Providing good service means always having sufficient capacity available. But avoiding ‘network busy’ errors in commercial centres and large cities is becoming more difficult as usage levels increase, driven by competitive voice tariffs and attractive new data services.
Macro network offload. Image from nanoGSM brochure
Subscribers are spending more time on the network doing new, more bandwidth- intensive things. That may affect the quality of service operators provide to premium customers, like BlackBerry® and other PDA users, who expect to be able to access services whenever they want. Providing the right level of capacity is tough in densely populated areas and it’s limited by the spectrum available to an operator.
Simply adding new macro cells – even if they’re micro base stations – is expensive and time consuming. And public opposition to the introduction of more and more radio masts is increasing around the world as well, even if good sites can be found.
An operator’s lack of capacity is not only a churn driver but a break on the uptake of new services.
Picocells help maximise spectrum re-use:
- Unlike repeaters, picocells add capacity to the network indoors and out. Using picocells to solve in-building coverage problems increases the capacity in the outdoor macro network.
- They remove the problems of cell distortion, interference, handover and management in city centre locations where macro BTS spacing can be as low as 200m metres.
- They provide sufficient extra capacity to ensure that subscribers of premium rate data services get the better radio quality they need.