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Mobile Infrastructure Sharing—Strategic rationale for infrastructure sharing

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4.1 Drivers of infrastructure sharing

The commercial drivers of infrastructure sharingand the types of infrastructure sharing agreementare likely to differ between countries and accordingto levels of market maturity.

• In the early phases of network development,infrastructure sharing is most commonly site-sharing and roaming, which are used to facilitatequick network roll-out, at a lower cost, by newentrants. Facilitating sharing can provide anadditional revenue source and lower costs to theincumbent operators.

• As networks mature, and their focus shifts fromdeployment to service innovation, drivers such ascost reduction become increasingly important asoperators seek to optimise prots and revenues.In this context, two or more incumbent operatorsmay seek to join part or all of their individual

networks and to build out additional coverage ina unied manner.

A number of broad key strategic and commercialdrivers exist:

• Network expansion into underserved areasthat would otherwise be unprotable or have apayback period greater than the business target.

• Cost reduction.• Incremental revenue sources.

• Capex / opex optimisation.

• Facilitation of market entry.

The table below provides some of the key driversfor each type of infrastructure sharing separatelyfrom the perspective of the network using anothernetwork’s assets (except for RAN sharing, whichoften implies a truly shared investment in acommon set of assets).

4 Strategic rationale forinfrastructure sharing

Type of Sharing Strategic Drivers

Passive

Site (co-location) • Reduced site acquisition times for new entrants • Access to locations of strategic importance, 

particularly where space for new sites is limited• Increased likelihood of obtaining planning 

permission for new sites• Reduced opex (site lease)• Expansion into previously unprotable areas by 

reducing capex and opex requirements • Environmental and alleged health concerns, 

for example, increasing pressure from environmental groups on existing operators toreduce the number of cell sites due to healthconcerns

Mast (tower) • Reduced site acquisition and build completiontimes • Reduced capex (site build) 

• Reduced environmental and visual impact

 Access

RAN • Reduced number of sites and masts for the samecoverage • Reduced capex and opex

(shared physical backhaul)• Reduced environmental and visual impact

 Core network

Fibre ring • Capex and opex saving where spare capacity

Core network elements • Delayed investment in core network elements • Reduced maintenance and operational costs

VAS systems • Delayed investment in VAS system elements • Increased capacity VAS systems • Enhanced capability • Reduced maintenance and operational costs

 Roaming

National • Reduced or delayed infrastructure investment • Increased coverage

International • Increased service coverage

Inter-system • Facilitation of the introduction of newtechnologies • Seamless interoperability between operator’s own 

separate 3G and 2G networks• Delayed investment in new technology

infrastructure

Figure 5: Key drivers for different types ofinfrastructure sharing