Position of the ART on infrastructure sharing on 3G mobile networks

date: December 17, 2001

ART (Autorité de régulation des télécommunications) has said that it favours sharing of 3G infrastructure between operators, as long as they don't share frequencies. It added that it did not want the sharing agreement to prevent the development of effective competition in the 3G market, which must eventually be beneficial for customers. ART also said that geographic sharing is possible from the regulator's point of view, but can't be accounted for by an operator to fulfil its territory coverage requirements.

Five levels of sharing can now be proposed by the operators, they include:

Sharing of sites and passive elements

This form of sharing consists of common use by multiple operators of all or part of the passive elements of the infrastructure. This would include sites, civil engineering, technical premises and easements, pylons, electrical supply, air conditioning, etc.

Antenna sharing

This level is defined as pooling of an antenna and all related connections (coupler, feeder cable), in addition to passive radio site elements. Since an antenna can be considered a passive element, antenna sharing can be included in the more general issue of passive infrastructure sharing mentioned above and therefore complies with the telecommunications act.

Base station sharing (Node B)

Base station sharing is possible as long as each operator: maintains control over logical Node B so that it will be able to operate the frequencies assigned to the carrier, fully independent from the partner operator and retains control over active base station equipment such as the TRXs that control reception/transmission over radio channels

Base station controller

RNC sharing is possible since it represents maintaining logical control over the RNC of each operator independently.

Sharing of backbone elements

This consists of sharing switches (MSC) and routers (SGSN) on the operator's fixed network.

The Authority felt that clarification about the possibility of standardizing existing infrastructures in France to provide adequate visibility to 3G carriers that have already been authorized was necessary, but also, in terms of issuing a second call for tenders in the near future, to bidders that are likely to be interested in obtaining a third generation mobile telephony licence.

Top Sellers at our online store

1.	NEC e606 on 3
2.	Orange Nokia 7250i
3.	O2 Samsung A800
4.	NEC e808 on 3
5.	Motorola A920 on 3

last updated: January 12, 2004

Visit our online store, click here

3 phones

3G Motorola A920
Available Now! Superb full colour touch- sensitive screen with a built-in digital camera for Video Calling.
Buy now from Free

M-Profits: Making Money from 3G Services
ISBN: 0470847751

This book discusses 3G services from the view of what is needed for the service to provide value to the user, what is the value proposition for the user, how will money be made out of delivering the service, and discussions on how revenue sharing propositions might work to benefit content providers and network operators. 3G operators should take note of this highly recommended book.

buy it UK | USA

3G Books to Read!

top