Collaboration Key to Coverage Integration at Delmec
Connectivity has never been more in demand. Where once we used our phones or computers to make calls or send emails, now we’re streaming entertainment, attending virtual classrooms and hosting video conferences. All of this means that the greatest challenge faced by today’s telecoms industry is not just coverage, but capacity too.
Getting customers connected requires a collective effort, and that’s proven every day on telecoms site roll-outs. Over the years, as we’ve worked with teams and clients from all over the world, we’ve learned that collaboration is key to transforming concepts into reality. On site, it’s our role to channel the perspectives, requirements and concerns of all direct and indirect stakeholders and manage the process so that the final result is a benefit to all.
On a typical street works deployment, the stakeholders can include the MNO (mobile network operator), radio planning engineering team, transmission connection engineering team, vendor equipment engineers, public relations team and field force maintenance team. Of course, local planning authorities are usually involved too, in addition to an ESB network team, and they’ll work closely with the engineers looking after installation, electrical and cranage requirements.
One very important stakeholder is the end-user of the delivered mobile service. Always-on connectivity is fast becoming an essential part of life for the general population and our insatiable need for data and communication places ever-increasing demand on our wireless infrastructure.
This means that the lonely tower on a hill is no longer sufficient for the capacity we need, and instead, providers need to position broadcast hardware in close proximity to the consumer, which involves a further stakeholder – the local community. Positioning antennas in suburban and typical low-rise residential areas presents a very real challenge, as the visual impact of large towers are not acceptable in these areas. Traditional street works solutions struggle to balance capacity, aesthetics and cost.
This is where Delmec comes in: unlike other companies, we employ engineers, designers and planners with a wide variety of skills who can craft turn-key solutions in-house. Street works solutions are particularly challenging, as they require a simplified exterior design, housing complex capabilities inside. For one stakeholder – the general public – the site must be so basic that it’s almost invisible to passing traffic, while for another stakeholder – the mobile network operator – it must be packed with all the hardware and capabilities of a full macro tower site.
Our highly qualified, multi-disciplinary teams are experts at striking this balance: the Delmec street works solution has the capability to support 2G/3G/4G & 5G technologies along with a range of frequencies, 12 radio units and 7kW of cooling capacity. We can include Fibre TX, Wireless TX and up to 42 feeders, three calibration cables and three Ret cables, along with 220volt AC network metering containment and connection, an AC distribution board, a 16kW AC/DC inverter and 23U Equipment rack. We are, in effect, a one-stop solution for all the stakeholders involved. We have the technical expertise as well as the crucial management experience. We can coordinate large teams with a variety of independent priorities, helping them to collaborate on site in a way that best serves our client – and their customers and communities. As is always the case in Delmec, better cooperation means better connectivity, just as synergy shapes success.
