote doctors could guide the robot while seeing the patient real-time during the operation.
3. Campus outdoor coverage would also be something like Wi-Fi or LTE-U. It would be something very cost-effective with off the shelf hardware to deploy. All the money will be put into security of the information. Network security will matter more than spectrum and will get a sizable budget towards it. HIPAA regulations will require heavy network security of patient’s records are sent over it. I dealt with that when working with point to point microwave to connect hospitals. We setup a remote MRI monitoring service and security on the network and over wireless was taken very seriously. HIPAA compliance was critical.
4. For mobile coverage, it would probably be handled through a carrier. I don’t see any medical budget allowing for anything outside of the building or campus. I am being realistic here, they would use an existing service whether it is a carrier or a public safety partner. I would think public safety, like FirstNet, would allow them to use their network for a fee.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Happy Holidays to All!

December 25, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Thank you, all of you! For all of your support, feedback, following me, and purchases! I appreciate all of you for all of this.

To all of you field workers out there, Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah. Happy holidays to all of you. We all work very hard all year and we deserve the rest we get over this vacation time. Normally this year is very busy as most companies would try to spend their budget money. It’s a little late for planning but if they want to get a project financed and paid for, sometimes they need to get it in by the end of the year. This is a problem we appreciate although many of us want to take a break.

I get exhausted. I usually cover for all the people that must use vacation by the end of the year or they lose it. I am just happy to have vacation time. As the work model changes, we may lose that luxury. Ask any contractor that works for himself. They only get paid for when they work. Times are changing and it’s going to get rough but we shall all make it and I believe as the work increases we will improve.

So, take this time to do a few things if nothing else.

Take a moment and be grateful for what you have. Look at your mate and be thankful. If you have children, be glad they are around and healthy. If you have family and friends, be thankful.
Reflect on the past year and figure out what went right and what went wrong. I often look back to try to course correct. I figure out which habits need to change and then I focus on how to improve. I don’t always make the right choice, but I try to get a little better each year.
Look ahead. Where do you want to go? What is your plan? Do you have a plan? Where do you want to be in 5 years? How do you get there? Do you know the steps to move ahead? Is it more about what you can do or just money? What will make you happy for the long-term?

As you look ahead and get busy with the holidays. Take some time to focus on what you really want and where you want to go.

Remember, enjoy the holidays. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Enjoy the break and clear your head for the new year ahead.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention! After all, it will soon be a new year and all of you will be setting new goals!

Thank you!

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

What would happen if Sprint and T-Mobile Merged?

December 18, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Are you curious about the merger and what it will bring? Do you want look into the future and see what could happen? This report covers the future and the past to give you a history as well as makes some predictions on a potential merger. If it does happen, would they downsize? Would they strike a blow to Verizon and AT&T? Would they improve financially? Would Sprint finally set a plan in place to sunset CDMA? Only one way to find out!

This is a report by Wade Sarver and the opinion of the writer. This blog is a partial of the full report. The full report can be purchased as a PDF on Gumroad or Sellfy.

Summary

We all know that Softbank wants to merge Sprint and T-Mobile. We all saw that Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son met with USA president-elect Donald Trump. We also know that the FCC under President Obama did not like mergers between major carriers. Let’s go in-depth to cover what would happen is the merger happens. This report will cover not only how the carriers and their technology will play together, but the trickle-down effect to the OEMs, service vendors, and tower companies will be affected. I have included links to resources for you to verify the history and facts while the speculation of what will happen is just that, speculation based on my experience in the industry.

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Meeting between Softbank Owner and the USA president-elect:

I am sure most of you saw Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son meet with President-Elect Donald Trump. One thing that Masayoshi Son has seen is an opportunity to merge T-Mobile and Sprint. This has been a goal of his and I think that he has seen T-Mobile as a key to getting Sprint out of the slump it’s been in. Let’s look at the meeting and then what it means.

Mr. Son has been frustrated with the prior administration’s FCC and SEC in the USA mainly because he thought that merging the 2 carriers would make a lot of sense. Guess what, it does for so many reasons, but the implications are more than just financial. Not everything about the merger will be good, I will explain below. For now, let’s look at what this meeting means.

Mr. Son and President-Elect Trump are both going to look at growth of business in the USA. Sprint, while Wells Fargo keeps telling us how Sprint is bouncing back and the future is so bright we gotta wear shades, I don’t see it that way. Sprint has done the bare minimum on the network. However, what they have done has greatly improved their network for the least amount of money.

Back to the meeting, Masayoshi Son has offered to put $50B into the USA, not all of it is his money. He is raising $100B from investors around the world. From what CNBC says most of the money comes from Saudi Arabia, to invest. Trump obviously expects to see $50B of this come to America, and it appears that Son agreed to this.

Resources:

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/06/trump-says-softbank-will-invest-50-billion-in-the-us-aiming-to-create-50000-jobs.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2016/12/08/after-trump-meeting-softbank-billionaire-masayoshi-son-gains-2-billion-becomes-japans-richest/#1b549a3614ac

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-06/softbank-s-son-said-to-plan-meeting-with-trump-in-new-york

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2016/12/06/trump-claims-japans-richest-tech-billionaire-will-invest-50-billion-in-u-s-business/#7f4502c875f5

http://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-investors-cheer-ceos-meeting-with-trump-1481095552

Did they try to merge before?

I was told that just prior to the AT&T attempted takeover of T-Mobile US in 2011 that Sprint had planned to merge with T-Mobile. Mentioned by CNN here and TMONEWS here. I believe that it was more than a rumor. From what the insiders said the rumors had some basis to them. It would have made sense and one more thing that was obvious is when AT&T attempted to take over T-Mobile US Sprint came out publicly and did all that they could to stop it. More on that below.

Then in 2014 they talked about merging again. It was Softbank pushing for this after their recent takeover of Sprint. They were really excited to become a major competitor in the USA. It looked like Softbank was willing to pay $32B for T-Mobile US, roughly $40/share. In this case, T-Mobile US CFO mentioned the merger first in 2013 stating that the merger would make sense to compete against the larger AT&T and Verizon. Remember that T-Mobile was growing quickly now. To add more confusion, Dish Network was making a play for Sprint and Clearwire. Sprint-owned most Clearwire at that time. Clearwire had the 2.5GHz spectrum at that time and was operating it on Wi-MAX. Dish failed and Softbank won, if you want to call it that. Sprint had massive debt.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

In 2014 Sprint/Softbank gave up their quest for T-Mobile US because the FCC and the DoJ pushed back hard. While o the business side, the agreement seems to be moving ahead, the FCC had other plans. They did all that they could, like creating rules to block the merger of this kind. And this is the legacy of the Obama administration’s FCC.

Resources:

http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-report/a-year-courtship-t-mobile-who-wants-to-merge-uncarrier-and-why

http://www.wsj.com/articles/sprint-t-mobile-generally-agree-on-merger-terms-1401919219

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/no-takeover-but-plenty-of-taunts/

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/sprint-and-softbank-said-to-abandon-bid-for-t-mobile-us/

Would merger create jobs inside the new company?

Honestly, I doubt the merger will bring more jobs to the US. If Son plans to invest in other businesses or startups, then I can see 50K jobs coming from $50B. In fact, is he just gave $1M to each of those 50K people, they would be on the way to massive job creation in the US, but I don’t see that happening.

Before I start, let it be known that both Sprint and T-Mobile workers that I know work very hard and very long hours. They go the extra mile for their respective companies. I hate to see anyone lose a job they love. I can’t believe how hard and dedicated many of these workers are, even when they disagree with the mother company, they still do all that they can to ensure success. Trust me, they don’t always like the policies or even what they do, but they all want to see success.

Here is what I see from the merger as far as workers go. First the initial talks and the teams it would take to make the merger happen would be large, so the first year would be massive. Why? Because of the due diligence on the financial side and the technical side. It takes a lot of time and money to make these mergers happen.

There would probably be independent firms that would investigate the complete holdings and inventories and salaries of both sides. Something that Masayoshi Son probably did when he acquired Sprint. Also, T-Mobile would ask for over $2B up front, much like they did with AT&T. That money proved to be a great asset for T-Mobile. That Legere is always thinking! I believe that the due diligence that Son did for Sprint still missed quite a bit. There were things that we suspect he missed. I doubt he will make that mistake with T-Mobile US unless he wants them so badly he is willing to overlook some problems. Again, he should have learned something from Sprint, he’s an exceptionally smart guy or he wouldn’t be where he is.

Then after the merger would take place they would try to see what efficiencies could happen. This would mean to remove duplication. To translate, that means layoffs. Consolidation means that one side or the other or both will be downsizing and the teams will start to combine and work together.

I see the sales teams and the customer service teams scaling back first, then the project management teams, the finally the engineering teams. Unfortunately, the legacy systems are very different. You are going to be maintaining GSM and CDMA systems. Luckily moving forward, you have LTE which should merge quickly. I would think the technical teams will be one of the last to downsize.

Sprint is no stranger to layoffs, http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2016/05/03/claure-worst-sprint-layoffs-finished.html, http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/technology/article74725997.html, http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article56191755.html.

Interested in the full report? For a fee, it can be downloaded in PDF format from Gumroad or Sellfy by following one of these links. The full Table of Contents listed below for you to see what is covered in your report.

https://gum.co/sOkRY

https://sellfy.com/p/6PIm/

Summary 1
Meeting between Softbank Owner and the USA president-elect 2
Did they try to merge before? 3
What’s different now? 4
Would merger create jobs inside the new company? 4
Does Technology Matter? 5
How would it affect the vendors? The trickle-down effect? 6
The major OEMs: 6
Service companies? 7
Contractor workload Timeline: 7
Tower companies? 8
Resources: 8
Leadership, who will lead the new company? 9
Why wouldn’t T-Mobile Take over Sprint? 9
History of the AT&T T-Mobile merger. 9
Consolidation: 10
The Core: 10
The RAN: 10
Would we see growth in the USA? 11
Would it be better to compete with AT&T and Verizon Wireless? 11
Would they innovate? If so, when? 11
How would this effect smaller contractors? 12
How would it affect the smaller contractors? Good or bad, growth or consolidation? 13
Who would lead the company? Legere or Claure? Has Claure really proven himself? 13
Is Sprint financially strong enough to take anyone over? It seems they are leveraged heavily. 13
What about the CCA losing 2 of their largest members? 13
What about all the smaller carriers? We would continue to see them get swallowed up and disappear? 13
What about Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s partners? 13
Would this be the hurt the smaller contractors across telecom? 14
About the author: 14

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Is the Work Model for Wireless Changing? Part 3 of 3.

November 22, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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This is part 3 of 3-part series.

How does this change our model here in the US? Well, for tower climbing most contractors are trying to get crews to work on the same model that the carriers have built. This is because they can no longer carry the burden of absorbing problem costs. Trust me, in tower work, you learn to improvise, adapt, and overcome. You learn to carry a ton of spare hardware in your truck. You know to be prepared. However, you can’t always account for everything. It’s just too much. Which is OK except that no one wants to absorb these costs, especially the end customer.

With all that said, the business model is changing. Correction, the model has changed. Like it or not, the carriers have changed the model. The role of PM, (project management) has changed. The PM must manage so many groups and entities and hardware. So many moving parts. They are looking for a flat fee for every site for hardware and services. Any field worker knows that all sites are different, but any accounting person doing budgets doesn’t care. They want a cookie cutter approach. A way to build a budget and move on. Welcome to all national builds for 3G, 4G, 5G, and beyond.

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The thing that is happening, so slowly, is the trickle down effect. What I mean by that is that the contractors want to pay their workers the same way they get paid. That’s right, by the job. It’s already starting to happen as more and more people become contractors. Terms of pay are changing. Net 30 is more common than ever. Be prepared for the change. I am having a hard time with it. I know several people who are worried about this model. I just want everyone to be paid fairly and promptly. It’s only right. Good pay for good work. Good work is a gray area though, isn’t it? It’s a matter of perspective. Hard work isn’t enough, quality work that passes the sign off is what matters.

Will this model continue to take over? It seems that way.,

Do I have an answer, sure, pay the people for their work! Unfortunately, the way the layers of contractors are laid out, payments can be a problem. Most of the field workers today are contract employees. Most contractors do not want to pay people through the slow times, they would prefer to hire contractors for the work when they need them. While many of you want to criticize this, it is how business is done. No one seems to care until there is a climber injured or killed.

There are GCs which hire crews and track all the problems in the industry, but they won’t share, even with OSHA, because they have the fear of getting a bad reputation or getting in trouble, so they keep the valuable information to themselves. They know that if they share it could look bad, they don’t see it as helping the industry. I would love to see this change as well, but I have no recourse. Mistakes, lessons learned, and safety concerns are kept hidden from the industry because GCs often feel others need to learn for themselves.

The model for work is changing in the US. The workers will need to find a way to do the work in a timely manner and still deliver quality. The investors of the companies are controlling the industry.

The model is changing and the flat fee model is happening. I have some illustrations that may help you understand but let’s look at it this way. The contractors are getting a flat fee. Prices are driven down because they look at much of the work as a commodity. It is no longer considered a specialized construction job. I guess anyone can work at 100 feet above the ground attached to a tower by a rope. To be honest, I don’t see a lot of carrier CTOs up there.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

The pay structure is going to change. The smaller tower companies may get even smaller and there may be more independent crews that get paid by the job, not by the hour. This is the trend that I see.

Wireless construction is expensive. Towers are loaded. Townships and municipalities are making it harder and harder to build new towers. Much talent has left the industry because of the slow and erratic work as well as the work conditions. I am curious how this new change will affect the industry. I would think that tower work would start to demand a premium again, but it certainly doesn’t look like it’s headed in that direction. The flat fee model seems to be where it is headed.

That’s OK, but eventually it is going to hit other jobs. It already hit RF engineering. It already hit construction. Soon it will roll into other jobs. I see it all over the industry. When bidding a job, you need to predict what it will cost you, then live with the price. That’s the way it is.

See part 1 and 2!

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Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

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Is the Work Model for Wireless Changing? Part 2 of 3.

November 21, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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This is part 2 of a 3-part series.

For the contractor, flat pricing causes change order issues. If there are problems at the site, then the contractor must ask for a change order. If the GC who hired them does not want to pay, then the contractor risks not getting paid if the job is not complete. The common excuse is that there is no money for change orders. Usually, the GC does not want to go back and ask for more money because it would look like they don’t know what they are doing or it could mean that the margins are so small they don’t have any reserve dollars. Perhaps they know that the customer won’t approve any up charges. Maybe approvals would not happen in a timely manner or cause delays. It all adds up to problems down the road.

The model for most of these services are “flat fee”. Whether it’s done through RFP or reverse auction, the GC will hire contractors and expect a safe job with trained workers to go to the lowest bidder. While on paper this looks good, to be the lowest bidder must be efficient and assume no problems to creep up on the job. If they are losing money they start to make other cuts, usually in training and safety. If the work ramps up, then they start to hire inexperienced people or they turn down the work.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

With this change, the way they hire workers may change. Workers may have a new model. Many contractors may want to pay them by the job. With tower work it is a problem because of safety training, safety gear, insurance, taxes, liability, and travel. So many variables in an industry that the carriers have already beat to death. GOD bless the contractors who are still doing it and doing a good job at it.

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Getting paid even when you finish the work can be a problem. Payment terms have gotten ridiculous because companies want to get paid before they pay anyone and some carriers want stupid payment terms like Net 120, net 90 is bad enough. It should be net 30. Remember to be clear that the timer starts when the work is finished. If you wait for the inspection them many carriers delay the inspection for weeks, maybe months. Yes, I have seen this in the industry, be clear in your scope of work or contract so you know when the timer starts. The most important thing you can do is define the terms ahead of time and agree on them with signatures. Your signature and the customers signature. It’s your best bet to get paid or at least show up in court to get paid. Again, I digress, back to the point.

In the old days, contractors would get a bonus for getting done early and mistake free. Now they don’t get paid because they take too long or if they have a problem, even if it’s not their fault, at least not full price. Sometimes GCs have no intention of paying no matter what happens. They leave companies high and dry. This is very common in our industry. Know your customer. Know your terms. Know your milestones. It pays to ask around about the customer and the person you’re working with. While you may be doing an install that is for Verizon or AT&T, the turf vendor you’re working with may pocket all the money and leave the crew with nothing. I hear this story all the time. It pays to talk to other contractors. Most are honest about getting screwed. That’s why they generally like to work for larger OEMs and GCs.

While I talk mostly about tower work here, the problem exists for drive teams, site surveys, inspections, and so on. RF engineering work is leaving the US and going mostly to India where the talent pool is deep and the pay scale is much lower. To be honest they do a fine job. Outsourcing is affecting the entire industry. The carriers want to be efficient, the KPIs, (key performance Indicators), are all about the budget. They want the biggest band for this buck. They still want quality, but like Sprint advertises, if you’re within 1%, we’re good, right?

See Part 1 and Part 3!

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Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Is the Work Model for Wireless Changing? Part 1 of 3.

November 20, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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This is part 1 of a 3-part series.

I got news for you, it already has. Think about how the wireless work has changed over the last decade. Most workers expect to have an hourly job or they expect to capture a salary. From what I see, those days are coming to an end. I see it with many offers out there. I see the changes happening and the contractors see it too. The carriers are looking at how to save money and the latest target is the GC. However, they have had a flat fee per site model for years. Is the work model for wireless going to change all the way down to the worker? Maybe. Let’s look at why this is changing.

There are many changes in the wireless services industry, but the wireless work model is certainly one of the biggest. It affects almost everyone in this industry. If you are a worker in this industry then you could be a 1099 or W2 employee. Most workers are still paid hourly or salary, this is changing. You will soon be paid for the job you do, not for the hours on site, (although it is bid it that way).

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If you are a contractor or own a services company, then you are likely to get paid by the job, site, or specific service. Generally, a flat fee per site. I don’t see too many T&M, (Time and Materials), jobs unless they are for emergency repair work. If you can get this work, good for you!

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

The type of work has changed. It used to be you had a tower crew and the tech at the site after the engineering was complete. Now you have the ground crew, the tower crew, the IT tech, the BTS tech, the lighting crew, the alarming people may be out there, the grounds keepers of you are in a place that needs to look nice, so many people to maintain a shelter or cabinet or site. The remote group is just as critical as you have a team of engineers, RF, BTS, low-level design, IT, and so on. Let’s not forget the NOC or managed services that will monitor alarms and look for issues as well as manage the access to the site. It takes a huge team. This all costs money.

When a contractor responds to RFPs, it is usually a flat price per site or job. They get paid by the job/site and usually commit to one price per site across dozens of sites. They fight for every change order. They often they hear, “there is no money for change orders” which we all know is just a line to make sure GCs, (general contractors), don’t pay more or they don’t want to go back to the end customer and admit they missed something. If you don’t do the extra work, what happens? You could lose future work, you could get a bad name in the industry, or you could do it and eat the costs. Maybe let them hire another contractor down the road to do the change order. Today’s contractor should be smart and willing to walk if they know the jobs can’t be done for that cost. That takes balls because it will risk future work and reputation. However, they want to get paid, they don’t want to piss off the customer, and they don’t want a bad reputation. It all plays into this formula. Flat fee per site is the way things are being done today.

Times are changing. Now we expect to have a flat rate to complete a job. Most companies don’t want to pay change orders. Work is a flat fee and most people hiring contractors have a good idea how long it takes to do a job. For instance, a cell tower, 120 feet mounting location, 3 sector array with antennas, radio heads, and hybrid cable, most companies expect to pay for 2 days labor. They estimate what it will cost for 2 days labor. This is how they drive the price down. Then they put it out to reverse auction. This is because they see the work as a commodity. A commodity is a common product that can be bought and sold anywhere, like coffee or copper. The only difference is that most companies don’t see value in better work. This is because when you look at supply chains, procurement, and accounting departments, their main KPI, (Key Performance Indicators) that they are judged on are cutting costs, not quality of work. This is where the problems begin in the wireless world. I am not blaming accountants, but these decisions have affected quality and safety. When a climber dies due to poor safety equipment or poor training, no one remembers that those costs were cut as a money-saving effort, but I digress, sorry.

Flat pricing is not all bad. It makes it easy for carriers to roll out. They can have can plan a solid budget. They know what is needed at each site. The contractor knows what to expect to get paid on each site. It makes sense from a business perspective. It should motivate the contractor to get done quickly and efficiently, in theory.

The downside? It will encourage the contractor to take shortcuts. To get paid as soon as possible. The end customer should audit each site for safety, workmanship, quality, and completeness adding costs to the job. The PM must manage not only the rollout but the other contractors that are doing the safety and quality audits. Now that its flat fee most companies only do 1 service, tower work, ground work, RF work, sweeps, optimizations, commissioning, integration, and so on. By the way, none of this is free. The flat fee will add costs.

Will the flat fee model trickle down to the worker? That is where it seems to be headed.

See Part 2 and 3!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Will President Trump change Wireless Business?

November 14, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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How will President Trump change the wireless industry? For one, let me say I don’t know. It is president Trump, not King Trump. Just like President Obama, not King Obama. The president has great power and influence, but can’t just wave a scepter and say, I have said it so let it be done”! He can push legislation but it still needs approvals and any bills or laws have to go through congress, the house, and the supreme court may get involved. What I am saying here is pure speculation.

First off, this is not an article for or against Trump. This is simply my perception of what I think Trump may do based off what I have read and what I know about the industry. If you are for or against, it doesn’t matter, now we must move ahead to make the future brighter for the communication industry. If you have any doubts on who won, let’s count the electoral votes, Clinton got 228 and Trump got 290 That is how we determine a president, not by popular vote or by who we hope would have won. The winner is Donald Trump. Now, let’s move on.

What I see someone like President Trump doing is getting actively involved in getting businesses up and running. I see him as someone who will help American businesses grow and expand. He knows that wireless is a huge business. He also knows that small business is a catalyst for growth and the wealth of Americans like you and me.

To do this he will probably shake up the FCC a bit, having them get more involved with the implementation of spectrum to get not only the carriers rolling, but smaller businesses a chance to complete and expand. We already see some of this with the IOT rollout by SigFox and others.

Let’s break this down by wireless business. I am basing this off of the Contract that the Trump Campaign put out for the election, which is his contract for his first 100 days, found here.

Tower Climbing Industry

I know that the unions are a big supporter of trump. Workers everywhere seem totally behind this guy. The reason is because he did create a lot of work for construction and infrastructure as well as services industry in the USA. He has started companies and many people made a lot of money from this work. If the tower climbers could unite and create an industry specific union, I think that President Trump would support it, but the climbers need to do that and as we have seen, they just haven’t done it yet. There are many climbers in other unions like the IBEW, CWA, and possibly even the Ironworkers. However, the way I see it, climbers have not rallied to create a Tower Climber’s Union. NATE is who the government looks to when they want information on the tower industry, not any specific union. OSHA has tried to help the tower climbers with many programs, but most climbers still don’t perceive OSHA as their friend, although they should.

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Let’s answer the question, “what will President Trump do for the tower climbers?” This is how I see it. He will help create work by improving the infrastructure of America and lower corporate taxes on wireless companies that will stimulate growth across the USA. More jobs, steady work means climbers keep busy and possibly can get make more money. This is a positive outlook.

RF Engineering Industry

Here is the question, “how will President Trump help the RF engineering workers in the USA?” Here is how I see it. He is going to make it harder for offshoring to happen. If you are in this business, you know that the carriers specifically use offshore engineering services to cut costs dramatically. If he can change this, then RF engineers in the USA will have a better shot at getting work for a decent wage again, but don’t count on it.

It will be very hard for the government to regulate something like that. Offshoring is very cost-effective and is all done over the internet. I don’t see the President creating a mandate to stop professional services from happening, he has too many other issues to work on. While offshoring is a key issue, I think that he means for manufacturing, not engineering services. We shall see.

Backhaul Industry

What will President Trump do about backhaul? Is this a strange question to you? It should not be and I am telling you why. One of the key points in he made in the election was infrastructure. Infrastructure today is not what it was in the 50s. So many politicians think that it is only that, roads and sewer and water and maybe natural gas.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

Today we need to add to the infrastructure list fiber and wireless and all internet connections. I don’t mean Wi-Fi or free access; I mean backhaul so that we can grow and expand. At one time, we all thought it could be Wi-Fi, it’s not. Then we all thought Fiber everywhere, that paradigm has changed. Now we know that fixed wireless will be the key to connecting everything cost effectively and efficiently. It will be a mix of fiber and wireless to connect businesses and homes. We will have incredible access everywhere, eventually, in the USA, if we are willing to pay for it. However, for this to happen it must be available. I partially blame the FCC and the municipalities for getting in the way of this growth. I believe that, with the right consultation, President Trump will be able to open spectrum for this priority and to allow fiber and wireless to be widespread across America. If you think I am pro carrier on this issue, I don’t think we should limit this to those large corporations but allow other players to get in the market, this is where the FCC has made it next to impossible for a startup to do this when spectrum costs billions of US dollars before you do anything! Enough said.

Larger Wireless Carriers

This is a tough call. What will President Trump do to help the wireless carriers? For the sake of argument let’s limit this to the big 4, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. They may want to merge or take over more companies. This is complicated, but Trump did say that he was against the AT&T Time Warner merger, link found here, because of the massive control one entity will have. He also came out against the Comcast and NBC merger, but it’s too late to do anything about that, the way I see it anyway. So, mergers may not be as likely to happen as we thought. I get the feeling that T-Mobile would like to sell off its US operations. I also feel that Softbank would like to sell off Sprint. However, both companies want to make money, so they will not give it away. With LTE being the main format moving ahead well into 5G, this is going to make it easier for a merger from a technology standpoint. However, the government may not like companies rolling back into one larger company. However, there is a wildcard that few are thinking about and it’s a long issue, but please, have patience.

Trump is working to add term limits and eliminate lobbyists. While you think this doesn’t affect mergers like this, do you? Well, you are wrong. You see, there are politicians that rely on massive donations from larger companies to get re-elected term after term after term after term. There are lobbyists who represent the larger companies that are in bed with many politicians. The lobbyists represent more than the carriers. You see there are lobbyists for the carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, that work on senators and the FCC. There are lobbyist for the OEMS, same deal. There are lobbyists for the groups that the carriers are members of, like CTIA, WIA (formerly PCIA), NATE, CCA, and more. They all have lobbyists and representatives that have influence with politicians and the FCC. I am not saying that this representation is bad, in fact they bring a lot of knowledge and good ideas to groups that may have no idea. But it’s still outside influence.

I believe President Trump will call on experts to help make decisions on specific issues. I also think he will not just look at the C suites of the OEMs and carriers. I believe that he will find the industry experts who also are feet on the street that care about the specific parts of the industry for the good of the industry and the workers.

Trump will probably remove a lot of the regulation that is out there and that will make it easier for the carriers to do business. He will lower the business taxes, allowing more cash to be spent. Maybe this is what the carriers were waiting for so that they could have more cash to expand and build their systems. Maybe this will allow them to move ahead with new networks and add to existing systems on a mass scale.

Smaller Wireless Carriers

I believe that President Trump may help level the playing field by allowing the smaller carriers to get more spectrum and compete. To do this he will provide spectrum to the smaller carriers that should not be available to the larger carriers at a better rate than the billions they are paying the FCC now. They should also have some pretty healthy tax rates compares to the big 4. Yes, Sprint, while you are a member of the CCA, that doesn’t mean you should get the same breaks as Carolina West, come on now!

It is time to level the playing field and give more help to the smaller carriers who do not have the resources. I believe that the incoming president will provide a set of rules to make it fair.

The FCC

I am not sure what President Trump will do with the FCC. There are so many articles about Trump and the FCC, like here and here and here. He seems to dislike regulation, which means that Commissioner Wheeler may be at odds with the new president. Would Trump bring in republicans to run the FCC? I think he will not follow political lines, but think of what’s best for the industry. After all, the republicans didn’t support him during the election. He doesn’t owe them anything. He does owe America the best communications systems it can afford. When I say “it can afford”, that means you and me, we pay the bills here. When carriers need to add costs like billions for spectrum, billions for permitting and zoning, and billions for all the regulations they need to stay on top of legally and technically, we pay for it. The customers, the consumers, you and me. We pay for it. Our companies pay for it. It is the true meaning of trickle down. The way carrier combat this cost is to create reverse auctions and pull the money from simple tasks like tower climbing, (sarcasm). It is true, tower climbing is not a high paying job anymore, risking your life doesn’t mean as much as it used to, ask anyone who worked in the turf system for AT&T in the 90s. I digress, so sorry.

I do think that Commissioner Wheeler may be ousted because Trump will want someone in there to follow his agenda. Will Wheeler do that? I guess we shall see. The FCC will be critical in building out the infrastructure in America, so critical. Trump knows this and will see that it is a supporter, not a cog in the gears.

It is not easy being the FCC commissioner. The FCC is constantly being bombarded with complaints and questions about what to do and what is wrong. They are hit up by lobbyists and by senators and Representatives who want their constituents to get their way. They are being told what they are doing wrong. They are involved in safety issues, commercial issues, industry issues, and political issues. They have many chairmen but they cannot keep up with all the issues. Each chairman has their specific concerns and allegiances. The issues are rarely black and white, but many shades of grey. While we think we know what they should do, we can only scratch the surface on a specific issue. That is why replacing Wheeler will not be an easy task. The guy knows all the issues and is good at delegation. However, Trump will pick someone who he trusts or he may continue to move ahead with Wheeler.

Trump will need to think this through and look at the team that is in place, evaluating each member carefully. Good luck Mr. President. Your decision will change the future of communications.

Permitting and Zoning for Wireless

Here is a great question, “How will President Trump change the wireless rules for permitting and zoning?” Awesome to think about. For one, we all know that to roll out wireless the slowest part of any new system build is the development of new equipment and fulfilling the permitting and zoning requirements of the thousands of municipalities out there. This includes cities, towns, townships, counties, states, villages, and so on. If Trump is serious about building up the infrastructure, then he will need to figure out how to get things rolling quickly.

I know that most of you think that this is just wireless, but it’s not. Wireless is obvious because you have national companies that want to add an RRH they jump through hoops to get it on a tower. What does this mean? Let me be specific, because most of you don’t realize what it takes.

To add another RRH and antenna to each sector to towers across the USA, here are the steps, from a high level, but you will get the picture. (It is very similar for small cells):

Begin the project
1. Plan the rollout.
2. Order the equipment and hope that the OEM gives you good equipment.
3. Start the permitting and zoning process by hiring local zoning and permitting companies to work with each government to get approvals to add something to the tower, even though most governments rarely if ever go to the tower.
4. Start working on lease modifications with the tower companies.
Test in a lab and then at a site with live traffic.
Order, provide logistics, create an RFP. Some carrier put it to reverse auction. Bid 1 price for thousands of towers, even though they are not all the same and they all have individual issues.
Sign with a GC that will hire all the regional GC that will hire the tower climbers in each region.
While all of this is going on:
1. Make tower modifications where necessary. This could be making tower improvements or beefing up the tower.
2. Increase backhaul if needed.
3. Continue to modify the rollout schedule based on the results coming back for each.
4. If permitting and zoning is blocked or delayed, work on that case to see why.
Then, after all the approvals, do the work which includes:
1. Install
2. Commission and integrate
3. Test, site acceptance testing, maybe drive testing.
4. Bring live
Customer gets 2 or 3 times the download and upload speeds due to the new equipment.

There are so many variables that could cause delays and that will affect the schedule of the rollout, and the price of the roll out because efficiencies are lost. This is a major problem with rollouts that cost so much money because few municipalities truly understand the tower use. All the know is what they think is going to be a problem.

I believe that the new president will see this, as the FCC sees it, and start to make changes. I believe that the municipalities will unite to fight it.

To be clear, Trump has said that he intends to deregulate business. He has mentioned how the FCC should step back on some regulation. How far will this push? We shall see.

The Wireless Infrastructure OEMs

I think that the wireless OEMs will be affected. For one, Huawei has tried to sell its infrastructure in the US, but the US government has said NO! More on that here. It’s the same with ZTE, the US government does not trust Chinese OEMs. However, you should know that most other OEMs all get equipment manufactured in China. China is very cost-effective for these companies to make radio heads, BBU parts, and more for the carriers. Soo it’s not like China doesn’t make other equipment. It is more about the level of trust the US government has with these companies.

I don’t see any of this changing except that the new president may ask the companies to make equipment here in the USA. I don’t see it happening because it’s not cost-effective, and we would have ramp up factories and production for something that generally has a very limited run. But hey, what do I know.

I will be honest, ZTE and Huawei make some great equipment that is sold worldwide, including Mexico and Canada, neighbors of the USA. I am sure that Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, and Cisco are very happy not to have the competition in one of the richest countries in the world. If they could compete in the USA, then it would drive hardware costs down. Huawei has some great equipment used across the world. In fact, they make phones for the USA, many people had HTE smartphones. Yes, they are in the USA, for examples look here, here, and here. We already have Huawei product in the USA in the carrier’s systems. It’s just for the end-user, not the carrier.

The OEMs try to support the carriers with hardware and services but lately the carriers want to hire their own people. This is not always cost-effective, even though they go direct, they get poorly trained or inexperienced people in exchange for saving cost. But, if you look at the big picture, the costs are more for support, repair, and doing things the second time. I see it all the time. It all depends on what specific part of the project cost you look at.

The OEMs should benefit in sales and deregulation, allowing the carriers to build out more and more. It may be a positive for them, but we won’t see much until mid year 2017. That is when we will see if this prediction holds true. By then the OEMs will have laid off more of their workforce.

Commentary

I also see the permitting slowdowns coming to the forefront of political business. The carriers one major roadblock to rolling out quickly is permitting and zoning. Local municipalities should be very worried. They may see laws passed that give a precedence to wireless rollouts. They will need to get zoning ordinances into place quickly. Thanks to Mobilitie and the way they pushed the ROW limitations over the last year or so, many have already changed their rules. If you are a municipality, I would recommend that you start joining a coalition that will give you strength in numbers to fight something like this. Stand united and start today.

Services in the USA may change by how they are done. For instance, there is a great deal of off shoring of RF and data design services but Trump has vowed to pull more jobs back into the USA, so that may change. This is going to make us all look at how business should be done. All wireless military work currently must be done by US citizens; they may expand to all public safety and first responders and all government work. When I say all government work, it could mean more than federal buildings, but state, local and schools. Many of them have wireless services and all have IT services.

What about new projects? From what I have read, Trump wants to build up the US infrastructure. Don’t count out wireless because wireless and data are a serious part of infrastructure. It’s not just roads and rail. It the information superhighway that travels on fiber and airwaves. They are all part of making America great again.

I believe the carriers will start to have less regulation that will allow them to grow quickly. However, they may pay more for services since they can’t offshore and because the reverse auction and turf practices may be considered.

What about mergers? Will T-Mobile or Sprint merge with a carrier or a cable company? Will AT&T be able to continue merging with media companies? I think President Trump will see the value in mergers in wireless. I also think that if T-Mobile wants to merge with AT&T, Sprint won’t have any say in it because the lobbyists will start to lose power. So, it will be completely up to the SEC and FCC, not all the politicians who are getting donations from various competitors. I see the way companies and groups lobby the government as changing. Which means many politicians will lose their massive donations! The new President already made it clear he was going to change the way they get political donations and that he will fight for 2 term limits. President Trump did say he would block the AT&T/Time Warner merger, [get link] in this article. So, he may be against companies getting too large, then the mergers will be off the table once again. Maybe he thought that the ‘too big to fail” issue is real. By the way, to be clear, Time Warner does not own Time Warner Cable, just similar names.

What about the tower climbers and unions? Well, it seems like President Trump will be pro-union, but from what I have seen no union seems to want any more tower climbers than they already have. This may not be up to the next president but up to how the tower climbers come together. So far, I don’t see an organized workforce, I just haven’t see them work together outside of NATE. It appears that NATE will continue to represent the tower climbers. To be honest, the president hasn’t been hurting the tower climber’s union, it has been a lack of interest by the tower climbers.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Will LTE will be the Foundation for 5G?

What is LTE UE Backhaul?

Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

Fiber connections:

When is fiber used/not used?

Microwave Connections:

When is Microwave used/not used?

What is LTE UE backhaul?

Resources:

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The foundations below do beautiful work, helping families in their time of need. Climbers often get seriously injured or die on the job. The foundations below support those families in their time of greatest need!

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The foundations below do beautiful work, helping families in their time of need. Climbers often get seriously injured or die on the job. The foundations below support those families in their time of greatest need!

Share this:

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

The foundations below do beautiful work, helping families in their time of need. Climbers often get seriously injured or die on the job. The foundations below support those families in their time of greatest need!

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Summary

Meeting between Softbank Owner and the USA president-elect:

Did they try to merge before?

Would merger create jobs inside the new company?

Table of Contents:

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Tower Climbing Industry

RF Engineering Industry

Backhaul Industry

Larger Wireless Carriers

Smaller Wireless Carriers

The FCC

Permitting and Zoning for Wireless

The Wireless Infrastructure OEMs

Commentary

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