4.5
Existing indoor solutions and related business models
In this section examples of existing indoor solutions will be described and discussed: GSM picocell base stations, WiFi hot spot networks and Distributed Antenna Sys- tems (DAS). It turns out that these different solutions are implemented in a way that results in totally different business cases and business models. For the analysis of the femtocell concept this is important since femtocell can be used for all these business cases. The description of the value networks will use the same type of illustrations that are used in chapter 4.Company networks using GSM Picocell base stations
The picocell concept was developed by the GSM community to enable the design of a low cost indoor service based on a slightly relaxed technical specification. The picocell offers coverage in the range of a medium sized office floor. The picocells are often targeting small and medium size enterprizes (SME’s). In addition picocells have been widely used for mobile telephone service on board ships. Due to higher output power than Femtocells and DAS nodes fewer picocells are needed to create coverage. On the other hand sparsely located picocells result in low traffic capacity. The specific case that is studied is the company SpringMobil that offers mobile phone solutions to the business segment. The SpringMobil enterprise telephony solution is often marketed as aone person - one number - one phoneconcept. The fixed line company phones and the company switchboard are replaced by a solution using mobile phones.
SpringMobil was awarded the 4th Swedish GSM license in the 900 MHz band, but, as far as is known, the indoor base stations all operate in the 1800 MHz band. Indoor SpringMobil GSM base stations provide indoor coverage for voice services at the company premises. Nationwide outdoor coverage is provided by the partner Tele2 (that recently acquired SpringMobil) through a roaming agreement. This is a kind ofone sided national roaming where SpringMobil customers can access the Tele2 network. Tele2 customers can not access the SpringMobil network. Moreover, SpringMobil customers of one business customer cannot access the SpringMobil network at the location of other business customers of SpringMobil. The access is for a closed user group only, this is similar to the closed access scheme for femtocells. The distribution of activity groups and the business roles taken by different actors are shown in Figure 4.1. SpringMobil is the main actor and take all business roles like a traditional mobile operator. Tele2 is a roaming partner and provides nationwide coverage. In addition to the mobile phone services a number of added value services are offered. Examples are call management, switchboard operator, call & contact center, integration of IT systems and office access control systems. Specific service packages are offered to different types of sectors e.g. industry, warehouses, retail and health care.
Figure 4.1: Business roles for the SpringMobil solution for enterprise telephony.
WiFi hot spot networks
The WiFi services are spreading where homes, offices, hotels, airports and railways are adopting these in a high speed. The WiFi service can be offered by mobile operators or by special hot spot operators like Telia Homerun, theCloud or Clue. In all cases the WiFi service is offered by some local actor (a hotel, coffee shop, etc) that has the main customer relation with the user.
The WiFi access service can be for free at many locations (coffee shops, some hotels and transportation companies). The present trend is to offer these forfree, in other words included in an other service such as lodging, fast food, broadband or travels30. At other locations, business hot spots, e.g. at airports, railways stations,
trains and at some hotels the access service is offered for a usage fee. These fees are often in the range 10€ for one hour and 20 - 30€ for one day.
The distribution of business roles among different types of actors are shown in Figure 4.2. Whereas a company WiFi network or the SpringMobil approach tar- gets company specific solutions with private access, the WiFi hot spots offer public access for any authorized user. No matter if a usage fee is used or not, some kind of access control is used. The operator of the WiFi network is responsible for deploy- ment and operation of the network but usually does not have any own customers. The users are usually customers of another business like a hotel, an airport or a railway company, hence the customer acquisition is automatically handled by other companies. In the same way charging and payments can be managed by other actors like a hotel, credit card companies, payment providers or mobile operators (using the mobile phone subscription).
4.5. EXISTING INDOOR SOLUTIONS AND BUSINESS MODELS 99
Figure 4.2: Business roles for a WiFi hot spot operator cooperating with a facility owner (site manager) and payment providers.
Distributed antenna systems
Distributed Antenna Systems, commonly referred to as "DAS", are typically de- ployed in office buildings, shopping malls, sport arenas etc. The DAS systems are divided into two main types, active and passive. The passive DAS is based on building a distribution network based on coaxial cables and antennas. This type does not require any active electronics and is still favored for smaller installations. A typical layout for a passive DAS system is shown in Figure 4.3.
In most cases active networks are now installed to match requirements on avail- ability and performance. In a majority of the installations there is a base station room,a base station hotel, in the cellar of the premises where operators put their base station equipment. The signals from the base stations are distributed through fibers or cables to repeater sites. Here, in the case of fiber, the optical signal is converted to a Rf signal and distributed to a set antenna of antenna elements.
In order to be a meaningful business case the premises covered needs a certain size and traffic volume. DAS is not a solution for the home or SME’s. A properly installed DAS gives a 100% coverage user experience. One advantage of the DAS is that each antenna port delivers higher capacity at the respective coverage spot compared to cellular solutions were the capacity is limited to the portion delivered by each cell. This makes the DAS system more suitable to handle large fluctuations in traffic, e.g. at premises were the users shift locations during the day.
The distribution of business roles using distributed antenna systems (DAS) are shown in Figure 4.4. In Sweden the deployment of the DAS system in many cases is a cooperative effort between the mobile operator and the facility owner as the main actors. The maintenance of the indoor infrastructure may be handled by the facility owner or by a third party. As will be seen in the analysis section a number of actors can be involved in the deployment of a DAS system. The control of both the mobile network resources and customers are handled by each operator.
A DAS network is operator and often system independent which maintains the value of the deployment since it is can be use for future standards. However, the value depends on what actors that control the DAS infrastructure. The value may be lowered if an operator deploys a DAS system for a business customer in a building and the business customer then moves or switches operator. Then, a new tenant may choose another technical solution or operator.