MUNI WIRELESS:
BUSINESS MODELS, SMART
POLICIES, PLANNING.
Stephen Morris, P.E. BroadbandBeyond.com
Muni-driven Wireless
SCADA
Municipal Offices
Public WiFi
Schools, Libraries, etc.
Public Safety
Policy and Planning- Unlicensed
Frequency Competition:
900MHz SCADA
5.8GHz
2.4GHz
WIFI
X
5.8GHz LAA/ LTE-U
5.8GHz
WIFI
900MHz WISP
5.8GHz WISP
Consumer Data Consumption:
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Wireless data traffic nearly doubling every year.
Video is over 75% of data traffic.
Youtube: 5 billion videos watched daily. Facebook,
Instagram, Snapchat, Netflix, etc. contributing.
Keeping up with the growth: Wireless and wireline
carriers are having a hard time keeping up.
Imagine doubling water or power consumption
annually in your area.
Jeopardy Answer: “A bite at a time.”
Segmentation
Segmentation via Small Cells and 5G.
5G will be 6GHz to 60GHz – Very small area.
Small Cell and 5G - Umbrellas:
Fiber and Power
Structures under 60 ft.
Structures never designed for cellular or multiple carriers.
Publicly or privately owned structures or carrier-installed.
Backhaul key: Fiber to poles/structures needed and often difficult to run in
dense areas. Microwave sometimes.
Multiple carriers with different locations and time-frames. Coordination
challenging.
Multiple carriers as well as increasing mobile data traffic will drive more cells.
Small Cell/5G Steps Per Carrier
Permitting
and Zoning
Landlord
Agreements
ROW, Pole
Attachment
Muni
FCC
Studies
$
Fiber and
Power
Traditional Tower Resurgence:
1
2
3
N
N Small Cells
N Approvals, N*90% Tower Cost
Single Tower
1 Approval Process, 1 Cost
The Part Wireless Should Play in
Community Broadband Plan:
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Muni-provided Broadband is not a “should” but an
individual case study.
Fiber architectures are much more future tolerant
than wireless and thus, will push closer to consumer.
However, unlicensed last mile wireless is viable as
evidenced by many municipalities, major wireless
carrier adopting smalls cells and LAA/LTE-U as well
as WISPs serving over 3 million users.
Wireless carriers will deploy more and more small
sites in municipalities over time.