By Dale Troppito
June 2004
About this article
As you know, here at Computing Unplugged, we like to bring you great resources and interesting opportunities. The Gantry Group is a very well-respected management consulting firm specializing in technology ROI (Return on Investment). With over 200 technology clients, 3,000 business process interviews and profiles in their knowledge base, and more than 1,000 ROI business processes and value drivers modeled, Gantry has considerable a considerable understanding of technology cost factors that we're very happy to be able to share with Computing Unplugged readers.
Wireless carriers are wrestling with a variety of competing market challenges. Low customer loyalty, high cost of customer acquisition, low profit markets, costly infrastructure, and an overall difficulty differentiating services and products with competing offerings must all be addressed. As the wireless market matures, delivering ubiquitous high quality service is the key to earning both consumer and enterprise subscriptions. Carriers must move away from the commodity mindset of "selling minutes" to the consultative mindset of "selling level-of-service."
The urgency for service quality is fueled by the rapidly increasingly mobile workforce and sympathetic emergence of enterprise wireless data needs. In this new paradigm, every worker is a mobile worker. Enterprises are demanding anytime, anywhere access for their entire workforce to achieve their corporate productivity, efficiency and responsiveness objectives. Whether residing in workspaces that are rural or core urban, warehouse or high-rise, each employee needs to be accessible and prepared to respond to the business issue of the minute -- regardless of their location's attributes.
Carriers are feeling the pressure to deliver this level of service mandate because it has direct bearing on their ability to overcome the challenges mentioned above. They smell the opportunity and they feel the heat of the competition. Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity Transmission), which delivers low cost high-speed Internet access, has thrown down the gauntlet as a contender in the race to capture major market share of the wireless data market.
However, the carriers' major impediment to grabbing this new opportunity is their ability to cost-effectively address coverage gaps in their networks -- specific areas where service is intermittent and of low quality. These can occur in public venues (e.g., hotels, stores, airports) or inside the enterprise's facilities (i.e., in-building). The available options to cure coverage problems include:
- Building a new cell tower. This option typically costs the company over $1 million and takes a good year to deploy.
- Modifying or enhancing an existing cell site. Such modifications cost the carrier on average $150,000-$180,000 per cell site modification. The modification can take months to be accomplished.
- Purchasing and deploying a traditional wireless repeater. Typically, such repeater technology costs $40,000-$50,000, not including set-up, installation, and on-going maintenance and support costs. Installation for these repeaters can typically take 3 days of the carrier's engineering staff time.
The carrier must conduct an investment analysis of each of these options, which frequently fails to meet the carrier's ROI (Return on Investment) justification or the customer/prospect's solution timeline needs. While the wireless repeater offers the quickest deployment time, a carrier typically requires an enterprise to be leasing 100-110 lines in order to make the business justification for the repeater equipment and lifecycle investment. In addition, carriers are challenged to meet the customer's desire for an immediate fix due to the time required to engineer, procure and install a traditional repeater solution.
But a new solution is emerging on the market -- a next generation of repeaters called adaptive repeaters. Here, "adaptive" refers to the ability to automatically respond to changes in a carrier's network. Previously restricted to the field of robotics, adaptive systems are a "hot topic."
One such company, Spotwave Wireless Inc., headquartered in Ottawa, Canada is an early company to apply adaptive techniques in the wireless space with its solution called SpotCell in-building coverage solution. A SpotCell adaptive repeater assesses its environment, learns about changes, and makes intelligent decisions based on the available information to ensure consistent coverage and protect the integrity of the wireless network. As a result, SpotCell adaptive repeaters are able to automatically sets the system gain and transmit power based on the received signal strength and available isolation.
The saying "If there is one constant, it's change" best describes wireless networks which are constantly fluctuating and undergoing changes related to the environment, as well as those initiated by the wireless service providers operating in the area. Add to this the broad range of buildings where subscribers access their wireless devices, and it is readily apparent that a traditional repeater -- a static, non-adaptive, solution -- cannot cost effectively provide a consistent coverage area. Furthermore it won't guarantee network integrity.
An adaptive repeater is the ticket to meet the needs of both end users and wireless service providers. It can be installed quickly and adapt to ongoing changes in the network and buildings without user intervention or adjustments. Let's compare an end user's experience with a non-adaptive repeater against their experience using an adaptive repeater.
Plug and play installation
Installing a non-adaptive, or conventional repeater requires the use of highly skilled technical engineers with extensive knowledge of the carrier's network and specialized test equipment. The resulting engineered solution is more expensive and takes longer to install. Adaptive repeaters automatically determine and indicate the optimal system location to the installer, eliminating the need for special tools and extensive knowledge of the wireless service provider's network. The end result is that a solution can be rapidly deployed at a much lower cost.
Consistent coverage area
The coverage area provided by a conventional repeater will breathe (i.e., expand and contract) due to variations in the strength of the signal from a wireless service provider's base station. This means that users will experience fluctuations in coverage area. Sometimes, they have coverage in a spot while, at other times, they may not. Adaptive repeaters provide a consistent coverage area as the changes in the signal strength are automatically compensated for by the adaptive algorithm, resulting in a consistent coverage area and prevention of interference.
Network events
Because conventional repeaters are set up and engineered for a specific base station, network failures and regular maintenance cause service outages for users. Adaptive repeaters rapidly rescan the spectrum and lock in on the next best available signal and, when the original signal is returned to service, an adaptive repeater automatically switches back to it. If a competitor were to set up a new base station near a building equipped with a conventional repeater there is a high probability of interference and manual adjustments will be required. An adaptive repeater automatically compensates ensuring network integrity and maximizing the available coverage area. Optimization and maintenance is never required.
Adaptive vs. non-adaptive repeaters
Adaptive repeaters overcome several shortcomings of predecessor non-adaptive repeaters. The SpotCell adaptive repeater product is used as an example, outlined below:
- No set-up/easy installation. Carriers deploying adaptive repeaters reported average installation times of less than 4 hours (including travel time) and costs of $350-$500 per installation, on average. Significant field service savings are attained through the adaptive features of the unit.
- No instance of tuning throughout lifecycle. Adaptive algorithms completely avoid the necessity of deploying engineering staff to the field to adjust the repeater unit.
- Extremely low total cost of ownership (TCO). The TCO for an adaptive repeater over a 3-year deployment period, including the unit's capital cost, averaged under $5,000.
Product availability and resourcesFor more information on SpotCell, visit http://www.spotwave.com. For more information on The Gantry Group, visit http://www.gantrygroup.com.
Over the past 25 years Dale Troppito has evaluated and managed virtually every business process within technology firms at every stage of growth and maturity. She founded Gantry Group in 1987 and believes that the technology leaders of the future will be those that understand the crucial role that a market-validated, value delivery strategy and compelling ROI play in shaping corporate competitiveness and customer satisfaction