Re-farming: Key to a Customized Multi-course Budget Meal

The best way to prepare a multi-course meal of one’s choice within budget is all about smart play with ingredients already available in the kitchen. As quoted by François de La Rochefoucauld “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art”, so a chef who can turn the available ingredients to budget friendly multi-course meal, which is healthy and also delightful to the taste buds, is the real master. Similarly, re-farming the pricey frequency spectrum according to the customer’s demands is a job which can only be carried out by experienced radio frequency master chefs. Smart distribution of the available spectrum among the already existing and newly introduced wireless technologies is what every mobile network operator should seek for.

Evolution of wireless mobile radio access network technology in the past few decades is not less than a roller coaster ride. Technology progressed from Zero Generation (0G) to Fourth Generation (4G) systems in no time and now Fifth Generation (5G) systems are being deployed with the aim to meet the demanding Quality of Service (QoS), efficiency and performance requirements of modern world equipped with smart devices. If the grown-up millennial of today is transported back in time to the late 90s or early 2000s, they would feel lost in a world without advanced wireless technologies. Living in the world of 2G, no mobile user would have imagined about the connectivity and data requirements of 4G or 5G networks.

To cope with the user requirements and advancements of technology day in day out, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) need to formulate long term plans which can lead to network performance excellence and sustainable revenues. To achieve this, MNOs need to keep an eye on the costs while maintaining steady profits. Although customer base is increasing the competition is forcing MNOs to reduce their tariff. Mobile phones which were considered relatively expensive once, have now become an affordable necessity for everyone, resulting in low ARPU for MNOs.

Frequency spectrum is the major component of CAPEX from technology point of view. Keeping this in mind, MNOs need to be extremely vigilant in making decisions about procuring additional bandwidth. With the consistent advancement in the mobile ecosystem, requirement for a large 2G spectrum has reduced significantly, thus making roam for advanced mobile technologies.

Conventionally frequency spectrum was used only for 2G/3G but now can be re-farmed efficiently to 4G and 5G. Keeping the same bandwidth allocated to older generations (2G/3G) and procuring additional spectrum for advance technologies is usually not a wise financial decision for mobile operators. A close eye should be kept on the current utilization of spectrum for each technology and all possible options of re-farming should be exhausted before incurring a huge cost of procuring addition bandwidth.

Aspire has partnered with different MNOs and vendors across the globe to achieve the goal of re-farming the available spectrum efficiently to maximize revenue, improve customer experience and minimize churn. Our diverse experience with multiple operators and vendors has enabled us to deliver various re-farming projects successfully and save huge costs of adding extra bandwidth to their current available spectrum. In addition to static re-farming, we have successfully deployed inter-Rat spectrum sharing features e.g. Dynamic Spectrum Sharing for LTE FDD and NR, Flexible Power Allocation Mode and Coordinated Scheduling of Physical Channel/Signal Resources.

Aspire’s innovative mindset, efficient processes and independent stance are the attributes which play pivotal rule in achieving the desired goals. So, if you are struggling to design a perfect multi-technology spectrum, Aspire has all the ingredients and team of master chefs to achieve your short and long term goals.

If you would like to know more, I am happy to answer any of your questions, just drop me an email at uzair.shah@aspiretechnology.com.