In
order to successfully enter an established market place, a 3G operator
not only needs to provide a high quality network, but also to differentiate
its services from the competition.
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The
financial expectations force most operators to quickly develop a strong
customer base. We believe that most 3G operators will focus on the corporate
market in order to quickly generate steady and solid revenues. In order
to successfully approach potential corporate clients, and convince them
to switch from a 2G service, a 3G operator needs to offer one or more
of the following :
•Lower prices
•New end-user services
•Better service quality
An
operator planning to offer his customers the above, needs to design
his network to support the associated demands on quality and capacity.
To do so, he will have to use indoor solutions at a much greater extent
and at an earlier point in time than was the case for 2G. The indoor
market for 3G is expected to be bigger and also to start earlier than
for 2G, mainly for the following reasons:
•Insufficient
coverage from macro sites
Most 3G operators are forced to rely on the reuse of existing 2G sites
also for 3G macro sites. The resulting indoor coverage is not expected
to be sufficient for addressing the corporate market and private business
users.
•Different
end-user behaviour in 3G
The 3G user will welcome the possibility of combining his current mobile
communication services like voice and SMS with new ones like: e-mail,
internet, multimedia messaging and video. This will significantly increase
the traffic demand per user.
•Higher
expectations on network quality
A single hot spot of users could jeopardize the network quality in a
large part of the network if not dealt with.
•Reduced
investments and quicker payback for indoor solutions
Dedicated indoor solutions is the most cost-effective method for providing
the coverage and capacity needed to support a corporate client. This
is valid both for the short and the long
term.
In
this document we analyse these factors and their effect on the 3G operator’s
choice of strategy for network design and deployment. A 3G operator
needs to provide a
higher quality network Dedicated indoor solutions will be needed earlier
and to a higher
degree for 3G than for 2G Reasons why:
Coverage
Usage
Quality
Payback
